Run and Climb Taipei

Taipei is a huge foodie destination, which means that most trips there involve gaining too many unwanted pounds. I’ve recently started working out on my vacations in an effort to keep up with all the eating. But working out doesn’t have to mean wasting precious vacation time in a dreary hotel gym. Below I share some of my preferred places to run while sightseeing (or sightseeing while running, take your pick) and my experience visiting a couple of Taipei’s rock climbing gyms (thank you Taiwan Rocks for information on where to find the gyms!). Hope this provides some ideas for fun ways to stay fit while on vacation!

Daan Forest Park is one of my favorite places to run in Taipei. It’s a huge park, almost a mile and a half around its perimeter, making it a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a little. Many locals go there to exercise, and I usually see a lot of other runners doing laps and groups of spry grandpas playing frisbee on the main lawn. I happen to have accommodations close to Daan Park, but it’s also easily accessible by the MRT red line at Daan Park station. There’s also the added bonus of being right next to Yongkang Street, so you can go and regain all the calories you just lost. Oh wait, that’s counterproductive… 

Daan Forest Park

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall is a pretty common tourist destination, so why not go for a run there and get your workout in while doing some sightseeing? My recommendation is to go in the morning to take awesome sunrise pictures of the memorial buildings and to get the quintessential Taiwanese experience of watching retired people do tai chi in the park. There’s lots of different walking paths to choose from - just be careful not to trip on the uneven ground between paths. This is also easily accessible by the MRT red and green lines at the C.K.S. Memorial Hall station.

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

My first time rock climbing in Taiwan was this past trip at the Xinyi Sports Center bouldering gym, conveniently located a couple blocks from Taipei 101. It was kind of a small gym and didn’t look very well maintained. A lot of the colored tape was falling off so you sometimes had to guess where the routes went. I don’t know if I would recommend it for serious climbing, but it’s fine for a casual workout, and at 150 NT for a day pass you really have nothing to lose.

Xinyi Sports Center bouldering area

I had a chance to visit a second gym up in the Shilin area. It’s a brand new gym called The Little Rock - so new that the guy working there was telling us about all the new holds that they had installed two days ago. The gym was small by American standards, but bigger than Xinyi and had much better route markings. Price was a little more expensive at 250 NT, but still much cheaper than any gym I’ve gone to in the US. I really enjoyed climbing here. The only downside with The Little Rock is that they don’t really have that many advanced level problems, but for those of us climbing V4’s and below, it’s a great place to get some good climbs in.

Lots of fun beginner climbs at The Little Rock

I hope to have an opportunity to run and climb in more interesting places on my next trip! Do you have any preferred ways of staying active while on vacation? Feel free to share in the comments below!

Taipei Foodie Tour - 2017 Edition

Ask anyone who has been to Taiwan what their top recommendations are, and odds are food will dominate the list. With choices ranging from mouth-watering street snacks to exquisitely crafted cuisines, Taiwan is one of the top foodie destinations in the world. Anyone who has ever done any research on Taipei has heard of Din Tai Fung’s famous soup dumplings and Sunny Hill’s number one pineapple cakes, so for this post I wanted to share some of my new, mostly lesser known discoveries from this past trip. 

Jiang Jia (江家牛肉麵&永和豆漿) - The best way to start an argument is to ask a group of Taiwanese people what the best breakfast place is. I can’t claim to know the number one place in Taipei, but Jiang Jia is pretty damn good if you’re craving some delicious fried carbs, AKA Taiwanese breakfast. A solid combination is to get the sesame cake with egg and a Taiwanese donut with a side of soy milk. They’re even open 24/7 so if you happen to miss the last MRT home you can still come here to get some comfort food.

Jiang Jia store

Taiwanese breakfast at Jiang Jia

Hong Jing Beef Noodle (鈜景國產肉品專賣店) - I can’t believe how long it took to discover this place considering it’s basically across the street from where I usually stay. There are a lot of great beef noodle places in Taipei, but this is the first I’ve seen to serve “sashimi beef”. The bowls come out with freshly sliced pieces of raw beef arranged over noodles and veggies. They then pour steaming soup over the meat, cooking it right in front of you. The result is super tender and fresh tasting beef. Prices are a little high for Taiwan (and by that I mean slightly below average for Bay Area), but worth it for the true beef noodle connoisseur. 

Sashimi beef at Hong Jing Beef Noodle

Uncle Tetsu (徹思叔叔) - There are many examples of Taiwan taking foods from other cultures and adding their own local twist. Uncle Tetsu originated in Japan, but has since expanded to multiple stores in Taiwan with several in Taipei. Having tried Hokkaido style cheese tarts in Hokkaido, I can honestly say that these are just as good. Highly recommended and best eaten fresh.

Uncle Tetsu's cheese tarts

Uncle Tetsu's cakes

Zhangmen Brewery (掌門精釀啤酒) - Not strictly a food place, but Zhang Men is a local brewery and a solid place to try some local beers. They have a huge selection of rotating taps with light beers, dark beers, and everything in between. Drinks here aren’t super cheap - roughly 150 NT for a small glass and 600 NT for a flight of six drinks - but not too bad for a night out. I really liked the passion fruit beer!

Inside the tasting room at Zhangmen

Beer flight for 600 NT

Oia Cafe (伊亞藝術咖啡館)  - This isn’t really a food place either, and it’s not even technically in Taipei, but none of that matters because Oia Cafe is so much more than your typical cafe - it’s an alpaca cafe. Adjacent to the cafe is a large pen zoo with alpacas, goats, and donkeys that you can pet and feed carrots to. But the real stars are the two snowy white alpacas running free inside the cafe. With the purchase of a drink, you can spend as much time with the alpacas as you want. Pro tip: to get the best pictures with the alpacas, wait until they start chewing on the furniture - it’s the only time they stay still enough to get a good shot.

Alpacas at Oia Cafe

Shing Peng Lai (興蓬萊) - My cousin brought us here for an impromptu last meal in Taiwan, and they had quite possibly the best fried pork chops I’ve ever eaten. Shing Peng Lai serves traditional Taiwanese fare with a wide assortment of seafood, soups, and meats. Everything we had there was good, but the pork chops were absolutely heavenly. Crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, they were so good I couldn’t resist going for seconds, even if I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite. Located in Tian Mu, one of the suburbs of Taipei, Shing Peng Lai is a little out of the way, but 100% worth the trek for anyone looking for great Taiwanese cuisine a few steps above night market food.

Best fried pork chops ever at Shing Peng Lai

It’s always nice to revisit old favorites, but I’m glad I had the chance to try out some new places and discover new go-to’s. I’m always looking for new things to try - do you have any lesser known favorite food places in Taipei? Let me know in the comments below!

Kenting, the Hawaii of Taiwan

Kenting is kind of like the Hawaii of Taiwan - it’s where people go for nice beaches, generally in the summer months. We’re a little unusual in that we visited during the winter off-season. This meant colder temperatures, but it also meant much less crowds to deal with while exploring all Kenting has to offer.

Kenting’s picturesque scenery makes it a great place to have photoshoots or shoot movies. The beach we visited (Baishawan or 白沙灣) was one of the settings for both Cape No. 7, a popular Taiwanese movie, and also the internationally acclaimed Life of Pi. The beach can apparently get shoulder-to-shoulder crowded in the summer, but we only saw one other group when we were there.

Movie masterpieces were made here

Warm water and soft sand at Baishawan

Many interesting natural features dot the landscape in the Kenting area. On the inland side, there’s a place known as the “Eternal Flame”, where natural gas vents out through the ground. The gas can light on fire and remain lit indefinitely when conditions are right (or when someone purposely starts a fire). On the southwestern tip of Taiwan there’s a nice viewpoint where you can see sheer cliffs dropping off into the ocean. One of the rock formations at the bottom of the cliff is said to resemble a cat, giving it the name “Maobitou (貓鼻頭)”.

Spotted a small flame at the Eternal Flame

Maobitou is the rock a bit out in the ocean towards the center-left

On the southernmost tip of Taiwan to the east is a place that could be accurately described in terms of both location and character as the end of the world. Longkeng (龍坑) ecological preserve is a relatively less traveled area, partly because they limit it to 300 visitors a day. Entrance is only allowed by guided tours with wait times up to 1.5 months in advance. It’s well worth a visit if you can schedule it in though. The guide will bring you all the way to the coast where you can experience the incredible power of the Pacific Ocean. It’s most impressive in the winter when waves can get higher than a two story building, and you can feel the spray from 100 meters away. 

Waves at Longkeng

It's no wonder why so many Taiwanese people flock to Kenting for getaway vacations. Whether it’s great scenery, relaxing beaches, or nature hikes you’re looking for, there's something there for everyone.

Seaside Day-trip from Taipei

Hello from Taiwan! We’ve been spending our first few days over here exploring, recovering from jetlag, and eating all the delicious food. I am currently on the high speed rail now finally with a bit of downtime to write about our recent day trip to the northeast coast of Taiwan. 

Our first stop of the day was Yehliu Geopark, about a 40 minute drive from Taipei. It was kind of like a huge rock garden measuring a few kilometers out the long way, but with most of the rock features formed naturally. There were some really interesting mushroom and checkerboard rocks shaped by the wind and waves. It’s a neat attraction worth at least a quick stop.

Yehliu Geopark

Mushroom rocks in the park

Most of our afternoon was spent 30 minutes east in Jiufen, a picturesque seaside town that was also the inspiration for Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away”. The town itself is pretty small, with mostly small streets and shrines and a few larger buildings. Looming over the town is Mt Keelung, a tall peak from the top of which you can see panoramic views of the ocean and Taipei 50 miles away on a clear day. We didn’t hike all the way to the top, but even from the lower platforms you can get some great views of the surrounding area. 

View of Jiufen from Mt Keelung

Top of the main food street

As the sun started going down, we made our way over to Shifen, another small town farther inland known most for being the tourist destination for lighting sky lanterns. All along the main Old Street were stores selling lanterns. They were pretty cheap, only about 200 NT per lantern, and really big with plenty of space to write all your hopes and wishes for the future.

Lighting sky lanterns in Shifen

This day trip was a nice contrast from the big city sightseeing of Taipei. For anyone in the area looking for something different and relatively close by, I’d recommend checking these places out.