Sight-Seeing Saturday

After a busy weekend in Taiwan and a busy week of school preparations, I am finally finishing up my blog from the trip.  On Saturday morning, we packed up and said good-bye to the city of Tainan.  We met our host for the weekend, Jackie Yang, at the high-speed train station.  The train travels at 120 miles per hour and looks like a roller coaster as it passes by.  Despite its speed, it was a smooth ride to the capital of Taipei.  Unlike our four-hour arrival trip, it only took us two hours to travel back to the north.

When we arrived, we dropped off our belongings at the hotel and met with students from Concordia University Wisconsin.  They attend the school virtually in Taipei.  Many of them are studying business and English.  The classes are in Chinese, but many of the students will go to the US to study English and the American culture.  From there, we went across the street for a luncheon with the students.  Concordia hosted it, and we enjoyed many delicious dishes from Asia.  That was our last official task of business to complete, and now it was time to go sight-seeing!

We spent the afternoon touring the National Palace Museum.  When some of the people left China about 100 years ago, they took some of the valuables with them to Taiwan.  The museum holds many of these items, including jade and bronze.  Jade is a popular precious stone in Asia, and bronze work is very famous throughout the region as well.  The museum also housed artifacts from the thousands of the country's leaders and their families.  These families are called dynasties.  For a better understanding, watch Mulan!  Before we left, we took some pictures on the balcony with the lush forests and Asian architecture in the background.

Next, we were off to the world's second tallest building.  Last year, we read about a building in the United Arab Emirates that had surpassed the tallest building in the world.  Well, that former tallest building is Taipei 101.  It's current claim to fame boasts the world's tallest green building.  That is because of the many solar panels that make up the outside.  It's an impressive sight!

It may be smaller in stature, but the 101 floors still hold plenty to see.  We wandered around the mall that occupies the first five floors.  We ate dinner in the food court.  That was our first experience ordering all on our own.  It's a little frightening to do so in a country where you don't speak the language.  Thankfully, there were many pictures that we could point to.  After fueling up with some food, we took the world's fastest elevator the 91st floor.  That is as high as you can go, but it was still impressive.  Your ears pop as you ride the elevator due to the how high up you are!

My friends all decided to visit another night market, but I had a caught a cold and decided that I was going to call it a night.  I took my first solo taxi ride in a foreign country with a cab driver who did not speak English.  I didn't need to worry, because I made it back to our hotel where I relaxed in our comfy beds and soon fell asleep.  One more day of adventures!