Playing Tourist in Taipei

Floyd and I are enjoying our fall break here in Taiwan. We spent three or four days this week in Taipei and had fun playing tourist. Here are a few snapshots of our experiences there.






The Museum of Drinking Water! Yep, it was about as exciting as it sounds. But the building was beautiful, and you can actually touch the old pumps and water-purification machinery.

We spent a few hours in Danshui, an historic area outside of Taipei. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of the fort we explored, but this church - planted by pioneer missionary George Leslie MacKay over a hundred years ago and still holding services today - was interesting too.









Riding the Miramar Ferris Wheel for a twilit view of the city was a fun way to end the day.




 

We spent Thursday morning at the Taipei Zoo, where the pandas (donated by China last spring) are by far the most popular animals. We had to get a special ticket at the front entrance which said what time we were allowed to go to the panda exhibit (to reduce crowding). They were cute but a bit of a let-down after all the hype, and their enclosure was nothing to write home about. (Most of what you see is a mural on the back wall.) Now the tigers, THOSE were fun to watch. Almost as fun as the hedgehogs.

 


This was Floyd's favorite! The Taipei Fine Arts Museum had a special Pixar exhibit where we spent a couple of hours learning more about the making of Cars, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, etc. Floyd was like a kid in a candy store the whole time!









Another good way to end a day. We had seen the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial before, but never at night. The monument itself wasn't particularly well-lit, but the gates were. They're especially beautiful with colorful skyscrapers showing through in the background.

So, who wants to come with us next time??