Enjoying Taipei

Taipei has over 100 kilometers of dedicated bike trails along their riverways, much of them conveniently enclosed by flood walls.  They also have bike share stations all over the city.  We scraped hiking plans and opted for bicycling.  At first the bridges intimated us.  Then we had to cross a couple.  The special ramps and wide lanes all made it very easy.  Next time, we'll leave more time to bicycle.

Our hotel in the Jingmei District of Taipei was almost perfect; close to a bike share, subway station, vegetarian restaurant, bank, a.mart grocery store, bus stop, and the night market. And it had a shared kitchen with a steamer so Sun-Ling steamed up some Tang Yun i.e. glutinous rice balls with sweet sesame paste inside. Yummy.


And view of Taipei 101 from our room.


Jingmei Night Market.


3USD plate (6 dishes + rice) at local veg resto.


Neighborhood Bing Stall.


Our first Taipei bike ride we took the MRT up to Tamsui, used our credit card to "share" 2 Youbikes, then cycled south along the Tansui River Bike Way. This section is touted as the BEST bike way in Taipei; we disagree. Much of the route was along the MRT tracks, there were more than several dis-jointed sections with dismounting and confusing turns, and there were many walkers on some narrow sections. Plus the scenery was not that great. Overall impression = so-so.











Then we headed east along the Keelung River Right Bank Bike Way. Wow! Wide, plenty of room for cyclists and walkers, view to Taipei 101, open air, and many rest stops (with toilets).


One section of the bike way was along a series of baseball fields, soccer fields, and basketball courts.




Then we cruised along below the river levee with the Taipei Songshan Airport across the way and Taipei 101 in the distance.




Rest Area under a bridge.




This section had a dedicated land for walking (right). The lanes separated by a dashed yellow line are the dedicated bike lanes, NOT a road. The roads are above on the levee or elevated highway.




Returned our Youbikes in Donghu.


As we were looking at our phones to find the shortest way to the nearby MRT station, several locals came up to us and said we should visit the Cherry Blosson Festival just down the street, so we did.






The next morning, we started the day with complimentary pour-over coffee packets.


Then grabbed some Youbikes from a share station just around the corner and squeezed through a door in the levee flood gates to get on the Xindian River Bike Way heading northwest.







Another beautiful mostly sunny day with temps about 70F.






We stop for a break next to some birders and see our old friends the Sacred African Ibises in the distance.




Negotiating a bridge crossing. Once up the ramp - signs say "please walk your bike" - there is a wide, separated, bike lane with good signage on the bridge.








These bring-your-bike-in-with-you toilets are way cool.


The sun comes out, hats go on, and we enjoy a fabulous ride along the Xindian River back to our hotel.




Final bridge crossing.


And back to a different open door in the flood gate.


We had time to ride the MRT to city center (near Taipei Station) to see the Lantern Festival lights. Here's Taipei Station


Some of the lights were traditional, some not, some in-between.










Taipei traffic.

Lantern Festival in Pingxi

We are back in Taipei for our flight to Okinawa.  Our original plan was to do the Huangdidian hike, and even elected to stay in Jingmei for easy bus connection.  Then the Pingxi Lantern Festival got on our radar again when we picked up some maps from tourist information.  Overcoming our mixed feelings, we went ahead.

• We scraped our Huangdidian plan, did some different hikes.  Trails were slippery wet.  It dawned on us that this is why they even allow the balloons.  The valley is really like a cloud forest.
• There are very few places in the world in which we would risk such a "large crowd" situation.  All the road closures and shuttle buses were even more impressive than we expected.  All day there were more than 100 buses running between Taipei Zoo to the festival.  There was also a separate route to Keelung.  The Pingxi Railway was running on double schedule.  Everything was very organized and orderly.
• My main reservation about the balloons is the trash they turn into spread all over the surrounding landscape.  A festival poster I saw detailed reclamation programs and rewards, and convinced me to go to festival.  When we were walking around, we saw evidence of collection all over the place, though less than sufficient by my standards.
• The amount of hope and earnestness of the place even moved my usual cynical self.

Waiting in front of our hotel for the bus to the Taipei Zoo. In Taipei I'm not so restless waiting for the bus since most bus stops have a digital display of real-time expected arrivals.


The action in Shifen is on the railroad tracks between trains (yikes!) which heightens the experience. Here's a 3-photo sequence of a couple launching their sky lamp/lantern. Note that the fuel is fake paper money soaked in kerosene.






Hope and earnestness.


While some people are launching, others are decorating.


It's a busy beehive of activity on the tracks punctuated by short, impatient lulls when trains come through.














The supply of sky lanterns seems infinite.


And so the countryside nearby is littered with their carcasses even though the locals "harvest" them non-stop.


Moto with a collection of reclaimed bottom bamboo rings.


It is a beautiful sight when the sky is full of lanterns.


We did 2 short hikes. One up, up for a view back to Shifen. And the other to the next village, Wanggu, to a waterfall.


The lanterns are white dots against the green forest (below left) in this photo.


Wreckage.


A quiet temple below the expressway.


A couple shots of the free shuttle buses bringing folks into Shifen.




Video.


The Wanggu Waterfall.


On the way back to Shifen the sky is filled by lanterns and Sun-Ling has a close call. Check out the video below and wait until the end to see a bamboo ring harvester in action with his pole.




In the early evening there were 10 rounds of mass launches at a venue about 1km from the RR tracks. Very cool. Seemed to us that it was mostly tour groups launching lanterns.









Video:


GPS track of our route.