Taiwan Travel Diary #7: Chiang Kai Shek memorial and Ximending

Hey everyone~

Since I'm not really doing anything during the week, unfortunately I didn't have much to write about.
But~ last weekend I went to see the famous Chiang Kai-shek memorial here in Taipei. ^^ I went on my own and the weather was really bad, but I'm still gonna show you some photos.

But let's look at the important things first:

food.

On the days on which I don't have any classes I like to sleep in and afterwards get one of those delicious waffles for brunch. They're huge, and you can get different fillings. I usually get cinnamon apple and it only costs 50NTD.

Bento box for 50NTD~ This store is super crowded during lunch hour. Basically you get to select three side dishes and then the piece of meat you want to have (mine is Chicken steak).

Here's something I got for dinner: Dakgalbi~

Yes i do eat quite a lot of Korean food here...not exactly what I intended to, but oh well. Since there's really nothing here on the mountain, we usually eat in the university canteen for dinner (which is directly next to our dorm). In the evenings and weekends, there are only two restaurants opened and both mostly offer Korean food (one is more expensive and authentic, the other one is quite cheap but mostly has some kind of mix between Korean and Chinese food). Normally there's a big selection of food, as the canteen is basically a foodcourt. But since it's super crowded during lunch time, I mostly only eat there in the evening and thus...Korean food.

Back to the main topic~

This was at Chiang Kai-Shek memorial MRT station. They had lots of pretty painting hanging on the walls, almost all of them showing fruits.

I personally always feel happy when I see such public places being decorated, It makes walking through there a lot more enjoyable and it's a nice method of showing off some peoples art, because so many people get to see it.

Get out of exit 1(if i remember that properly) and turn right. The first place that you'll see is actually the national theater.

Something I really like about Taipei is the amount of people practicing dancing or other arts in public. No matter where you go, if there's any wall or door that reflects light a lot, there will be people dancing. In subway stations, in university buildings...or in front of the closed doors of the National theater.
Can you spot the cheerleaders?

Right next to the National theater is the memorial hall~

And normally there's this huge~ pretty entrance gate but on that day there were a lot of constructions going on.

Even though the weather was super windy that day and it looked like it would rain soon, there were quite a lot of people there.
Can you spot Tapei 101 behind those clouds?

There was even a marching band practicing and performing.

the wind was super strong so excuse my horrible hair

Inside of the memorial there's this big statue of Chiang Kai-Shek.

Afterwards I went to Ximen to walk around for a bit. I was originally planning to eat dinner there but it was kind of awkward to find a restaurant, as I was alone and I felt that eating alone could be quite awkward ^^'

There was some sort of flea market going on on the right side of Ximens famous Red house.

There were many interesting things, a lot seemed to be handmade. It wasn't inexpensive, so I didn't buy anything.

The left side of Ximens Red house also offers a lot of shopping opportunities...but very different ones.

Taiwan is seriously not conservative at all. The LGBT community is pretty much out in the open here, which is awesome. They're not hiding themselves, and if you follow all those rainbows you'll end up in (apparantly) one of the best places for partying too.

There's also a small temple right in the middle of Ximen.

And an Ukulele store...

Street food vendors

Kim Woobin posters for Calvin Klein where everywhere~

This girl advertised something, and I'm not sure if it was because she was really pretty or if she was some kind of celebrity, but no matter which time I passed here, there was always a crowd of middle-aged men standing around her taking her photos....it was slightly creepy.

There are lots of clothing stores in Ximen too, but they tend to be slightly pricey.

When I first left the metro station, I noticed those guys who build up this basketball..thingy.

Later on, there was already a crowd around them, but they weren't doing anything. Suddenly, a big van with tinted windows pulled over on the side of the road and this really, really tall guy stepped out. He seemed quite famous.

A few people from the crowd were invited to try and play against him, which was hilarious since all of them didn't even reach up to his shoulders.

When a small kid wanted to play, he helped him make a goal.

After he left, the crowd quickly dispersed again.
I shortly went over to Nature Republic...because of reasons.

Somehow they still have Luhan here...I think probably because people here really, really like Luhan.

Afterwards I went to Jiantan station, bought a few snacks at Shilin nightmarket and went back to university. On a corner, I met this guy.

His Transformers costume was awesome...the eyes were glowing, and he scared quite a few kids when he suddenly moved. He also managed to flirt with a lot of young girls.