Soup Dumplings at Din Tai Fung

 Our plan for the first day in Taipei is to visit the National Palace Museum (NPM). This is the most important and most visited tourist site in Taiwan.  The museum housed artifacts and artwork that were brought over by the Nationalists at the tail-end of the takeover of mainland China by the communists.  Many came from the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing and other institutions throughout China.

Directions to the National Palace Museum on their website

Looking at the map it seems like the NPM is quite far away from the Hilton Hotel in Banqiao.  It turned out to be relatively easy to get there.  We walked to the Banqiao station, which turns out to be only an easy 5-minute walk from the hotel.  The station turned out to be a big station with three rail lines - 2 MRT lines (yellow and blue), the Taiwan Railway, and the High-Speed Railway. From this station you can go to almost anywhere in Taiwan.

We took the Blue MRT line to the Taipei Main Station, and then changed to the Red Line to the Shilin station.  From there we followed the directions above.  We took the 255 Bus and it took us right across the street from the museum.  But, when we exited the Shilin station we were surprised by many shops that sell our favorite Taiwanese snacks - bobba tea, scallion pancakes, etc.  Even though we had a heavy breakfast that morning we stopped to enjoy ourselves.

Enjoying snacks at Shilin Station

Steven and Taylor stopping at 7-Eleven

Cynthia enjoying Chinese Pizza, which is Scallion Pancake

More snacks for Shawn, Taylor and Cynthia

We had to take a few pictures in front of this famous museum.

The children in front of an incense burner

A Group Photo

The Wongs

Admission to the museum is relatively inexpensive - NT$350 for adults, about US$12.  Anyone under 17 is admitted free.  An audio guide costs an additional NT$150.  We split up and spent about 2 hours at the museum.  One of the highlights of the museum is a jade sculpture of a cabbage.  Unfortunately, it was not on display that day.  Another is a stone sculpture of a braised pork belly.

Mai-lon with picture of Jade Cabbage

Braised Pork, sculpted from banded jasper stone

We were finished with the museum by about 3pm.  What's next?  We decided to go to dinner at Din Tai Fung, a restaurant known for its soup dumplings or Xiaolongbao in Mandarin.  This is one of Taiwan's famous exports.  You can find Din Tai Fung restaurants all over the world, including in the US.  Here is a short History of Din Tai Fung.

There are several in Taipei and we picked the one near the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.  It's the Xinsheng Branch at No. 277, Section 2, Xinyi Road.  It was crowded, even though it was 4pm.  The wait was 60 minutes.  There was a crowd in front of the restaurant.  Later we learned that there was a Korean pop-star eating inside the restaurant and many in the crowd were waiting to catch a glimpse of him.

Crowd outside restaurant

Some hungry folks

Kitchen where they prepare the dumplings

Xiaolongbao

It was a long day after dinner.  The rest of the group went back to the hotel.  But before they did that, they found a place that sells Mango Shaved Ice, one of the favorite snacks.

Mango Shaved Ice

Doris and I stopped at an area called Ximendi.  It's a popular pedestrian mall, full of shops and street food.  I stayed at a hotel near here when I was in Taiwan 5 years ago.  It's a very popular area among younger folks to hang out and eat.

Doris at Ximendi

Eating a snack from a street vendor

It was a long first day for us.  We were ready for a nice rest at the Hilton Hotel.