hey everyone and welcome to Taipei, Taiwan today we're going to be showing you the Xinyi District which is arguably the most popular and
famous District here it's home to Taipei 101 one of the tallest buildings in the world, lots
of shopping, temples, great hiking, and of course delicious street food! so our first stop today is
101. Which is this building, right here. we're actually going to go up it and to get here you are going take the Red line to the Taipei 101 Station. and the station lets off literally in the basement of Taipei 101. so it's really easy
to find yep, perfect place to start. yep! let's go wow that is a really tall building! it's
so tall it's disappearing into the clouds all right we're gonna go up and see the
view! the ticket counter and elevator to the top are on the fifth floor of the mall wow there it is, that was not too hard to find. wow that was really easy wasn't it so they have dual pricing depending on your
nationality. if you're Taiwanese you only pay 420NTD but if you're from anywhere else they
charge you 600NTD which is about twenty US dollars two tickets to the 89th floor. It's very very foggy. it's okay thank you! thank you~ at a time this was the world's fastest elevator.
it went a thousand meters per second that's a lot! but think it's like you know the 20th fastest now
because there are now way taller buildings and stuff but it's still pretty fast it's 38 miles
an hour for our American viewers yeah yeah wow, this is actually really fast yeah. it's like putting a little G force on you... feels like you're getting like pressed in and your ears are getting sucked inside out
I really don't like the way this feels yeah All of these guys are talking about it too. We're not even speaking the same language and you
know exactly what they're saying That was almost uncomfortable if you thought the one in Tokyo was fast... I know that was way faster than the Sky Tree you know I thought it was going to
be like a little disappointing with how cloudy it was but we're literally
in the clouds you can see them moving across... zipping by... yeah it's crazy it kind of adds to the effect if anything like you're so high you're in the clouds they have a bunch of cute
little photo spots up here there's a 600 ton ball in the 89th floor
it's called a tuned mass damper. without getting too much in the physics it just resists
the swaying which keeps the building upright which it needs because there's lots
of earthquakes and typhoons in Taiwan if you didn't know, they call Taipei 101
101 because there's 101 floors .this is the 91st you can actually go up to the 101st for a hundred
dollars or 300 NT per person three thousand oh sorry three thousand and we don't have
enough money to do that so we only went to this floor but if you want to go up there
you can and they strap you into harnesses and stuff so you don't fall off. let's go back in, it is really cold. I know. don't do that! that was pretty cool, but we have a bunch of other
stuff to show you done so we're gonna head on down so Xinyi is super famous for it shopping
pretty much everywhere you look is a mall so we're gonna stop into
one. I'm hoping to get a snack it's just malls everywhere like non-stop
everywhere you step this entire street is a mall we just Googled find a restaurant
nearby. we wanted Taiwanese instead of like mall food court. so we found
somewhere that has pretty good reviews so the first thing we got is a chicken and
tomato sauce, which is really popular here, noodle soup and the broth looks clear and delicious
there's some vegetables in it the noodles almost look like their rice noodles is that what they
are? look at them. I'm gonna give them a try. it that's really good it really is like the perfect like
comforting warm soup on a cold day so this is what I was looking forward to so in
Taiwan they're really famous for their fried chicken and what they do is add potato starch
to the breading it's not just wheat flour and it makes it extra light and fluffy and
crunchy. look at the size of this thing the size of my hand and it's just beautiful
look at that oh it smells really good oh it smells delicious it's covered in some sort
of a sauce as well and it's a spicy version they let the skin on this breast filet so
it's extra crispy like crispy chicken skin fried on this oh it's so good now what are we doing? we're gonna go to
the Dr sun yat-sen Memorial Hall which is just about five minutes walk from
this area oh how convenient yep just a short walk away from Taipei 101 and the
shopping district is Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall built for Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, as you might have
guessed, who was the first president of the Republic of China. there is a library and
a meeting Hall inside and also on the hour there's a change of guards which we missed
but if you're into that sort of thing it's something to come here for. otherwise it's
just a big Park people come here as they hang out and you want to see the architecture
it's very cool distinctly Taiwanese it's worth a quick look! and if you didn't know Taiwan is
the Republic of China yes I feel like we didn't really uh brush over that. well I, I think most
people know it's called The ROC the Republic of China, whereas there's also the People's
Republic of China, which is mainland which is what you may know as China. most people know, buit yeah not everyone
does.We're clarifying for anyone who doesn't it's cool it's a free museum if you want to learn
about Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, Who was a real medical doctor from here we're going to go
to the songshan cultural creative Park which is just across the street so this is the Taipei dome which is a very
controversial topic here because I guess it's been under construction since 2011 and
it's still nowhere near being done they had to completely redesign it and everything so that they
could actually get approval from the city so the locals here are just like uh when's this thing
going to be done like it causes traffic like come on! sounds like the Hawaii rail! I know
so but it's a huge Stadium it's got like 40,000 seats in it that's going to
be their new baseball stadium this is the Songshan cultural and creative Park. this used to be a
Japanese tobacco Factory and then it went defunct and wasn't used for a while so it was repurposed
into a cultural and creative Center which is not really supposed to have a lot of commercial
business but there's a bunch of ads here right now so I'm not sure what that's about but it's
a nice area it's like beautifully landscaped and we're gonna explore more of it I don't know
what else is out here there's lots of Arts stuff. there are like art installations and performances
and stuff like that. Alan read more about it than I did well it's a park for art-y people to hang out. okay I like that
I like that. there's also food trucks I think so.... food trucks. I guess the art installation of the day is Capcom wow there's like floors of this. yeah
it's huge. there's there's a lot of it I love this park it's so funky there's like all sorts of weird stuff I just
wasn't expecting to find here so it got kind of dark and rainy and what we
wanted to show you next was Outdoors so we switched to the next day. yep! we wanted to go
to Elephant Mountain, which is a famous hiking spot nearby that has a view of the entire Xinyi
District and to get here conveniently you can take the red line to the end which is xiangshan station
and when you get off drops you right at the park where the trailhead is and when you start to see
elephants and stuff you know you're getting close I wasn't expecting a hiking trail to
be so popular look at all the people here today. yeah it's always crowded
always. I think it's a holiday today too so probably not helping with the
crowds don't do like we did come early if you get tired and you feel like quitting
there's lots of platforms where you can take a break and check out the views we haven't been
to the top yet but I don't know how to get much better than this yeah it's probably going to
be about the same but I do want to finish it we made it to the top we read on the placards and
a bunch of placards with information going all the way up that this is called Elephant Hill because
I guess it has like a long nose type thing yeah a trunk, if you will and Alan said there's a cool Temple down over
this way a 30 minute walk takes you to Songshan Fangtian thank you on Temple which is supposed to be very
cool are we gonna go there we are okay cool cool now why isn't this in any other guidebooks? I
think there's so many cool temples and stuff this is so cool it is really cool so we were reading about this Temple and I guess at
the Taoist Temple and I think it has something to do with heaven but everything was in Chinese so
it was kind of deriving that from the comments section on like Yelp about this place but it's so
cool it's worth a quick stop if you're doing this hike and you just want like a cool remote private
Temple experience. there's no one here and there's tons of great art at this Temple it's just beautiful and
all the dragons there's so many dragons on it and there's this cool thing up in the
Mountainside I think that might be like the main thing people come and pray to here but I'm not
sure again I'm just trying to learn from Life Yelp Google reviews whatever it's called yeah I was
gonna say what is this 2012. that type of thing though anyways uh do you want to head up there
or do you want to let's go let's go check it out back to the original Quest yeah
this was a a long side quest but it was really cool I was just up for
a minute it's been an hour and a half what a trek man yeah that definitely did not let
you off yeah we had to walk through the city aisle wow this is so cool though I'd say it's
worth it all ready to show the outside wanna tell us a little bit about this Temple
yeah I guess a immigrant from mainland China came here in the 1800s and set up shop in a
cave here and had a little Temple and then it was destroyed by the Japanese during the
colonial period and then it was rebuilt in the 1950s and expanded in a large way to what you
see today in the 60s do you know what it's called Songshan Fangtian Temple every single surface is carved or
painted or is even involves like lights the lanterns you'll see the eyes like all of
these things light up and it's just beautiful probably those intricate building we've ever been
in it is crazy beautiful I don't know over there thing on the wall every single thing of it is a
precious stone or gemstone or rock of some sort I can't imagine how much time it to make all
this stuff when you look at these things, there are no repeats. every person is their own individual character
and every scene on every pillar on every carving on every wall yeah this has definitely been one of those places that has just blown me away like, jaw dropped, like kind
of like emotional to look at because you're like whoa the amount of work that went into
somewhere like this is just it's mind-boggling that Temple was incredible. I know we kind of
said it while we were in there just but just like every surface was carved, or painted, covered
in Gold, like even up on the rooftops yeah each scale of like the dragon or a bit of fur
on an animal is a handmade ceramic tile sticking out like it was just crazy and it's
not in any guide books yeah I don't know why this is so cool I I think if you're doing
that hike you should definitely stop by this because I don't know why you wouldn't
this is just amazing so also nearby in this neighborhood is a really cool night market
that we're gonna show you try a lot to food so this isn't technically part of the Xinyi
district but there is a night market nearby that we really wanted to check out and on the way
over we've run into this cool Temple I don't know much about it we'll have to read about it and
figure it out it just it does look cool though it looks awesome and I love all the lanterns they
have hanging in this part of the city very neat yeah I feel like a moth, drawn to a flame. it's just
a cool looking Temple and I can't help myself it's beautiful! oh hey there's the night market right
there. oh it's literally right there I thought it was over there okay well that's what I thought
too I guess it's simple is closer than we thought the lanterns are so cute thats what I was thinking. That one especially the frogs I like the koi fish one too the koi fish and their mouth's are even little hearts yeah i know! yeah let's go get some food
yeah this is really really pretty though I love but this
one has so many lanterns yeah so this is one of the five biggest Street
Markets in Taiwan it's called the Raohe Market I'm excited to see what's all about the first thing we want to try is a Michelin bib gourmand recommended restaurant but it has a huge line if we've learned anything from doing all these
night markets is that you should get something to eat while you're waiting in line. so we're
gonna do that first and then we're gonna eat it oh man that line moved really fast so we didn't
actually have time to eat in line I'm actually shocked how efficiently they did that if you
come and there's a long line don't be scared off. because it took like three minutes uh these
though are King oyster mushrooms that have been roasted over a grill and they have like
a distinctive creamy flavor to them when they're cooked and this guy grilled them to Perfection
put some barbecue sauce on it now on the last step chop them up and then covered them in
chili powder and they look incredibly spicy you know just like powdered with chili pepper but
they're delicious huh they've got that creamy flavor they're really good though like I would eat this as like a nice healthy
snack at home or something you know what I mean these are Taiwanese Clay Oven buns from fuzu the process that went into these was so
fast they were so efficient they were taking dough laying it out stuffing it with
what I believe is pork and they took it and kind of like smashed it against some greens
and then rolled it up in a bun and then they put it in this really really hot Clay Oven
and cook them up and then serve them to us I like that the top of it got this really crispy
layer it's a nice texture the pepper and it comes through so nicely it's really really good, but to be
honest for you Alan I think you're gonna like the ones that we get back at the market by our
place better because this one is a little sweeter they're hot huh honestly it's just
okay I'm a little disappointed foreign this beautiful piece of bread is called a Hong Kong style roll it's a sort of yeasty bread with a Crispy Crunchy sweet top there's a guy cooking them and he has
a cabinet where he proofs the dough and little individual portions pulls them out
and smacks them with a little pineapple Stamper and then throws them back in to
rise and I guess kind of crack and stuff to give it that distinctive uh look look on
top and here they put a disgusting amount of butter in them like that slab of butter
in there is going to be easily like 10 grams it's like biting into a pillow of buttery air oh
my God that's so good man I messed up not getting like six of these what you want donuts to be it's
so light and Airy and then you just get like your tongue is just like enveloped in a layer of
butter so good you got to lick it up? don't judge me I'm loving this night market so far I love
the layout it has like little games for kids there's lots of people out of this
one and it's big yeah some of them are really small and don't have a lot of
options but I feel like we just keep wandering through this one yeah and so far
we haven't uncovered with the theme of the this market is. yeah a lot of the markets we've noticed so far all kind of have like a little specialty like thing they do we have yeah we don't know
about this one yet stinky tofu is so stinky oh it smells so bad we're gonna try it before we leave but... not tonight. not tonight, I have to muster up some strength for that which one should we get? uh I say brown sugar or chocolate chocolate we stumbled upon this place that said
Crispy Donuts and Alan was like it's a crispy donut it seems like something you'd like so we got one look at that it's like
the layer on the outside is crispy it's like a nice yeasty donut and
they fold it in layers of chocolate it's like a donut and a croissant had
a baby and you'd get a crispy donut it's definitely not deep fried no they call it a
donut and it's actually quite nice that it's not because it's crispy and delicious and sweet but
without feeling too heavy it's a lot lighter yeah I've been dying to try one of these they're like
one of the most unintuitive desserts I've ever heard of or seen it's some sort of a you know like
flower like a crepe flatbread and then they have this huge block of peanut brittle that they shave
off into a dust with a planer and then they put it onto the flatbread then put scoops of ice cream
on top of that and then to finish it off they put cilantro I didn't see this a lot yeah there's
cilantro on it oh wow interesting I know it's uh like I can get behind like peanut
brittle you know planed into dust with ice cream and cilantro anyways let's give it a try it looks like it's taking
you through a few flavors there there's layers of flavor for sure the uh peanut
brittle peanuts really delicious but it has a consistency of sawdust and it kind of scratches
up your throat but the ice cream is very good and then the cilantro kind of kind of
comes through at the end there and uh i don't hate it. that would be a strong word. but its... you don't like
it? not your thing? no I like it for like the first half of it. you
know the back half of the experience is like what what am I doing? let me try!
this what's that cilantro doing in there? you know it's really when the cilantro hits.
like you're like oh sweet peanuts and like light ice cream and stuff that's cold all the textures
are working and then you just get like cilantro oh it's really weird it's good I like it it's just
a strange combination I would get it again yeah we made it to the end of the night market and
this one is so cool totally recommend visiting it it's the best one we've been to definitely
it's massive just massive they have all sorts of things Foods we've never seen Foods we haven't
seen at the other markets oh I'll just feed you tofu and it's well organized too yeah I like
that too it's just kind of like an in and out and a few Alleyways that get a lot quieter
but but now I want to go to wufenpu shopping district oh yeah supposed to be the largest
shopping area in all of the country how far is it from here uh it's like a five minute walk
okay well I'm well fed so I think I'll make it made it to Wufenpu Market which is
the largest market complex in the whole city a thousand stores and it focuses mostly on
wholesale stuff but you can get others you know prices for I guess smaller quantities you
can get like almost anything here too I guess For a Street Market it's pretty nice yeah
it's like very clean and not hectic and the buildings are in great condition
it's very upscale and nice yeah it is I don't even hear him that bike was 100 silent no more luck you look pretty good at that I'm kind of disappointed I couldn't find socks.
yeah there are no socks, but they literally have the best shirts ever. like everywhere
you turn there's another great one anyways I think that was the last thing we
had to see today yeah if you liked our guide consider watching another one of our videos it
really helps us out yeah see you the next one bye
