TAIWAN IN DECEMBER DAY: National Palace Museum, Longshan Temple, Taipei 101, Hankyu Dream Plaza and Ximending!

by - July 07, 2019

Almost coming to the last blog posts for my Taiwan in December! I know this is also majorly LATE in terms of posting. But a lot happened these past few months, so had to prioritize. >_< This trip was a fast one - 4 days, so I really did my best to make sure we made the most out of it. :) If you noticed, our day is usually packed with more than one or two locations and I do that with most of my DIY itineraries cos for me, it's a way to maximize the day. ^_^ Since Taiwan is already a familiar place, it was easier! 

For Taiwan in December Day 3, we went to 5 places and thankfully, all these could be reached via MRT! :)


Since we had a lot in our schedule, we woke up early for this and like usual, we bought our breakfast at a nearby bakery and ate at our favorite spot in front of the train and also managed to shoot a quick OOTD near our house hehe.



December is just the beginning of winter in Taiwan. The temperature would play around 19º to 23º when I check the weather app. But to be honest, the wind can get quite strong and it can feel 13º real quick! I wore a wooly type of coat and coords on this day. I basically had 3 layers on top but come night time I was freezing! >_< 

Our first agenda after breakfast was the National Palace Museum. I've been here several times already as a kid. But since it was my husband's first time in Taiwan, I thought it was a must to visit one of Taiwan's popular museums. :)



From our place, we took the MRT red line and got down Shilin Station. There isn't a direct line going to the National Palace Museum, so you would need to take a bus. Once we got down the train, we headed to Exit 1 and the nearest bus stop in front of the station and took the 255 (you can also take S18 or S19) and got off Wesley Girls High School Station to get to where we would redeem our tickets.

Even before our trip, I already had reserved our tickets to The National Palace Museum via KLOOK. :) The great thing about this was I didn't have to worry about lining up + it came with an access to the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines too! The ticket claiming for both museums was at Shung Ye Museum, so we stopped by there first.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside, so I only have a photo of the building. :) It's a two-floor museum that showcases the indigenous tribes of Taiwan. It only took us about 20 minutes here since it's pretty small. 




After Shung Ye Museum, we walked to the National Palace Museum since it was just walking distance to each other. :) I haven't been here in years, so it was like seeing it again for the first time. :)

We finally got to do the "TAKE ME TO" pose hihihi! >_<


If you have big bags or tumblers with you, it's recommended that you leave it in the locker. You only need to put in NT$ 10 to gain access to one and once you're done with it, you can get your money back! ^_^ We left our bags here too! It was also great cos we could roam the museum freely!

I love museums and exploring each room is the best for me. I can spend hours in them cos there's just something about reading up on the past or history that intrigues me. :) 

The National Palace Museum houses one of the largest ancient Chinese imperial artifacts, like calligraphy, paintings, ceramics and more. Some collections date back from the Ming and Qing dynasties.





MEAT-SHAPED STONE

This is one of the popular pieces inside the museum and it looks like a mouth-watering braised pork belly, right? But it's actually a hard mineral called banded jasper. :) Cool!


Hubby admiring the sceneries and taking countless of photos. :)



Again, it was a rainy and gloomy day for us on this trip. But we didn't mind! :)

After a few hours at the museum, we hopped on the bus again to get back to the MRT station. We went down near our house to have lunch at Mia Cusina. It's my mom's favorite restaurant and we got to dine there as her treat! :)

Food here is SO good! I also ate here with Ana two years ago during our summer 2018 trip! :)

I really love Taiwan! They're right when they say it's all about food! Every where you look there's surely a place to eat and a milk tea shop to satisfy your craving at! ^_^

When we were done, we walked back to the MRT to head to Longshan Temple! Going there is really easy. Just go to the BLUE line and go down at BL 10 - Longshan Temple. :)



The train we rode had these cool brick deco/design to it and looked so real! :) Sometimes if you're lucky, you can ride trains with different designs.

The Longshan Temple is one of the popular or known temples in Taiwan. It was built in 1738 by Fujian during the Qing rule and has withstand numerous earthquakes and war. It has gone through many renovations and was rebuilt in 1924. 






During our visit, we witnessed the monks here in prayer. :) We admired the beautiful architecture and the people praying and offerings around. 

It was my first time here and main reason why we went here was the Hubby requested for temples in our itinerary and glad we included this! Discovered something new!



Back again to the MRT, we still had a lot of daylight, so told the Hubby we should try to go to Taipei 101! Another favorite spot of mine in Taipei cos of the malls and reason to admire one of the tallest buildings in the world. :)

Compared to my visit last summer 2018 to Taipei 101, I got a much better shot this time around of this iconic building and with me in it! ^_^






We went around Taipei 101 for a bit and then transferred to ATT4Fun cos price-wise, it's more affordable there! =P If you're into signature or designer items, then you would definitely enjoy Taipei 101 mall cos it's filled with them! ATT4Fun is more on the quirky side. :) In case you wanna see more of it, CLICK HERE!♥ 

Since we still had a few hours to go through, we decided to also stop by one of my must-visit Christmas places in Taiwan. We rode the MRT to Taipei City Hall Bus Station and walked to Hankyu Dream Plaza, another mall that had a really cute Christmas installation on the top floor. :)

For some reason, when I tried typing the mall's name on Google maps, this is what came out. So, I followed it. Leaving this here in case you want to drop by at this mall if you're in the area. :)





It looked so dreamy and glad there weren't much people when we got there. I got to take the photos that I was hoping for! Christmas makes everything so magical and this is our first Christmas in Taiwan too!♥ 

While we were at Hankyu Dream Plaza, we happily stumbled upon this "WHAT'S WRONG WITH SECRETARY KIM" installation and the Kdrama-fan in me just had to check it out! :)



Super kyeopta!! I also have a photo of me in it on my Instagram hihi! :)

Finally, after a long and tiring day, we ended it at Ximending, so we can have dinner and also buy a few pasalubong for the Hubby's side of the family. :)

We tried out this Japanese resto and the food was not bad. They offered individual and set meals. The Hubby had a tempura set while I had udon + kimchi. Yum!





One of the places we bought pasalubong at :)


Went on a quick Family Mart stop too once we got back to our apartment cos I easily get hungry. >_< haha! Midnight snack!

That's it for Day 3!! Can't believe the next part will be the end! Huhuhu! If you, guys wanna back track on my past Taiwan posts, visit https://www.artsyfartsyava.com/search/label/taiwan. :)


Artsy Ava
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1 comments♥

  1. Aiza GregorioJuly 14, 2019 at 1:41 PM

    Ang gaganda ng mga view momshie.. Pati mga food ang sasarap tignan.. Cute ng train nila ganda ng pagkadesign ng sahig. Pati museum ang ganda ng mga nakadisplay.. Ganda din pala mag vacation sa taiwan dami magandang view..

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