Taipei – The Smallest Big City You’ll Ever See

Greater Taipei lies at the northernmost tip of the fish-shaped island of Taiwan, and from the air, the land below looks green and densely forested.  At ground level, you find that any untended land is soon covered in jungle-like plant growth. This is, after all, a tropical island. Nowadays, Taipei, a time-worn old Chinese city with neighborhoods and innumerable shoebox-sized shops, is completely encircled by New Taipei, and in every direction, the horizon is filled with skyscrapers. In fact, there are at least 236 buildings here over 25 stories tall, and 39 more have up to 65 stories. The collection of high-rise buildings is shocking. They pierce the green forest and the skyline. The city’s iconic skyscraper, Taipei 101, with its 101 stories, once the tallest building in the world, is, of course, the granddad.  

Yes, metropolitan Taipei with its 7 million residents, neighborhoods, and vast number of commercial and residential skyscrapers, has a big-city personality, but it occupies just 950 square miles.  How big is 950 square miles? Greater Little Rock has a population of 730,000 and yet occupies about 3,000 square miles in its six-county metro area; Greater Atlanta has 6.5 million people and covers about 8500 square miles.  Those backyards and acreage we all love in the US are almost nonexistent.

One cannot help being in awe of Taipei, the jungle, the mountains, the city, the residential areas, the glittering night markets, the colorful temples, the surrounding mountains, the Tamsui River, and the Taiwan Strait.  It’s a lively, but traditional city with something for everyone.  But it is important to note its location.  Just to the northwest, only 97 miles across the Taipei Straight, China breathes down Taiwan’s neck.  You can bet Big Boy is always at the back of mind for these folks.

I tend to look for the best in every destination we visit, but that’s not difficult here.  Taipei is a modern city with an enviable public transportation system.  Choose from the MRT (Metro Rail Transit), LRT (Local Rail Transit), or HRT (High-speed Rail System).  Last Sunday, Stan and I took part in the city’s celebration of a new bridge that will connect two areas of the city formerly accessible by ferry or a long drive across and down the other side of the river.  The beautiful, new Danjiang Bridge is now the world’s longest single-tower asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge.  Opening for car traffic in mid-May, the bridge will reduce traffic congestion and save travelers 25-40 minutes on trips from Tamsui village on one side of the river to the Bali district on the other bank.  On the celebration day, Stan and I, probably the only pair of Anglos in the crowd, were happy to join 100,000 of the city’s people in celebrating this new engineering feat by walking across it!   It was hot and crowded, but monumental.

Taipei has another amazing example of engineering perfection.  In the Taipei 101 skyscraper, there is a steel pendulum, called a dampner, designed to stabilize the skyscraper against high winds and earthquakes.  You can see it on a tour of the building.  Pure science!  This giant yellow ball can swing up to 5 feet in any direction to stabilize the building, particularly helpful during typhoons and seismic events.  Wow!  It must have gone into action protecting that ultra-tall building when Stan and I first heard the eerie warning sound on our phones and seconds thereafter, felt the distinct jiggle of the offshore earthquake that took place two nights ago.

All this is Taiwan.

Want to know the high point of the bridge celebration?    There was food!  Attracted to the line of brightly-decorated food booths, I saw fried stuffs . . . fried shrimps, fried tiny crabs, fried river fish, fried squids, fried fish balls, and fried cuttlefish.  The aroma!  The grease! The lines of people waiting!   We walked on.  As we made our return trek, Stan asked me, “Are you wanting a little something?” He’s very astute to my whims. (Bha-ha-ha!) I said, “YES, I want some fried cuttlefish.”  I rarely eat fried food, and then usually fried catfish and a few fries, but hey!   The girl tending the booth took our 200NTW and dropped a generous handful of fresh chunked cuttlefish into a vat of roiling hot oil.  A few minutes later, she handed us a white paper bag full of delicate, crispy tidbits with two sticks to spear them with.

 If I don’t have a bite of any other street food here in Taiwan, I have found the best!  It has been a while since we were in Hong Kong, renowned for its delicious street food, but based on that bag of “squid bits” as Stan calls them, Taipei’s street food compares with that in Hong Kong any old day!

I will tell you about stinky tofu, Taiwan’s most popular, extremely fragrant snack, on another day.