One thing that I love about Taiwan is their Taipei Rapid Transit System.  It’s just super impressive!

If I live there, I probably won’t even think of buying a car since it’s so accessible (unless you want to go out after midnight).

Taipei Rapid Transit System otherwise called as 台北捷運 (Taipei Metro) is a rapid transport system that serves a large part of Taipei.  It’s very efficient and technology is advanced and environment-friendly too.  The usual 3-hour ride can just be somewhere you can reach for only an hour with Taipei Metro.

I also saw how disciplined the people there are when I rode the Taipei Metro.  Here are just some observations why I said so:

• they patiently line up while waiting for the train.
• they wait for people to go down the train before going in.
• when the train comes, they don’t push people around in order to get in, they follow the line patiently.
• they voluntarily give up their seats for pregnant women, parents w/ kids, old people.  I even saw a person giving up seat for a young foreigner who brought lots of things.  I’m pretty sure that foreigner have this mindset that ‘geez Taiwan is such a great place!’.
• since people are not allowed to eat, drink, spit, smoke in the train, the train is pretty neat.

People waiting in the train.  See the lines on the floor?  It’s a guide to where we should line up to wait.  It’s not directly on the door so people going down will not have a hard time leaving the train.  On the ceiling, you’ll see a sign, it shows how much time before the train arrives.

You’ll see from inside the train the current destination, next destination & also the previous destination.  It keeps you informed so you won’t get lost.  Maps are also on some parts of the trains 🙂

The dark blue seats are made for elders, pregnant women, parents w/ small kids/babies.  Even if there are no more seats available and people are already standing up.  You won’t see people seating down there unless they are elders, pregnant women, parents w/ kids.  Impressive!

Far end section of the train where handicapped people can ride & also people with bikes.  Hey, you can bring your bikes on the train!  Cool isn’t it?

Escalators in the station.  Do you notice that the people just stayed on the right side? It’s courtesy for people who are rushing.  You go to the left if you wanna go ahead and climb up the escalator as fast as you can.

Taipei Metro operates everyday from 6AM to 12 Midnight.  Peak hours are 7-9AM & 5-7:30PM.

There are 3 types of tickets for Taipei Metro (Take note: you can even use the card for buses!):

• IC Single-Journey Ticket – for passengers taking one-way trips
• EasyCard – for passengers taking multiple trips.  Ticket price is 500NT (100NT deposit & 400NT usable balance).  You can recharge your card through the information centers in the station and also through the automatic recharging machines.
• One-day Pass – unlimited travel of one-day use.  Ticket price is 200NT (50NT deposit & 150NT usable balance).  We can refund the deposit within 3 days of the activation date.

朱銘美術館 (Juming Museum)
20842 No. 2 She-Shi-Hu Chin-Shan Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
886 (2) 24989940

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For 250NT, we’ll be able to see this 15-hectare place built to show the works of æœ±éŠ˜ (Juming), an international sculptor.

朱銘 (Juming) was trained as a woodcarver but later developed his skill and ventured into bronze, styrofoam, ceramics & stainless steel.  All we can see in æœ±éŠ˜ç¾Žè¡“館 (Juming Museum).

The museum opened July 2004 together with the Taiwan Astronomical museum wherein people stayed at the Taichi square to gaze at the stars.  Apparently, Juming’s Taichi series is the most popular from all his works.

Let me show you what we saw in the museum.  I’ll divide it via collection/series:

• 十年曲藏 (10 Years Collection) – Various Artists

There is one piece that I find interesting.  They have to put electric fan in front of it for us to see the full effect.  Here’s a video:

• Taichi Series – æœ±éŠ˜ (Juming) is well-known for this.  It was his mentor Mr. Yang who influenced him to start learning Taichi.  His learnings can be seen through his works as shown below.  I enjoyed looking at the different pieces, they even have Tai Chi shirts & other stuff at the museum souvenir shop.

• Living World Series – While æœ±éŠ˜ (Juming) studied in New York, he developed Living World Series which was put to display in New York.  He was able to sold 2 pieces w/c is uncommon for new artists.  He also was able to experiment more while working on this series like using sponges & ropes into his pieces.

Among all the areas, my favorite is the science area.  You’ll see familiar names like the ff.:

• Michael Faraday – philosopher contributed to electromagnetism & electrochemistry.

• Thomas Edison & 李遠哲 (Dr. Yuan Tseh Lee) – Thomas Edison is inventor of the light bulb & motion picture camera while Dr. æŽé å“² (Dr. Yuan Tseh Lee) is a chemist who won the noble prize for chemistry last 1986.

• Benjamin Franklin – 1 of the founding fathers of the United States of America.

• 蔡倫 (Cai Lun) – inventor of paper and paper making process.

• Sir Isaac Newton – one of the most influential men in history.

金包理老街 (Jin Bao Lane Street) is one of the famous spot in 金山 (Jinshan).

It’s the oldest street in Town.

My impression of the place is that there are just tooo many people, it’s a busy, busy, busy street.  You’d see a lot of goose there as it is Taiwan’s specialty and you’d see people piling up/lining up just to be able to eat it.  It’s like full of people who hasn’t eaten in their lifetime (ofcourse that’s not the case, it’s the appeal of the place).

It felt like a circus, too many people lining up for food (Street food!).  If you’re used to fine dining, you’ll not dare eat here.  Since my aunt and her friend are both from the states, they asked if we could just eat at a restaurant or place with better ambiance and not on the street.  So we ended up eating at a dining place (also at Jin Bao Lane Street, I’ll blog about it on my next post) coz they didn’t want to go through the chaos.

As for me, I’m quite adventurous, I wouldn’t mind trying that out.  Maybe next time?  🙂

More pictures here.