Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan)

Taipei was a surprise to me – bustling, (expected) sophisticated, (less expected) and filled with incredibly friendly and welcoming people. After the serene order of Japan, the cheery chaos and omnipresent laughter of Taiwan was a refreshing change.

I am here for my Brother’s wedding reception. Our hotel is downtown near City Hall and directly across the street from Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building. I am a tad ashamed to admit my own ethnocentrism; I thought the tallest building was the Sears tower in Chicago. (Actually it depends on how you define “tallest”, but that is another story altogether.)

The neighborhood where we are staying is bustling with restaurants, shops and theatres, interspersed with peculiarly staid and massive 1960’s chinosierie buildings honoring Chang Kai Shek. The lower floors of Taipei 101 contain the most upscale shopping center I’ve ever been in. (I live in Los Angeles, the American epicenter of the faux urban experience known as the shopping mall, so that’s saying something.)

The food court at Taipei 101 belies our image of “food court” – a breathtakingly international bounty of food is available here. I know that later Yueh Ling and her friends will take us to the night markets for some authentic Taiwanese specialties, so I go easy here. I blanch a bit at the thought of some of the food I suspect will be on offer, and time proves this instinct correct. Pig blood rice cake, steaming bowls of pig intestine, whole duck heads and “stinky tofu” which is so pungent that your eyes water at five feet.