Since my Visa does not permit me to stay in China for more than 90 days, I had to leave the country for the weekend…

Weather
Right now it’s rain season in Taiwan. This means temperatures are always above 30C and humidity that feels like 110%. It’s also suppose to rain a lot. Rain season however has the advantage, that the hotels & flights are cheaper and there are not so many tourists (not so crowded, no lines). Also I don’t really mind the heat and got kinda lucky as there were no heavy showers during my stay.

星期五
I arrived in Taipei with a 2h delay early friday afternoon. I had booked a bit more fancy hotel, which picked me up in a S-Class from the airport. After checking in I decided to take advantage of the suprisingly good weather and get the bus to Yangmingshan Park to go hiking. Originally I planned to reach the mountain top but decided to take a shortcut as it was getting late and I didn’t wanted to miss the last bus back to Taipei city (didn’t want to spend the first night in the taiwanese jungle).
Back at the hotel I had dinner in their very fine japanese restaurant. At night I went out to Club Luxy to get a glimpse of the infamous Taipei nightlife. I was not disappointed (see Pics/Video below). It started with the entrance area which looked like the laser room from the first resident evil movie. The crowd was mostly locals, the music was very good but the best part were the little show parts they did between 1AM and 3AM. They had hot female dancers, men in light/laser custumes and did Body Shots on stage (girls on girls;-).

星期六
After a way to short night I got up early on saturday (breakfast was only till 10). I went out to do some sightseeing. Saw Taipeh 101, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and Sun Yat-sen memorial hall. In the afternoon I returned to the hotel to relax by the pool for a while and get a 7-Elements massage in their Spa. For dinner I went to the food court of the Taipei main station. It was a tip from some locals, otherwise I would probably not consider getting dinner at a train station. The food court here however offered a huge variaty of affordable restaurants and little food stands.
On my last night I went to a club called Myst. The interior was again over the top with screens on the ceiling and a big indoor waterfall. On their outsite balcony one had a nice view on Taipei 101 and the city at night. They had two floors but music was not so good (or I was just tired) so I left already at 2PM. This was probabbly a good thing as I had to get up early again the next morning to not miss my plane back to Beijing.

Summary
Taipei was very positive suprise, considering I probably wouldn’t have come here if not for my China Visa restrictions. Much of it reminded me of my favourite country Japan. The normal streets/buildings look like from a japanese city, people are very friendly, it’s clean and very high-tech (e.g. free city wide WI-FI) Plus most tourist infromation/menus/signs are in Chinese/English/Japanese. One other foreigner called it an “more affordable version of Japan”. Probably won’t be the last time I come here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl8PgFP7aMs]

Ampelmännchen (crossing signal)
One of my personal highlights were the cute Ampelmännchen. These were moving and looked like from an old Atari game. It’s these little things that amaze the little child within me:-)

(stole this video from another Youtuber)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yowXiZ6Nb9I]