From South to North in Taiwan

A Short Trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan April 2018

April 20, 2018 Friday

Today is the day that we leave the village and head up north of the island. We will be spending three nights in Taipei before flying home. Our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Chiu came to pick us up as we said our "good-byes" to FIL. Mr. Chiu, a retired school principal, and his wife went on a couple of cruises with us in the last few years and we became good traveling companions. They were with us on our 19-day Grand Japan cruise on Diamond Princess in 2015 and then on the 16-day Transatlantic Cruise from Miami to Copenhagen on the NCL Getaway in 2017. After the missing passports and cash incident in Copenhagen on debarkation day from the Getaway, we boarded the HAL Zuiderdam for the 12-day Norway and Scotland cruise the next day together again. We definitely went through some memorable time traveling together!

Today, they would take us out to lunch and then to the high-speed rail station in Chiayi afterward for our train ride to Taipei.

Hua Wei Shiang Duck Specialty Restaurant--1020 Section 2, Zhangrong Road

                                                                             Xinying, Tainan, Taiwan

Among all the restaurants and eateries in the nearby towns and villages, Hua Wei Shiang is one unique establishment in my book. Our second visit to this restaurant proved to be just that, a unique and special restaurant, especially at this particular location. This restaurant has a long history with their original owner came from Chiu Chow, China many many years ago. Starting from a humble mobile stand, then slowly settling down with a storefront eatery, and now with this fancy restaurant in the city of Xinying. They served one specialty--duck thick soup at the other locations but here at the flagship restaurant they do banquets, weddings and meals with a special duck menu.

Sign at the front of the restaurant.

Entrance to the indoor restaurant...

...surrounded by a huge, beautiful garden.

Banquet Room

Park-like environment.

View of the banquet room.

A small farm right next to the garden.

Very pretty!

Set menu for a party of 3~4.

Drunken Duck

Radish Cake with duck

Bamboo Shoot with preserved cabbage

Local Yi Noodle with braised duck

Duck Soup

with duck blood rice cake

Cabbage in duck oil

Half a Deep Fried Duck

What an excellent lunch!

dessert--sweet soup of mung bean

Tian'ehu Park (Swan Lake Park)
Seeing that we still have a couple of hours before our train departure, Mr. and Mrs. Chiu decided to take us on a short trip to a nearby park. We have never been there before so it would be interesting to see what is there. It turned out to be quite a pleasant place to visit in this quiet town.

Well-paved path all around the lake.

I think these are ducks. Sorry, we just had some for lunch.

Sugar Refinery (Suantou Zhecheng Cultural Park)

Sugar used to be an important agricultural product in this part of the island with sugar refineries scattered all around southern Taiwan. Many of them are closed nowadays due to the lower demands on sugar and the elimination of sugar cane farms. Some of these refineries turned into museums and tourist attractions and usually they are THE place for ice cream and desserts for locals. We were told that this place is near the train station so we might as well go for a little dessert.

Seemed a little rundown.

Getting the ice cream with different flavors.

This one is covered with red beans. Quite nice!

A deserted service center.

They do have old train cars and locomotives on the premises for display and occasionally run train rides around the park.

Instead of the old train ride, it was time for our high-speed train ride to Taipei.

Inside the comfortable train car and about two hours later we arrived in Taipei.

Our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Shi came to pick us up from the train station and dropped our bags off at the service apartment where we would be staying for the next three nights. Then they brought us to a restaurant famous for soup buns (Shiao Long Bao) before it gets crowded on this Friday evening.

Ming Yue Tong Bao -- No. 1662-4, Section 2, Keelung Road, Da'an District, Taipei, Taiwan

                                      or No. 40-3, Lane 171, Tonghua Street, Da'an District, Taipei, Taiwan

We like steamed buns, or Shiao Lung Bao or Tong Bao (soup buns) and we love Din Tai Fung in Taiwan (not the ones in California or Hong Kong) so our friends thought we should try Ming Yue instead which they think is comparable to or better than Din Tai Fung. Rumor has it that the owner of Ming Yue was actually the original chef from Ding Tai Fung. 

This one is in a small alley with very limited parking.

Appetizers in the display case.

Some appetizers we got.

Taro

Two different kinds of herbal soup.

A little bit of the beef soup.

Yummy Shiao Lung Bao! These are the ones highly recommended by our friends, with squash and shrimp wrapped inside. Just looking at this makes me hungry.

Steamed clams

Steamed buns with pork. They do look like the ones from DTF, the folds and the appearance in all.

Inside the squash and shrimp buns, juicy and flavorful.

Dessert, pancake with dates paste filling.

As you can see, this is a healthy meal with most items being steamed. I have to say that this is very similar to and as good as Din Tai Fung or even better without the crowds and the long queues. Service is a little lacking without the well-trained staff like Din Tai Fung. Will I come back again? Most definitely!

Gracehome Service Apartment, Taipei, Taiwan 

We have found a service apartment on line that received 5-star reviews in an area where we wanted to stay this time. Usually we like to stay at a hotel near the train station because of its convenient location but this time we wanted to be a little on the east side of Taipei. This service apartment seemed to be at the right spot and the price was reasonable comparing to the hotel that we usually stayed at. 

Gracehome actually have several locations in the neighborhood. They also have several types of apartments available depending on your preference and the size of your traveling party. We have booked a smaller "M" unit but our hostess Christine upgraded us upon arrival without extra charge. Christine is the only one we met on this stay. She runs around the different property checking-in guests at different hours and taking care of all the needs with the help of the cleaning staff. She is such a sweet Christian lady whom we befriend with quickly.

Our room is more like a room with kitchen facility and dining area instead of an actual apartment since there is no living room but plenty of space for the two of us for our three-day stay.

Spacious room with two double beds.

Breakfast area with a window looking out to the laundry room.

Small functional kitchen

Clean bathroom

When we came back from dinner, Christine had gotten some fresh fruits for us. 

That's hospitality!

Utensils in the kitchen

This ended our first day in Taipei at this lovely apartment.

"As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?"

                                                                                                               Psalm 18:30~31