Taiwan Trip 2023

Taipei Songshan Airport (IATA: TSA, ICAO: RCSS) is a regional airport and military airbase located in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. The airport covers an area of 182 hectares (450 acres).The civilian section of Songshan Airport has scheduled flights to domestic destinations in Taiwan and international destinations including Seoul, Tokyo, and select cities in mainland China. Songshan serves only a small portion of the international flights for Taipei compared to the larger Taoyuan International Airport. Songshan Airport is also the base of certain Republic of China Air Force units as part of the Songshan Air Force Base. The Songshan Base Command's main mission is to serve the President and Vice President of the Republic of China.

The Taipei Zoo, sometimes referred to as the "Muzha Zoo", is a public zoological garden in Wenshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is the most famous zoological garden in Taiwan and a leader in conservation, research and education, and recreation. It is one of the largest zoos in Asia, with a total area of 165 hectares, of which more than 90 ha are developed.

Miramar Entertainment Park (Chinese: 美麗華百樂園; pinyin: Měilìhuá Bǎilèyuán) is a shopping mall located in the Dazhi area in Zhongshan District of Taipei, Taiwan. The shopping mall contains an IMAX theater. With 28m × 21m dimensions, its movie screen is the largest in Asia for screening commercial films.

Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about 25 km (16 mi) southwest of the northern port city of Keelung. Most of the city rests on the Taipei Basin, an ancient lakebed. The basin is bounded by the relatively narrow valleys of the Keelung and Xindian rivers, which join to form the Tamsui River along the city's western border.The municipality of Taipei is home to an estimated population of 2,494,813 (March 2023), forming the core part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, also known as "Greater Taipei", which includes the nearby cities of New Taipei and Keelung with a population of 7,047,559, the 40th most-populous urban area in the world—roughly one-third of Taiwanese citizens live in the metro areas. The name "Taipei" can refer either to the whole metropolitan area or just the municipality alone. Taipei has been the political center of the island since 1887, when it first became the seat of Taiwan Province by the Qing dynasty until 1895 and again from 1945 to 1956 by the ROC government, with an interregnum from 1895 to 1945 as the seat of the Government-General of Taiwan during the Japanese rule. The city has been the national seat of the ROC central government since 1949, it became the nation's special municipality (then known as Yuan-controlled municipality) on 1 July 1967 from provincial city status. Taipei is the economic, political, educational and cultural center of Taiwan and one of the major hubs in East Asia. Considered to be a global city and rated as an Alpha − City by GaWC, Taipei is part of a major high-tech industrial area. Railways, highways, airports and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island. The city is served by two airports – Songshan and Taoyuan. The municipality is home to architectural and cultural landmarks, including Taipei 101 (formerly the tallest building in the world), Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, Hsing Tian Kong, Lungshan Temple of Manka, National Palace Museum, Presidential Office Building, Taipei Guest House and Zhinan Temple. Shopping districts including Ximending as well as several night markets dispersed throughout the city. Natural features include Maokong, Yangmingshan and hot springs. In English-language news reports, the name Taipei often serves as a synecdoche referring to central government of Taiwan. Due to the ambiguous political status of Taiwan internationally, the term Chinese Taipei is also frequently used as a synonym for the entire country, as when Taiwan's governmental representatives participate in international organizations or Taiwan's athletes compete in international sporting events, including the Olympics.

The Sunshine Plaza Outlet (Chinese: 日曜天地OUTLET) is an outlet shopping mall located in Central District, Taichung, Taiwan and officially opened in May 2008. The outlet mall has a floor area of 6,600 m2 (71,000 sq ft), which spans 4 floors, and houses about 150 brands, mainly in high-quality bags, imported brands and American leisure, as well as high-quality restaurants such as Italian restaurants.

Kaohsiung Main Station (Chinese: 高雄車站; pinyin: Gāoxióng chēzhàn) is a railway and metro station in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan served by the Taiwan Railways and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit. It is one of four special class stations, the highest class with the most services. It is currently undergoing reconstruction, scheduled to be complete in 2024.

Formosa Boulevard (Chinese: 美麗島站; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bí-lē-tó-chām) is a station of Kaohsiung Metro located in Sinsing District, Kaohsiung. It is currently the sole interchange station between metro lines in Kaohsiung.Formosa Boulevard station is named after the Formosa Boulevard project, a remodelling of Kaohsiung's Jhongshan Road in preparation for the 2009 World Games. Formosa Boulevard is in turn named after the Formosa Incident. Transferring from the Red line to the Orange line (or vice versa) takes roughly 4 minutes.

Dream Mall (Chinese: 夢時代購物中心; pinyin: Mèngshídài Gòuwù Zhòngxīn), located in Cianjhen District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is the largest shopping mall in Taiwan and the 15th largest in East Asia (formerly the largest). It is built and operated by Tungcheng Development Corporation (Chinese: 統正開發股份有限公司), a subsidiary of Uni-President Enterprises Corporation, Taiwan's largest food conglomerate that also runs subsidiaries in many other industries. It was designed by international architecture firm RTKL, based in Baltimore, Maryland and opened on 12 May 2007, and contains restaurants, movie theater, gym, and entertainment facilities including a rooftop amusement park.

Kaohsiung Main Station (Chinese: 高雄車站; pinyin: Gāoxióng chēzhàn) is a railway and metro station in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan served by the Taiwan Railways and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit. It is one of four special class stations, the highest class with the most services. It is currently undergoing reconstruction, scheduled to be complete in 2024.

Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about 25 km (16 mi) southwest of the northern port city of Keelung. Most of the city rests on the Taipei Basin, an ancient lakebed. The basin is bounded by the relatively narrow valleys of the Keelung and Xindian rivers, which join to form the Tamsui River along the city's western border.The municipality of Taipei is home to an estimated population of 2,494,813 (March 2023), forming the core part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, also known as "Greater Taipei", which includes the nearby cities of New Taipei and Keelung with a population of 7,047,559, the 40th most-populous urban area in the world—roughly one-third of Taiwanese citizens live in the metro areas. The name "Taipei" can refer either to the whole metropolitan area or just the municipality alone. Taipei has been the political center of the island since 1887, when it first became the seat of Taiwan Province by the Qing dynasty until 1895 and again from 1945 to 1956 by the ROC government, with an interregnum from 1895 to 1945 as the seat of the Government-General of Taiwan during the Japanese rule. The city has been the national seat of the ROC central government since 1949, it became the nation's special municipality (then known as Yuan-controlled municipality) on 1 July 1967 from provincial city status. Taipei is the economic, political, educational and cultural center of Taiwan and one of the major hubs in East Asia. Considered to be a global city and rated as an Alpha − City by GaWC, Taipei is part of a major high-tech industrial area. Railways, highways, airports and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island. The city is served by two airports – Songshan and Taoyuan. The municipality is home to architectural and cultural landmarks, including Taipei 101 (formerly the tallest building in the world), Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, Hsing Tian Kong, Lungshan Temple of Manka, National Palace Museum, Presidential Office Building, Taipei Guest House and Zhinan Temple. Shopping districts including Ximending as well as several night markets dispersed throughout the city. Natural features include Maokong, Yangmingshan and hot springs. In English-language news reports, the name Taipei often serves as a synecdoche referring to central government of Taiwan. Due to the ambiguous political status of Taiwan internationally, the term Chinese Taipei is also frequently used as a synonym for the entire country, as when Taiwan's governmental representatives participate in international organizations or Taiwan's athletes compete in international sporting events, including the Olympics.

The National Palace Museum in Taipei (and Taibao), Taiwan, has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks, making it one of the largest of its type in the world. The collection encompasses 8,000 years of history of Chinese art from the Neolithic age to the modern. Most of the collection are high quality pieces collected by China's emperors. The National Palace Museum shares its roots with the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City, whose extensive collection of artwork and artifacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The National Palace Museum was originally established as the Palace Museum in Jingzhao Difang's Forbidden City on 10 October 1925, shortly after the expulsion of Puyi, the last emperor of China, from the Forbidden City by warlord Feng Yü-hsiang. The articles in the museum consisted of the valuables of the former Imperial family. In 1931, shortly after the Mukden Incident Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government ordered the museum to make preparations to evacuate its most valuable pieces out of the city to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army. As a result, from 6 February to 15 May 1933, the Palace Museum's 13,491 crates and 6,066 crates of objects from the Exhibition Office of Ancient Artifacts, the Summer Palace and the Imperial Hanlin Academy were moved in five groups to Shanghai. In 1936, the collection was moved to Nanking after the construction of the storage in the Taoist monastery Chaotian Palace was complete. As the Imperial Japanese Army advanced farther inland during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which merged into the greater conflict of World War II, the collection was moved westward via three routes to several places including Anshun and Leshan until the surrender of Japan in 1945. In 1947, it was shipped back to the Nanjing warehouse. The Chinese Civil War resumed following the surrender of the Japanese, ultimately resulting in Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's decision to evacuate the arts to Taiwan, which had been handed over to the ROC in 1945. When the fighting worsened in 1948 between the Communist and Nationalist armies, the National Beijing Palace Museum and other five institutions made the decision to send some of the most prized items to Taiwan. Hang Li-wu, later director of the museum, supervised the transport of some of the collection in three groups from Nanking to the harbor in Keelung, Taiwan between December 1948 and February 1949. By the time the items arrived in Taiwan, the Communist army had already seized control of the National Beiping Palace Museum collection so not all of the collection could be sent to Taiwan. A total of 2,972 crates of artifacts from the Forbidden City moved to Taiwan only accounted for 22% of the crates originally transported south, although the pieces represented some of the very best of the collection. The museum houses several treasured items that are the pride of their collection and famous worldwide. The antiquities in the National Palace Museum span over thousands of years with a variety of genres.

Taoyuan International Airport (IATA: TPE, ICAO: RCTP) is an international airport serving Taipei and northern Taiwan. Located about 40 km (25 mi) west of Taipei in Dayuan District, Taoyuan, the airport is Taiwan's largest. It was also the busiest airport in Taiwan before the COVID-19 pandemic which began in 2020. It is operated by the Taoyuan International Airport Corporation. In 2016, it was ranked the best airport for its size in the Asia-Pacific region by Airports Council International.The airport opened for commercial operations in 1979 as Chiang Kai-shek International Airport and was renamed in 2006. It is an important regional trans-shipment center, passenger hub, and gateway for destinations in Asia, and is one of two international airports that serve Taipei. The other, Taipei Songshan Airport, is located within city limits and served as Taipei's only international airport until 1979. Songshan now mainly serves chartered flights, intra-island flights, and limited international flights. In 2018, Taoyuan International Airport handled a record 46.5 million passengers and 2.3 billion kg of freight, making it the 11th busiest airport worldwide by international passenger traffic, and 8th busiest in terms of international freight traffic in 2018. It is the main international hub for China Airlines, EVA Air and Starlux Airlines. It is also a hub of Mandarin Airlines, Uni Air and Tigerair Taiwan.