2011 Taiwan Trip: Presidential Building (總統府) and Tamsui (淡水)

During our Taiwan trip in 2011, on April 2, 2011, we explored a bit more of Taipei after getting out of the Taipei area for the previous 2 days to visit Taichung and Kaohsiung.

We were lucky that our trip coincided with the official open house of the Presidential Office Building of the Republic of China (Taiwan) that only happens once per month and on that month it happened to fall on April 2 so the first thing we did that day was visit the Presidential Office Building.

The Presidential Office Building from a distance.

2011 Taiwan Trip: Taipei - Presidents and Towers

March 29, 2011 was the second full day of our week long trip to Taiwan. It was my first trip to Taiwan and my mom's first trip to Taiwan in 20 years. On this day we mostly spent the time exploring Taipei.

My mom had heard that Taipei had been "completely rebuilt" after the devastating 1999 earthquake and wanted to see how "modern" Taipei had become since the last time she had visited ages ago.

The symbol of Taipei, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

2011 Taiwan Trip: Flight from Tokyo Haneda to Taipei

On March 28, 2011, as a continuation of the almost one month long trip that I took with my mom when she visited me in Japan while I was studying there, we flew to Taiwan for a 1 week trip.

I booked the hotel and flight package from Rakuten Travel and it was surprisingly cheap. The 7 nights, 8 days package including the airfare cost 140,000 yen (US$1400) for 2 people. That is like 70,000 yen (US$700) per person for 7 nights in a hotel and the airfare!

The airline in the package was All Nippon Airways and the flight was from Tokyo Haneda airport to Taipei Songshan instead of the much farther Tokyo Narita airport. Because international flights from Tokyo Haneda airport are usually targeted to business travellers, the flight tickets are usually much more expensive, thereby making this hotel and flight package even more of a deal!

Historically, Tokyo Haneda airport was designated for domestic flights while Tokyo Narita airport was designated for international flights. At the time, they changed the laws to allow for short distance international flights to Asia at Tokyo Haneda airport so an international terminal was newly built.

The brand new international terminal at Tokyo Haneda airport.