I want to take my students on some train trips in and about the Taipei area. The destinations need to be within close walking distance of the train stations, as I don’t want a line of 40 kids overunning the sidewalks or walking in the road.
I’m thinking so far of:
*Taipei Fine Arts Museum/the big park across the road/the amusement park behind the park
*CKS or SYS memorials
*Fulong Beach
*Mucha Zoo (but we probably won’t go there as I hate that zoo, and the kids ALWAYS go there)
I hope you fine people can give me some help in finding some cool temples on the train line or the MRT.
Hongshulin MRT. The magrove swamp path starts right there and takes you to Danshui about 3km away. Great trail for spotting crabs, fish, and observign the mangroves (there’s a little museum right at the start to explain how mangroves grow).
228 Park at NTU station. If the kids are old enough they can go to the museum. Or just see the fish, squirrels, etc.
The huge park right by Yung An Market MRT station, where the Taiwan National Library is. Is that 321 Memorial Park? The library is very nice and the park is well, huge. Take paper and crayons, do leaf/bark rubbings, draw pics of what they see in the park…
Jingmei MRT station exit 1 - behind there is a branch of (uh oh forgot the name)… Children’s cultural museum? They have story readings, performances, workshops, exhibitions.
Taipei Water Museum/Water Park is really good. The large water park area is under maintenance until June 1st. If you go to the museum part there is a fountain to play in and a really nice walk up the back to Taipei’s first water reservoir. Change of clothes is a must!
NTU is nice too. They have lots of old buildings, kids can compare the architecture, maybe go back and design their own using draughting equipment, or recycled boxes to build a model school/building.
I’d forgotten about that museum, I meant the 228 memorial museum, but the National Museum is good, too, we saw a great dinosaur exhibit there some time back.
If your kids can spend money, how about paying $100 each to go up the Mitsokoshi tower? There are great pictures there of old Taipei. You could do some photography project or something where they ask their grandparents about their life before, you could make an English-language story book of their stories, get pics of their grandparents, photocopy and bind them and give each student a copy. Just ask qns at level that students can translate to you.
The Science museum is also great for kids but not so close to the MRT station. I think the membership is 100/yr per family, then you can use all the special rooms like the giant lego room. Too bad it is not so easy to get to if you live more south Taipei. And the children’s art museum in Tienmu…
Last time (end of March I think) I passed by it was closed, the area around the ticket booth in the basement looked like a mess. Not sure though if they were just renovating or gave up because of the 101.
Did that today. Didn’t go to the temple, but took the MRT up and checked out Guandu Nature Preserve. Found it somewhat disappointing. It’s a little small, surrounded by urban noise, sights and pollution, but I definitely give them a big for the effort. There’s a trail looping around, with various signs explaining the birds, fish, frogs and other wildlife; several huts and other good viewing spots for birding, with huge, high power binoculars available for free at a few spots; an indoor (ie, air conditioned, thank god) visitor center with some decent educational displays. I suspect they’re making efforts or have already succeeded in protecting environmentally valuable wetlands from becoming condos and parking lots and educating a fair number of people regarding the importance of doing so, which is good. And, it was a pleasant diversion from the daily routine. So, the place is hardly stunning or spectacular, but we enjoyed it.
Then took the MRT 3 more stops to Damshui to try Eddie’s Cantina, the Mexican place that people have raved about on forumosa. Also very glad we tried that, but as with the Nature Preserve they get more credit for effort than results. Extremely nice staff. Decent food, but definitely not outstanding. Admittedly, as a native Californian I’m spoiled and eat loads of great Mexican food back home. Eddies’ chimichanga was too heavy on the rice and beans. The nacho appetizer was ok, but one doesn’t get enough salsa. And they lack good authentic salsa with chunks of tomatoes, onions, cilantro. They also lack good guac and don’t use enough cheese. But, the staff are terrific and by Taiwan standards the food was pretty good and authentic.
Incidentally, we’re looking forward to our next MRT adventure tomorrow or the day after, down to Bitan to go exploring, enjoy good food and of course the Bitan Music Festival, going on this weekend.
My son went on a da hu wai last week to the MRT museum? activity center?, at Beitou. He loved it. Apparently you can put out a fire with fire extinguishers, crawl along the floor as if avoiding smoke, even drive an MRT train (a fake one I think, but still).
I haven’t been there and I can’t find anything on Google. But the boy’s been raving about it ever since. Anyone know any more about it?
Hike up the hill from Yongning MRT to Chengtien Temple. Nice hiking trails to keep the kids off the road and some nice snack shops on top. Great view too. Tell them to bring a camera. It should be about a 1 hour walk up.
[quote=“smithsgj”]My son went on a da hu wai last week to the MRT museum? activity center?, at Beitou. He loved it. Apparently you can put out a fire with fire extinguishers, crawl along the floor as if avoiding smoke, even drive an MRT train (a fake one I think, but still).
I haven’t been there and I can’t find anything on Google. But the boy’s been raving about it ever since. Anyone know any more about it?[/quote]
My son went on the same trip but had a very different reaction. Said it was very boring and all they did was talk. He told me the kids had to sit down for a long time and weren’t allowed to do many hands on activites. Sounds like your kid has a better attitude than mine
[quote=“piwackit”][quote=“smithsgj”]My son went on a da hu wai last week to the MRT museum? activity center?, at Beitou. He loved it. Apparently you can put out a fire with fire extinguishers, crawl along the floor as if avoiding smoke, even drive an MRT train (a fake one I think, but still).
I haven’t been there and I can’t find anything on Google. But the boy’s been raving about it ever since. Anyone know any more about it?[/quote]
My son went on the same trip but had a very different reaction. Said it was very boring and all they did was talk. He told me the kids had to sit down for a long time and weren’t allowed to do many hands on activites. Sounds like your kid has a better attitude than mine [/quote]
Dunno about that. Just a different day I guess. Our son’s not one for sitting down for a long time…
for the effort. There’s a trail looping around, with various signs explaining the birds, fish, frogs and other wildlife; several huts and other good viewing spots for birding, with huge, high power binoculars available for free at a few spots; an indoor (ie, air conditioned, thank god) visitor center with some decent educational displays. I suspect they’re making efforts or have already succeeded in protecting environmentally valuable wetlands from becoming condos and parking lots and educating a fair number of people regarding the importance of doing so, which is good. And, it was a pleasant diversion from the daily routine. So, the place is hardly stunning or spectacular, but we enjoyed it.
