29 April 2023
A city named after the airport
Taking the train to Taoyuan for dinner
Tonight I took a TRA train to Taoyuan, most known for being the city where Taipei airport is. I had never been there before. It is a city of about a million people, enough for there to be a few department stores, plenty of colourful streets and the usual brightly coloured temples. In Taiwan it can be difficult to know where one city starts and another ends, and even Taoyuan is not actually currently connected to the Taoyuan MRT (subway) line, but the neighbouring city of Zhongli which is part of Taoyuan province but not Taoyuan city, does. Taoyuan city which is also in Taoyuan province does however connect to the TRA inter city train, which is better than the MRT, so that is what I took. It takes about 40 minutes on the stopping all stations local train.
Once you arrive, it is clear it is a city of one half, as there is no way out the back side of the station. Also, the station is being reconstructed with what looks like a 40 level space age all white curvy concrete mega mall. Work does not appear to have actually started, so it remains to be seen if this progresses beyond the cool looking drawing phase.
The underwhelming current Taoyuan MRT station.
Out the front it is chaotic. There is no bridge across the road, there perhaps once was as there seems to be a detour in place that might remain the detour forever.
I thought about getting my nails done.
That is one of 3 shopping malls near the station, I have taken photos of 2 of the 3. Standby for the other one a few pics down.
At the end of the main street is the main temple. Getting to it is difficult, as it is an island with a road around it. There are pedestrian crossings, the main purpose of which in Taiwan is to inform the drivers of the hearse where to pick up dead pedestrians.
Earlier today at the end of my hike I took a photo of the incense burner. Here is another. Smoke is everywhere in Taiwan. A lot of shops burn paper offerings all day long in little burners, just to make sure the air never clears.
Now for some random street scenes. This one is a bit before dusk. It has not rained at all today, but got very grey this afternoon. This made it a lot cooler which was good.
I descended into the mall basement for my dinner.
Since it is a Japanese department store basement, I decided to have Japanese curry... well that is what the picture showed, what I actually got was a bit different. Complete with very burnt french fries x 3 and a tiny sausage. Also 'beef'. I should have gone to Coco, I passed one, they have them in Taiwan, just as they have most Japanese chain food places (mister donut, Mos Burger just to name a couple more).
Now for some night time shots. Here's some night.
A bit more night at a busy intersection. There is no pedestrian street I could find, and no actual night market, I think the night market is over in the next city of Zhongli, but I could be wrong. There will be visits to the various famous night markets of Taiwan on other nights.
I like to hang out with the scooters.
Here is the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, who's basement I ate omurice curry 'beef' in earlier. It is located directly opposite the station and seems quite new.
The inside of the soon to be replaced (maybe???) Taoyuan TRA station. The toilets seemed very new. I report on toilets before the questions come.
And finally, lets all wait for the train! They come about every 10 minutes and go all the way down the west coast of the country on two different lines abour 20km apart, the mountain and coast lines. These are separate from the High speed line, which stops at only a few places, generally outside of city centres. There is also an east coast line, which I rode on last time I was here, and will do a bit of again next week. The trains on the east coast are more like once an hour though. Tonight was very informative if you like trains.