Beitou

First full day in Taipei and we’re off after breakfast to Yangmingshan. Great aunt Yumei came by the hotel with some lantern fruit to share (mirabelles), as well as two other indigenous Taiwanese fruit that Uncle Gu had earmarked for us the night before: pipa枇杷 and xiantao仙桃. Love the diversity of local fruit in these tropical climates - and most of the best ones don’t tend to be exported, certainly not to Europe.

At Yangmingshan, we did an easy walking trail together - Great aunt is over 80 years old after all. The Erziping Trail itself is supposed to be the only part of the mountain altered by people - the rest has been left natural to the greatest possible extent. Especially after having toured a bit around places like India and Bali, the lack of litter around Taipei is really refreshing. It seems to reflect the community’s respect for each other and for their shared environment - who would want to be the first to spoil such a pristine landscape?

It was wonderful to get away from the city. We could easily understand why people would come out to Erziping to enjoy an afternoon with friends. And Great aunt Yumei is a super trooper, as we ended up doing over 10,000 steps per day every day that we were touring with her in Taipei. If we can all, at 80, still physically do that 4 days running, we should count ourselves so lucky. (Oh, and even when encouraging the kids to walk 10,000 steps a day, Mommy is still in the wrong as that is apparently too many steps - damages the joints - 6,000 to 7,000 is the optimal target... It really is impossible to please Chinese elders.)Read more