After reaching Taipei Main Station, look out for the station map and look for Exit Z3 (
站前地下街Z3出入口) which brings you to West Station A of Taipei Main Station (台北西站A棟). Purchase bus tickets (Adult: TWD96, Child: TWD48) for bus 1815 from the Kuo-Kuang counter. The bus will stop at 40 bus stops along the way and the journey is about 1 hour and 30 minutes. It is good to wake up early to catch the bus and then take a nap in the bus. Alight at
We were very lucky to witness a bridal car arrived with fire crackers. My wife said that the bride was very beautiful but I didn't get a good photo of the couple.
These are the tickets.
It was a sunny, windy morning. We entered the park at 11am and there was already a big crowd of tourists.
There was a queue of about 15 people waiting to take photo with the Queen's Head (女王頭). It was smaller than what we imagined. We chose to walk around the Queen's Head and took a photo from the other angle.
There is a small shop selling coffee, tea egg(茶葉蛋). We went to the washroom next to it and ate the delicious tea egg. It was reasonably priced at about TWD10 per egg. After the break, we walked along the staircase and noted a unnamed interesting looking rock. We had great fun there using our imagination on funny looking rock formations. For instance, we imagined the following rock as a monster face :-).
After visiting the park, we had lunch along the shops near the exit. Most of the shops were selling cuttlefish, preserved sea food and prawn crackers. We managed to find one shop selling simple lunch. We ordered my sons' favorite braised meat rice (滷肉飯), which is a bowl of white rice with braised meat topping. Each bowl cost TWD40. We also ordered fried mee hoon, various soups and the total cost is TWD320 for 2 adults and 3 children.
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| Braised Meat Rice (滷肉飯) |
After lunch, we waited for
Crown Northern Coastline （皇冠北海岸線）. There seems to be no signboard showing that it is a bus stop for Crown Northern Coastline bus. Since we were going towards Tamsui (淡水), we waited near the big carpark, opposite the 7-Eleven shop. If you want to go to Keelung(基隆), then you should wait just outside the 7-Eleven shop.
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| Children are ready with tools to kill time |
The bus ticket cost TWD90 for an adult and TWD48 for a child. The funny thing was that I asked the bus driver how much does it cost for 2 adults and 3 children and the driver kept silent for a long time. After that I asked him what is the cost for adult and child and then he told me the cost. I realized that he is not good at summing the 3x48 and that caused him to "hang" for a long time :-).
The ride was 1 hour and 30 minutes although the driver told us 2 hours. I think he drove quite fast an there were only 7 passengers in total. Most of the journey is along the north coast and very scenic. It detour to
Juming Museum (朱銘美術館), and that is a narrow hilly road which I think took at least 20 minutes in total. If you hire a private car, you should be able to get to Tamsui in about 50 minutes.
Tamsui (淡水)
We reached Tamsui about 3.10pm and walked along the river side. There are many food stalls selling snacks.
We were lucky to see a nice sunset.
After the sunset, we explore Tamsui Old Street(淡水老街). We found this shop selling fish ball and wanton(雲吞) soup (
可口魚丸)。
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| Nice fish ball and wanton |
The Tamsui Old Street is very lively at night. It is very easy to spot the popular shops by checking the queue length. There was a shop selling freshly toast bread with cheese (源味本鋪古早味現烤蛋糕淡水二店). We would have bought some if not for the long queue.
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| Enjoy the cool Tamsui Old Street |
The sky turn dark about 5pm and we left Tamsui via the Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Line 2, 淡水信義線). We paid TWD70 per person for the train ride to Ximen.
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| Finally letting our legs to rest after a long walk |
Overall, I find people in Taipei very friendly and graceful. Our children were given seats many times in the train journey. We also took to the chance to return favor by giving up a seat to a young girl.
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| How nice to have 4! |
It was a great day and we rest early that night. As usual, the children was eager to return to Minsu to watch the cartoon (我們這一家) in Taiwanese language (台語).
Total Daily Cost
This is the total cost for the day, for 2 adults and 3 children.
| No |
Item |
Cost (TWD) |
| 1 |
Breakfast |
295 |
| 2 |
7-eleven: 2x heat
pack |
28 |
| 3 |
4x Taipei Metro from
Ximen to Taipei Main Station |
80 |
| 4 |
Bus
1815 tickets
Adult: 98; Child: 48 |
336 |
| 5 |
7-Eleven: 10x heat
pack |
140 |
| 6 |
7-Eleven: coffee and
drinks |
177 |
| 7 |
Yehliu
GeoPark entry tickets
Adults: 80; Child: 40 |
280 |
| 8 |
Yehliu GeoPark: 5x
tea egg |
50 |
| 9 |
Lunch at Yehliu (野柳特産街) |
320 |
| 10 |
Cuttle Fish (魷魚) |
300 |
| 11 |
Crown
Northern Coastline bus
Adult: 90; Child:48 |
324 |
| 12 |
Sushi at Tamsui
Station (TWD10-20 per piece) |
70 |
| 13 |
2x
Barbeque Bird Egg Stick (烤鵪鶉蛋)
4 eggs per stick |
40 |
| 14 |
Chicken Chop (豪大大雞排) |
99 |
| 15 |
3x
Ice Cream |
60 |
| 16 |
One box of Ah Po Iron
Egg (阿婆鐵蛋) |
100 |
| 17 |
4x Fish ball and
wanton soup (可口魚丸) |
120 |
| 18 |
3x Amazing Helicopter
(children toy) |
200 |
| 19 |
4x Taipei Metro from
Tamsui to Ximen |
280 |
| 20 |
Metal Wire Keychain
(handicraft from Ximending stall) |
190 |
| 21 |
Lodging cost |
2500 |
|
|
5989 |
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