Places to visit in Taipei: Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園)

Yangmingshan National Park is a nice place to visit if you are in Taipei and like nature. The mountain views provide a nice contrast if you've been in Taipei for a while and are sick of the cityscape. One of the things Yangmingshan is famous for are the calla lilies that grow particularly well in the mountain climate. Last time my family and I visited, we brought back a bouquet of calla lilies.

Unfortunately, the area in the mountains that is famous for calla lilies is quite commercialized in that there are a bunch of restaurants in the area. That's nice if you are hungry, but they kind of block the view of the lily fields from the road. So if you go by car, I would suggest parking on the side of the road and walking around on foot so that you can go look at some of the fields. Overall, 30-45 minutes is enough to see everything in the lily fields area, so I would suggest this as a stop on your visit to Yangmingshan, but don't plan on spending too much time there. The lily vendors do sell lots of other plants as well, some of which were quite exotic, at least for me.

Here's the Taipei city government website with information about the calla lilies of Yangmingshan. The page is about the flower festival, but the directions remain the same for non-festival times. The calla lily season is from January-May, but they do grow other flowers during other times of the year.

Here's a google map for a coffee shop the Zhuzihu area, which is where the calla lilies are grown:

Snack food: Curry Cake from Lenjen Bakery (連珍糕餅店) in Keelung

I used to hate traditional Chinese cakes when I was a child because we never got them from good bakeries. Nowadays, most bakeries make them a lot less sweet then they used to be. Also, we know the good bakeries now, and I am beginning to love eating traditional cakes for breakfast or as a snack. They are bite sized and conveniently packaged for eating on-the-go, but beware of the calories. The crumbs can also get pretty messy. The cake I ate recently was curry flavored and was a sweet and savory type of cake. There are also other flavors such as red bean that are purely sweet.

The bakery we went to is called Lenjen Bakery (連珍糕餅店), and it is a well-known traditional bakery in downtown Keelung. Don't expect to find bread there since it's a traditional bakery. They also sell a taro pudding (the name roughly translates as "snow dew") and a savory vegetarian mushroom cake that I really like. If your Chinese reading ability is good, you can go to their website and order online for delivery to your house. They do get quite busy around Chinese New Year's and won't accept online orders during that time.

Here is a google map of Lenjen Bakery:

Places to visit in Hsinchu: Hsinchu city government building

The Hsinchu city government building is another example of Baroque style architecture from back when Taiwan was under Japanese control. It is a nice place to stop by if you ever visit Hsinchu. It is in the downtown area and is nearby lots of shopping/eating areas. The inside of the building is pretty much just offices for city officials though, so there is no point in going in.

Here's the location via google maps:

Places to eat in Hsinchu: SUPIN Aisukurimu (Ice Cream)

If you ever visit Hsinchu, there is an ice cream place called SUPIN Aisukurimu that is pretty good. It is nearby the Global Mall. They make their ice cream in the mornings and don't open until 12:30. Their ice cream tastes good yet is not overly sweet. They have several flavors including milk, chocolate, mocha, egg, tofu, tiramisu, and strawberry milk. I've tried all the flavors and would recommend tofu the most since it tastes good and is an uncommon flavor. However, they do sell out of that flavor quite often.

Here is the google map for SUPIN Aisukurimu:

Places to visit in Taipei: the Control Yuan (監察院)

The Control Yuan is one of the branches of the Taiwanese government. It's duty is to audit the other branches of government to make sure that there is no corruption. The building that houses the Control Yuan was built back when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. It is the most intact example of baroque style architecture in Taiwan. 
 
The Control Yuan is in downtown Taipei, so it is really easy to stop by (3-5 min walking from the Taipei train station), and there are lots of other places to go to within walking distance. To get a tour of the building, you can either make a reservation through their website or go on Fridays (9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm) when it is open to the public without advanced reservations. I can't find an English version of their reservation page, so I would suggest going on Fridays if you have problems navigating the page. They do seem to have English tours available if you go the reservation route. Note that if you go on Fridays, you still need to bring a passport or resident I.D. card. Since the building is not that big, I'd even recommend just walking around on the street and looking at it from the outside without going through the trouble of getting a tour unless you really want to. There's also a convenient pedestrian overpass across the street where you can get a nice view of the entire building.

 Here's a link to Google maps for the Control Yuan: