Towers, birds and fortune telling in Taipei
Having your fortune told by a sparrow is the thing to do in Taiwan’s capital
And the third forecasts I’m going to have good luck moving forward.
Elated with the outcome, I gladly pay Miss Chen 1,200 Taiwanese dollars (the equivalent of about $60) and we depart to experience Taipei’s other delights.
We eat our way through the city from street food (think stinky tofu and devil chicken) at the famous Shilin Night Market and casual dumplings at Din Tai Fong to gourmet Cantonese at hotel restaurants Shang Palace at the Shangri-La and Ya Ge at the Mandarin Oriental.
And, of course, we have to zoom up to the 89th floor observatory at the 101-storey bamboo-shaped Taipei 101 tower, formerly the tallest building in the world, for stunning views of the sprawling metropolis, Keelung River and leafy Elephant Mountain.
We also have spectacular views of Taipei 101 when we splash in the 43rd floor rooftop pool of the Shangri-La, from our well-appointed multi-windowed room on the 35th floor and while we eat in the Horizon Club restaurant on the 36th floor. In fact, Taipei 101 so dominates the skyline, it’s always visible, whether we're shopping in Dihua, strolling Daan Park or checking out the Chang Kai-Shek and Sun Yai-Sen memorial halls.
This spring, Air Canada launched daily non-stop flights between Vancouver and Taipei on its new Dreamliner 787-9, so the buzzy Asian capital is only an 11 hour flight away. Check out Shangri-La.com and AirCanada.com.