March 20 (Day 3)

Jennifer Lee, Isa Eribo, Milana Biswas, and Morgan Richards

We had a busy but exciting third day in Taiwan! 

CTI Television 

After eating a delicious breakfast, we boarded our tour bus and went to the Chung T’ien Television headquarters where we got to learn the ins-and-outs of how news is recorded and edited as well as getting a behind-the-scenes look at their marketing, advertising, and broadcasting strategies. We even got the special opportunity to be featured in one of their live streams where our friends and family tuned in from home, leaving fun comments and interacting with us from the other side of the world!

National Palace Museum

We then visited the National Palace Museum, a place filled with beautiful artifacts that made us “ooh” and “ahh” at every turn! Exploring the museum, we got to see national treasures such as the famous jade lettuce sculpture, the meat-shaped stone, carved in the shape of a juicy piece of pork belly, and a statue of Buddha that was easily at least twelve feet tall (two Mr. Farrenkopfs).

Taipei 101

Once we left the museum, we headed towards the Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by a huge shopping center with many stores we wish we had more time to check out. Tragically, we had to walk past them towards our true destination: the top of the tower. We got in elevators designed to quickly take us to the top and were surprised to find that, as soon as the doors closed, the ceiling lit up with animated scenes of constellations! When the doors opened again, we were met with a view of the whole city, flowery decorations which provided us with great photo opportunities, and a gift shop with many different souvenirs, allowing us to bring a part of the experience home with us.

Din Tai Fung

Our last stop of the day was a restaurant called Din Tai Fung, which is famous for its delicious xiao long bao (soup dumplings). We got to try a wide variety of traditional appetizers and dumplings with various different fillings from pork to red bean. Even after eating far more than we should have, we managed to take fun photos and shared many good laughs.

Although we were secretly hoping for another round of dumplings, we had to leave far too soon to head back to the hotel for the night. While we were always on the move, we returned to our hotel rooms feeling fulfilled, treasuring the memories we made today and excited for the prospect of making more tomorrow.