Yongkang Street Outing 永康街

Other than night markets, Yongkang Street is also pretty famous and busy. It is located in Da’an District, Taipei City.

Yongkang Street is accessible by MRT Dongmen Station 東門站 Yongkang Street Exit
and bus station Xinyi Yongkang Intersection 信義永康街口。It branches off Xinyi Rd. 信義路。
Around MRT Dongmen Station Yongkang Street Exit lies YouBike stations.

This street has many eateries that are worth taking a look at. Nearby is the original Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐, one of the New York Times top ten restaurants of the world! Din Tai Fung specializes in xiaolongbao 小籠包, or tiny, bite-sized steamed buns. 



**Today Din Tai Fung has spread internationally, to Australia, Asia, and America. It all started in this one store near Yongkang Street.**

A renowned Taiwanese beef noodles 牛肉麵 restaurant is located on the closeby Jinshan S. Road 金山南路. It goes by Yongkang Beef Noodles 永康牛肉麵. Yongkang Beef Noodles has been open for over forty years, believe it or not. 

**Beef noodles is a traditional Taiwanese dish.**

Then on a hot day, people can eat snowflake ice at Smoothie 思慕惜, on Yongkang Street itself. Especially during summer, the waiting lines can really lengthen out, but the store's mango snowflake ice tastes extremely well and is definitely worth the wait. 

If you are a bold and daring eater, you can also eat rice cake 米血糕, which is pig blood (that cleans your lungs) deliciously mixed with rice. I personally love it with peanut powder and sweet sauce. A store selling rice cake is located on Yongkang Street, too, but it is kind of hidden from the main stores on the street. Another traditional Taiwanese dish is braised pork rice, or 魯肉飯 (loh bah bng). Faintly, I remember a store selling this was located near Yongkang Street.

Yongkang Street doesn't only have Asian food, but it has other styles of food, like European cuisine. Some people enjoy the numerous European style food cafés nearby.

Now many more cafés near and on Yongkang Street exist, of course. But these few stick out in my head.

-----------------------------
-Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐
No. 194, Section 2, Xinyi Road, Da-an District, Taipei City 台北市大安區信義路二段194號
-Yongkang Beef Noodles 永康牛肉麵
No. 17, Lane 31, Section 2, Jinshan Road, Da-an District, Taipei City 台北市大安區金山路二段31巷17號
-Smoothie 思慕惜
No. 15, Yongkang St., Da-an District, Taipei City 台北市大安區永康街15號

Here come the mosquitoes!

Mosquitoes (蚊子wen zi) in Taiwan target foreigners, so prepare yourself!

In the case that you do get stung by Taiwanese mosquitoes, find a pharmacy (藥局yao ju) soon. The bites are irritatingly itchy and may drive you crazy!

Ask the pharmacists for mosquito medicine like this:

請       問  您   有     蚊      蟲     藥 嗎？

Qing wen nin you  wen chong yao ma?

Hopefully, you will NOT get stung! 

A Smiling Bike? 微笑單車

Besides the MRT, you can bike to places as another form of transportation (others include buses and taxis).

With a rental rate of only 10NTD for 30 minutes, there's no wonder why UBike (YouBike) has become popular. This simple bike system adds to the convenience of travel in Taipei City. 

If you see a bike with a yellow thingy on the back wheel (with a smile or a commercial), your looking at a UBike bike. 

To rent one, you must register your EasyCard at a station's kiosk with a  phone (for an authorization code). 

Then you go to a bike dock and put your EasyCard over the sensor, thus loosening the bike dock. 

After... bike for as long as you want. Don't forget that 10NTD/ 30min. will be deducted from your EasyCard.

Later, when your done with the bike, rack it into any station. And swipe your EasyCard. You're done! 

If you can't find a YouBike station nearby to rack or retrieve a bike from, download this app:

臺北好行 or Fun Travel in Taipei

Hope you enjoy biking with UBike!!

Typhoon!! 颱風蘇力

Omg!!! A typhoon (Soulik) prepares to hit Taiwan!

A typhoon is kinda like a hurricane. Well... work and classes have stopped in the Taipei area. So we can all look forward to strong winds and heavy rain! Yay! Jk. 

Look at this MRT station! Wa sai! 

One time while walking with 4 umbrellas in a typhoon, all of them flipped upside down! 

Last Message: 

BRACE YOURSELVES!!! Jk.

---------------
Aftermath:

Many more trees followed suit.












So, typhoons are something to prepare and be alert for.
Please do not rely on convenience store umbrellas in a huge storm like Soulik (several flipped upside down in a previous typhoon- Not fun!).

Take MRT 啦!

To get to places I take the MRT/ subway (捷運 jie yun). It's sooo convenient.

Yet it's crowded!!!

So when one train comes, a big crowd comes out and transfers to the other one , and it becomes smaller. Then another train arrives. And it repeats and repeats... train after train...

        To take the MRT, you simply buy a token from the token station or you can use an EasyCard (yo yo card) 悠遊卡, and put either on the card sensor. The "door" will open. 

        I recommend the EasyCard, because you can use it for the bus, MRT, convenience stores like 7-11, and much more! You can buy one of these at many convenience stores for 200NTD—100deposit, 100usable (esp. 7-11 for their card designs). 

  The green card is a student card, while the multicolored card is the regular one.

        Next you simply just go the side of the platform that your destination is and slide your card or push in your token at the exits. Careful not to fall into the train tracks (most stations don't have platform screen doors)! Refer to this map:

http://web.trtc.com.tw/img/all/routemapDanfengbig.jpg