Touring Beitou Hot Springs and Taipei--July 29, 2014

I am really loving this metro because it is so easy to get around and on some routes, you are suddenly in the mountains or beautiful river valleys. This morning I headed to the Xinbeitou metro station to visit the Beitou Hot Springs area.

Today I took a walk through Beitou Park where the hot springs river runs that feeds the various hotels that offer hot springs spas. My first stop was at the Beitou Hot Springs Museum that used to be a hot spring. Here are some pictures of the museum including the tiled baths.

The next stop was the Plum Garden that was adjacent to the public hot springs. Unfortunately, I did not bring my bathing suit so I decided to return the following day to partake in the "waters".

I continued up the wooden walkway that ran along the steaming river and found a spot where others were enjoying the free hot springs waters and I decided to join in to at least soak my feet. I think the water here was between 90 and 100 degrees with a slight sulfur smell.

After that refreshing soak, I continued up to where the steaming lake in the Geothermal Valley Scenic Park was lined with fencing to keep people from dipping into this water because it was well over 120 degrees. You can even see the steam rising behind me.

After that, it was a relaxing journey back on the metro to the Taipei 101 station stop where I would take the fastest elevator in the world to the third-highest building in the world to the 89th-floor observation room. From there the views were spectacular.

Five floors of escalator views of the inside of Taipei 101.

The gold building to the very lower left is the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Building. He was the leader of China who led to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and also rebuffed the Japanese. A medical doctor by profession, he traveled the world raising funds for their revolt.

This is a view to the east and you can see the shadow of the Taipei 101 building below. This shows how mountainous the area all around Taipei is where you find clusters of buildings amid the greenery.

This is a view south and you can barely see the water far off on the horizon.

Here is a view of the top of the building from the 91st-floor observation deck. Just inside they have this big golden globe connected to huge hydraulic shock absorbers called a damper. They have a video that shows when they had a big typhoon---150 km/hr of wind--how this damper system absorbed the wind pressures against the building.

Here is a night light scene just behind my hotel. Lots of advertising lights fill the streets.