Taipei (our two houses)

Taipei is a very big city and the capital of Taiwan.  It has very good meat sticks, desserts and fruit.  It has lots of wonderful parks and the craziest cafes.

So when we got to Taipei, we went straight to a night market.  A night market is normally a long road with stands in a big line, kind of like a farmers market, except it has the craziest foods and you can only see it at night.  So when we got there we started going around to different stands, trying meat sticks, pancakes and fruit.  Some people there were cooking stinky tofu.  It was very stinky so we never tried it.  We kind of had to try not to smell it.  The only problem was it was everywhere.  Other people were cooking meat by putting it on a grill and cooking it with a hose type thing that sprayed out fire.  It was fun to go the night market because you could be like "Ooh what's that?" "I don't know, let's try it!"

The next day we walked down to the Peace Park, but it was pouring so we just drew pictures under a gazebo.  I wish we could have explored the park more because it was so beautiful.

The next day we went to the viewing deck of one of the tallest buildings, Taipei 101.  This building was so tall, 101 floors!  It stood out from the rest of the buildings by a lot.

The next day we went to the night market again and this time we got a weird peach shave ice that was not my favorite.  It was super sweet.  Then we played a pachinko type game, where you put in one Taiwan dollar (3 cents) and you try to shoot a ball into a slot.  Then you get tickets to pick out toys.

In our next house we stayed at, we went to a cool modern art museum with some very interesting things.  (I will show you pictures.)

We also climbed a mountain called Elephant Mountain.  The steps were so steep but the view at the top was so good!

Then we went to a park called Daan Forest Park (you say it like Da-an).  They had some cool machines where you bike and it pumps water into a river.  We also saw a cool bird that walked right by us!

We went to Taipei Zoo.  There was a hippo that was scared to go in the water and monkeys that were SOOOO cute!  That same day we went on a gondola.  We got one with a glass bottom!  It was fun because we looked down and saw a bald eagle!

I think Taipei would be a great place to live because there are so many things to do like going to cafes.  Taipei is different from Seattle because in Taipei they have night markets and we don't in Seattle.

                                                         Night market

                                              peace park

                                      taipei 101

                                             the modern art museum

                                                elephant mountain

                                                  daan park

                                                           zoo and gondola

Shanghai Disneyland Resort

We went to Disneyland in Shanghai and basically stayed there the whole day. When we got there, we went straight to Tron Light Cycles, a ride where you lay down on a motorcycle and you go on a roller coaster. This ride was a little scary for me because it was fast and it made me feel sick. Then we went on Woody’s Roundup and Slinky Dog Spin, in Toy Story Land, which were kind of boring because they were kiddie rides.

After that we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and that was awesome. On this ride we went on a boat ride that made you feel like you were under water. You went through scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I liked it because the scenes were really cool.

Then we went on a ride called Soaring, which is where you sit on a big bouncy seat and you get lifted off the ground.  You let your feet dangle over a screen that shows famous places around the world. It was fun because it made me feel like I was really soaring. After that we did Roaring Rapids, where you raft around and go down little drops. I loved this ride because you sometimes got splashed. 

Then we did something that was not a ride called Challenge Trails where you get strapped int a harness and you climb mountains and stuff.  We got to do this two times. I liked doing it a lot because it made me feel like I was exploring.

Later we went on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride, which was my favorite. This was a roller coaster so I was surprised I liked it. I liked it because it did drops but it didn’t go too fast :D!

The last ride we did was the subway back home.

Disneyland was so fun that I did not want to leave! All the rides (except Tron Light Cycle) were so fun!

What the tron light cycles looked like

Roaring rapids

Disney castle

Tomorrow land (part of Disneyland)

Pirates of the Caribbean ride

WANTED Jack Sparrow

Challenge trails

Bucket o solders

Shanghai

We arrived at our next place in China, Shanghai.  Shanghai is very big and has some very cool looking buildings and lots of museums and parks.  We lived in an apartment that was very hard to get to.  First you have to go down a little alley, then enter a gate.  After that, you go through a door that leads to someone's kitchen.  Then there was a door that led to our apartment.  Our apartment was nice.  It had a lot of fake books everywhere.  Also, it was close to subway station.

We went to some museum and parks:

1. The Shanghai museum -  It was free (😀) and it was huge.  It mostly had stuff like pottery and jade and paintings from ancient times. I noticed for the pottery it got better and better and more colorful as the art was made closer to the present day.
2. Urban Planning Museum - this museum had a GIANT model of Shanghai.  When I said it was giant I meant SUPER GIANT, about the size of a bedroom!  
3. Jing'an Sculpture Park - this park had some really weird sculptures, like a hot dog man and and animals made out of discarded shared bikes.  It was also very big!  My dads favorite sculpture was a circle of houses stacked up.  
4. Yuyuan Garden - This garden was very pretty, except for the fact that it was a weekend so it was super crowded.  It had lots of ponds and traditional houses.  We did not stay there for long, because it was so packed.
   
   
   
   

   

   The circle of houses

   
   

   

   An animal made from bikes

   
   

   

   The hot dog man

   
   

   

   some buildings at night

   
   

   

   a pond at the crowded park

   
   

   

   the map of shanghai

   
   

   

   some buildings in the day