Need info concerning Taiwan trip

P

Pedro

Well-Known Member
Hi everybody!
I'm in desperate need of information concerning my upcoming trip to taiwan this winter.
I'll stray aproximately 3 and a half days there.
During the first half day, I was thinking of visiting Taipei ocean world. It seems to be a nice aquarium, with some potentially rare species... Anybody been there?? How is it really?
During the next two full days, I plan to do Taipei zoo. I've been told it's absolutely huge and two days is a minimum to see everything. I hope to see many rarities there!
The last full day, I was thinking to take the logal fast-speed train and go to Pingtung to see the famous aquarium with the whale sharks... Anybody been there also? Is it worth going???
Any other info or suggestion is definitely welcome of course!
In advance, thanks a lot!!:D
 
Hey how's it going, first I hope you know the basics of Mandrin, but they speak in particular a dilect of Malangi ( strand of Hokkein) the only thing I know distinct about Taipei zoo is the famous Lin wang, old war elephant who died at the grand old ago of 82.
 
if you're only there for three and a half days I don't think you need to worry about trying to learn Malangi ;)
 
Pedro said:
The last full day, I was thinking to take the logal fast-speed train and go to Pingtung to see the famous aquarium with the whale sharks... Anybody been there also? Is it worth going???
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I'm assuming you're talking about the NMMBA ;) I'd say it's definetely worth going, seeing how it's the national aquarium, they definetely have some species there that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Some of the exhibits themselves are really well done- they have a huuuuge "kelp forest" that stands vertical- I tried taking a picture of it standing all the way back and couldn't fit it in! There's also a nice shipwreck area where they show several species- you have stingrays/some sharks, but overall a nice community setup.

The whale sharks were AMAZING to see. The tank they're in is a half-circle, with a huge glass on the flat side, so they'll swim right by you, and you can really get a good idea of their size (though they've probably gotten much bigger since I've left!). Otherwise, the aquarium is split up into two separate buildings (you have to walk for 10 minutes to get to the other half- which I believe houses the special exhibits...I wasn't able to visit that portion so can't elaborate much on it).

Other animals...the aquarium had a couple of belugas that they were holding- though they stopped doing shows the year I visited. They also house a school of tuna...oddly a highlight for me- it was my first time seeing them alive, and having a huge school of 3-4 foot robot-looking fish swim by is pretty awesome! The aquarium also has some odd projects going on every so often...I say odd in terms of artwork/interactive video...you know...not the reason you visit, but cool to check out anyways while you're there.

All the above being said- there's definetely room for improvement in some of the aquariums' tanks. Some of them (noticeably the beluga) were quite bare. Though a lot could have changed over the past two years, just a fair warning in case you see something you don't like :) Anyways, I'm not sure about Malangi- I visited with a bunch of friends who spoke no chinese at all- and we managed to get by on my *limited* ability of mandarin :D. The only problem might be trying to read the signs posted around the aquarium. The names of the animals are posted in english...but the descriptions/information are posted in chinese...can be rather frusturating...so a pocket dictionary wouldn't be a bad idea if you plan on reading up some of the stuff. Let me know how it goes/any updates, definetely miss that place!
 
Pedro said:
Hi Leptonyx!
THanks a lot for the info! I'll do a post on Zoochat about this aquarium, that way you'll have all updates you like! Feeel free to ask me if you want any specific thing or animal on picture from there!
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Hehe no problems :) Actually since you offered- if you could take a picture of the whale shark from the back of the aquarium? I'm curious to see how big they've gotten in two years :) Thanks/enjoy it!
 
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