Event Review: Go hiking together ~ enjoy the fresh air on Jinmian Mountain!

Hello everyone! This is BORDERLESS HOUSE TAIPEI 🙂

Have you ever gone hiking in the mountain in Taiwan?

Though Taipei is a busy city, you can still slow down your pace and take a breath in the mountain without spending much time to get there!

In February, we held a small event of going hiking in Jinmian Mountain located in Neihu. Let’s have a review of that day♫

First, we would like to introduce Jinmian Mountain~

Jinmian mountain is located in Neihu district in Taipei city, and the nearest MRT station will be Xihu station and Neihu station. The hiking path is about 2.3 kilometers long, and it probably takes 1 hour and 40 minutes to hike. However, since everyone was chatting, taking pictures, and enjoying the scenery while hiking, we spent about 2 hours to complete that day. Though this path had variable terrain and people required much effort to hike, the beautiful and amazing view on the top was worth visiting!

At 9:30 A.M. that day, everyone had breakfast together in the Mcdonald’s near MRT Xihu station first, then headed for the hiking path! Walking along the alley next to the Exit1 of MRT station, we arrived the entrance of path situated at Sec.2, Huanshan Rd.

Let’s take a look at pictures of hiking that day ☀

This time our staff Daniel was the guide of the hike (The one in bright blue jacket). The tenants who took part in were from France, Korea and Taiwan. Though the number of participants were not so many, a team with fewer people was also more flexible and you wouldn’t be left alone.

It was so exciting and inspiring to get to the top!!! We also met other hikers and took pictures together, and quiet atmosphere of the mountain became so lively~
On the top, you can overlook the whole Taipei city, and the horizon is very wide. Being far away from the busy life of city temporarily and making new friends as well seems great, doesn’t it? (Smile)

After going down the mountain, everyone saw a temple of Koxinga and had a visit together. We even experienced the procedure of worshiping. Koxinga is a historic figure of Taiwan who had ruled the country, so people set up temples one after the other to remember him after he passed away. These are related to Taiwanese culture and might be very different experiences to foreigners!

We appreciate the feedback and sharing from our tenants who joined this event

吳琦:“From time to time, it’s nice to have such event that everyone can meet each other and exchange thoughts. I think hiking is a good choice which can also exercise my inflexible muscles and bones (LOL). It also made me touched when everyone took care of each other on the tough way XD. I hope I can join this kind of event again next time!”

Samuel“The hike in Jinmian was nice and fun. I remember there were around 10 people, whose most of them I didn’t know. So that was cool. Going up was a bit tough for some (many many stairs!) but globally everyone enjoyed it. Moreover we took our time, waiting for each other. And the top really worth some efforts, the view is good from there. A bit scary when it gets windy, but that made it fun as well ^^ I went two times there. I really like it and recommend it for sure :)”

We will hold more tenants-only events in the future, come join us and meet new friends!! See you next time ~~

How is life in Taipei, Taiwan? -Interview with German tenant

Hello!! This is BORDERLESS HOUSE in Taipei!!

We have a tenant from Germany who currently stays at BORDERLESS HOUSE TAIPEI. He has joined language program and usually interacts with his partner and staffs humorously.

We would like to introduce his life in Taipei and his own stories!

Self-introduction

Hello I’m Philipp from Germany, and I’m 24 years old. I studied music before and I play the saxophone. After studying, now I come to Taiwan for learning language and have Chinese course here. Because my girlfriend is from Taiwan, I want to understand her culture more!

Could you share your daily life in shared house?

I sleep a lot (laugh). But from Monday to Friday, I have classes from 8:40-11:30 in TKU. After that, I go to sleep again and do my homework. In fact, this is my second time to come to Taiwan, I traveled to Kenting, Tainan, and Hualien with my girlfriend last August.

Why do you choose BORDERLESS HOUSE in the first beginning? 

Because I want to practice Chinese with other Taiwanese housemates!

Is there anything difficult or tough for you to live in Taiwan?

The weather, and maybe the mosquitoes. Last year I have problems with mosquitoes’ bite, but I didn’t have serious problems with it this time. There were only two in my room. (And he slapped them!)

What impressed you the most during your stay in Borderless House or in Taiwan?

In the first day I came, my housemates did the karaoke, they love the karaokay! They just played the song on Youtube and sang with it. Dance and sing! As for other experiences, one of the cultural shock was that I found there was no sidewalk when I once went on the street. That’s very strange for Germany. Another was that my girlfriend’s parents took me to the restaurant and made me eat the animals’ organs and frog legs. They told me, “It’s chicken chicken, so just eat it eat it.” (note: Many people who had tried frog said that it tasted like chicken.) I ate very much and I thought that was chicken. But I realized the truth after my girlfriend’s friend told me.

Speaking of Taiwan, what is the most attractive point for you?

The food, very nice and helpful people. I love the dumplings, beef noodles and teppanyaki. Maybe the nature as well.

With your experiences, could you kindly give some advice to those who are going to come to Taiwan?

The good thing is that if you lost something, people here are always friendly and helpful!

(Picture in the mountain.)

(He joined the language program and practiced Chinese with his Taiwanese partner Michelle.)

Thanks Philipp for sharing his experiences!! We had good time chatting with him and hope that he can achieve his goal on learning Chinese 🙂

Check BORDERLESS HOUSE in Taipei>>

http://www.borderless-house.com/tw/all/

Check Tenant’s only Program>>

Free House Exchange

http://www.borderless-house.com/houseexchange/

Language Exchange

http://www.borderless-house.com/languageexchange/