Taipei Revisited 2011-Long Shan Temple（龙山寺） & Going to Mao Kong （猫空）

1st Stop today is Long Shan Temple (龙山寺）, located right next to Long Shan Temple station which is 1 stop away from XMD station. Long Shan Temple is for worshiping Guan Yin Buddha（观音菩萨） and other divine spirits. This is labelled as  a 2nd degree historical site in Taiwan. Am not sure whether its 1st or 15th day of the month when we visited but there seems to be a huge chanting session going on.

Main gate of the temple

As we were did not dare to disturb the prayers, we just went in and walked a round before going off. I did not even get to offer the jossticks as it was pretty crowded, instead I just prayed to Guan Yin Niang Niang, asking for a smooth and safe journey and made a small donation.

After which, we proceed with our journey to the main attraction today- MaoKong Cable car （猫空缆车）.

From Long shan Temple station, we took the MTR towards Nangang to Zhong Xiao Fuxing station where we transferred to Muzha Line going towards Zoo. This is quite a special station as along Banqiao line, its an underground station. But for Muzha line its a above ground station. I remembered seeing the tracks when coming here last year all the while still wondering whether this is a LRT or MTR. Too Singaporean I guess, there is no LRT in Taipei.Hehe

ZhongXiao FuXing Station-Muzha Line

We are going to the ZOO ZOO ZOO

The journey there is pretty long, around 30mins while passing by many residential areas of Taipei. This is the 1st time we venture so outskirt as we are always struck in Taipei City during the last trip. The train is also pretty packed due to the fact that today is a Sunday, guess many of them are going to the same place as us.

When we finally reached the Zoo station, the sun is shining brightly and hotly already. Somehow regretted my choice of shirt today. There are 2 exits there, 1 leading to the zoo and the other leading to Mao Kong cable car station. We followed the signs (and crowd) and started to make our way there.

The walk to the cable car station is ard 10min away from MRT and we are glad that its sunny not rainy.

Saw a park while walking towards Mao Kong

As it turns out, some company has decided to held its family day here and the cable car station are crowded with people!! Left with no choice as it will be closed tomorrow for weekly maintenance, we then joined the crowd in queuing up.

Camwhoring while waiting for our turn

The cable car is situated at 4th level of the building and the queue starts from the 3rd, by our judgement, the queue is moving pretty fast.

A bit of facts about Mao Kong Gondola(猫空缆车）:
http://gondola.trtc.com.tw/eng/index.htm

1). The tickets costs NTD 50 from Zoo station to the Mao Kong station.
2). There are 2 kinds of cables, Crystal cabins/Normal cabins. Both cost same juz that there are only 31 crystals cabins, thus waiting time is longer.
Crystal cabins are cabins with see through bottom.
4). Each cabin has a max capacity of 8 passengers.
5). There are 6 stations in all (4Passengers and 2 angle stations)

Credits from MaoKong Gondola website

We opted for the normal cabins namely because queue time for crystal cabins are around 1hr 30min, and also, I do not have the courage to take the see through cabins. Hehe. Payment of the tickets can be made through your Easy card (优游卡) and thus you need not queue up for the tickets, just tap & go :)

Cabins entering the station

Crystal cabin

While moving out of Zoo station

We boarded the cable car after 20mins and shared it with another couple. This is my 2nd time taking a cable car (1st time in HK Ocean park). And man, how nervous can it get. I am afraid of heights and thus I am not very keen to take cable cars.

As it moved out of the station it jerked a bit, making the cabin sway left and right. Its pretty normal I guess but it does scares me. As we moved along I tried to focus in taking pictures and looking out far so as not to be too nervous, it does help a bit.

I find MaoKong gondola to be more stable than the Ocean Park 1. At least it is moving on smoothly, unlike when I 1st took the HK version not sure whether because of strong winds, it is sway so badly that I nearly broke into tears. This, however  I can sit back and relax after a while.

Soaking in the greens

Part of the zoo-Right after exiting Zoo South Station

Down we go

Not sure how long it took, but it was maybe around 20mins and we reached Mao Kong station!