I used to be quite jealous of how well Taiwanese can speak English, until i realized that it's kind of cheating because they only need to use the same few words when they speak. For every food, they just put "famous" in front of it, and for every item they just put "cute" in front of it. They also have stock answers to questions. If you ask "what are you doing this weekend?" Every Taiwanese person must respond with "I'm going to Danshui."
Danshui is a small riverside/ocean side town on the north coast, about a 30 minute subway ride out from downtown Taipei. But really just like any place in Taipei county, it's pretty much just a carbon copy of Taipei itself. It's main attraction is something that could most resemble a boardwalk, with little shops, snacks, and games. However with the homogenization of Taipei, this kind of set up can be found in many other areas of the city.
I can see how many years ago Danshui would have been a unique destination, and with it's proximity to Taipei, one worth going to. Because of this going to Danshui has become one of those things that Taiwanese do just because it's ingrained in them generation after generation. Meaning people will get together with friends or family and go to Danshui on the weekend to walk the crowded streets and eat some food and buy some souvenirs.
It really does seem like everybody in Taipei has gone to Danshui in the weekends. The subway going north is always packed, and in Danshui it's impossible to move. I lived there for awhile, and it was a great quiet place to live on weekdays, but on weekends there were large areas of the town that you just couldn't go to because there were so many people. Although to be honest I sometimes think of moving back there just because it's so close to the beach, and it would be nice to get to the beach more often.
The picture above was actually taken in Bali. Bali is the town right across the river from Danshui and has a pretty similar set up, although it suffers a bit since the subway doesn't go here. The people here are in a long line waiting to take the ferry that runs between Danshui and Bali. Even in cool rainy weather, if it's the weekend, people must go to Danshui.
So if you will excuse me, it's the weekend, so I'm going to Danshui to eat some famous ____ and buy a cute ____.
