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Taipei Travel Guide

Prereading

  • BBC’s “The Arts Hour” did a segment recently featuring some of the prominent new artists in Taiwan discussing their art. I’m a particular fan of 9m88 and ABAO’s work and their music is featured on the episode.

Guides that I recommend

A lot of other people have written a lot of nice guides to Taipei that I like. Clarissa Wei’s 36 Hours in Taipei is a whirlwind guide. She’s a great food writer.

Districts (and what I think about them)

A bunch of scattered recs here. DM me if anything strikes your fancy

  • Tamsui: A sleepy fishing village turned foodie capital (near a fort that has a funky history dating back to Western colonization). I used to come here a lot as a kid and have many fond memories here. It looks far but the MRT gets you there faster than you think.
  • Beitou: You can find public and private hot springs facilities if you want to soak here for all budgets. A fun thing to do maybe to hike in Yangmingshan National Park during the day and once you come down from the mountain, soak in a hot spring in Beitou.
  • Dongcheng: City East, this is where many of the cooler bars, more expensive bars are.
  • Ximen/Wanhua: Ximen is kind of the Weeb central of Taipei. If you like anime/modern Japanese culture, you’ll find it there. Wanhua is older/raunchier. The area around Longshan Temple has my favourite (non-touristy) night markets including a bomb pork bun (guabao) place. Be weary of being in an area in Wanhua further out from Longshan Temple after like maybe 8pm, because it’s the only area in Taipei I’d say is a little sketchy. If you’re with a group of friends, there’s a Hookah bar that’s themed like a Hong Kong Opium Den here that’s kinda funny.
  • Guanghua Digital Electronics Market: The old building is especially worth a visit. Near Zhongxiao Xinsheng MRT, the upper floors have all sorts of eclectic transistor shops. Also has a phenomenal mechanical keyboard shop.
  • Yongkang Street: Yongkang Street is the heart of tourist-oriented Taiwanese cuisine including Yongkang Street Beef Noodle Soup, the original Din Tai Fung, etc.
  • Dadaocheng: If you like pickled and preserved fruit/fun snacks, this is where to go. Miles and miles of the stuff.
  • Songshan: I have a special soft spot for Songshan, because the Minsheng Community, which is heavily residential and concrete and brutalist and kind of ugly, has always been the closest thing to home for me. My grandma lives there and I’ve been visiting there since I was born. It’s not really tourist-y, apart from the Songshan Creative/Cultural Park, which is this cutesy repurposed tobacco plant/warehouse that now hosts exhibitions, but it’s fun to amble around Songshan especially North into Minsheng to get an idea of concrete Republican-era architecture (brutalist) that many middle class families reside in. Also, the best pineapple cakes from Sunny Hills are in Songshan, and if you walk to the shop, which is near a nice little park full of exercising grandmas, you’ll get a free pineapple cake and a cup of tea. (The line can be long if the grandmas all want a free pineapple cake).

Other Thoughts:

  • New Taipei City is just this massive donut that encircles Taipei. There’s not much rhyme or reason to why it is organized that way. Most of it is residential (I live just across the river from Taipei in the Banqiao District of New Taipei City).
  • “Tianlongren”, a homeage to One Piece (apparently), people call people from Taipei that, with the idea that people in Taipei are snooty and above the rest of the island.

Random Esoteric Food Recs

  • 24 Beef Noodle Soup (if you’re up at odd hours because of a meeting or because you can’t sleep): Hongcheng Noodle House near Beimen MRT
  • The best Vegan buddhist cuisine I’ve ever had is near Taipower MRT. I can send you a rec. The auntie is a little off the rails and will fill your plate for maybe 2USD.

Night Markets

Generally: Go to Raohe, Nanjichang, Tonghua. My personal favourite is Huaxi (Snake Market), because it’s in Wanhua (see above) and so it’s dank/run-down enough that it hasn’t touristified yet.

Oh, don’t go to Shilin Night Market, it’s the biggest but it was ruined by the government while they were trying to “clean up” street food in Taipei.

Specific Recommendations

Cycling

Riverside parkways are really sick and all separated from cars. A good workout maybe to go from Taipei to Tamsui, stuff yourself with food and take the MRT back. You can use the YouBike bikeshare system.

Indie Music Scene

Taiwan has a huge music scene that really got into gear during COVID (when no one else in the world was releasing music). Here are some places you can find indie acts performing:

  • Riverside Cafe
  • Legacy Taipei (also Taichung)

For bands to keep an eye on, check out my very long Taiwanese Indie playlist

The best record shop is White Wabbit Records near Guting MRT.

Transportation Nerds

  • If you’re big into retro train operations, you might really like a trip up the Pinghsi Line, which is a single track railway line that snakes into the mountains from New Taipei. It’s particularly interesting to me because two rustic diesel trains are operating on the line at any time and the drivers carry a physical keychain that is exchanged between the drivers at the middle of the route to make sure that no two trains are operating along the same section of the track.
  • You might want to watch planes land at Airplane Alley, which is hard to get to except via cab, but they land right over your head and it’s pretty fun. Near Airplane Alley is Addiction Aquatic Development, which has sashimi and sushi that is incredibly fresh and authentic for a fraction of prices in Japan.
  • Taiwan Railway Development Culture Park: This is a decent railway museum and worth a visit if you’re big into trains. Near Beimen/Taipei Main Station MRT.
  • Taiwan Railway Museum Preparation Centre: I’ve never gotten a reservation here, but it looks dope. they’ve been “preparing” for a proper railway museum in Taipei for like years.
  • Taipei Metro gift shop: I think this has shut down :(
  • Taipei Metro Evacuation Center Simulator: I haven’t been since Middle School, so idk if there’s still an appeal, but the Taipei Metro runs an ‘evacuation simulation’ centre where you can learn how to evacuate a working train. It was dope as a Middle sChooler, but Idk if it’s fun for adults. TBD because I’ll probably visit again.
  • Ride the Brown Line: It’s overground and snakes through the city and gives you a really good view of a lot of it. Go to the very front of the car. This was my favourite activity as a kid and is partially why I fell in love with transit.

Progressive Christianity

There are two affirming LGBTQ congregations in Taipei. I’ve been to True Light and can confirm it was a lovely experience.

Lindy Hop

  • Big Apple Swing Studios runs regular dance socials and dance lessons. Social dance in Taiwan is a little less beginner-friendly than in the United States, where there’s a strong culture of “oh just show up and learn how to dance”. In taiwan, the expectation is that if you show up to a social, you should be familiar with the fundamentals at the very least, since it’s a hobby that you must have put effort into.

Mandopop

  • If for some reason, the over-produced, formulaic sound of 2000s/2010s mandopop appeals to you, most of the large concerts are taking place in the Taipei Egg.

Political/History Nerds

  • 228 History Museum: 228 Museum commemorates the 228 Massacre. When I last went, the museum wasn’t very accessible to English speakers, but hopefully that’s changed.
  • Jingmei Prison: I haven’t been here (I think I may have suggested this as a first date which is why I’m single) but this is a museum where political prisoners were housed during Martial Law.

Coworking

There's no shortage of cafés that are really nice in Taipei and are a great spot to get some quiet work done. That being said, I usually don't want to be that digital nomad who shows up with a secondary monitor, a roost stand and a mechanical keyboard and starts loudly yelling into a Zoom meeting through my Airpods.

As such, I distinguish between laptop friendly spaces and bring your whole setup spaces.

Bring Your Whole Setup (Coworking Spaces)

  • Not Just a Library is run out of the Taiwan Design Museum. It's 50TWD for a whole day's admission afaik and has outlets available. I'm not sure to what extent meeting spaces
  • Tsutaya Bookshop Coworking Spaces exist in Nangang train station and Songshan train station in the CITILINK mall. These are a little costly (640TWD for a daypass), but the spaces are really nice and there's unlimited snacks and drinks.
  • Emoji Café is an amazing two floor massive space where you can feel free to sprawl out and bring your whole setup. Drinks range from about 150TWD to 300 TWD. It's also open until 3am!
  • 8Meters Coworking Space was my personal favourite during the pandemic. It was a social activist's paradise with a museum of memorabilia from various social movements in Taiwan. I made many great friends there. Unfortunately it's currently closed. I hope they make a return.

Laptop-Friendly Spaces (Coffee Shops)

As a courtesy, if you're at a coffee shop, usually the rule is to order a drink at least once every 90 minutes you stay. Some shops like Yaboo have started enforcing this rule.

  • Yaboo Café in Dongmen has fast Wi-Fi and great drinks. Even as someone who seldom drinks coffee, I thoroughly enjoy their coffee.
  • 翌日咖啡店 is another cute coffee shop around the Dongmen area. It's designed to look like a coffee shop in Tokyo. The internet is fast and the drinks are good. Occasionally they'll play citypop on a rainy afternoon and that's a very good time.
  • Pica Pica Café is a favourite amongst NTU students and is a great place to hunker down with a book or a laptop and get some writing done.
  • Weiyang Coffee is located around Technology Building MRT. I've heard good things about this spot but I haven't been.

Other Cultural Context

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

A lot of folks will visit Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. I have a lot of feelings about this place because it commemorates a dictator who perpetuated the second-longest period of martial law in the world after Syria. It’s definitely impressive architecture and free so it’s worth a visit, but the person it commemorates? Kinda not about it. The Changing of the Guard is pretty fun to watch and so is the flag-raising/lowering. You can also see a similar ceremony at SYS Memorial Hall.

Cash

Taiwan is an almost completely cash-based economy because COVID never really impacted the local economy the way it did everywhere else. You should probably have a debit card account that allows for fee-free foreign ATM withdrawals. You’ll have a lot more fun this way.