Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei Skyline from Elephant Mountain
Our impressions of Taipei
Taiwanese culture with a modern twist: Taipei is a city that perfectly blends Taiwanese culture with modernity. From an architectural perspective, you can see how the city has evolved over time, with 18th-century temples standing near bustling night markets and modern skyscrapers, such as Taipei 101, which pays homage to Taiwan’s cultural heritage with its bamboo shape. The city has repurposed various retired factories and manufacturing areas into “culture and creative parks,” which offer art, trendy markets, and hip dining options. Just an hour outside Taipei lies Jiufen, which peaked during the Japanese colonial era in the 19th century. It’s a place where you can feel like you’ve stepped back in time, with traditional tea houses, food vendors, and old theaters
Comes alive a night: Taipei is a city that works hard (literally people work very long hours here, like Seoul) and plays hard. While there isn’t a huge drinking culture (though they do have open carry laws and very inexpensive beers at 711) in Taipei, the city mobilizes onto the streets at night – no matter the day of the week. The night markets serve as the community centers of the city – packed to the gills with people from all walks of life eating at hundreds of stands. Carnival games (dart balloon, throw a ring around the bottle, claw machines galore) are also a staple at the night markets that attract crowds of all ages. As one of the strongest democracies in Asia, Taiwan is socially liberal which was evident by the openness of LGBTQ+ couples (awesome to see) and its drag scene
A city that has it all: Taipei was easily one of our favorite capital cities in Asia because it had so much to offer. I think we were surprised that we liked it so much in part because it’s not a widely recommended or well traveled destination, but it should be! In particular, we loved Taipei’s proximity to nature with many parks and accessible hikes in the city. Outside of nature, it is an insanely walkable city in a way that’s similar to New York – you can walk everywhere and won’t run out of real estate. Taipei also has an exceptional public transportation infrastructure (shout out to the MRT) which we very much appreciated after spending months in places without any or any reliable form of public transit
What we saw in Taipei
Walked: We had some of our biggest walking days of our trip in Taipei, kicking off an epic stretch of days on Pacer (hitting 10,000 steps a day has been one of our few goals every day). As we do in many places, we spent most of our time in the city walking from place to place and neighborhood to neighborhood, stopping whenever we came across something interesting. After spending about four months in SE Asia, Taipei’s walker friendliness and mild weather were a huge delight to us and played into our desire to walk everywhere and anywhere
Taipei 101: Once the tallest building in the world, Taipei 101 is one of Taipei’s most recognizable landmarks. We spotted the skyscraper from afar and decided we would walk to it on our first full day in Taipei. It turned out to be much farther away and taller than it looked, but we passed a bunch of interesting things on the way, including a baby gear fair at a nearby convention center that we casually strolled into. We definitely weren’t supposed to be there (we were the only tourists and people without a baby), but we think people were so confused when they saw us that they didn’t tell us otherwise. When we got to Taipei 101, we decided not to go up due to the ticket price and lack of total visibility
Songshan Culture and Creative Park (SCCP): Taiwan does an amazing job (the U.S. should take note) repurposing old factories into culture and creative centers. Our first experience with this was at SCCP, an old tobacco factory in the middle of the city. We loved walking through the various parts of the old factory including an old smoke boiler room turned into a hip coffee shop and warehouses transformed into artisan markets (one was an edible flowers store that smelled amazing)
Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall: Sun Yat Sen is one of the few figures that is revered by both Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China or ROC for short) and China. He helped develop the principles that underlie Taiwan’s democracy and served as a father of the revolution in mainland China. The memorial had a few interesting exhibits about Sun Yat Sen’s philosophy with its core tenets of nationalism, democracy, and welfare. In one of the exhibits, there was a nod to the EasyPass (Taipei’s metro card) as an extension of welfare which we thought was a disguised marketing campaign. As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed a crowd gathered near the main hall of the memorial, including a local track team that we thought were doctors from afar because of the color of their track suits. We shrugged, joined the crowd, and witnessed the changing of the guards in front of the imposing Sun Yat Sen statue which was very neat and unexpected
Elephant Mountain: Elephant Mountain is an approachable, cutely marked (with an outline of an elephant) hiking trail in the east part of Taipei, tucked into a nice park and lovely residential neighborhood. Steep, oddly spaced stairs (a hallmark of Taiwan for us) lead up to the mountain with a few picturesque viewpoints of the skyline along the way. We made the quick hike up and waited on a bench with an unobstructed view of the city until it got dark. We didn’t catch the sunset as we had hoped due to cloudiness, but we did get to see Taipei light up in real time which was just as cool
Day trip to Jiufen: We hadn’t heard of Jiufen until we were in Taipei (looking up what to do in Taipei, somewhat ironic because Jiufen is outside of Taipei), but once we read about it we were sold! We took the 90 minute bus ride from Taipei city to Jiufen and had a wonderful, albeit rainy, day there. Some of the highlights were:
- Walking down the main street: The main street that runs through Jiufen feels like a time capsule with its cobblestone roads and old buildings lined with red lanterns. We walked up and down this street a few times to soak it in. The rain made it even more charming
- Experiencing a tea ceremony at Amei Tea House: We stopped by a beautiful, traditional tea house, Amei, that is often incorrectly cited as the inspiration for Spirited Away. Here, we indulged in a traditional tea set and were taught how to prepare the tea by a very friendly waitress. We proceeded to get overcaffeniated on tea that we tried to counteract with the delicious pairs of dried sweet plums, green bean cakes, and mochi that came with the tea. Despite our jitteriness, we really enjoying learning how to prepare tea and gained a new appreciation for all of the tools involved – a large teapot for the hot water, a tiny tea pot for the tea leaves, tongs to pick up tea leaves, thimble-shaped cups for the tea, and a tray to dump the excess water over. Though we didn’t buy a tea set (a little too heavy and fragile to lug around), we were gifted two postcards to remember our time at Amei
- Sampling street eats: Every other storefront in Jiufen offers food, so we figured we had to do what we do best – eat! After sampling a few things, we walked by a beef noodle stand that was calling Doug’s name. Luckily, they had a vegetarian option and very delicious seaweed, so we were both happy campers after slurping up their piping hot noodles on the cold rainy day. For dessert, we tried a Taiwanese speciality – a rolled peanut brittle ice cream burrito with cilantro. It sounds unappetizing, but the cilantro really added something special to it. For the bus ride back, we picked up two bubble teas – one normal milk tea and another with burnt brown sugar that tasted like creme brûlée
Ximen: Ximen is a happening neighborhood in Taipei, especially on the weekend. Because our bus from Jiufen came and left from Ximen, we spent the rest of our day experiencing the best of Ximen. We walked past a variety show in the middle of the pedestrian zone, window shopped at cool street wear stores hypothesizing what we would have bought had we just been on vacation in Taipei, and remarked on the Ukrainian flags and “we stand with Ukraine” posters that were hanging around the area, hoping that Taiwan wouldn’t be subject to a similar fate. The highlight of our time in Ximen was happening upon an exceptional arcade on the 8th floor of a building that we randomly walked into. There were batting cages, pitching cages, and pop-a-shot, all of which we giddily partook in for just a few cents a pop
Huaxi Market: On our way to a different night market, we passed by Huaxi. It creeped us out. Not only was the night market fairly empty, but there was also a giant yellow python in a very small glass case in the front of one of the stands. The market used to be known as a place where you could try snake meat, but it seems to have mostly shed that history outside of the python. We thought of the zoo scene in the Chamber of Secrets and got out of there stat
Longshan Temple: Longshan Temple is a Taiwanese Buddhist temple that is astoundingly detailed and colorful. Every corner had something amazing from ornately painted lanterns to bright purple orchids and impossibly detailed, carved gold ceilings. Most of the people in the temple were praying and we were some of the only obvious tourists which was a trend we experienced in most of the Taiwanese temples that we visited. On the plaque outside of the temple, we learned the U.S. accidentally bombed it during WWII. Cue the SMDH
Liberty Square and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial: Chiang Kai-Shek seems to be remembered for his contradictions – he was objectively a brutal autocrat from 1928 to 1975 that imposed martial law on Taiwan, but he also brought the country to modernity in many ways. His memorial captures these opposing characteristics well with one exhibit on Taiwan’s road to securing freedom of speech (gets at the brutal autocrat point), another on Chiang Kai-Shek’s legacy (doesn’t make him seem as awful as exhibit one), and a huge statue of Chiang Kai-Shek that reminded us of the Lincoln Memorial. The exhibits were a little confusing to us, but we appreciated learning more about Taiwan’s history. The memorial itself overlooks Liberty Square, a vast public green space framed by the National Theatre, National Concert Hall, and Paifang all imposing, beautiful, and traditional Taiwanese structures
Where we ate and drank
Ningxia Night Market (x2): Our first and favorite night market in Taipei, Ningxia was the best possible introduction to Taiwan’s night market culture. We figured the night markets in Taiwan would be similar to those in SE Asia – lots of kitschy stuff with occasionally decent food – but we were totally wrong. All great food and almost no kitsch! The first time we went to Ningxia, we tried burst and crispy squid (a full squid stuffed with cucumber, freshly fried, and artfully carved up by the squid master), a mouthwatering green onion pancake with egg, and freshly steamed sesame and peanut mochi. The second time we went to Ningxia, we walked around for awhile before settling on nearly the same lineup of food (Doug also tried blowtorched cube steak that he deemed “smoke in mirrors”)
Mikeller: We had a blast at the Mikeller in Bangkok, so we were psyched to learn that Taipei had one too. We walked here for a nightcap after Ningxia and loved the selection of local beers (Taipei has a solid craft brewery scene). We bought a fun sticker for 30 cents to commemorate our visit here that is now proudly displayed on Doug’s computer
Din Tai Fung: Din Tai Fung is an institution in Taiwan and internationally best known for popularizing xiaolongbao or soup dumplings. We arrived at the original location right when it opened for lunch (11am) and enthusiastically scouted out the menu while waiting 20 minutes for our number to be called (apparently the wait can be multiple hours at peak times). We walked up three flights of stairs to find hot tea waiting for us at our table. The waitstaff covered Doug’s raincoat that he had hung up on his chair with a slip and gestured for us to put our bag in a compartment next to the table. Pretty epic start to the meal before we had even ordered anything… It got even better once our Taiwanese feast arrived – spicy, peanut noodles, shrimp and squash soup dumplings, pork soup dumplings, salted egg lava buns, and taro buns – for less than $30 USD. On the way out, we watched dumpling magic in the glass-paned kitchen while artists in hazmat suits carefully creased each dumpling 18 times to make the world-famous Din Tai Fung xiaolongbao
Raohe Street Night Market: Raohe, situated next to an 18th century temple, was our third favorite night market in Taipei. We tried a handful of traditional Taiwanese night market foods, including stinky tofu (a very pungent food that you can smell from a mile away that smells stinkier than it tastes), taro balls, black pepper pork bun (from a Michelin Bib Gourmand spot for 50 cents), oyster omelette, and fried milk (the biggest bargain at 33 cents). We found the market to be super congested and tough to maneuver around, which resulted in us getting trapped in the “tofu stink” more than a few times
Taihu Brewing: This place was an open window with a ton of beers on tap, but no seating. Instead, you take your beer into the open pedestrian area amidst office buildings and a mall and grab a spot on the ground or next to one of the nearby storefronts. We felt like we were rolling with the cool crowd in Taipei as we grabbed a spot on stairs across from the brewery, only to be kicked down a stair by a security guard a few minutes later. While we were sipping on our hazy IPAs, we received an ominous email from our archenemy insurance company asking us to share our bank account details. We had high high hopes, only to be let down yet again from IRIS Global, the WOAT
711 Bar Crawl: The 711s in Taiwan bear no resemblance to the 711s in the U.S. In Taiwan, 711 is a place to eat a sit-down meal, pick up train tickets, and even have a beer. We took advantage of all 711 had to offer and even embarked on a 711 bar crawl one night. We started at the 711 closest to us with two classic Taiwan beer tall boys ($1 a piece) and made our way to two other 711s on our walk home, sampling different beers at each. It was one our favorite nights in Taiwan that led us back to the Ningxia night market after a failed attempt to get to a conveyor belt sushi place before it closed
Sushi Express: To redeem our failure from the previous night, we set our sights on Sushi Express for lunch, an institution in Taiwan. We were guided to seats at the end of the conveyor belt (note to future selves, go for seats at the beginning, not the end) and excitedly sat down. At first, we grabbed anything that looked good that came our way and were delighted by the quality of the nigiri for just $15 NTD (50 cents) a piece. We feasted on tuna, scallops, yellowtail, and octopus. As we started to fill up, things took a turn for the worst. Doug mistook BBQ tilapia for eel, Jessie had some gamey uni, and just like that our dreams of eating many more meals at Sushi Express evaporated. But, we look back on the meal fondly and would happily go back now that there’s been some distance between us and Sushi Express
Shilin Night Market: One of the biggest and most well-known night markets in Taipei, Shilin Night Market was our second favorite. We had some of the best things that we ate in Taiwan here – Good Friend’s cold sesame noodles with peanut, lemon, chilies, and fresh cucumber, 50 cent Shengjianbao cabbage and pork bao with fiery and sweet sauce, and a refreshing glass of papaya milk. Though it was super crowded, it was a fun place to walk around with plenty of entertainment outside of the food, including some fun claw machines
Nosh: Our last stop in Taipei was a super hip, oddly full but quiet, coffee shop called Nosh. It appeared to be a repurposed eye doctor’s office with big letter posters and eye machines upstairs where we sat. The highlight at Nosh was the cinnamon roll – it was so delicious that we almost ordered another
Where we stayed
White Space: We spent a lot of time searching for a place in Taipei on booking.com, but weren’t enthused about our options (expensive and not great quality). When we checked out Airbnb, we were pumped to find a small place that was reasonable and functional. Our stay was just that – small, reasonable, and functional in a great location. The highlight was the cold water dispenser outside of our room
