Bonjour, Taipei
Hi guys! I am going to share my itinerary for my recent Taipei trip and recommend some of the places you should visit if you’re going to Taiwan for your holiday!
I will try to make this as clear and informative as possible
My itinerary
(7 Days 6 Nights, Free & Easy)
1st Day: Arrival, Ah Zong Mian Xian, Longshan Temple, Guangzhou Street Night Market, Huaxi Street Night Market
2nd Day: XinBeitou, Danshui Old Street, Town of Bali, Fisherman’s Wharf, Shilin Night Market
3rd Day: Yong He Dou Jiang, Taipei 101, Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe
4th Day: Taipei Zoo, Maokong Gondola, Tea Centre, Club Luxy
5th Day: Jiufen Old Street, Gold Ecological Park, Romantic Tour, Gao Chi
6th Day : Shopping at Shinkong, SOGO
7th Day: Departure
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We stayed in Ximending (西门町), which is basically like the hip shopping district in Taipei. The Ximen Station was right at our doorstep.
After checking into the hotel, we went out to hunt for Ah Zong Mian Xian (阿宗麵線). It is rather well known and it’s located at Emei Street in Ximending. Don’t bother going early or late to beat the crowd cause it is always crowded!
Where to find: Ah Zong Mian Xian (阿宗麵線)
No. 8~1 Emei St., Taipei (East XMD Pedestrian Area) 台北市峨嵋街8號之1
Tel: (02) 02-2388-8808, 2388-8182
Nearest MRT: Ximen Station
Other branches: Zhong Xiao Fu Xing (behind SOGO) and Shilin Night Market
We took a train ride from Ximen Station to Longshan Temple Station to visit the famous Longshan Temple (龍山寺). Take a walk around the temple and feel the unique and beautiful vibe that keeps people coming back. Wait around and see if you can catch worshipers chanting the mantra together. It is very heartwarming to see local Taiwanese put so much passion into their faith/beliefs.
I would suggest visiting Longshan Temple in the evening (5-6pm) as there are several night markets (which starts around 6-7pm) nearby and you can visit them since the temple is so close by.
Interesting Fact: Longshan temple was built in Qianlong’s 5th year in the Qing Dynasty and has been restored several times.
Where to find: Longshan Temple (龍山寺)
No. 211, Guangzhou St., Wanhua District, Taipei City
Nearest MRT: Longshan Temple Station
There are 4 night markets surrounding Longshan Temple so go ahead and explore.
They are:
Guangzhou St Night Market(廣州街夜市)
Wuzhou St Night Market(梧州街觀光夜市)
Hwahsi St Night Market(華西街觀光夜市)
Xi Chang St Night Market(西昌街觀光夜市)
It is possible to visit all 4 places in one night as they are all within walking distance. In the evening, you will start seeing street vendors pushing their carts out to the roadside and preparing food for sale.
Some of the food you should try:
- Salted popcorn chicken (盐酥鸡)
- Pancakes with different fillings at just 10NT-15NT / piece
- Pig Trotters (猪脚)
- ‘Big sausage wrap small sausage’ (大肠包小肠) – This is a sausage wrapped by glutinous rice on the outside. The boyfriend was very excited over this.
- Black Pig Grilled Sausage 山猪香肠
I didn’t try any seafood or pig-blood cake as I have a sensitive stomach.
Oh, you will realise quite a lot of old men crowding around VCD stalls, because they sell porn in the night markets! Mainly Japanese AV porn. We saw stalls selling sex toys too. They look really low in quality so buy at your own risk!
The Taipei Hwahsi Tourist Night Market. Well known for their exotic foods, such as turtle soup, game meat, and snake blood, snake soup. (Why are they eating me? My chinese zodiac sign is a snake.) If you are not a fan, I recommend giving this a miss.
Where to find: Longshan Area night markets
Nearest MRT: Longshan Temple Station
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XinBeitou, Danshui Old Street, Town of Bali and Fisherman’s Wharf are located quite near to one another.
Our first stop for the day is XinBeitou, commonly known as Taipei’s hot spring paradise. We took the metro down to Beitou Station, and changed to a smaller train that brings us to XinBeitou in just one stop.
To note: The weather in Ximending was cooling but it was extremely hot in XinBeitou when I went. Nearly died of heat stroke, so dress in layers!
It is quite easy to navigate around XinBeitou. The signs are all pointing towards the Beitou Park. Walk in that direction uphill and you will discover attractions like Beitou Library, Beitou Hot Spring Museum and Thermal Valley (also known as ‘Hell Valley’).
The Beitou Hot Spring Museum and a talented artist drawing nearby.
The Beitou Public Library which has magnificent architecture.
The thermal valley was simply breathtaking. It was especially hot in this area as the water was bubbling all the time, creating this mysterious looking ‘mist’ that surrounds the valley.
We took the metro from Beitou Station to Danshui Station. At Danshui, we explored the Danshui Old Street. The Town of Bali and Fisherman’s Wharf can be reached via ferry from the Danshui ferry terminal.
Walk along the streets of Danshui Old Street and you will find a few ferry operators which sells tickets to the Town of Bali and Fisherman’s Wharf. Both places are less than half an hour away by Ferry.
Danshui Old Street is filled with many food and game stalls. It brings back fond childhood memories.
We don’t see such game stalls like these in Singapore anymore.
The town of Bali was really peaceful. Basically the food stalls are about the same as the ones you can see in Danshui Old Street, but the fresh air and scenery is worth it.
I think there’s a theme park called Formosa at this town, so theme park lovers should check it out.
Fisherman’s Wharf is the place to go for lovers. Basically, there’s not much food/entertainment here but this is a really good place to take some nice photos. We visited the lover’s bridge, which is really pretty at night when the bridge is lighted up!
Fun fact: Fisherman’s Wharf was made a popular tourist attraction after it was used in filming in a Taiwanese drama ———————–> Meteor Garden.
Capturing the moment when the sun sets
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Yong He Dou Jiang Wang
Okay, so Yong He Dou Jiang is a really popular name in Taiwan for beancurd shops and there are many many outlets with the same name. We did some research and found that the one is Da’an is more popular.
Where to find: 永和豆漿大王 (Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang)
102 Fuxing South Road, Sec. 2
(02) 2703-5051
Nearest MRT: Da’an Station
Who misses the Taipei 101 when they visit Taiwan? It’s no longer the world’s tallest building but hey, the amazing architecture is still worth us visiting!
Where to find: Taipei 101
No.7, Sec.5, Xin Yi Rd. Taipei, Taiwan, 110
Nearest MRT: Taipei Cityhall Station
That’s right, Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe! Everything was so cute there I totally wanted to stay there forever.
Okay, back to being serious.
What I liked:
Cute Decor
Food looks good for taking photos (but did not taste as good as it looks, so don’t expect too much)
What I did not like:
There is a minimum spending of 300NT per pax
Staffs are pretty clueless – mixing up orders umpteen times
Waiting time is pretty long
Very touristy – many people taking photos and being super excited (including us)
You can order the set meal which is about 350NT? (if I remember correctly) – it comes with an appetizer, soup, salad, main, dessert and drink.
Ohhhhhh, we are going crazy with all the pinky stuffs!
Where to find: Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe
No. 90號, Section 1, Dà’ān Road, Daan District Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station, Exit 3 (5 min walk)
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We started the day early and headed for the Taipei Zoo station.
Basically you can visit the Taipei Zoo, and take a cable car to Maokong Station to visit the tea plantations in the mountains. The gondola ride was really breath-taking and scary at the same time.
There are two types of gondola cabins to choose from: the normal and the one with the glass flooring. Naturally, we chose the one with the glass floor.
The ride takes about 20 minutes to reach Maokong Station so enjoy the breath-taking scenery and take lots of pictures here.
Maokong? What’s that?
Maokong is located in the southwest of Getou Mountain in Wenshan District of Taipei outskirts. It is said that tea farmers from southern China came here to open teahouses in the past. Later, the teahouses declined and customers stopped coming. The domesticated cats ran away and thus the place was called “Maokong”.
At Maokong, you will see a spread of tea houses all over. Explored a little and settled on a little cafe named ‘Cafe 港’. We had fruit tea and waffles, which again scored higher in the looks department than taste.
There’s this shop right opposite Cafe 港 which sells superb ice sticks.
We ate ice cream as we walked around and enjoyed the scenery.
Want to learn more about tea? We visited the Taipei Tea Promotion Center for Tie Guanyin Tea and Baozhong Tea. There is a guided tour which is free – where you will understand more about how tea is grown. The tea is really cheap here so buy some home!
This was totally unplanned. Instead of going to a night market to eat, we decided on experiencing the nightlife in Taipei instead. The club we went to is known as ‘Luxy’. Saw some Singaporean army boys there – totally recognizable from their hair and accents!
Where to find: Luxy Club
No. 201, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Sec. 4
Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Dunhua Station
Fees: NT$300 for entry (incl of 2 drinks)
the 1950′s, Jiufen was a prosperous gold mining town. The town went into sharp decline when mining was discontinued. The quaint streets, tea houses and stunning views of the Pacific Ocean saved it from becoming yet another anonymous mining ghost town. Jiufen is now a popular tourist destination.
Go to Taipei Main Station and look for Taipei Railway Station. Get a ticket and head for Ruifang Station. When you get out of Ruifang Station, go across the road and look for the bus stop near Wellcome Minimart.
The Jiufen old street is very crowded with tourists during the day time. Some food you should try when visiting Jiufen – Fishball soup, yuyuan (taro balls), dumplings served hot or cold with sweet bean, and mochi.
We took a bus to Jinguashi where the Gold Ecological Park lies.
One of the free exhibits was the 四连栋。 These 4 houses were occupied by Japanese employees who worked for their mining companies here. They were restored many times to look as close to the original houses as possible.
We stopped for some hot beancurd (Tau Huay) along the way.
Instead of visiting the famous Ding Tai Feng for dinner, we went to Gao Chi (高記), which is located just a corner away from Ding Tai Feng, which was really overcrowded with large groups of mainland tourists.
I would recommend trying the 極品流沙包 (golden custard bun) and 元籠小籠包 (Xiao Long Bao). The food is very affordable considering the portion you get.
Address: 5 Yongkang St, Taipei City (台北市永康街5號); 152, Fuxing S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段152號)
shopping.. to be continued.
For some of my loots, view here.