Taipei is built from the west side next to the Tamsui river. What that means is all the traditional/cultural points of interest are closer to DaDaoCheng, and things get gradually more modern/post/fancy as you move further east and north. This is a simple rule of thumb to decide what sorta stuff you wanna do.
I think it makes it easier if you decide to go to a certain neighbourhood and look around, and my guide (however long my laptop has battery until it dies in the cafe here in SF) will kinda follow that. I try to star ★ things I really and highly recommend, but at the end of the day some places will be a lot more fun if you know Mandarin. That’s not to say you shouldn’t try.
Public transportation
in Taipei is great during operating hours. Get an “easycard” (reloadable public transit card), but don’t just buy a plain one. Any convenient store will sell artist collab cards that are cute. They even sell them in KEYCHAIN form. My easycard keychain is a bottle of Taiwan Beer. These cards will work in major cities across the country even though they seem to use different systems
- Busses come every 2-5 mins during rush hour and 10-20 mins otherwise
- We call the subway MRT and people will understand that when you ask for directions
- You can also use the easycard to rent city bikes! There are bike lanes, but its design is half-assed so there are times you're forced to bike on the streets. Nevertheless it's a good option to get somewhere quickly
- I barely find the day passes/week passes affordable even for frequent commuters
- Uber and Taxi are good for off hour transportation. Taxis are fine for shorter trips but Uber is probably easier cause most Taxi drivers can’t speak English, but I wouldn’t worry about them taking the long way
Misc Stuff
- Bribing with cash doesn’t work in Taiwan
Food
You’ll get food pretty much 24/7
Breakfast starts as early as 3am, and usually goes until 11am. A lot of places are strictly breakfast only
- ★★★豆漿店 Traditional Chinese places are called Soy Milk Stores, they sell savoury food and it’s what I miss the most moving to North America
- Morning wet markets are fun to walk around - they’re usually the same place where night markets take place
- 美式早餐店 “Americanized” Breakfast is a whole genre of bastardized burgers and sandwiches cooked on a grill. The lowest grade of milk tea is served here but we fucking love it
Lunch/Dinner is pretty much the same when it comes to offerings BUT most places close to rest between 2pm-5pm which makes it a food desert for a while so keep that in mind. When you see employees eat at their own stores you know you missed their hours
- ★★★Re Chao / Seafood restaurants are stores that have very low seating for some reason, but with daily catch and a big list of food that are 3$ a dish, rice ayce. They’re everywhere, search 熱炒
Night Markets start around 5 but aren't fully operating until 7ish. It’s a bummer that our attempt to improve our night market means a lot of the night markets end up selling the same shit everywhere, so I would go to a couple big ones
Convenient Stores can satisfy your cravings anytime, anywhere. Some of the microwaveable food is amazing, don't sleep on some quick curry
3rd wave coffee is as expensive here as SF, for cheap and quick stick to convenient stores or Louisa Coffee
DO NOT trust google reviews, everyone gives it 5 stars to get something out of it (just look at pictures)
Nightlife
- Cocktail culture is growing strong here, very fun combo and fun presentation
- Big clubs are lame, stick to genre specific, ones I know: FINAL, Pawnshop
- You can rent Karaoke booths any time of the day - can come with food and drinks, or corkage fee. May have limited English songs. Only go to big chains
Finding places to eat on the spot:
- I’ve been slowly curating on this My Maps. You should be able to save this and overlay on your own google maps
- Michelin bib gourmand covers a good list of places
- Here are some other shit that’s not on my maps list that you can copy and paste to find what you want:
- 素食 vegetarian food
- 冰店 ★ iced dessert store please go
- 小吃 “little eat” aka places for food that’ll be around 4$ a meal
- 傳統市場 aforementioned traditional wet markets
Neighbourhoods
Wan Hua 萬華★
OG Taipei: old rich, temples, traditional holiday offering, red light district, gang presence, say hi to my grandma, still safer than SF
Places to go:
- LongShan temple: biggest temple in the city that houses 20 some gods and where I prayed for good grades and girlfriends
- Grass Jelly alley right next to LS Temple - get the tea made with the herb to make grass jelly or bitter tea if you’re adventurous
- Red Light District: The spine of the red light district tea houses, you only see activities after dark, if you want to check it out just keep your hands crossed to yourself, don’t stop walking while politely say no thank you to the mamas, and don’t be an idiot taking your camera out. It’s safe to walk especially if you’re in a group and just stay low key
- DaDaoCheng: used to be the economic port in the late 1800s now converted to a 30 mile riverside park
- DiHua Street: Holiday goods and all the traditional foods and shit, also houses a traditional fabric mall. Small but bustling temple that I pray for $$$ next to it
- HuaXi Street Night Market: Food-focused night market, used to be famous for live snake and turtle shit that’s 100% animal abuse, now they still serve the same dishes but without the spectacle
- XiMen Walking District: totally a copy of Shinjuku in Japan, houses all the (kinda outdated) Japanese fashion and entertainment in this region. Eat at food stalls and shop for cheesy ass clothes
Zhong Shan 中山
Revived area that went from boring outdated malls to not-so-outdated malls with artisanal and boutiques. Start from the MRT Station and go from there
- ★2nd hand and vintage stores: A good mix of curated and general second hand attire
- Eslite bookstore: where artisanal stores jerk off to themselves if they get approved to set up shop and the bookstore takes a 40% cut of what they sell there. Still worth going
- Lots of Izakayas (japanese bar and grill)
- There is a underground pathway that spans one MRT station north and and one station south from Zhong Shan, okay stores but great for avoiding the weather while traversing through around that region
- Taipei Main Station is cram school central, so lots of student-oriented (ie cheap) food is here, stretching down to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
Yuan Shan 圓山 / Shi Lin 士林
- ★Shi Lin Night Market: Biggest and also the most touristy night market in the city. Street level stalls are mostly in the north half of the night market and there are underground ones (mediocre and probably still closed from covid) at the South tip
- Flora Expo Park that’s now just a big park that stretches to part of another riverside park. Occasional farmer’s market
- ★National Palace Museum: Probably more Chinese than current China - when Mao condemned traditional Chinese culture in favour of communism, Chinese Nationalist took a bunch of Chinese Artifacts while they retreated to Taiwan, and put everything here
- Grant Hotel Taipei is as iconic a building as Taipei 101 - there’s a small exhibition on the hotel having US presidents and other important people staying here. Just visit if you end up feeling a hike in the hill next to it or wanna kill some time
SongShan 松山 / Xin Yi 信義
Literally the opposite end of the city: new rich, consumerism central, modern and fancy shit
- ★Short hike up Elephant Mountain to get a glimpse of Taipei 101 that used to be the tallest building until middle eastern oil money build something way bigger
- ★Raohe Night Market: probably my most favourite “tourist nightmarket” in the city. Two lanes of food and shit so you can walk one lane and the other lane back
- Eslite bookstore HQ: the main building where artisanal stores jerk off to themselves if they get approved to set up shop and the bookstore takes a 40% cut of what they sell there. Still worth going
- SongShan Park: old cigarette factory turned art venue. Oh yeah there’s an eslite bookstore there too
- Sun Yat-Sun memorial: Mr Nationalist gets a park to fight against communist China
- Massive shopping centers in case you need to cool off
- Everything left of this this general area along the MRT lines is popping - restaurants, bars, cafes, boutiques, etc fill up all most small streets - generally more trendy cosmopolitan vibes
Da An 大安
Take the MRT to Dong Men and start from there:
- OG Ding Tai Feng is here, very touristy, in fact so touristy they built a second building across from the OG place
- There’s a forest park and flower market expanding three blocks underneath the expressway if you head east from DTF
- Yong Kang St and its branches have a bunch of food if you’re around the area
- Just south of it is Shi Da Night Market
- My friend’s dessert store please go support her
Wen Shan 文山
- ★Go to the Zoo (2$ entry, yes) to see some pandas and take the gondola up to the Mao Kong which is the tea mountain and drink tea at one of the 24hr tea houses, if the weather is nice
- Take the MRT to Gong Guan, the best university I can’t ever get into (neither did my parents so whatever). Some decent food and some light shopping. The National Taiwan University campus is pretty neat if you want to walk around
- ★Treasure Hill Artist Village is a series of once-illegally built houses that veterans stayed after they fought against communist China and were promptly forgotten by the government. Good news is now all remaining veterans are sanctioned to live there while empty units house art galleries/installation and artists
Other Misc Places
- This tiny block where you go to Guan Hua, Syntrend for all sorts of electronics and ★ DON DON DONKI aka Daiso on steroids. Next to it is ★ Huashan Creative Park which is my favourite aRiTiStIc hang out spot
- Bi Tan is at the south most end of the riverside park. You can rent a city bike and bike up all the way to Tamsui, then take the MRT back
- Yang Ming Mountain for wild sulfur hot springs, ★bath houses, and good views. Take the bus up from Shi Lin MRT station
There are expat bars if you guys need more english speaking people to revive or something
- BOBWUNDAYE
- Revolver (cover for music inside, just drink on the streets)
- Speakeasy
- Sappho Live (jazz, english friendly)
- Brass Monkey (don’t get food)
Quick trip out from Taipei
(1.5 hr out taking a mix of regional rail)
Old mining town turned into a tourist attraction. If you’ve watched Spirited Away then this place is the live version of it. People say Ghibili was inspired by this place but it’s totally bs. Nevertheless, totally worth going as a day trip and walk around the small streets that sells food, food, and eat food with the view
- Almost on the top of the hill Taro Tapioca Balls.
- Herbal or Taro “savoury mochi cake” that I can find ingredients here to make
Keelung
25 mins out without traffic by car, or 1hr is by bus/train
- Pretty boring during the day but there’s a ★seafood market that starts at 1am all the way until sun rise
- Go to the Keelung Night Market while you wait for the seafood market to start
- When the night market is closed there still sashimi and ★grilled sandwich
- An Aussie acquaintance Adam (he probably doesn’t remember my name even though he added me on facebook) has a ★cocktail dive bar decorated by whatever he can scavenge along the north coast.
Tamsui
(1 hr out taking the MRT to Tamsui Station)
The Dutch, Spaniards, and English all were here when they briefly colonized Taiwan.
- Red Hair City LMAO the place where westies set up shop
- You’ll walk past the old street to get there
Misc
- Houtong Cat Village: This little village with nothing but hella cats, same regional train line going to Jiufen, get off and pet cats if you have time
- Shenkeng is this little valley that’s really humid which is perfect for making stinky tofu, a bus up from Bi Tan
- We have a ferris wheel too I guess - this general district is rich people living in cramped apartments and a few big shopping malls. Meh
