This is the fourth installment of a series of blog posts about my 2026 trip to Taiwan. I’ve tagged them all with the taiwan tag so they should be easy to find!
After spending 5 days in the southern city of Kaohsiung it was time to change things up and head to the capital Taipei! I’ve already explained in some detail the speed rail journey between the two cities, so I won’t bore you with more of that. Suffice to say, we arrived in Taipei with little incident, though my girlfriend’s propensity to arrive just minutes before departure makes me into a nervous traveler. To be fair, it hasn’t failed her yet!
We left Kaohsiung around 1, and by 4 we had already checked into our hotel and were preparing to head out. My girlfriend had arranged to meet one of her friends from university and visit a convention, just outside of the 1914 industrial park, for a TV show called Crayon Shin-chan – a show about a 4 year old kid with a magic butt who gets into all kinds of mischief and speaks humorously to adults. I’m sure I’m not doing it justice, but that’s about what I was able to get out of it.
The convention was honestly not terrible and the show clearly has a huge following in Taiwan as it was quite busy. I was definitely the only foreigner there, which isn’t a surprise.
After the convention we grabbed dinner at a restaurant in a fairly high-end mall (yes, malls are just as popular in Taipei as they are in Kaohsiung) which served European style food that was actually pretty good (and much cheaper then it would have been in Europe!)
I also got my first glimpse of the famous Taipei 101 tower! Taipei 101 is most famous for its new year’s eve fireworks show which I’ve watched on satellite news feeds for many years now. It was cool to finally see the tower in person, after watching it on TV for so many years.
Taipei 101 is 101 stories tall, is the tallest structure in Taiwan, and until 2009 was the tallest building in the world. While most of the building is devoted to office space, there are several floors of Taipai 101 that make up a mall (shopping strikes again!) And the basement floor is a rather extensive food court. We didn’t spend too much time here this first night, just enough time for a bit of light window shopping and a snack, but I’d be back in a few days to check out the observation deck and the famous tuned mass damper!
The next day we headed back to the 1914 Creative park since it was one of the things that popped up on the list of “things to do in Taipei.” The space is a former industrial site which has been converted into a place for the artistic community to exhibit and sell their wears. Pop up shops can be found in all manner of nooks and crannies and at night I found a few bars which popped up featuring live music. It was an interesting place to explore.
Just outside the creative park is a farmers market on weekends and open grassy plaza which seems to be a popular place to congregate. Lots of vendors, families and even one woman taking her turtle out for a walk! The turtle was a hilarious show on it’s own – this woman showed up carrying her turtle, put it down on the grass and let it wander around for a few minutes, then picked it up again and continued on! I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it!
Just beyond the 1914 Creative Park is what I like to refer to as the “tech district” of Taipei, and I’m sure my girlfriend regrets showing me this area!
You know you’ve entered the tech district because the street art consists of old computer motherboards mounted to the support pillars of a bridge – truly something I’ve never seen anywhere else!
Across the street you are faced with a modern multi-story building, inside is a mall for tech stores! Asus, HP, Microsoft, Gigabyte, MSI, Acer they were all here! A one stop shop for any PC component imaginable! As someone who is used to a town having maybe one or two stores that sell PC components, seeing an entire mall devoted to it was shocking, and incredibly exciting!
And this was just the ground floor! On the upper floors there were stores that sold peripherals, software and accessories. There is also a food court and some entertainment venues. We spent around an hour playing a zombie shooting game at a virtual reality arcade. It was only my third experience with VR and was a lot of fun! While my girlfriend killed more zombies, my accuracy was an order of magnitude better, so I’ll consider that a win!
All this, by the way, was just in a single building. Leaving through the back doors, I found myself in a courtyard of sorts. To my right was a cacophony of shops and vendors who mostly seemed to sell tech items, and directly in front was a rather utilitarian looking multi story building. I thought it to be office space, but my girlfriend told me it was more tech shops. I just had to see this!
Inside was very possibly one of the highlights of my trip. 6 floors of vendors all squished into booths dedicated to selling electronic and computer components. If you could imagine it, someone was selling it! Stores devoted to handheld radios? check. Stored devoted to PC peripherals? check. Stores selling RF test equipment? check. Stores selling home audio equipment? check. Speakers? Check. That’s right, there is a vendor who sells nothing but speakers!!! I could have spent hours here, but I was cognisant of my girlfriend’s presence so I cut my visit short.
Outside, we wandered Westward down a narrow road, more vendors on each side (mostly tech-related) and eventually arrived at a two story building specialising in electronics components. Resistors, transistors, capacitors, connectors, wire and more. I spied at least three rows purely of RF and electrical connectors!
I finally managed to tare myself away with the prospect of lunch. Which we had at a cool little Japanese-style BBQ place which used robotic capsules to deliver the food. Peak Japan I think!
After lunch we headed to the Taipei main train station to catch a train to Jiufen Old street, a popular tourist area and niche shopping district built into the side of a mountain. This was the first time I had spent any length of time in Taipei Main Station (when we had arrived the other day my girlfriend and I exited almost immediately) and I was taken aback by the sheer size of it! My girlfriend warned me that it was not uncommon for people to get lost in Taipei Main, and I believed it; the station is a veritable sea of passageways, signs and fare gates; one wrong turn and you could be sidetracked for an hour or more. I made a mental note to leave plenty of time for getting lost in Taipei main when heading back to the airport.
We made it onto our train and before long I saw the outskirts of Taipei whizzing by as the train took us out of the city and into a more rural area.
I was actually quite surprised at how quickly the bustling metropolis of Taipei gave way to mountains and trees of rural Taiwan. There was a small corridor of buildings and population concentrated along the train line, but just beyond was what at least looked to be untouched nature.
After about an hour we arrived in Rueifang; a small town of about 40,000. From the Rueifang station a bus took us the rest of the way to Jiufen.
Jiufen is definitely a mountain village. To get there you follow a narrow two lane road which winds its way ever higher up through the mountains. I’m impressed that a vehicle as large as the city bus was able to navigate it with ease, but I guess these drivers are so used to it that the route is nothing to them.
The bus dropped us off along Ruijen Road, just a short walk from one of the entrances to Jiufen. On the way we stopped at an observation deck to soak up the scenery and gosh was it beautiful! Green mountains rolling into a blue ocean below. Off to the right it was possible to spy a massive temple nestled in among the trees. Blue skies punctuated by a few white cumulus clouds completed the picturesque scene. It is a truly awe-inspiring image.
After taking a few moments to breath it all in, we turned to the chaos that was Jiufen.
The most similar thing I would describe to Jiufen Old Street would be Seattle’s Pike Place market. Like Pike Place, Jiufen consists of narrow halls lined on either side with restaurants, vendors and shops where it’s possible to buy all manner of things. Unlike Pike Place, Jiufen is built into the side of a mountain, and is much more expansive. I could have spent an entire day here, exploring all the nooks and crannies, deadend streets and mysterious passageways. Alas, it was already late afternoon by the time we arrived, so time was of the essance.
Jiufen is busy! It’s natural beauty, unique shopping and plentiful tea rooms make it a popular tourist spot, and I found myself dodging and darting to different sides of the narrow alleys to avoid massive tour groups. Jiufen is delightfully eclectic. None of the passages are straight and none of the buildings line up quite right, yet nothing seemed out of place and everything seemed to have purpose. Despite the crowds (I’m not usually one for busy places) I quite enjoyed Jiufen and regret not being able to spend more time here.
One of the most popular things to do in Jiufen is to pause for a snack at one of the many tea houses in the village. My girlfriend and I lucked out and managed to snag a perfect spot on the patio of one such tea house where we were able to watch the sunset in style!
Making traditional Taiwanese tea is a complicated, multi-step process that our server was patient enough to walk us through. Making it was fun, and after the second attempt I think I got the ratios just right! We were also served a variety of desserts, and most of them were pretty tasty.
The place was busy – every table was full but it wasn’t overly loud or uncomfortable. In typical Taiwanese efficiency, we were given the bill right away and told to stay and enjoy our tea, but feel free to leave at any time! I didn’t feel rushed at all, but it was an amusing way of putting it!
After tea, the sun had set and the plethora of lanterns adorning the alleys were illuminated, creating a magical ambiance. On our way back to the bus stop, I spied a number of cats, and while I have no hard evidence to back this up, I got the distinct impression that wandering cats are a part of the Juifen experience.
It was late by the time we got back to Taipei, and we checked into our hotel well after 10pm. This was one of the most amusing hotels I had stayed at so far – unique sculptures adorned the lobby and entrance creating quite an artistic vibe.
The next day was my girlfriend’s last full day in Taiwan, as she was to fly back home to London early the next morning. We spent the first half of our day sorting out some banking issues she was having and had lunch at a nice little Thai restaurant.
I wanted to check out the Maokong Gondola, so we decided to make it a two for one and visit the Taipei zoo at the same time. Just my luck, the Panda exhibit was closed, so I’d have to wait for another time to see what are arguably the world’s most cuddly bears. The penguin exhibit was a decent consolation prize.
The Maokong Gondola is truly the most impressive gondola I’ve ever been on! It spans over 4km and ascends the Maokong mountain, 300 meters up. To ride from the bottom to the top is roughly 12 minutes, and offers stunning views of Taipei, and the surrounding jungle all the way up! For a nominal fee, you can ride in a cabin with the glass bottom and stare at the ground far below you if you dare (I did)!
At the top, there are a few tea houses, though a lot of the attractions were closed by the time we get there. We did have a chance to stop in at one Japanese-style tea house which has some awesome decor including a water feature and little booths where you sat inside to enjoy your tea. This was also the first time I tried Taiwan pineapple beer, which was remarkably good!
The final thing we did was head to the Ximending district of Taipei to check out the lantern festival. Ximending gives off times-square vibes with lots of screens and billboards in the main intersection. It’s a popular place with the younger crowd and with the LGBTQ+ community.
There is definitely a lot of energy here! Even though it was getting quite late, the bright lights and busy streets kept me pumped and I didn’t really feel tired at all!
The Taipei airport is actually located in the city of Taoyuan and is about a 45 minute drive from the city center in Taipei. Because my girlfriend was leaving early the next day, we decided to get accommodations close to the airport, rather then in the city center. This would be my first experience with a Taiwanese motel!
In North America, a motel is a place where you park outside, and your room is accessible directly from the parking lot. Here, it’s a similar concept, however, each room had a separate garage and the room was accessed from the garage. The whole place felt quite institutional, and with all the rows of rolling garage doors it felt more like a self storage facility then a motel!
Despite the utilitarian exterior, the suites were actually very nice, featuring a shower, jacuzzi tub, couch and even massage chair. I’ve since come to discover that this was likely one of Taiwan’s many “love motels” where couples can check in and spend a night doing… well… you get the picture! While this might seem like a bit of a seedy idea based on prudish North American standards, it’s actually supposedly fairly common in Taiwan. It was explained to me that for a country where it’s common for multiple generations to live together in one house, having a private place for couples to get together is an important service, and it totally makes sense! Overall, I was pretty happy with my “love motel” experience, and the proximity to the airport was a huge plus.
At 6:30 my alarm rudely awakened me and I was able to rouse my girlfriend from her slumber and get her to the airport for her morning flight. I still had over 36 hours to myself in Taiwan as my flight wasn’t until 11PM the next day, so as I bid her farewell I began to consider how I wanted to spend the rest of my time in this unique place.