This is the final 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!
I was at the Taipei airport and had just seen my girlfriend off on her flight to London, but had another 36 hours or so in Taiwan. Up until this point my girlfriend had been my sort of security blanket, but now I had been set loose to fend for myself in a country where I didn’t speak the language and was visiting for the first time! It was exciting, and a bit nerve wracking at the same time!
My first order of business was to find a new hotel. I knew I wanted to revisit the “tech district” near the 1914 creative park, and since it was a good deal, I ended up booking the same hotel we had stayed at on our fist night – just a stone’s throw away from the park. I stopped at the hotel to check-in and was actually given the same room I had two nights previous with my girlfriend!
I then made a list of the things I wanted to do: I wanted to re-visit Taipei 101 and see the observation deck, I wanted to check out Elephant Mountain as it was supposed to be an extremely popular hiking spot, and, of course, I needed to spend more time in that tech-centric department store!
I started my day in the tech food court with some delicious Japanese Udon soup. I was, for the most part, restricting my diet to restaurants that had pictures I could point at!
Next up was a good few hours in the tech department store where it was possible to buy just about every electronic component imaginable. Being a HAM radio operator, I knew I wanted to buy a new handheld radio as a souvenir (owning too many handhelds is a right of passage for all HAM radio operators). I took my time wandering the many booths and really soaking up the atmosphere. I took photos of all the various handhelds, so I could do a bit of research on my own and figure out what to buy.
After I spent what felt like probably too much time drooling over radios, I decided to take transit to Elephant Mountain. I planned to hike the mountain, then head on to Taipei 101 and catch the observation deck near sunset, as this was the most recommended time to visit.
Across from the electronics components store I descended into what I thought was an underground metro station. Boy was I wrong! While this wasn’t the train that I wanted, it was something way cooler – an underground electronics department store!!! It was basically an inverted version of the place I had spent the morning! From a quick browse, it appeared to be more related to test-equipment and components, rather then assembled goods, but I knew I needed to head back later and check it out!
Back topside, I made my way to the correct underground entrance and hopped a train towards Elephant mountain.
I needed to transfer trains near the Taipei dome baseball field and after surfacing I began looking for the next station, when something down the road caught my eye – a large multi-story grey building emblazoned with the words ‘CTS.’ I thought to myself “this looks like a television station.”
My instincts were correct – I had accidentally stumbled upon the headquarters of Chinese Television Systems – one of just six free to air broadcasters in Taiwan. Because I have a weird fascination with broadcast television (after all, I did purchase a decommissioned cable TV headed in Alberta) I wandered over to snap some photos. I didn’t spend too long there, lest I arouse suspicion being the weird foreigner taking photos of critical infrastructure, but I did quite enjoy my serendipitous discovery.
My detour complete, I headed onward to the metro station to complete my journey to Elephant Mountain.
I descended the steps into the metro, buzzed through the fare gates and then stopped in my tracks. This place looked awful familiar… turns out I had managed to get myself turned around, and I had gone right back into the station I had exited just a few minutes before! I buzzed out of the fare gates (getting charged a few dollars for my trouble) and headed topside to find the station I was supposed to transfer at.
After a few minutes of looking at Google Maps in perplexity I finally figured out that I wasn’t transferring to another train, I was transferring to a bus! I found that buses in Taipei were significantly less English-friendly then the trains; there was no English on the signs, and Google Maps was refusing to tell me route numbers for whatever reason! I rolled the dice and hopped on one of the buses that showed up at the time Google said it should show up and hoped for the best!
I’ve written previously about the melody’s which signal the arrival of trains in Taipei, well it turns out the buses are just as musical. Whenever someone pulled the stop cord (which was a lot) the bus would blurt out a few bars of what I assume to be a traditional Chinese song. It was a neat novelty for the first few stops, but got annoying pretty fast!
Fortunately, I had boarded the correct bus, and after about 10 minutes was disembarking a short walk away from Elephant Mountain. By this time it had begun to drizzle, which didn’t thrill me, but I was already there so I figured I wold brave the elements and get this hike out of the way!
To get to the top of Elephant Mountain you climb a set of stairs. And then another set. And then another one. So many stairs! By the time I was a few hundred steps in, I was thankful for the cooling effects of the rain!
It was quite a workout, but the hike was rewarding. After 20 minutes of climbing through fairly dense vegetation, I found myself in a clearing, with a spectacular view of the city and Taipei 101! The rain did a good job of keeping others away, so I had the observation platform all to myself as I feasted my eyes on the view.
I noted that Taipei 101 was clouded near the top, and figured that would have a detrimental impact on my experience at the observation deck. But I was already pretty close and had limited time left in Taipei, so I figured I would press on and at least give it a chance.
The walk from Elephant Mountain to Taipei 101 takes 15-20 minutes and by the time I got there I was ready for a snack. I headed though the mall and down to the food court for a coffee and pastry, and to plan my next moves.
I found a webcam on Taipei 101, and although it was cloudy I could still make out some of the sights, so I figured I’d roll the dice, pay the CAD $30 and head up to see what there was to see.
To access the 89th floor observation deck you purchase tickets on floor 5F, and then ride the world’s fastest elevator some 380 meters straight up. At it’s fastest, the elevator goes a whopping 60km/hr which gets you to the observation level in just over 25 seconds. It’s so fast your ears are likely to pop!
After leaving the elevator you find yourself in an open, 360 degree area with windows all around and cute little scenes setup for taking photographs in.
My initial view of outside was a disappointment; an opaque white backdrop of clouds was all I could see initially, however, the winds were in my favor and after a few minutes the clouds drifted away and I could see Taipei from a whole new perspective. Throughout my time on floor 89, the clouds would come and go and I think it actually enhanced my experience, as I got to see the city slowly emerge from the fog a few times!
One of the highlights of the observation deck is the tuned mass damper. Visible from the 89th and 88th floors. The damper is essentially a giant pendulum which works as a counterweight to counteract the swaying effect of a building at such a height. During a windstorm (or earthquake!), the tower naturally sways, but the damper sways in the opposite direction, neutralizing the motion of the tower and keeping things stable. It sounds simple enough, but the amount of engineering that needed to go into getting the weight and size of the damper just right must have been incredible.
The thing weighs in at 660 tons and is suspended by just 4 steel cables. In the entrance to the damper room they have screen showing videos of it in action – swaying and bouncing during earthquakes and storms while the rest of the tower is still.
By this time it was getting late, so I headed back to my hotel for some rest.
By the time I got back to my hotel, I realized I was getting hungry, but most places seemed to be closing by that time. 7-11 was always an option, but I recalled seeing some restaurants in the tech district, so I figured I would head there and see if I could find anything with pictures.
I found the one place that was still open, and successfully managed to order some beef noodle soup. Which was quite good. I stopped at 7-11 for some delicious pineapple buns before heading back for some sleep.
My final day in Taiwan began with yet another visit to the tech district; I needed to buy my souvenir handheld radio, and had done all the research on the various models available and made my selection. It took less time then I had expected, even with the language barrier, and before long I had my shiny new souvenir handheld to take home!
I also wanted to check out the underground electronics store and headed there next. My initial assessment was correct – most of the vendors here were specializing in components – resistors, capacitors, diodes and the like. Having all this available at a moment’s notice must be fabulous for electronics hobbyists in the area! I can attest to having many electronics projects sidelined because I was missing a component. Being able to just go somewhere and buy one would be amazing! I stopped at one of the vendors and picked up some RF adapters that I figured I would need in the future. Might as well vs buying them online!
By this time, it was barely noon, so I needed to fill about 12 more hours on this rainy day before my flight. I audited the amount of cash I had left – some $100 TWD in coins. I wanted to spend it all on my last day if possible.
I ended up at the National Taiwan Museum. This is the oldest museum in Taiwan and the entrance fee is only $30 TWD. Just $60 more to send!
The museum has a large collection of artifacts from the indigenous population, and a great display about the modern history of Taiwan. It’s also full of various specimens of the flora and fauna that can be found on the island. Turns out Taiwan has some of the most concentrated biodiversity anywhere in the world!
I spent more time in the museum then I expected to, which was a plus. Then I found out my entrance fee actually got me into another museum as well. The so-called dinosaur museum!
Across the street from the main museum is the Land Bank Exhibition Hall. Its a former bank building which was turned into an extension of the national museum in 2010. The hall currently houses a dinosaur exhibit which was pretty cool, as well as an exhibit about banking history in Taiwan. One of the highlights for me was visiting the old vault, which has been opened up for tourists.
After the museum’s closed around 5, I stepped across the street to visit a cool little cafe and spent my last $60 on a latte and cheese toast.
By 6PM I figured it was time to head to the airport, allowing plenty of time to get lost on the way. I arrived at Taipei Main Station and tried to follow the signage to the airport metro line.
I spied a first sign for the airport MRT with an arrow that looked like it was pointing down an escalator, so down I went. Then at the bottom I spied another sign pointing up, so back up I went. Then at the top, another sign that looked to be pointing back down the same escalator! I was officially lost in Taipei Main station! A rite of passage!
I eventually broke out of my up the escalator, down the escalator loop and wandered around until I saw a new sign for the airport line pointing in a completely different direction. I followed it, and was rewarded with another sign pointing the same way. Hooray! I was making progress.
The walk from my entrance to the platform was long. While my perception of time was a little bit skewed I could swear I was walking non-stop for at least 15 minutes. At last I was rewarded by the fare gates and the platform below.
Before buzzing through the gates, I looked up the balance on my Easy Card. Not quite enough to take the train to the airport! Had it not been for my faux-pas at the CTS metro station the day before, I would have had enough! Rats! Time to load more money onto my card.
Loading money on an Easy Card is an… interesting process. The kiosk’s only accept cash, so to top it up you need to visit an ATM, withdraw $100, walk over to the Easy Card Kiosk and insert your $100 to top your card up. It seems backwards to convert digital currency to fiat, only to convert it immediately back to digital, but c’est la vie. Here we were.
I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, breezed through security and passport control, then found myself in a departure hall unlike any I had seen before!
First of all there was the shopping! Oh the shopping! I feel there are at least as many shops in the Taipei airport as there are gates.
Then there are the themed gates. TPE has some normal gates where there is a cluster of seats around a monitor, but then they have gates that are decorated in a theme. There’s the forest gate, the Hello Kitty gate, the metaverse gate, the movies gate, the Lego gate, and oh so much more! I’m kind of glad I got to the airport so early, because there was just so much to see!
My favorite place to sit was at the forest-themed gate (C1). Comfortable seats and a table with power outlets meant I was able to setup with my laptop for a few hours and get some work done.
Overall, I enjoyed my time in Taiwan more then I thought I would. Kaohsiung and Taipei are vastly different cities, with Taipei feeling much more Western then Kaohsiung; I’m glad I was able to visit both. Even when I was on my own, I didn’t feel terribly uncomfortable, though I do have to say I’m glad I was on my own in Taipei, rather then Kaohsiung! I feel that if I knew more then just two words in Mandarin, I might actually be able to have a good time on my own for more then 36 hours, which is not something that I expected.
I think the highlights of my trip were, of course, Taipei’s “tech district,” Jiufen Old Street, Kaohsiung’s Peer 2 area, and monkey mountain. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, but I think it’s definitely on the list of places to return to!