Taiwan 🇹🇼
Taipei
Tips
- Taipei (and Taiwan in general) has many excellent night markets. My earliest memories of visiting family here as a child is sitting on a small plastic stool hunched behind a vendor, being dazzled by the variety of dishes and flavours. Be adventurous and open-minded, and you’ll be well-rewarded.
- Taipei is the most English-friendly city in Taiwan, but you’ll still have to translate many menus and shop signs.
Attractions
Incredible museum, one of the largest collections of Chinese artefacts in the world. I particularly enjoy their collection of miniature, highly ornate objects — especially the Meat-Shaped Stone, a piece of jasper carved to look like pork belly.
Cute shopping district showcasing local craft vendors and unique pop-ups.
Food
The best 牛肉面 (beef noodle soup) that I had. Partially because I’m a sucker for pickled garlic slices, but also the soup elements were excellently prepared and seasoned.
Enjoyed the garlic and squid flavours of the Black King Kuroo ramen here.
If you’re up the Maokong Gondola already, we enjoyed their set meal for 3-4 people showcasing their tea-infused dishes.
Good steamed bao buns for cheap (15 NTD/bun in 2023).
Massive bubble tea pints with traditional smaller tapioca pearls. We also enjoyed their crispy taro balls filled with egg yolk custard.
Very popular, long-standing spot that has won many Bib Gourmand awards for its traditional Taiwanese breakfast items: soy milk and 燒餅油條 (sesame flatbread wrapped around a warm fried bread stick and egg). The queue is often intimidatingly long, but it moves quick and it means the food is so fresh.
Day Trips
Beautiful hikes through silver grass and semi-wild water buffalo pastures.
Cute coastal town! Would recommend going to a tea house, we went to A-MEI Tea House and enjoyed it!
Quaint hot spring town well-suited for relaxation and mingling with locals. I enjoyed the Beitou Hot Spring Museum, Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch, and Beitou Public Hotspring.
Alishan
Attractions
Even though the view at the top was, well, un-viewable, the forest this trail winds through had such a fascinating ethereal quality when it was cloudy.
Zhushan Sunrise Observation Deck
If the weather permits, I’d recommend taking the sunrise train from Alishan Train Station to see the sun rise over the clouds. They release the departure time of the following day on their website and at the station — for reference, mine was at 4:30am.
Food
Cozy food, healing for a cloudy and chilly evening.
Sun Moon Lake
Housing
Fleur de Chine Hotel Sun Moon Lake
If you’re looking to treat yourself, this is a magnificent hotel with excellent views of the lake and luxurious breakfast and dinner buffets.
Attractions
The key attractions around the lake to hit are Xuan Zang Temple, Ci’en Pagoda, and Wenwu Temple. If you’re comfortable biking next to cars, I’d recommend cycling the loop, especially if the weather’s nice. We got our bikes from 伊達邵逍遙人自行車店 Xiao yao bike.
Food
Crispy fried rolls filled with fish paste and topped with chili sauce. One of the many good snacks in the Ita Thao Shopping District.
Drink
Good black tea and tea-infused ice cream.
Hualien
Attractions
This is what people to come to Hualien for, and for good reason. Majestic canyons, lush greenery, and great hiking trails. We walked a total of 30K, starting from Taroko National Park Visitor Center, eating in Tianxiang Recreation Area, and ending at Baiyang Trail, but that could’ve been reduced by taking more buses. I loved coming early in the morning while the fog still curls into the valley, obscuring the true height of the cliffs.
Food
If you’re looking for cheap food to fill up on, this place sold tasty, small steamed buns for 5 TWD (as of 2023).
Tainan
Attractions
Neat night market. I enjoyed the candied sweet potato stall (unfortunately I can’t find it on GMaps). Fun to watch the various carnival games, like mahjong bingo.
Food
Good place for popiah, a traditional spring roll, with the classic Taiwanese flavours of garlic, cilantro, and sugared peanuts.
The wok hei (smoky flavour infused with a wok) on these eel noodles made this dish so delicious.
Good shaved ice at this café, with some cute shops in Hayashi Department Store below.
