[Taiwan] Travel Tips

Taiwan is a great travel destination. There are a lot of places of interest, the infrastructure is great, people are friendly, and while English is not an official language, it's easy enough to communicate with the locals. It's quite easy for tourists to get around. The MRT stations are quite easy to figure out and you can also use Uber here. While my family and I used the MRT stations for the most part, we also did use Uber once. We used Uber to get from Liberty Square to Longshan Temple because the walking distance from Liberty Square to the nearest MRT station was about 10 minutes and the Uber ride was not too expensive so I thought it would be smart to save a bit of time and energy since we still had a long day ahead.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Liberty Square

That said, if you don't speak the local language, it might be best to avoid taxis. We saw so many taxis around that my mom suggested that we take one from the Bopiliao Historical Block to the Red House in Ximending (instead of an Uber). I showed the taxi driver the location of Red House on my phone and asked him if he could take us there and he said he could but it turned out we didn't communicate all that well and he brought us to the wrong place. We tried hailing another taxi where we were dropped off but the driver of that next taxi also couldn't understand where we wanted to go. I wasn't sure where we were so I didn't want to get an Uber. We ended up walking until we found an MRT station. That long walk was not too bad though because the weather was cool and we did get to see some parts of the city that we would otherwise not have seen.

Random photo from our walk along the streets of Taipei

I was also initially planning to take an Uber from the airport to our hotel but before booking one, I compared the Uber trip price to that of one of the the car rental companies at the airport. Interestingly enough, car rental was marginally cheaper so I booked that one instead. The man who drove us gave us his calling card in case we wanted a ride to the airport on our departure date and I availed of that offer as well.

A bright and lively sculpture at the Taiwan airport

I mentioned in my previous post that we stayed at the Caesar Park Hotel Taipei because it was right in front of the Taipei Main Station. If you are like buying souvenirs, you won't really find any at the Taipei Main Station. Most of the souvenirs we got were from the places we visited such as Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the souvenir shop right next to our hotel.

Souvenirs from the shop at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

When you go to Jiufen, make sure you have cash (new Taiwan dollar). Many shops in Jiufen, including Lao Zhen Xiang Bakery with its delicious pineapple cakes, don't accept credit cards. Also, when you go to Jiufen, be ready for the large crowds and tight walking spaces. Be ready as well to go up and down Shuqi Road, which is where A-Mei Teahouse is.

Scenic view from Jiufen

Speaking of pineapple cakes, a few of my friends told me that I need to visit Chia Te because according to then, this bakery makes the best pineapple cakes. You can actually buy Chia Te products in 7-Eleven but the price there is about 50% more than if you buy in their main store along Nanjing E Road so my family and I went to the main store. However, if you go in the very late afternoon - I believe we got there at around 5pm - you need to be ready for extremely long lines. I ended up being in line for about 45 minutes and it took me only about 5-10 minutes to get the stuff I wanted to buy and pay for it. That's a total  of 50 minutes or more at Chia Te. Crazy!

Very long queue outside the Chia Te store

I assume that if you go earlier in the morning, or on an off-hour, the queue won't be too long. However, because I was told that the lines here move quickly, I thought that it would still be okay to wait. That turned out to be "fake news" haha. My friend told me that Chia Te is the gold standard because you will see people buying boxes full of their products but I think that the reason why they buy lots of stuff is because you wait in the queue for so long that you feel that buying more products will make the long wait worth it. And it means you don't have to go back again soon.

A couple bought a box of Chia Te products!

While I didn't get a box full of goodies, I certainly got a whole lot myself. Thankfully, I really do like their pineapple cake.

Chia Te Bakery

I decided to go to Chia Te because I realized that the nearest MRT station to it (Nanjing Sanmin Station) is only on stop away from Raohe Night Market (Songshan Station). So after our shopping spree at Chia Te, we headed over to Raohe Night Market. There are no common seating areas here which means you really do need to be standing on the street while you eat. There are a few shops that do provide minimal seating but you need to be eating at that shop in order to sit down. I didn't catch the name of one of these places where we got to enjoy some xiao long bao and beef noodles. The disposable bowl that my noodles were served in was really cute too!

Cute disposable bowl of beef noodles at Raohe Night Market

A friend of mine highly recommended the popular meat buns at the Raohe Night Market because he loved them. The place that serves these is called Fuzhou Black Pepper Buns and it is a Michelin Bib Gourmand awardee. It was quite easy to spot it because it is near the entrance and they have a sign that says Michelin Bib Gourmand. Strangely enough, when I got there, there was no line so I got my family one meat bun each. (There was a long line later that evening.) We didn't eat the meat buns immediately. I figured since they were wrapped in paper, we could take them back with us to our hotel and enjoy them later in the evening. That would allow us to try other items at the Night Market. Unfortunately, I feel like these buns are better eaten after being freshly made (or warm, at the very least) because when I ate mine, it wasn't as good as I was expecting. Moral of the story: eat the black pepper buns while they are hot!

Fuzhou Black Pepper Buns at Raohe Night Market

A unique discovery at the Raohe Night Market: potato balls. My nephew saw them and thought he wanted to try them and they were surprisingly better than expected. I've never had potato balls before but they are like the Filipino carioca, but not as sweet and without the burnt sugar crust.

Potato balls at the Raohe Night Market

I used Klook to book the two tours we took as well as pocket WiFi. There are a couple of important things to know about booking tours via Klook. First, you need to pay attention to the inclusions. For instance, our Jiufen, Shifen, and Yehliu Geopark tour included a visit to Shifen but not the tickets to the Sky Lantern experience (we booked that separately, also on Klook). The tour also included a visit to Yehliu Geopark but not the entrance (we also booked that separately). That said, you can get those passes while you are on the tour (it's not like you miss out on the chance to enjoy these experiences if you fail to book in advance). The tour guides will also help you out.

Yehliu Geopark

Second, at least for the tours we took in Taiwan, you need to check the email a day before the tour to see the final details. We discovered on our first tour that because there were so many people who booked the same tour, they actually had multiple buses and multiple tour guides. One of the guides told me to check my email to see which tour guide we were assigned to. The guides we had were great. They kept repeating details to make sure everyone on the bus understood instructions such as where we would regroup after going on our own ways and at what time.

Miyahara Ice Cream Store

I will say though that my pocket WiFi rental through Klook was quite risky. This is because the place I rented it from, which has a stall at the airport, required me to write down my credit card details including the CVV code. I raised a concern about this but they said that this was necessary so that they could charge any damage to the rented equipment back to me. I decided to risk it mainly because the credit card I had was expiring soon and I already had my replacement card which I could activate as soon as I got home. Thankfully, I didn't incur any fraudulent charges but I don't think I will recommend renting pocket WiFi here. (My main reason for doing renting is because I was with my family and I thought it would be easier and cheaper to just have pocket WiFi that everyone can connect to rather than to sort out the individual data roaming promos for each member of my family.)

Gaomei Wetlands

If you get to visit the National Palace Museum, try to check the website to see if the two main attractions - the Jadeite  Cabbage and the Meat-shaped Stone - are available for viewing. I would still recommend going even if one or both of them aren't there, but at least you would know up front and won't be disappointed if you don't see them. I told my family in advance that the Jadeite Cabbage wasn't there during our visit so it wasn't too disappointing that we didn't see it. We did get to see a lot of other great stuff. One additional artifact worth seeing is the boat carved from an olive stone. I think I may have seen it but didn't pay that much attention because I have no picture of it. It's amazing to think how much sculptural detail was achieved and how much expertise was required to create that tiny masterpiece, with its moveable windows.

These jade artifacts were on display while the main Jadeite Cabbage was unavailable

The cafe at the entrance of the National Palace Museum is pretty good. My family and I had a late lunch here after spending a few hours going around the museum and we enjoyed our food. It was almost full when we were there but thankfully, we still managed to get a table.

XianJuFu Cafe at the National Palace Museum

I also took a photo of the bus schedules to the National Palace Museum.

National Palace Museum bus schedules

Finally, if you want a bit more convenience, get an Easy Card. You can purchase these at any 7-Eleven (and maybe other places) and top it up at 7-Eleven as well. The empty card cost 150 NTD or about P300 so you need to load money into your card when you buy it but in the end, it did save us quite a bit of time as we no longer had to queue all the time for train tickets. We also used it for the bus to and from the National Palace Museum. When our cards still had some balance on our last day, I used that to purchase stuff from 7-Eleven.

My Easy Card in Taiwan

Next post: Final Thoughts

[Taiwan] Caesar Park Hotel in Taipei

Caesar Park Hotel Taipei was our homebase in Taiwan. I chose this hotel because it is located right across the street from the Taipei Main Station, which meant that it would be quite easy for us to get around Taipei. Furthermore, the two tours I booked - to Jiufen, Shifen, and Yehliu Geopark and to Taichung - both had pick-up points at the East 3 Gate of Taipei Main Station in the early morning so staying at a hotel near restaurants our two tours had early morning pick-up points at the Taipei train station. As such, it made sense to stay nearby, making Caesar Park Hotel Taipei a perfect choice.

Caesar Park Hotel Taipei

I stayed in a Superior Twin Room. It had two double beds and three chairs. It really is quite spacious and comfortable.

Superior Twin Room

The bathroom has a decent size. They provide liquid hand soap and the shampoo and body wash are in refillable containers in the shower/bathtub area.

Bathroom

The hotel doesn't have a large footprint, which also means that the lobby is a bit small. One very big downside of the lobby is that there is no available seating. There were a few chairs in the area but guests aren't allowed to sit on them; they seem to be just decorative. 

A lush and festive display at the lobby

There is an incredible wooden sculpture created by award-winning wood carving master Hsien Kuo Chen at the elevator area which I absolutely love!

Beautiful wood sculpture by Hsien Kuo Chen

There's a small cafe on the ground floor. Checkers, the main restaurant where breakfast is served, is on the second floor. We never got to try these places because we normally had our meals in the cafes and restaurants at the basement walkway from the hotel to the Taipei Main Station. You can get here directly from the elevators. It is this direct access to the MRT station that makes this hotel very convenient and a perfect choice for a stay in Taipei.

Cafe at the hotel lobby

While it doesn't have the best or most comfortable lobby, I still highly recommend Caesar Park Hotel Taipei primarily because of its location and the quality and comfort of the room. The Taipei Main Station is right next to it and you can head there through the basement passageway. There's a 7-Eleven along this basement passageway and a mall practically next door to the hotel. There are a lot of restaurants nearby. Right next to the lobby entrance is a souvenir shop that has some nice items (I ended up buying a few items here for me and my nephew). And if you're looking for ATMs that accept Philippine bank cards, there's a Cathay United bank just two blocks away. If I have a chance to revisit Taipei, I will stay at Caesar Park Hotel again.

Next: Taiwan Travel Tips

[Taiwan] Taichung

My family and I also took a day trip to Taichung. My main reason for wanting to see this second largest city in Taiwan is because I had seen photos taken by friends of their trips to the Rainbow Village and I thought it would be great if I could visit this place too. As I continued to read more about Taichung, I discovered so many other great attractions here so I looked for and booked a tour on Klook that included all the places I wanted to see.

Rainbow Village in Taichung

Our first stop was the Zhongshe Flower Market. One of the reasons I wanted to go here was because of its lavender field. Apparently, the best time to see lavender in Taiwan is from January to March but my research showed that this beautiful flower already starts to bloom in November so there was a good chance we would get to see it. And indeed we did!

Lavender field at Zhongshe Flower Market

There are thousands upon thousands of flowers that beautifully arranged into different sections, providing visitors with many cool spots where you can have your photo taken.

Zhongshe Flower Market

Taichung is a two-hour drive from Taipei so based on our itinerary, we would be at the Zhongshe Flower Market from around 11am to 12pm. Our tour guide gave us the option of ordering packed lunch that we could eat at the flower market. We figured there might not be enough time for us to have a more proper lunch during our tour so opted to have these packed lunches. We also ordered red bean milk tea to go with our meals. I gotta say, the packaging of our lunch was really cute!

The packaging of our packed lunch was really cute!

Our next stop was Miyahara Ice Cream. While we were on the bus, our tour guide told us that there are two branches of this very famous ice cream place in Taichung and they are just about two blocks away from each other. The original store at #20 Zhongshan Road doesn't have any guest seating so people who order ice cream here will not be able to sit down while eating. Those of us who wanted to enjoy some ice cream more comfortably headed to their newer store at #72 Zhongshan Road.

Miyahara Ice Cream at #72 Zhongshan Road

Practically everyone from our tour group had ice cream here. My family and I each ordered a sundae on a waffle cone (my nephew and I got two scoops while my mom got only one). Sundaes here are served with a butterfly-shaped cookie, a lemon biscuit, a smaller scoop of tea-flavored ice cream, and our choice of two more toppings (mine were pineapple cake and cheesecake). There is a whole variety of ice cream flavors here, some of which are quite unique. I got to try the  80% Uganda smoked chocolate and I think the strawberry yoghurt. The sundae option is quite expensive but it is perfect for a special treat on a special occasion and I do believe it is worth it, what with the delicious ice cream, the generous toppings, and the beautiful presentation.

Sundaes at Miyahara Ice Cream

What's really interesting is that this shop used to be a bank and they still kept many of the bank structures and designs, such as the vault doors.

Miyahara Ice Cream at #72 Zhongshan Road used to be a bank

After enjoying our ice cream and before boarding our bus, we decided to take a look inside the original store on #20 Zhongshan Road. Our tour guide told us that this building used to be an ophthalmology clinic during the Japanese colonial period. The clinic belonged to Miyahara Takeo so when the pastry company Dawn Cake acquired this building and turned it into an ice cream and pastry shop, they named it after him. Supposedly, this original Miyahara was designed to have a Harry Potter-esque look and feel and I definitely see it. While the exterior of this building looks pretty unremarkable, the interior is spectacular. If we had more time, I would have loved to look around the original store a bit more, take more photos, and maybe buy some goodies.

The original Miyahara Ice Cream at #20 Zhongshan Road

As if we hadn't had enough sugar yet, our next stop was Chun Shui Tang which is known to be the home of the original boba tea. Our tour included a stop at this legendary store and allowed us to try their original bubble milk tea. Our guide told us that he prefers the boba tea here to many other places because it really showcases the flavor of tea. The milk and sugar enhance its flavor without overwhelming. Indeed, it was  really good!

Original boba tea from Chun Shui Tang

Our next stop was the National Taichung Theater. We only had about 15 minutes or so here, so it was really just for us to have a chance to see this elegant structure from the outside...

National Taichung Theater

...as well as a bit on the inside. We got to see "The Score Takes Flight," an incredible gown made of folded music scores.

"The Score Takes Flight" inside National Taichung Theater

We then headed to the Rainbow Village. This small section of houses painted with vibrantly colorful images has a very heartwarming story. It used to be a settlement for military veterans before ex-soldier Huang Yung-Fu, who became known as Rainbow Grandpa, started painting the houses and the walls in this area in the hopes of preserving it and preventing it from being demolished.

Rainbow Village

While Rainbow Grandpa did manage to get the Rainbow Village preserved as a cultural art park to avoid complete destruction, large sections of the original area were demolished and redeveloped, leaving only 11 houses intact. Also, the Rainbow Village suffered from unfortunate acts of vandalism in 2022 and several of the original paintings created by Rainbow Grandpa had to be repainted (you can kind of tell that the style and even color of certain walls look a bit different from others). While I would have loved to see this landmark before it underwent significant changes, it was still very inspiring and uplifting to see it as it currently is.

All the animals of the Chinese zodiac are painted on the outside wall

When we arrived, our tour guide took us to one house with a cute mural that depicted different kinds of Taiwanese food such as xiao long bao, boba tea, pineapple cake, and beef noodles. He then drew our attention to a round food item a the bottom center and asked us what we thought it could be. Thankfully, I was listening to our guide on the bus when he told us that one of the popular desserts in Taichung is the suncake, which we could buy at the final stop of our tour. This led me to do a quick search on my phone of what a suncake was and I saw that it was a round pastry. So when our guide asked his question, I correctly guessed that it was a suncake. Because of that, my family and I were given the first opportunity to have our photo taken with that mural hahaha.

This mural showcases Taiwanese food

Sadly, Rainbow Grandpa passed away in 2024. However, he did live up to the incredible age of 101! His legacy does live on and our visit to the Rainbow Village truly filled me with joy. 

Rainbow Grandpa's beautiful paintings

The final stop of our tour was the Gaomei Wetlands, a protected ecological reserve in Taichung. This place has arguably the best sunset in Taiwan. Unfortunately, the weather that afternoon was not that great. It drizzled a bit in the afternoon and clouds covered the sky, making it impossible for us to see the sunset. That said, it was still a great experience seeing the coast and catching a glimpse of some birds while walking along the boardwalk.

Gaomei Wetlands

It was extremely windy when we walked all the way to the far end of the boardwalk, making our visit here even more unique and memorable.

It was extraordinarily windy when we visited the Gaomei Wetlands

Before we left, we passed by the shop that our tour guide talked about where we can get suncakes. Naturally, we got some to take home with us. We also got to try their lemon cake which was also good so I bought of a box of it as well.

Pastry shop where we bought suncakes and lemon cakes

Once again, we had a long but very eventful and fantastic day. While there was a slight rush since there were so many places we visited in just a day, I do feel we still had enough time to enjoy each one.

Zhongshe Flower Market

Next: Caesar Park Hotel in Taipei

[Taiwan] Jiufen, Shifen, and Yehliu Geopark

On our third day in Taiwan, we took a Klook tour of a few places outside of Taipei: Jiufen, Shifen (which included a wonderful Sky Lantern experience), and Yehliu Geopark.

A-Mei Teahouse in Jiufen

As I was planning for our trip, my friends told me that Jiufen and Shifen are quite close to each other so I can do them both on the same day. They also told me that it is advisable to take a tour of both because trying to take public transportation from Taipei to Jiufen and back would be difficult, moreso if we want to go to Shifen as well. Thankfully, I found a tour on Klook that included not only Jiufen and Shifen but also Yehliu Geopark, another place I really wanted to visit.

Yehliu Geopark

We started our day in Shifen. Actually, the initial plan was for us to visit Shifen in the afternoon but our tour guide told us that there were many tours scheduled that day and many visitors were expected to do the Sky Lantern experience in the afternoon. To avoid the crowds, we shifted our schedule. We had two main stops in Shifen: the Shifen Waterfall and the Sky Lantern Experience. We went to the waterfall first.

Shifen Waterfall

Our guide told us that Shifen Waterfall is the largest one in Taiwan by width and volume of water. It is touted as the Little Niagara of Taiwan. My family and I spent a few minutes admiring the beauty of this natural wonder and taking photos.

Photo op at Shifen Waterfall

Before we got off the bus to see it, our tour guide told us that we might also want to take a quick look at a small waterfall underneath the bridge that we have to cross to see Shifen Waterfall. This small waterfall is nicknamed the Spectacles Waterfall because of how it looks like: it flows between two caves that kinda look like eyes or eyeglasses because of how  close they are to each other. I made sure that my family and I got to see and appreciate it before heading back to the bus.

Spectacles Waterfall in Shifen

Our next step was Shifen Old Street where we would have our Sky Lantern Experience. The tour I booked doesn't include the Sky Lantern experience so I had to get our passes separately (also through Klook, check out this link). That said, our tour guide informed everyone that those who didn't have tickets could still get them through her (so anyone who takes the main Klook tour I took but forgets to book the Sky Lantern Experience separately can still enjoy it by coordinating and paying tickets through the tour guide).

Railway at Shifen Old Street

Up to four people can fly one lantern. The sky lanterns have four sides, all with different colors. Each color signified something different and we could choose which color combination we wanted. For our lantern, I picked red for health and peace, pink for bliss and joy, blue for career and promotion, and yellow for money and wealth.  When we arrived, our lantern with the colors we chose was already prepared. We then started writing our wishes on it. We then went out onto the railway where we were assisted in lighting up our lantern and setting it to flight. It was a spiritual and moving experience to declare your wishes in this way and send it to the heavens. Hopefully our wishes come true.

Our sky lantern!

I also have to commend the people at the Sky Lantern Experience, they took great photos and videos of us with our sky lantern. The woman giving us directions and taking our photos asked us where we were from and when she learned we were Filipino, she said a few Filipino words such as "hawak" (hold) and "bitaw" (let go). Cool!

Releasing our sky lantern

Before leaving Shifen Old Street, we went to Stall #69 to enjoy some peanut ice cream.

Peanut ice cream from Stall #69

We also pre-ordered rice-stuffed chicken wings while on the bus, and our tour guide brought them to us at Stall #69. She said that this is a popular street food item in Shifen so we decided to try it.

Rice-stuffed Chicken Wings

Our next stop was Jiufen. Our guide told us that decades ago, Jiufen was a bustling town, known for gold-mining. The gold rush here ended around 1971 but it regained popularity when it was featured as a film setting in the Taiwanese movie A City of Sadness.

Jiufen

Because of that, Jiufen became a major tourist spot in the country again. Visitors of this charming town can enjoy great views of the sea and of the mountains. Jiufen Old Street is also known for shopping and food. One of the most popular landmarks here is A-Mei Teahouse, with its old Taiwanese aesthetic made even more beautiful by its many red lanterns. It is said that this teahouse served as the inspiration for the bathhouse in the Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away. Naturally, we took a lot of photos of this sight. If we had more time, I would have loved to enjoy some food and refreshments here but our schedule was quite tight.

Photo op next to A-Mei Teahouse along Shuqi Road

I will say that it can be quite a challenge to navigate Jiufen Old Street because of its many narrow winding pathways that go up and down. Add to that the large crowds that go through Jishan Street (the flat street with many shops and restaurants) and Shuqi Road (the steep stone stairway that intersects with Jishan street).

Large crowds heading up Shuqi Road

As such, we barely got to do any shopping here. We mainly took photos and had lunch at one of the restaurants along Jishan Street where we got to enjoy some local fare like xiao long bao.

Enjoying xiao long bao in Jiufen

Our guide also recommended a great pineapple cake store along Jishan Street: Lao Zhen Xiang Bakery. We got to try some freshly baked pineapple cake and it was really good so we ended up buying one box. I would have loved to get more many places in Jiufen including Lao Zhen Xiang don't accept credit cards. Sadly, we didn't have enough cash with us so we couldn't buy more.

Pineapple Cake from Lao Zhen Xiang Bakery

Our final stop of our day tour was Yehliu Geopark, which is known for its amazing rock formations that were formed over time through weathering and erosion. Our main Klook tour didn't include tickets to Yehliu Geopark as well so I purchased entrance tickets separately, also through Klook (through this link). The people in our tour who didn't get to buy tickets in advance purchased their tickets there, aided by our guide.

Yehliu Geopark

We got to see and take photos of some of the most popular rock formations at the geopark, including the Queen's Head, which is the most famous one here,

Queen's Head rock formation

the Cute Princess,

Cute Princess rock formation

and the Heart-shaped Rock.

Heart-shaped rock formation

Yehliu Geopark is quite a large area with many fantastic rock formations to see and admire. Sadly, we only had about an hour to spend here but despite the limited time, we still get to appreciate a lot of its amazing scenery and soak in the wonders of nature.

Yehliu Geopark

It was around 430pm when we got back on our tour bus that took us back to the Taipei Main Station. It was a packed day but despite a bit of a rush, which is true for almost any tour, it was a full of superb experiences and I'm happy that my family and I got to enjoy them all.

Suspension bridge in Shifen

Next: Taichung