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“Duìbùqǐ. Bùhǎoyìsi“ (I’m so sorry. So embarrassed).
This was by far the most common phrase I heard in Taipei, Taiwan.
No matter how bizarre or ridiculous my request was. It was always met with a sheepish smile, a polite nod, and the re-assurance it was always their fault for not going out of their way to give you whatever you wanted.
The Taiwanese love being helpful.
My friend and fellow early retiree Jeremy (a.k.a GoCurryCracker) who lives in Taipei says that the biggest difference between getting on a subway in China versus Taiwan, is that if you see an old lady get on board, the crowd parts to lead her have a seat, whereas in China, watch out because she will gladly crack open your skull with her cane because she knows she’ll never get a seat otherwise.
He’s right. Queuing was the norm in Taiwan. In China? Not so much.
That’s just one of the main reasons why I love Taiwan.
Here are a few others:
Adorable Mascots
If China and Japan had a baby, Taiwan would be it. Just like in Japan, Taiwan has adorable mascots for everything.
Postal Services? There’s a mascot for that.
And speaking of delicious soup dumplings…
Night Markets Galore!
If you decide to visit Taiwan, bring stretchy pants because I thought I’d have to throw out my entire wardrobe after binging on everything that wasn’t nailed down in their dizzying array of night markets.
Raohe? Shinlin? Gongguan? Ningxia?
No market was safe from our watering mouths and growling stomachs.
Ay-Chung Flour Rice Noodles? Yes please.
Candied Haw Berries? HELL YEAH!
Ice Cream Runbing? Shove it in my pie hole please.
Taiwanese Fried Chicken? Shut up and take my money, dammit!
And after you’re done with the night markets, there’s still mind-blogging list of restaurants and food stands to ensure you’ll never fit into your clothes again.
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT leave Taipei without going to Ding Tai Fung, the mecca for paper-thin, melt-in-your-mouth, soup dumplings (“Xiao Long Bao”). The line outside looks insane but it moves quick. Plus, they give you a menu right away so you can check off your items in line, ensuring you get your food within minutes of sitting down. Bonus points if you can do it in Mandarin.
Our favourite Ding Tai Fung location is the one beneath Taipei 101.
Why?
So you can kill two culinary birds with one stone by also going to “Hawker Changs” afterwards and getting some of their to-die-for soy chicken and crispy pork. And if you’re feeling adventurous, add a side of refreshing winter melon juice to wash it all down.
So good.
For those who like spice, get your Sichuan hot pot on at Old Sichuan. The combination of numbing hotness (“mala”) and out-of-this-world flavouring will make you question everything else you’ve ever eaten before this meal.
Mmmmmm…
Crap, now my keyboard is soaked because I can’t stop drooling. *sigh*.
Well, the good news is I have plenty of money left over to buy a new computer because guess what? Even though Taiwan is bad for your waistline, it’s great for your wallet!
Affordability
From food to transportation to entertainment, Taiwan is extremely affordable. I’d say the cost was less than Japan and similar to South Korea. So, if you come to Taiwan, you won’t have to worry about budgeting too much.
That being said, I didn’t find Taipei as affordable it terms of accommodations. Maybe I’m spoiled by fancy new Thai condos with pools that I can rent for $500 a month, but in Taipei, there were no such deals to be had.
You could find something decent for $1200 a month or $80/night for 1 bedroom, so compared to North America it’s still a good deal, but not that amazing for Asia.
We considered 4 areas while looking for an Airbnb in Taipei:
XinMenDing – the loudest, hippest, and most crowded area we looked at, that’s considered the “Harajuku” of Taipei. It also turned out to be the location for the best thing I put in my mouth in Taiwan– Ay-Chung Flour Rice Noodles. Yum!
Da’an – as the expat district of Taipei, it’s close enough to the action by also far away enough for those who want to avoid the crowds. We originally requested an Airbnb in this area, but the host was only willing to accept monthly rentals.
Songshan – The financial district, known as Taipei’s Wall Street. Songshan had a lot going for it—it’s close to Raohe night market and easily accessible to most attractions, but rent was expensive here compared to the other districts, and I wasn’t sure if it was worth it.
Shilin – The best place to access the two most well-known attractions in Taipei: Shinlin night market and the National Palace Museum, so this is the area most tourists gravitate toward, thinking it’s the best place to get to the biggest attractions. We also managed to find a cozy, self-contained Airbnb for only $40/night.
I wanted to stay within walking distance to a night market, So why not stay near the largest, most famous night market of all?
Big mistake. Shilin was the most famous night market but turns out the best time to come to Shilin was 10-20 years ago. Now it was packed with tourists, overpriced, and full of kitschy crap. My favourite night market turned out to be Raohe, and different restaurants in XinMenDing.
The space we stayed in was tiny, ancient, and at one point, the roof even started leaking when it rained.
But true to the Taiwanese “Duìbùqǐ. Bùhǎoyìsi” spirit, our gracious host happily upgraded us to a much bigger, much newer condo and even took time off work to drive us there.
Gotta love that Taiwanese hospitality.
But seriously though, if you go to Taiwan, avoid the mistake we made and stay in Da’an, Xingmending or Songshan instead. Songshan will be my pick for next time, due to its closeness to the Raohe night market (饒河夜市).
Fantastic Entertainment
Hair Wash/Scalp Massage
This might seem like a weird attraction but it’s all the rage in Taiwan. If you want to have squeaky clean hair and be pampered within an inch of your life, get a scalp massage. Hell, some places even have special devices that give them a microscopic view of your scalp, so they can do an accurate consultation on the best shampoo and product to use on your skin.
At 700 – 1000 TWD ($23 – $30 USD) for a hour treatment, it was money well spent.
Plus, they let you take fun pictures like this:
And after an hour of blissful massaging, my scalp felt minty fresh and I walked out of there with hair so clean, you could eat an entire portion of xiao long bao off of it.
Beitou Hot Springs
With your scalp nice and massaged, you can’t possibly leave the rest of your body unrelaxed!
Say hello to the Beitou hot springs!
Since Taiwan is in the zone between two tectonic plates, it has a ton of hot springs. And the most well-known one in Taipei is Beitou, which is easily accessible via the subway. You can have a blast simply soaking your feet in the piping hot thermal foot bath for free, alongside the happy locals.
Or if you want the full experience, go to the “Spring City Resort Beitou Hot Spring Spa”.
An outdoor spa with 9 thermal pools of varying temperatures. Simply buy the ticket from the vending machine outside (another thing that reminds me of Japan!) for a very affordable 40 TWD ($1.30 USD) each. The only caveat is that men need to have tight swim shorts for some reason. No board shorts or trunks with pockets. Weird.
Taipei 101
The engineer in me loved visiting this iconic skyscraper. Not only did the Taiwanese manage to build the tallest, most earthquake-proof structure, they put all sorts of symbolism into it too!
Made to look like a stalk of bamboo, representing growth and learning, as well as strength. And if you look closely, you’ll also see lots of money symbols, like ancient coins, which spoke to the FIRE part of me.
The most interesting part is the world’s biggest and heaviest earthquake damper.
This massive steel sphere sways to counter the tremors from earthquakes. And guess what? There’s also a mascot for it!
If you decide to go to Taipei 101, buy the ticket through the Klook app. You’ll get a discount from 600 NWT to 540 NWT.
Elephant Mountain
Not interested in going up Taipei 101? No problem. You can get the best views of this iconic building from the top of Elephant Mountain:
Be warned. You must love climbing stairs, because there are a lot of them.
Yang Ming mountain
For those who prefer more of a longer, scenic hike, you can head to Yang Ming mountain.
Day Trip: Jiufien
If you have time for a day trip outside Taipei, be sure to visit Jiufien, a hillside town that inspired the animated movie “Spirited Away”.
I told Jeremy that I had read that Jiufien was known as the “Santorini of Taiwan” and his response was uncontrollable laughter followed by “that’s very generous.”
Okay, so Jiufen may not have the glitzy glam of the Greek isles, but it did come with fantastic food and a breathtaking view. Plus, parts of it did remind me of my childhood:
Oh and also these weird ass souvenirs that reminded me nothing of my childhood:
You can get to Jiufen easily via bus 1062 from “Zhongxiao Fuxing” metro station which takes you on a scenic 45min drive outside the city.
Here’s how much we spent in Taipei:
| Category | Cost in USD/couple | Cost in CAD/couple | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodations: | $30 USD | $40 CAD | We found a very simple self-contained studio in the super touristy Shinlin area. It was extremely cheap for Taiwan but you get what you pay for. I was not a fan of the size (microscopic!) and the location. Luckily, our host was great and upgraded us to a 2 bedroom condo after the roof started leaking. Next time I would definitely splurge for a bigger place in the SongShan area. Aim to spend at least 50 USD per day to get a decent place. |
| Food: | $33 USD | $43 CAD ($34 for eating out, $10 for groceries) | We didn't do any cooking and mostly ate out at night markets and restaurants. Food in Taiwan is super cheat if you mainly eat out at night markets. |
| Transportation: | $4USD/day | $5 CAD/day | Riding the subway in Taiwan is super cheap and only cost us $5 a day when we bought a weekly pass. The bus to Jufien was also cheap at less than $10 for the 2 of us. |
| Entertainment: | $7/day | $9 CAD/day | We mostly spent our time eating our way around the city so night markets were our biggest sources of entertainment. We also bought tickets to Taipei 101, entry to the national museum and entry to the Beitou springs spa, but most of our attractions were free since it involved climbing mountains and enjoying nature. Some days were also spent going to cafes, working on book promotion or blogging. |
| Total: | $73 USD/couple/day | $97 CAD/couple/day | Though not as cheap as SE Asia, Taiwan is very affordable and what won us over was the exceptionally friendly people and the out-of-this-world food. |
There’s so much to see in Taiwan, I can’t fit it into one post, so I’ve broken it into parts 1 and 2.
Stay tuned for Part 2, Tainan, the foodie paradise of Taiwan.
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Do you happen to know if they use rice flour for noodles, dumplings, rolls etc or is it wheat based? Being celiac I had major problems avoiding gluten (soy sauce has fermented wheat) and is in everything. I’ve heard Thailand and Vietnam are pretty good for avoiding wheat, and was wondering where Taiwan falls.
Not sure about the ingredients, but I believe most foods in Taiwan are NOT gluten-free. Gluten allergy is very rare in Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan don’t even know what gluten is.
Hi Em, here’s a Gluten-free translation card I found in Mandarin you can use to show at restaurants: https://www.celiactravel.com/cards/mandarin/
*opps avoiding wheat/gluten in Japan
Hi,
Wheat flour is definitely used in xiaolongbao dumplings and in most (yellow) noodles as well. White noodles might be made with rice flour but are often mixed with wheat flour so it’s a bit tricky. Stick with rice! I’m gluten intolerant and got by in Taiwan by ordering rice and asking for stir fried dishes with just salt, pepper and garlic, no soy sauce or oyster sauce. Carrying a gluten free card is definitely helpful. I agree that it is easier to get gluten free food in Thailand compared with Taiwan, but found Taiwan easier than Japan when it comes to getting gluten free food. Good luck and hope you will enjoy visiting Asia!
I really hope to get there sometime. But those super inexpensive Thai condos beckon……
Thailand has completely spoiled me for condo rentals. I would just move to Chiang Mai right now if I could.
Yep, definitely reminds me of Japan a little. Looks like you did plenty of eating and soaking in the hot springs! Those are like the national past-times of Japan.
Culturally, which place is nicer for visitors? Thailand or Taiwan?
Hmm…hard to say. The Thais are wonderful as well (“Land of Smiles” for the win!). I will say that Taiwan has much fewer tourists, so they’re less weary of hordes of people constantly coming into their country. But then again, outside of Taipei, if you don’t speak Mandarin, it’s going to be a bit of a pain getting around. In Thailand, there are English signs all around (unless you’re in a really rural location) and it’s widely spoken to cater to travellers.
So it depends on whether you care about being surrounded by less tourists but are willing to put up with the bigger challenge of a communication barrier.
In terms of treating you well, the people in both countries are phenomenal. Just like the Japanese.
A fun place to live and teach!
Dan V
Taipei
And to help translate when your hubby doesn’t speak mandarin 😉 Thanks for that, Dan. You’ve now convinced Wanderer that he needs to learn mandarin. It’s pretty embarrassing when the white guy’s speaking fluent Chinese and the Chinese guy’s like “say what?” LOL.
Taiwan is such a GOOD and decent place. People are nice, cool, creative. The food goes well beyond the night markets and truly have a great sense of balance. I keep thinking how civil Taiwan is. There are the Buddhist, Japanese underpinnings but also the fact that there is not much potential for a ton of money makes things much better overall – less corruption, less greed, less rat race. There are lots and lots of adventures to have there, and endless food to eat. My wife is from there (she used to run a B&B, which is a ‘thing’ there) and we eventually want to retire there (or Thailand) when we’re done with our adventures in the states and abroad (maybe 18 years or so.
Agree. Love both Taiwan and Thailand. I’m slightly more obsessed with Thailand because I like the weather and the cost of rent better, but they’re both amazing 😀
Where in Thailand or Taiwan would you want to retire in?
I just asked my wife and she said Thailand is better bc it’s even warmer and there is more street food and there are a lot of foreigners to make it more interesting. In Taiwan, Toucheng is a real nice place, that’s where she lived for the last 8 years before NYC. It’s a small, simple area. They have the nature, the real fish markets (!), the town is nice, and you can get to Taipei and Yilan easily. They also don’t care at all about the beaches… so while they don’t take care of it, you can do whatever you want on them free of other people and park rangers etc. I loved that part… I could definitely comb my own private beach every day. But before we settle down, we would definitely live on the road in Taiwan for as long as we need.
Winter is wonderful for a Canadian in Taiwan, the Taiwanese think 22 C. is deathly cold, and bundle up. I was in a T shirt and shorts the whole time. Theme parks had nobody in them, and there are lots. Puli is great, but it was hit with an earthquake some years ago, don’t know if it ever got rebuilt. Kaoshiang is also cool as well as the University district of Taichung. We spent 4 days in Kenting park, but didn’ even get started, it was worth the trip, we say a tribe of monkeys cross our path and climb into the trees, where they posed for pictures
In case you missed out, one of the best things in Taiwan is the huge mountains! Most accessible 4000m mountain ever! 🙂
Thanks for the tip, BikeMike! I’ve heard it’s a mecca for bikers. Will need to come back and do more biking and hiking the next time 😀 (especially to work off all that food I stuffed in my face)
When our kids are older I want to take a week or two and cycle around the island – it’s supposed to be good fun.
The coolest part about the hiking bit is that it’s relatively inexpensive to do significant supported trips especially if someone can speak Mandarin. In 2012 we ‘climbed’ Yushan (all of the hard parts of bridged over and it’s not what in North America we’d consider climbing…). For the cost of ~$150 CAD each, we got transportation to/from Taipei, guides, food, accommodations and folks preparing our meals where stopped. Price is probably higher now but still seemed like the most hilariously inexpensive way to climb a big mountain.
Wow, that’s a price that can’t be beat 🙂 way to hack travel in Taiwan 😀
Can someone please share the meaning of the yellow sign in the photo? Thanks in advance.
LOL. They need to act it out.
We visited Taipei about 15 years ago with our friend from college. It was awesome to have a local with us. We tried a bunch of different food, visited a hot spring, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I don’t think Taipei 101 was done back then so we didn’t see it.
I’d love to visit again and eat all the different food. We went to the original DTF. It was my first XLB experience and it was unforgettable. Yummm…
XLB is an epic eating experience. Now, no matter what country we’re in in Asia, we’re always look for DTF. So cool that you got to go to the original one!
Gotta say this post really sells me on visiting Taiwan! Ever going to make it over to Shenzhen? So close 😉 Looking forward to part 2
Colby
That Charles Life
Oh yeah, Taiwan is an easy flight from Shenzhen. How’s your mandarin?
I haven’t been back in China in so long I bet you can read more Chinese than me now.
Another solid post I’m gonna bookmark as we plan on making a quick stop by Taiwan in 2020. Mrs. Nomad Numbers went to Taipei for a family gathering a few weeks ago and they did stop at “Ding Tai Fung”. Since you are the second person I know mentioning it, I guess I’ll need to go check it out during this visit!
That hair scalp massage sounds amazing. After enjoying so many Thai massages over the past two months we spent in Thailand and enjoying the scalp massage portion of it (that only last for a couple of minutes) I can’t wait for the full hour hands-on experience 🙂
With regards to the cost of living, accommodation looks much higher than Thailand (but what isn’t :D), that being said, I’m curious to see what the overall spending will look like if you plan on eating a few meals at home. (assuming you can find a proper kitchen, which has been a bit of an “adaptation challenge” during our time in Thailand). Do you have any insights into this?
“But seriously though, if you go to Taiwan, avoid the mistake we made and stay in Da’an, Xingmending or Songshan instead. Songshan will be my pick for next time, due to its closeness to the Raohe night market (饒河夜市).”
I think you just saved many of us hours of research. Thank you!
Woohoo! I’m glad you guys made it to Taiwan!
The base of Taipei 101 looks like a turtle. Outside it looks like a turtle shell and inside you can see the bones of the shell. It represents the overseas Taiwanese like me that always return to the same beach to lay eggs.
What time of the year would you avoid?