As part of my usual outings outside Thailand, the period coincided with the miss's free time. Jitima therefore suggested that we visit together while we were at it. Concerning the choice, as we had made this decision quite impromptu and my budget was limited, we were looking for an affordable destination, and easy to organize for a relatively short trip.
It turns out that she has already visited Taiwan (or rather Taipei) twice for work, and since she likes it, it was only natural that she suggested this island located off the coast of Fujian province in mainland China. It is indeed a good candidate, because even though it is over 300 km long, Taiwan offers the possibility of having a glimpse of its attractions, even in a short time.
Then, it's not excessively far (5 hours by plane from Bangkok), and life there, according to Jitima, remains cheap. Finally, thanks to her prior knowledge of Taipei, our starting point and the area where we spent the most time, she was also able to organize our trip more quickly. The choice was therefore made and we were off for a week of discovery, a first for me in Taiwan.
The ROC
And yes, ROC is the official acronym of the island since the English name for Taiwan is "Republic of China". The Republic of China is considered by some UN countries to be an island country in its own right, while others have reservations about its status, at least officially, so as not to offend the "other China", the PRC (for People's Republic of China), which constantly claims this territory as belonging to it de facto.
If I had to summarize the history briefly, Taiwan was formerly known as Formosa (derived from Formosa, the marvelous island). This was the term used to refer to the island during the Portuguese and then Dutch colonial period of the 1912th and 1949th centuries. Much later, it became the refuge of the Kuomintang, a political party created in XNUMX, which became an army that opposed the communist regime of Mao Zedong in China until XNUMX.
Under the authoritarian regime of Chiang Kai-shek (also spelled Tchang Kai-shek), Taiwan was paradoxically governed with an iron fist and experienced a real dictatorship. However, after his death in 1975 and especially in the late 1980s, political reforms were put in place (especially by his son, who came to power upon his death), paving the way for democracy.
These reforms led to a freedom of speech and a gradual evolution of the regime towards a democratic political system. Today, Taiwan is recognized as a thriving democracy with a vibrant economy and an open society.
Welcome to Taiwan
To begin this section, I have an anecdote that started as soon as we arrived at the airport. Imagine my surprise to see a group of four people dressed in the famous "dinosaur" outfits, waiting with a sign for a friend returning home. It certainly set the tone, and I thought to myself, "Okay, they seem pretty relaxed around here!"
Overall, I can make the same observation as for South Korea , namely that it's not easy to judge the welcome in such a short time. What I did find is that English is generally well understood, so communication was quite easy. Restaurants often have menus subtitled in the Latin alphabet, although we mainly stayed in urban or minimally touristy areas.
The people are quite welcoming and the atmosphere felt gave the impression of a country that seems to be in tune with itself, a country where freedom predominates, you feel at ease there, with rather relaxed and smiling inhabitants, more so than I expected (and yes, once again, I wrote the same thing when talking about South Korea).
I have two more anecdotes to share to illustrate this paragraph. The first, quite brief and insignificant in itself, is that I was taking photos of the interior of a café located along the famous shopping street of Dihua . Noticing a mural, I took a quick picture, without paying much attention to the other customers. I took one photo, okay, I checked how it turned out, and went back for a second. That's when two customers looked at me, amused, and then actually started posing for the camera.
The last anecdote is from our visit to the former liquor production factory (mainly sake, as it was built by the Japanese in 1914), transformed into a creative space in 2007, Huashan 1914 Creative Park . It notably includes several shops where you can buy handcrafted products.
In one of these shops, we were struck by some 3D origami, a kind of paper sculpture where you have to cut out and assemble the pieces by sticking them together. As we were making our choice, an elderly lady came up to us, all smiles. Although she didn't speak English, she tried to advise us, and when we noticed the paper masks, she encouraged us to try them. Full of enthusiasm, she spontaneously offered to take a picture of us with the masks on our heads.
At that moment, we wondered who was having more fun: us with our masks or the saleswoman who took pictures of us while making us take different poses. These experiences demonstrate the warm welcome and possible friendliness of the Taiwanese, who were open, rather friendly and ready to share simple moments with foreigners.
Taiwanese cuisine
Obviously, we are touching on a personal subject, where everything is a question of taste. In this case, for me, I am not a big fan of Chinese cuisine in the broad sense. It is certainly very varied so I am far from having tried everything, but until now, rare are the Chinese dishes that have really excited me and Taiwan has unfortunately not managed to change my mind.
It must be said that the first dish I tried, a kind of broth with udon-type noodles, didn't really have any taste and didn't give me confidence for the rest...
I would be happy with some good street food, though, like this guy making some kind of pancake or salty "roti" (a reference to the kind of Thai crepe), called "Dan Bing", or these little balls of meat or fish on skewers, dipped in a spicy sauce, that suited me just fine.
We also ate several times in the night markets, numerous in Taipei, one of which was simply the street right in front of our hotel, so we gave up on street food.
We also tried local restaurants like during our trip along the north coast. While we were in the village of Nanya to do the little trek with the view, we wanted to eat a bite, but there was little choice, especially because the hours to eat were not before 11am...
So, we ended up at a little granny's house who finished preparing and invited us to come. We ate noodles, a dish that often comes back in Taiwan, with some kind of fish fritters, well frankly not bad.
The other typical style on the island is the "food court" type, but instead of a system like the " hawker centres" of Singapore or those of Thailand, it is not a grouping of several restaurants with various dishes at your disposal but rather various dishes offered within the same establishment.
In short, it's a kind of buffet where you can choose what you want to eat, but not as a fixed price without limits, you actually pay for what you eat, but it's really not expensive.
Another type of buffet, more classic because also very popular in Thailand, the "hot pot". In this concept, we have a pot where we can choose two different types of sauces, in which we can cook a wide choice of meats, fish and vegetables.
In my case, the experience was meh, because despite my orders, I had half of what I had asked for arriving at the table... Fortunately there were other dishes available in a dedicated area, without having to order.
Finally, the last culinary experience that we also tried was 7-11 (pronounced in English, seven eleven), these famous convenience stores that we find in abundance in the land of smiles, are also quite common in Taiwan.
But if in Thailand it is not really set up to eat there (there is sometimes a kind of bar with stools, but not much more), it is common here to have a dedicated space with tables and chairs. However, in the neighborhood where we were the last evenings in Taipei, we were limited because of the restaurants' opening hours.
Since that evening we were hungry late, and the miss wanted to do a few errands anyway, we took the opportunity to test their concept. To accompany this light meal, I had a small beer, thinking that it is nice in principle not to have restrictions on sales hours like in Thailand, sometimes frankly restrictive (and of dubious effectiveness).
7 days in Taiwan: our itinerary
As mentioned above, you should know that it is indeed the wife who establishes our daily schedule in advance. We then look at it together, with adjustments in order to optimize and respect our respective desires.
Arriving mid-afternoon on the first day, we had 6,5 days rather than a full week. With this length, the bulk of our stay revolved around Taipei, its capital and point of arrival.
Here's how we divided up our days in Taiwan:
- Arrival in Taipei – Familiarization with our neighborhood, where the Rahoe Street night market is located + visit to Longshan Temple
- Taipei – Taipei 101 + Dihua Street
- Taipei – Huashan 1914 Creative Park + Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
- New-Taipei – Tamsui district
- New-Taipei – North coast (Bitou + Jiufen)
- New-Taipei – Pingxi district (mountain around Shifen)
- Taipei – Beitou district
The advantage of this program is that we didn't waste time on transportation since we visited everything from Taipei. On the first half, we did everything using public transportation (mainly by metro, practical, and a little by bus and only two taxi rides).
To give a little more detail, we arrived at the airport around noon. We originally thought that would give us the end of the afternoon to visit a bit, but we deliberately didn't plan much. And we did well, because in the end, by the time we bought a SIM card, queued up, which was quite long, to go through immigration and made the trip from the airport to our hotel, we were only putting our suitcases in our room at 16pm!
Day 1: We started with a visit to a Taipei classic, the Longshan Buddhist and Taoist temple . The advantage was that it stays open late, so we had some time to get acquainted with our neighborhood, which is part of the Songshan district. Besides Rahoe Street , the street where our hotel was located and where a night market bustles between 17 pm and 23 pm, there's a rather famous temple just at the end of it, the Songshan Ciyou Temple . Once we finished our visit to Longshan, we headed to another night market not far away (Taipei is full of these lively streets in the evening), the Huaxi Street Night Market.
Day 2: We focused our sightseeing around the famous 508-meter Taipei 101 (because it has 101 floors), which was the tallest building in the world for a few years. Afterwards, we moved to the Dihua Street area , a shopping street with plenty of cafes, restaurants, and all kinds of shops. Our original plan was to end the day at the Lin An Tai Historic House . We arrived in the area via the metro at Yuanshan Park . The problem was that from there, it was about a kilometer walk to the house, which closes at 5 pm… Too late, but no big deal, because the park was pleasant and there was a market where we lingered. We even had time to visit the Ximending district before nightfall , a sort of "Siam Square" of Taiwan. We finally ended the day near another historic house in the city, The Red House.
Day 3: We started at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park, at Jitima's request. She generally enjoys visiting art-related places (for those who don't know, she teaches graphic design and draws herself; check out her Instagram ). We stayed in the area and then headed to the brand-new " Rongjin Gorgeous Time ," a shopping arcade with restaurants and cafes designed in the Japanese architectural style, as it was built on the site of a former prison dating back to the Japanese colonial period. From there, we could walk to the main attraction of the day, the imposing Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall . To end the day, I suggested we go to the nearby Daan Forest Park , known for its pond that's home to many birds.
Day 4: Originally, we planned to visit Tamsui and the opposite bank, called Bali. While we did explore Tamsui, a pleasant seaside neighborhood that's part of New Taipei City, we decided against Bali after seeing the enormous queue for the small ferry across the river. At least this gave us time to visit something else, and even though our timing was tight, we were able to visit the historic Lin An Tai house this time.
Day 5: To see something other than the city, we decided to explore the northern coast of the island. The region is still part of New Taipei City, which, besides the city adjacent to Taipei, actually encompasses the entire northern tip of the island (except for Taipei itself and the municipality of Keelung). This was an opportunity to see the rugged coastline, with the short trek to Nanzilin , the Golden Waterfall , and especially the walk around Cape Bitou . To round things off, we went to Juifen in the late afternoon , a former small mining town whose popularity skyrocketed thanks to the film " The City of Sadness ."
Day 6: Our second day outside the city, but after the coast, we headed into the mountains, still in the northeast region, which is part of New Taipei City. Our first stop was Shifen , known for its lanterns and waterfalls. We spent the rest of the day in Houtong Cat Village , a former mining town now famous for its cat population, which far exceeds its human inhabitants.
Day 7: For our last day, we still had to visit Beitou . Located halfway between Taipei and Tamsui, it's a town nestled at the foot of the mountains, renowned for its hot springs. With the time we had left, we headed back to the city center, while Jitima wanted to return to Bopiliao Historical Block , a small section of historic quarter showcasing traditional 18th-century architecture, as well as an educational center, not far from Longshan Temple.
Budget for a week in Taiwan
By drawing up my famous budget diagram, I realized that ultimately, this trip to Taiwan came to similar prices to our previous trips to South Korea and Japan respectively. At first glance, we can't really say that it's such a cheap country, but when we break down the budget, this impression is a bit misleading.
The way you travel will obviously influence your budget, but you also have to consider the time of year. In our case, and this is why it's important to check the dates beforehand ( see here for public holidays in Taiwan ), we were traveling during a fairly popular holiday period, with hotels more expensive than usual (hence the need to stay away from the city center for the first few days). Early April coincides with Children's Day and the Qingming Festival. It would be similar to visiting during Songkran in Thailand.
On-site budget: 32,028 ฿ (€865), or 4,575 ฿ (€123) per day for 2 people , in the same vein as I mentioned regarding the budgets for Japan and South Korea . The real difference lies in two things.
Already, concretely, food was 10% cheaper for us than in South Korea, however, if you do the math, it comes to €25 per day per person, so we didn't deprive ourselves. The fact is that when traveling, we tend to snack often, if only to try lots of different things. Not to mention coffee breaks and treats here and there, it can quickly add up.
The transport budget can also be reduced, because in our case, I am particularly attached to the independent side, so I insisted on renting a car for our exploration of the north of the island. These 3 days of rental count for 5 ฿, or two thirds of the transport budget. Added to this are gasoline and parking at night because the hotel where we were did not have one…
We initially considered doing it by train, which is possible given the rail network in the region, but it frustrates me because of the journey from point A to point B, inherent in the stations, preventing any intermediate stops and, above all, freedom in terms of timetables.
Regarding accommodation, we paid 14 ฿ for 780 nights, paid in advance since there is no need to bother looking on site for this kind of little trip. That makes a budget of 7 ฿.
Total Budget: 46฿ (808€) or approximately 1€ per day per person.
To that, we must add our plane tickets, which we got at a very reasonable price thanks to Air Asia. The Bangkok – Taipei flight cost us 18,108 ฿ for 2 people (or €244 per person) round trip, the same price we paid to go to Seoul, even though it's 1,500 km further away.
In the previous article, I made the following remark:
"After these two consecutive trips [to Japan and Korea] with fairly substantial budgets (especially for us, since we don't have the same salaries as in Europe!), I think we should calm down a bit next time."
Well, it was a failure… But like I said, it was done on a whim, it's never good for planning a budget properly.
It should also be noted that once again, the souvenir budget is not negligible, with 8 ฿ (883 €), which still represents 240%, an expense which is not essential in itself and can easily be reduced.
In the food + drinks budget, there was practically a stop every day for an ice cream, a waffle or other snack, with also our coffees and sometimes an alcoholic drink in the evening, which already made a daily "extra cost" of around €15, around 1/3 of the total food budget, which can be avoided if you have a tighter budget.
The biggest meal turned out to be the famous Hot Pot that Jitima was keen on since it came to €54 (€27 per person). The snacks were, besides our desire to try, linked to the fact that we never ate at a set time, sometimes a brunch, sometimes a half-meal due to lack of time, which meant that we often found ourselves hungry...
In terms of transportation, we had a taxi that cost us more than expected because of a misunderstanding about the restaurant we wanted to go to, which added about 120 NT$ (3 €) to our fare. We could have also saved on the ferry to Bali, which we had just paid for, before realizing how long the queue was and giving up. After that, I'm really nitpicking, because the ferry cost us 136 NT$, which is not even 4 €...
Some pointers:
- A small 33cl bottle of water costs on average NT$18 (€0,5)
- A meal costs an average of NT$230 per person (€6)
- Subway: an average trip costs NT$22 (€0,6)
- Average price for visits: free
To clarify regarding this last point, in our case, we only paid for one attraction: Fort San Domingo in Tamsui, which cost NT$80 per person (barely €2). Everything else—temples, natural sites, museums—was free. This was especially welcome because in Thailand, I'm sometimes exasperated by having to pay all the time, even more so for a foreigner.
Explore more!
To learn more about each of the stages of this Taiwan trip, I've written more detailed articles. Here's something to continue reading if you're interested in a particular area:
- What to do in Taipei in 3 days? The essentials for a first visit
- Explore the North Coast: Road Trip and Alleys of Jiufen
- Shifen and Houtong: A day in the mountains of New Taipei
Where to stay in Taipei
As mentioned above, we tried two different places because the prices during our first few days were significantly higher, making it impossible to stay in the city center. So we looked on Airbnb and found a room.
Except that in the end, while looking for the place, we realized by chance that it is actually a somewhat hidden extension of a hotel located a few floors higher in the same building, the Step INN (森浩文旅), which also has triple and quadruple rooms on Agoda and Booking.
For the end of the stay, we wanted to focus around Taipei Main Station, the central station where several metro lines and the train to the airport pass.
YI SU HOTEL
Budget: from 60€
Located 500 m from the train station to get to the airport, 1 km from Taipei Main Station, 500 m from Dihua Street and 350 m from a night market (Ningxia), it's a pretty good location. The hotel is quite simple, the reception is upstairs, quite small, as are the rooms, but it's modern, clean and in a quiet area at night.
Getting around Taiwan
At first glance, Taipei's metro network may seem small, with only 5 lines running through the city. However, their layout means that there is virtually no need to take other transportation to see the city's essentials.
Its main drawback is a lack of north-south connection on the eastern part (where we were staying at the beginning), where in this case, it will be quicker to take a direct bus or taxi rather than making the detour by metro.
From the start, we got an Easy Card rechargeable card , which is easy to top up at the machines found in all stations. It's convenient; it saves you from looking for change and you can use it to pay for both the metro and buses.
Fares are based on distance traveled, roughly, expect to pay an average of NT$30 (€0,9) per trip. It's generally easy to navigate. There are sometimes long walks between stations if you change lines, but not much to complain about, it's generally well done.
All information about the metro can be found on this official website (in English): https://english.metro.taipei/default.aspx
I've included a map of the metro network below, but it's just to give you an idea; it's not entirely complete and doesn't use the official line naming system (which uses letters related to their color, not numbers). For the updated map, click here.
The advantage of this version is that it is clearer, the one in the link has all the stations in English AND Chinese so it is a bit more messy to read.
Apart from the metro, there is also a whole network of buses, which we never had to take, because on the few necessary cross-country journeys, we took a direct taxi in this case, particularly because the bus timetables were limited.
The pick-up is NT$80 (€2,3) and then it's NT$25 (€0,7) per kilometer. A 3 km trip therefore costs NT$155 (€4,5), quite reasonable for a big city. In case of traffic jams, the waiting time is charged on the basis of NT$300 per hour (€9).
If the weather is nice, you can also rent bicycles by the hour, which are found everywhere. These yellow bikes, called "Youbikes", are available for NT$35 (€1) per hour. For our visits, we didn't need them much, as we preferred to simply walk between two areas if it wasn't too far away.
- Information for using Youbike (English)
For trips outside the city, as mentioned above, we opted for the convenience of renting a car; however, there is a fairly extensive rail network . It is therefore possible to visit even the small mountain villages using this mode of transport.
To book your train, you have the official website (in English), which also offers 2 to 5 day passes in addition to the classic one-off journeys.
Taiwan in pictures
A small photo gallery to give an overview of this trip
So, Taiwan, does it inspire you?
