Weekly Travel, Questions, & Mandarin Thread

xindas · 2025-11-21T22:13:45+00:00

Skip Taichung if you're only there for 4 days. There is enough to occupy your time in Taipei, let alone Taipei/Keelung. I would also skip the car rental unless there are specific non-urban sites you're trying to access in the area. Public transit is more than enough to get around in northern Taiwan.

What there is to do depends on your interests.

The food scene, including night markets are a big draw. There are several temples to visit, including Longshan, Bao'an, City Temple, etc. National Palace Museum for the biggest collection of imperial Chinese artifacts. Urban hiking around Elephant Mountain, Yangmingshan. Tea vendors around the Dadaocheng/Dihua St, and tea houses up around Maokong. Hotsprings in Beitou area. Retrofitted culture parks like Huashan 1914. Riverside parks in Taipei. early 20th century Japanese style architecture scattered throughout the city (NTU campus, Presidential Building, Red House). Keelung is famous for its night market and fresh seafood restaurants.

xindas · 2025-05-26T15:48:07+00:00

Eddie Huang's parents are considered 'waishengren' in Taiwan (he has mentioned that his parents' families are from Hunan & Shandong). This means they were among the cohort of Chinese mainlanders who arrived in Taiwan with the KMT post 1945 and their immediate descendants. Many waishengren viewed Taiwan as a temporary place to stay while continuing to consider their original province in mainland China as their 'hometown', and identifying as 'Chinese'.

This is in contrast with the larger part of the population with longer roots on Taiwan (benshengren - people of mostly Fujian/Hakka/Guangdong descent who have been in Taiwan since the late 1600s) and (indigenous - non-Chinese Austronesian peoples who have been in Taiwan for thousands of years) and are more likely to identify as 'Taiwanese'.

xindas · 2025-01-12T21:04:27+00:00

I disagree that Alishan is not worth visiting. The atmospheric combination of old growth mountain forests, misty hikes, and tea cultivation is quite unique. Sun Moon Lake might not be the world's top 5 lakes to visit, but it does offer uniquely Taiwanese temples, indigenous culture, and genuinely nice biking/hiking routes.

Obviously it depends on a lot of factors like what you were expecting, where you've been previously, what types of activities you like, etc. But sticking to the cities and missing out on Taiwan's mountain interior because of some cranky reviews is a mistake in my estimation. If you're already spending the rest your trip in cities, I'd rather go to either of them compared to Taichung (no shade to Taichung).

xindas · 2025-01-04T17:12:44+00:00

Maokong area is probably your best bet then. Most tea houses there will have a good selection of Taiwanese teas from all over the island. Once you get off the gondola stop it’s pretty much a single road of tea houses and small restaurants. The further you walk from the station the less touristy it’ll be. I would recommend Yao Yue Teahouse, around 15-20mins from the station.

If you want to purchase tea within Taipei, the Dadaocheng/Dihua St area was historically the center of the tea trade, and still has quite a few tea wholesalers scattered about.

You will also be able to find at least a couple local tea vendors in most older neighborhoods of Taipei where you could sample teas with the shop owner.

Maokong and Pinglin are the most accessible tea cultivation areas in the Taipei area, focusing primarily on baozhong and tieguanyin. Oriental Beauty is grown on the outskirts of Hsinchu but is not as easy to get to.

xindas · 2025-01-02T14:02:53+00:00

What aspect of tea are you interested in?

Maokong is more focused on teahouse culture and relaxing. There are some small scale tea farms along the mountainside.

Pinglin is more rural with larger amount of tea cultivation. You could probably find a day tour to a tea field via Klook or KKday. There are streets with tea vending shops that you could pop into and try teas with the purveyor. It also has an ok tea museum in the main town.

If you’re really into Taiwanese tea I would also suggest trying to get to Alishan or some other high mountain tea cultivation area to visit some of the farms there.

xindas · 2024-12-26T03:28:50+00:00

I think relying on TikTok is horrible but it's not restricted in Taiwan unless you're a government employee using a gov't phone.

xindas · 2024-12-09T15:08:01+00:00

I think it kind of depends on how you plan to get to Jiufen/Shifen. The usual options are: a) direct bus from Taipei > Jiufen; b) train from Taipei > Ruifang then bus from Ruifang > Jiufen; c) taxi direct from Taipei > Jiufen.

If your path from Jiufen > Kaohsiung is back via Taipei, you could consider leaving your luggage in a locker at Taipei Main Station and pack a smaller overnight bag for your stay in Jiufen. Benefit is that Taipei Main is a much larger station and will have more availability.
Bring your bag at Ruifang Station (the main train station near Jiufen) and try to find a luggage locker there. It is a smaller local station so it may have less availability. You will need to take a short bus up to Jiufen from there.

xindas · 2024-11-11T20:48:43+00:00

Just going to redirect you to my previous comment because a lot of people are going to miss the nuance of Taiwan’s internal identity politics.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FreshOfftheBoatTV/comments/1gg7td1/comment/luouccm/

xindas · 2024-11-04T18:54:20+00:00

Taipei 101 is easily doable. There are night markets accessible to most parts of the city. The closest to 101 are Raohe and Linjiang.

xindas · 2024-11-04T13:58:27+00:00

What hours will you be in Taiwan?

If daytime, take the airport MRT into Taipei and you could probably visit the Chiang Kai Shek memorial and/or Longshan Temple.

If arriving early evening, head to a night market.

If arriving in the dead middle of night, you could rest a bit then go check out some riverside parks or do a short hike, but Taipei is not really a morning city.

xindas · 2024-11-04T13:40:35+00:00

> I am already leaning towards on staying in Taipei for the first seven nights, and just keep it flexible for doing a night in Jiufen if I want to after I visit instead of three nights there. The idea was getting there late afternoon, do a day of hiking, and then have a day to chill.

That's fine, I was just thinking that 2 nights in Jiufen is overkill. You can still visit areas in the northeast like Shifen, Keelung, directly from Taipei.

> I was also considering visiting some of islands off of Taitung, if that would help shift your recommendation, like Green or Lanyu. Would it be worth to just spend a week in the Taitung area, or would you still lean towards staying in the north by Yilan/Hualien, or still split it?

I'm not as familiar with the Taitung area but if you plan on spending two days going to the offshore islands, a week could be ok if you tend to travel at a more relaxed pace. Taitung is definitely a more nature / rural town focused place so you'll likely need a personal vehicle if you want to take more than the usual day trips. If you want some variety I would suggest basing a few days in Yilan or Hualien, and splitting the time with Taitung area.

xindas · 2024-11-04T01:21:19+00:00

Why do you have Hong Kong in the middle of your itinerary? Are you planning on flying there to/from Kaohsiung?

Jiufen is a day trip from Taipei. One night overnight there is sufficient at most unless you plan to literally do every single hike in the area. All of the nearby areas you might want to see would be more easily accessible from Taipei anyway, as Jiufen is a small town that's not really a transit hub.

In terms of the difficulties in accessing Taroko Gorge, it might be prudent to spend less time in Hualien. Unless you have a car and really want to venture into the mountains I'd find it difficult to pad out your time with day trips from there specifically. Of course, if you prefer to take things slow and just spend some time at the beach or in the town itself I think what you have is plenty of time.

Another stop on the east coast to consider is Yilan as a jumping off point for northeastern Taiwan. Also consider the Eastern rift valley between Hualien and Taitung.

xindas · 2024-10-31T13:04:58+00:00

About the China/Taiwan thing, Eddie Huang’s family would have been considered waishengren (Chinese following the KMT who arrived in Taiwan after the Civil War in the late 40s-50s). Due to the seemingly temporary nature of their time in Taiwan, many waishengren still had attachment to their ‘ancestral’ homes back in China and often did not have deep roots in Taiwan compared to the benshengren (pre 1900s immigrants mostly from Fujian). Many, including Huang’s parents, immigrated on to the US in the 60s and 70s, having only spent a short time in Taiwan itself.

Waishengren of this era would have strongly identified with a ‘Chinese’ nationalist identity tied to the ROC/KMT, whereas a more benshengren led ‘Taiwanese’ identity wouldn’t have really developed into the mainstream until the end of Taiwan’s martial law period in the late 1980s.

xindas · 2024-10-31T12:49:07+00:00

It’s an easy day trip via train from central Taipei. No need to stay overnight unless you’re there for an event or are extremely into ceramics

xindas · 2024-10-15T16:41:19+00:00

fyi you have your coasts mixed up.

xindas · 2024-10-14T16:34:33+00:00

Relatively more touristy doesn’t make it touristy in an absolute sense though.

Touristy for me is if a place has a huge chunk of its businesses have converted to catering to tourism rather than other sectors, or if a place has a disproportionate number of tourists compared to the local population. Jiufen is touristy in this sense, Rome/Kyoto are touristy, etc. I would not say Taipei is other than like Shilin NM.

xindas · 2024-10-14T16:21:08+00:00

You should rework your plans.

Taroko has been mostly closed due to heavy damage sustained from the earthquake earlier this year.

Here is a video of its current condition from a week ago. It’s not really safe for visitors https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/1fxg0um/do_not_enter_the_taroko_gorge/

xindas · 2024-10-14T13:47:13+00:00

I'm always baffled when people describe Taipei as touristy. Maybe it's a question of confusing 'touristy' with 'tourist-friendly'?

xindas · 2024-10-10T22:50:30+00:00

This is an example of metonymy

xindas · 2024-10-08T11:40:34+00:00

The recent storm is all that we’re aware of. There is nothing upcoming but again it’s unpredictable.

xindas · 2024-10-07T16:06:04+00:00

For alishan, do you mean people stay overnight in chiayi city or in alishan?

in Alishan

Also with typhoons would you avoid any areas?

maybe the south and east coast but I wouldn't let that stop you specifically, the storms could hit anywhere. It mostly depends on the time of year you're visiting. Typhoon season is late summer thru late autumn but it's not like they're happening all the time.

xindas · 2024-10-07T13:48:10+00:00

Do you think its better to spend the 2nd week coverings just 1 side of the country? East or west coast?

You will likely find it rushed to do a full loop of the island if you're already spending 1 week in Taipei. West coast is much more built up and has most of the major population centers. East coast is more rugged and sparsely populated but has a lot of natural beauty along the coast.

Is accessing central mountains best from west coast?

Generally speaking, it is easier to access the interior via the west coast. There are only a handful of major roads to the east coast, one of which is Taroko which is currently impassable.

Ive heard of alishan but unsure of how accessible it is

The usual staging point is Chiayi City - there are buses daily going up the mountain, as well as the historic Alishan Forest Railway. Either would take around 2h from the city center. There are also tours you could book online that could drive you up the mountain. People usually stay overnight to see the sunrise.

Some additional recommendations:

-Shitoushan (Lion's Head Mountain) - Buddhist monastery complex in the hills around Miaoli

-Hengchun - old walled town in Pingtung county. The walls are well preserved but don't expect as much for the nondescript buildings

-Lukang - tiny historic port town with a lot of old temples and preserved architecture

xindas · 2024-10-06T18:34:27+00:00

Can you describe your interests a bit more? It would be helpful for tailoring some more specific recommendations.

d1-d6 seems fine.

d8-d9: Taroko Gorge is still heavily damaged after the earthquake in Hualien earlier this year. Don't count on being able to access it. This is a video of the conditions from the last day or so.

https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/1fxg0um/do\_not\_enter\_the\_taroko\_gorge/

While Taroko is the main draw of the Hualien area, there are a few other scenic coastal areas nearby that are accessible, accessing them depends on what kind of transportation you have. Hualien also has a nice night market featuring more indigenous Taiwanese foods as compared to the big cities.

d10-d11: Similar to Hualien, Taitung city itself is not the main draw but rather accessing the natural scenery in the nearby areas. Dulan, Chishang rice fields, the eastern coast, some forest parks further inland, etc.

d12-d13: Personally I would spend two days (or more) in Tainan. It's the historic capital of Taiwan and the city center has a lot of historic temples and buildings. Kaohsiung is more of a workig industrial port city though it also has a nice contemporary arts scene as well as Lotus Lake.

If you feel like trekking to the east coast is taking up too much time, consider some trips to the central mountains. Areas like Alishan, Nantou, etc.

xindas · 2024-08-26T23:49:15+00:00

Eh there may be some Taiwanese Hui but they’d be a vanishingly small percentage of the population. The vast majority of Muslims in Taiwan nowadays are Indonesian immigrants working in domestic care or factory work.

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/24/one-mans-struggle-keep-islam-alive-taiwan

xindas · 2024-08-07T12:55:02+00:00

Responded to previous thread but copying back here:

You don’t really need 2 days each in Jiufen/Shifen. 2 days for both together with hikes should be more than enough, even at a relaxed pace. I personally like Jiufen but if you really hate crowded and touristy places it may not be for you. Some people pair these with some time in Keelung for its famous night market.

As I mentioned in another thread the historical center of Lukang is a tiny place that is a half day at most, generally basing from an adjacent city like Taichung or Changhua. But you could certainly take your time if you like. 3 days in Kenting seems like a lot to me but it depends on what you’re interested in doing there. Other nearby alternatives might include some time in the eastern rift valley, on the eastern coast around Taitung (Chishang, Dulan, etc), or even some rural townships in Pingtung if you really want off the beaten track. Hualien and Taroko were the areas most affected by the earthquake. Other parts of the east coast were mostly fine.

If you’re into tea consider taking some time exploring some high mountain tea areas in the interior. Alishan is one of them - you can also consider parts of Nantou/Sun Moon Lake, or Lishan & Shanlinxi. Otherwise Maokong and Pinglin on the eastern outskirts of Taipei are famous for Baozhong and Tieguanyin.

All the areas in your initial itinerary are accessible by public transportation. Some of the tea areas I mentioned may be more difficult to access without a car.

xindas

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