Hey!! This is my first Taiwan Trip with family!! With these suggestions, hope it helps you in planning your next trip to Taiwan!!
Places to visit in Taipei
1) Yin Yang Sea & Sky City
These two attraction places is more of a historical sightseeing, Yin Yang Sea is literally right in front of the SkyCity 天空之城. There is no entrance to this abandoned monument. According to our tour guide, these buildings were occupied by high-rank Japanese officers during the Japanese occupation in Taiwan.
The Japanese mined gold in these mountains and the gold element flowed into the sea which then caused the sea to be in golden color. More historical knowledge about this building is needed in order to appreciate this visit.
YINYANG SEA & SKYCITY 阴阳海 & 天空之城 十三层遗址 (Google Map)
No Entrance Fee
Satisfaction level : ♦♦♦
2) Golden Falls
Golden Falls 黄金瀑布 is another attraction place if you are heading to JiuFen from Yin Yang Sea. here, for you waterfall lovers, is definitely a great place to take pictures and just stand there watchin the water flow endlessly.
Listening to them splashing on the rocks is so peaceful, a must visit to heal your soul and I can assure you the view would take your breath away.
GOLDEN FALLS 黄金瀑布 (Google Map)
No Entrance Fee
Satisfaction level : ♦♦♦♦
3) JiuFen Old Street
JiuFen Old Street is a must for your visit in Taipei, without visiting to this place is incomplete in a Taiwan itinerary. We spent only about 2 hours here and immediately regretted not putting a night here. There is so much to see, eat and do in JiuFen !!
Here is where you can buy their famous edible-souvenirs like ginger tea cubes, paper-meat, iron quail-eggs, mango jellies, etc. Other souvenirs we got here are like key chains, magnets, caps and stuff. So much to buy!
This is specially my favorite shell-meat!!
JIU FEN OLD STREET 九份老街 (Google Map)
No Entrance Fee
Satisfaction level : ♦♦♦♦♦
4) ShiFen Old Street & ShiFen Waterfall
This is a 200% must go place after JiuFen!! Aside from the usual ShiFen Old Street’s train tracks and tourists releasing lanterns into the sky, there is this ShiFen Waterfall!!! You must go!! It so beautiful and gorgeous and it will wash your soul away!!
We have no idea about this place at first and did not plan it in our itinerary, our tour guide suggested and brought us here. It is about 30 minutes walk from the entrance to witness this amazing waterfall and it is totally worth it!!!
We spent more than an hour at this attraction (inclusive of the walking) here mesmerizing god’s creation at His best…simply wow..!
We then head to the old street where we bought our very own lantern 天灯, wrote all the blessing words on it and released it standing on the rail tracks. Each lantern cost about TWD 200. The blessing phrases written on the lanterns will hopefully come true if god can read your handwriting..so write nicely…haha..
SHIFEN OLD STREET (Google Map) & SHIFEN WATERFALL (Google Map)
No Entrance Fee
Satisfaction level : ♦♦♦♦♦
5) Shilin Night Market
First time ever in Taiwan?? Shilin Night Market you must not miss out in your itinerary. As I have heard many negative comments about how Shilin Night Market is overrated and stuff, but it turns out that we enjoyed it very much!
Here, you can find a lot of street food (duh…), games stalls, duty-free cosmetics shops (mum & sis went crazy shopping spree), and etc. My greatest achievement (self-declared) was to taste the infamous Shilin Big Fried Chicken Chop…and..it was Awe’gas’some!! Way way way better, bigger, meatier, and juicier than the one they sell locally in Malaysia. No joke.
You can reach Shilin Night Market by taking the rail transit 捷运 (red color line), get off at JIANTAN 剑潭站 station, and basically just follow the crowd to Exit 1. You should be able to see a big sign at the main entrance of the night market.
SHILIN NIGHT MARKET 士林夜市 (Google Map)
Mode of transport : Light Rail Transit, Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red) at JIANTAN station
Satisfaction level : ♦♦♦♦
6) C.K.S. Memorial Hall
Great place to visit and awesome architectural and landscaping design. It was freaking sunny when we visited, hence we did not walk all the way up into the memorial hall. Instead, we stay put taking a shade at one of the two orange-roofed buildings at the side of the square, i.e. National Theater.
C.K.S. MEMORIAL HALL 中正纪念堂(Google Map)
Mode of Transport : Light Rail Transit, Songshan-Xindian Line (Green) or Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red) at CKS MEMORIAL HALL station, Exit No. 5
Satisfaction level : ♦♦♦♦
7) Addiction Aquatic Developement (AAD)
AAD 上引水产 is basically a well maintained, modernised Japanese seafood market in Taipei. Here, you can find varieties of seafood, cooked or alive, where locals buy their lavish seafood (crabs, abalones, shells, etc.) at a very reasonable price!!!! (at least cheaper, much cheaper than in Malaysia)
As we stepped foot into this place, we felt Taiwan people are so lucky!! A cheese-baked abalone (whole abalone sliced into strips) with shell is only TWD320!! (~MYR 48!!) See the price tag on the far right?? That’s TWD320! So reasonably priced!! >0< Can’t get it anywhere in Malaysia! And you can keep the shell as souvenir..(eww..)
There are so so many food to eat here, if you are a fan of sashimi, this place is also a heaven to you. You can either buy raw seafood and cook at home, buy them cooked and eat outside the market (tables, napkins and sink are provided), or sit inside the market and order like you are in a restaurant!!
And not forget to mention some good stuff we bought which cannot be found in Malaysia at this price..was this, Bonito Flakes in 1kg packaging for only less than TWD300 (~MYR45!!!). UNBELIEBUBBLE!!
You can use it to make soup, or those you see in night markets they sprinkle them on top of Tokayaki balls with mayonnaise..yummm..
ADDICTION AQUATIC DEVELOPMENT (Google Map)
Mode of Transport : Rail Transit, Wenhu Line (Brown) at ZhongShan Junior High School Station, then take a cab about 15 minutes
Satisfaction level : ♦♦♦♦♦
That’s all for now. To more travel to come!! 🙂