Ximending is amazing food and hip shopping district. Try the bittergourd juice located at the end of Han Zhong St. My favourite bites to grad are the duck noodles, carrot cake and noodle soups located along the eateries scattered at the end of Han Zhong St. Try walking along the streets one the edge of the Ximending shopping area to look for local desserts places to try the fragrant and delicious peanut soup. There are streets after streets of small fashion outlets and I highly recommend wandering around and exploring. Don’t be afraid to walk down into basements or up to stores on the upper floors as you never know what you’ll discover. Quite a bit of their lines come from Japan so the workmanship is good and styles very current. I still keep finding gems I’ve missed on each trip back. And if you have a shoe weakness like I do you’ll love the range of shoes styles and many shops are really inexpensive or have shoe specials that could make controlling your shoe-craze-demon hard.. Take the MRT to Ximending.
Huaxi Night Market located next to Longshan Temple is a nice place to end up for a late dinner for local Taiwanese nom noms. Check out the fried oyster omlette found at the very end of the long street of stalls. There’s a dessert shop a short distance from the entrance way on the left (ground-floor of shophouse hidden behind a rice dumping stall) which has been open for many years and sells Taiwan style ice-kachang. The rice dumplings from the stall in-front of it are really tasty and filling too. Take the MRT to Longshan Temple.
XinDian District is where you will discover locals painting by the riverside as well as taking leisurely walks and enjoying water activities. There is a little street that is full of life as well filled with local tastes, artistes, fruits & vegetable stalls, carnival stalls and Taiwanese knick-knack stores. I recommend taking a walk along the riverside walkway and even renting a paddle boat to cruise up and down the gently flowing river. You’ll also see the beautiful Bitan Suspension Bridge used only by pedestrians. Take the MRT to Xindian.
Danshui is the seaside district in Northern Taipei. This area has streets lined with boardwalk games, quaint little shops and lots of local eats. Gotta try the almond flavour drink as well as the dumplings, fried quails eggs, potato sliced up on a stick thing. If you like them Japanese clogs, this is the place to get them. There’s a shop where you can choose the kind of wood & the kind of string patter you want for your clogs which then custom fit so its comfy for you to walk around in. Off-the-shelves ones are usually too loose. Take the MRT to Danshui.
Jade & Flower Weekend Market are two markets located next to each other under a highway at Jianguo South Road. Near one end of the Jade market (the end which isn’t next to the flower market) you’ll see a stall selling beautiful handcrafted glass jewelry. The Flower Market displays an amazing range of flowers, plants and related knick-knacks. After the Flower Market there is also a small Artist Market which sometimes has interesting finds. Take the MRT to Zhongxiao Fuxing or Zhongxia Xinsheng and walk or hop in a cab from the MRT stations.
Eslite Mall is an upmarket-style shopping center with a 24 hour book shop with an amazing selection of books as well really trendy shops. Look out for a corner on the upper floors retailing a ginger tonic that is good for health, snazzy electronics and homeware. Take the MRT to Taipei City.
Have a great time in Taipei and let me know how you liked these places.
