Peak Eye Health

First day in Taiwan – Monday, September 25

We landed at 5am at Taoyuan Airport (TPE) and took the MRT (Taipei metro system) to the main station, then headed to our hotel to drop off our stuff. There are a couple ways to get from the airport to taipei city. The most expensive would be to take a cab. Taking the high speed rail is a fast way, but you would need to take a cab to the TaoYuan HSR station from the airport first.

There is now an airport express line that you can take from the airport to the Taipei main station (the most central and busiest station where most lines of the metro meet), which makes public transportation very easy and convenient. It takes about 35 min if you take the airport express (which has less stops), but there is also a regular airport line that makes more stops to the taipei main station. From there you would just need to follow the subway map to figure out where your hotel or next destination is.

Once we got to our hotel line – We had to take Xin Yi An He (blue line to World trade center) we made our first stop for coffee.

Afterwards, we walked to a day market near our hotel and had breakfast. We tried various local dishes like 豆漿油條 “doujiang youtiao”, 飯糰 “fantuan”, and 韮菜荷 “jiucai he”. The market was also a short distance from the Taipei 101 and world trade center.

Since Taipei 101 wasn’t open yet, we walked around the food court and then went up to the observatory. We went up to the observatory at 10am when it opened.

After that, we grabbed some food at the food court in the basement floor of the World Trade center building.

In the afternoon, we did an afternoon hike at Elephant Mountain. It was very hot and humid, but luckily we were in the shade for most of the way. It wasn’t a long hike – clocked in about 0.84 miles round trip (with 463 ft of elevation gain in between). Took us 45 min to get to the top w/ breaks due to high humidity and heat. Beware a lot of steps though, so take breaks and stay hydrated if you’re doing the trail. There was also an outdoor gym workout area once you get to the top. The views on the mountain are great because you can get a good sight at the 101 from the mountain. It’s also a very popular hike because it’s in the city — there are locals and tourists alike.

Finally, we checked into our hotel after finishing the hike. We cleaned up and got ready for dinner. We decided to have Din Tai Fung for dinner, which is just a few stops on the MRT near Da’an station. We also grabbed a beer at Learn Cafe next door to the restaurant since we had to wait about 45 mins for availability. We liked the new Taipei IPA the best at the taproom.

We walked about 1 km to Shida Night Market near the university in the area and took a cab back to our hotel.

Here’s a short video hshot during my first day in Taipei. Stay tuned and continue to read on here about my day 2-3 adventures as I explore Yang Ming Shan, Xi Men Ding shopping area and check out a couple night markets.