Taiwan

Arrival in Taiwan and Taipei

Edward Kopka

13 Oct 2025 • 10 min read

Starting in December I had an extended period of leave from work, so of course I decided to go traveling. For this trip my goal is to explore East Asia and my first destination is Taiwan. I will spend a little over three weeks in Taiwan before then going to South Korea and Japan.

I was really nervous about my arrival in Taipei. My flight was landing at 1:00 AM in the morning and I was worried about getting a taxi during the middle of the night to the hotel. Thankfully this worry was unfounded and I booked a taxi without issue. I think part of my nervousness on the flight was the apprehension of visiting a new country by myself. I hadn't started a solo trip like this in over a year; and last time I was going to Europe, a place that, while different, still has many cultural similarities with Australia. I knew going to Taiwan would be a very different culture from what I am used to and this was making me nervous.

My first few days in Taiwan I spent in the north of the country, with my time in Taipei being split up by an overnight trip to Jiufen (a really awesome mountain town that will be featured in a separate post), so I ended up staying in two hotels in Taipei. During this time I experienced some culture shock, probably the most I have experienced out of any place I have visited so far. It was difficult at first, especially having to deal with the language barrier. But, I pushed forward and after a week or so I was feeling much more comfortable. My time in Taipei was challenging but I am glad I made it through as I have now been finding Taiwan to be such a beautiful country.

In this post I will share some of the pictures from Taipei and in future posts more of Taiwan.

First Day

I had not organised anything for my first day in Taipei. Mostly, I just wanted to walk around the city, exploring it and also taking the time to get familiar with both a new city and a new country. I always like doing a bit of an exploratory walk when I first arrive in a new place as it helps me to get familiar with the new environment and to feel more confident to undertake future activities.

The first thing I did was walk around the block where I was staying to scout for any coffee shops. I found one nearby and ordered a coffee, this was when I first started to learn that cash is still used quite a bit in Taiwan. Then, there were a couple of parks near the hotel so I decided to go have a look at them. The biggest park was the National Dr Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. Unfortunately, the building was closed but the park around it was open and quite beautiful. I also walked to the Taipei 101 shopping centre where I had lunch (this is the tallest building in Taiwan and was once the tallest in the world, but I only visited the mall at the base (this time)). After resting again at the hotel in the afternoon I finished my day by visiting the Linjiang Night Market.

My first view of Taipei 101, taken on the street near the hotel.

The park around the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, a beautiful green space with a nice lake and garden.

Walking to Taipei 101. The final photo shows the shopping mall that had a ceiling window where I could see the rest of the tower soaring above.

Taipei is getting into the Christmas spirit. During my time here I would see quite a few streets decorated with lights, and a number of Christmas trees.

I found the streets of Taipei so interesting as many streets had huge signs that, at night, were lit in all sorts of brilliant colours. There were also a huge number of motorcycles on the road and they often seemed to flow like water through the streets.

Floral Garden

On Saturday, after attending an English speaking church, I visited a nearby park with a floral garden display. The pastor at the church had recommended this place to me and it seemed like a bit of a local secret. The place was busy with many sightseers but I didn't see many western tourists. I believe the park contains the Shilin Residence where Chiang Kai-Shek used to live and it might now be a Museum. When I visited, the park was full of floral arrangements showcasing Chrysanthemums, I'm still not certain though if the flower gardens are temporary or if they rotate the displays throughout the year.

A large permanent garden with rows of many different kinds of roses.

An ecological garden with a pond covered in water lilies.

They had a frill necked lizard and penguin display. These displays seemed temporary.

The pathways were decorated with these larges vases of flowers.

There was a long display showcasing many different species of Chrysanthemums.

A large peacock with a tail made of flowers.

Four Beasts Trail

While Taipei itself is in a valley, it is surrounded by mountains. One of the closest hiking trails into these mountains is to Elephant Mountain. The start of the trail is not too far from the last stop of the red MRT line. After Elephant Mountain, there are three more peaks that can be accessed by following the contours of the terrain, and each peak is named after animal, hence the full trail is called the Four Beasts trail. The mountains are at around 150-180 meters above sea level and really they are all smaller sub peaks of the much larger Jiuwu Mountain that dominates the landscape. Because of how close these mountains are to the city they offer some fantastic views of the Taipei skyline.

I walked through a lovely little park to get to the trail head for Elephant Mountain.

I was quickly learning that hiking in Taiwan means lots and lots of stairs. The trail was stairs like this almost all the way to the top.

The view of Taipei from a lookout point halfway up the mountain.

Elephant peak and the view of Taipei as seen from Elephant peak.

After Elephant Peak, the trail was much smoother, following the contour of the mountain it worked its way through beautiful forests. Although, when I did start the walk, there was a bit of light rain; even so there were still plenty of other people hiking, despite the weather.

Lion Mountain. This was the least impressive of the peaks as there was no viewing platform and I had to walk on a dirt trail for 20 meters or so to get here.

Leopard peak and the view of Taipei from it.

Tiger peak and the view of Taipei from this peak.

A panorama of Taipei taken from Tiger peak.

Streets, Parks, and Temples

This plaza like street was located outside an MRT station and followed the MRT line, being underneath the tracks. I had to walk this way to get to the Adventist church.

The old north gate of Taipei city. It is currently under construction so this was the best picture I could take.

This is one of the temples in Taipei. It is situated above this street (the car in the photo is driving beneath the temple). The story goes that the god in the temple refused to be moved when the road was constructed but was happy to let the temple be lifted up.

I saw a few temples in Taipei while on a walking tour of the city.

Some of the Christmas light decorations in Taipei.

The view from the Chaing Kai-Shek memorial hall showing the liberty square with the national theater and concert halls buildings on the left and right.

I saw this bird in the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall park, it was standing so still that at first I thought it was a statue. The only movement it made was to rotate its head to look at me while I was taking its picture.

Some more photos of the streets of Taipei.

I took this overpass to get to a park next to the river, providing a view of a major road and some city buildings.

I had a lovely stroll next to the river in the Huazhong Riverside Park.

The sun setting over Taipei. I took this from an overpass I used to leave the Huazhong Riverside Park.

The Lungshan Temple. I only stopped briefly to look at this temple because I happened to be in the area when I was on my way back to my accommodation.

There was this really cool waterfall fountain at the temple, with a pool at the base containing fish. I found the patterns made by the foam in the pool rather interesting and tried to capture this (along with some fish) in the second image.

Taipei is possibly the biggest city I have visited up to now (maybe London is bigger but I only spent 1 day there). Certainly it is the biggest city where I have spent a significant amount of time exploring it. I could feel the size and business of the city on multiple occasions during my stay. At night many of the streets, especially those in the night markets or shopping malls, would become incredibly crowded. At rush hour the MRT trains would be jam packed with people and I would have to wait in line, sometimes for multiple trains to pass, before I could get on. It is a very busy city with a completely different feel to an Australian or European city. Yet, I found it fascinating and I still very much enjoyed my time here.

Thanks for reading – Edward

Written 19th of December 2024

First Day

Floral Garden

Four Beasts Trail

Streets, Parks, and Temples

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