[ ITINERARY · THE DISPATCH ]

The 4-Day Taipei Itinerary: Night Markets, Temples, and Night Markets Again

Taipei has world-class food at street-cart prices, a futuristic metro that runs on time, temples crammed between skyscrapers, and night markets that operate as a full sensory experience. Four days goes fast.

My first night market experience in Taipei happened at Shilin at 9pm on a weeknight, and nothing I had read prepared me for the scale of it. The stalls stretch across an entire city block and then another, selling everything from foot-long hot dogs to stinky tofu (an acquired smell that I did not acquire) to bubble tea variations I had not previously conceptualised possible, and in the middle of it all, at a folding table under a single lightbulb, an elderly man was making oyster vermicelli in a gelatinous, sweet-savoury sauce and the queue for it wrapped around the corner. I joined the queue. It took twenty minutes. The bowl cost NT$60 — about $2 USD. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten. I went back the next night.

Taipei operates this way. Four days barely scratches it.

The MRT (metro) is your best friend in Taipei — clean, efficient, cheap, and air-conditioned in a city that needs it. An EasyCard covers metro, bus, and YouBike (city bike share); get one immediately at any station.

Morning: Longshan Temple in the Wanhua district is the oldest and most atmospheric temple in Taipei, dating from 1738 and rebuilt multiple times. It operates as an active place of worship — incense smoke thick enough to navigate by, worshippers consulting oracle blocks, an inner courtyard that feels genuinely ancient regardless of the city pressing in around it. The adjacent Snake Alley (Huaxi Street Night Market) wakes up in the afternoon.

Afternoon: Ximending — Taipei’s youth culture and shopping district, a pedestrianised zone full of Japanese-influenced street fashion, small restaurants, and enough neon to qualify as an art installation.

Evening: Ningxia Night Market, smaller and more local than Shilin, is a 15-minute metro ride away. This is where Taipei actually eats — the oyster omelette stall has been operating for decades, the pork rib soup counter fills up at 6pm, and the taro balls in sweetened milk are the correct dessert.

	Morning	Afternoon	Evening
Day 1	Longshan Temple + Ximending	Wanhua district	Ningxia Night Market
Day 2	Elephant Mountain hike	Taipei 101 observation deck	Xinyi district dinner
Day 3	Day trip to Jiufen	Northeast coast return	Shilin Night Market
Day 4	National Palace Museum	Da’an district cafés	Departure

Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan) is a 30-minute hike from the Xiangshan MRT station, ending at a series of rock viewpoints with Taipei 101 perfectly framed ahead. Arrive before 8am for the shot without crowds, or at sunset for the shot with everyone else in the city having the exact same idea, in a warm communal way.

Taipei 101 — the 508-metre skyscraper that was the world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2010 — has an observation deck on the 89th floor (NT$600) that gives the most comprehensive view over Taipei’s grid. At sunset the city transitions from white concrete to a warm grid of lights that looks exactly like a circuit board from above.

Afternoon split: the National Palace Museum is in the northwest of the city, a 30-minute metro ride, and contains the largest collection of Chinese imperial artefacts in the world — treasures relocated from Beijing in 1949. The Jadeite Cabbage (a literal jade carving of a Chinese cabbage) is the museum’s most popular object, which sounds absurd until you see it and understand why.

Jiufen, a hillside mining town 45 minutes from Taipei by bus, became internationally famous as a partial inspiration for Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away (a claim Miyazaki disputes, which only makes everyone more interested in going). The old lanes of red-lantern teahouses stacked up the hillside above the Pacific are genuinely beautiful, especially in the late afternoon mist that the northeast coast reliably provides.

Take the 1062 bus from Taipei Main Station early (9am) to beat the tour groups. Visit the A-Mei Tea House (the old building, not the modern version) for taro balls and oolong with a view down to the ocean. Walk the Shuqi Road stone-stepped lanes. Return via Jinguashi, the adjacent ghost town with a Japanese-era gold museum and a genuinely eerie ruined smelting complex on the hillside.

Back in Taipei by evening for Shilin Night Market — the famous one, the enormous one, with the fried chicken cutlet the size of your face and the bubble tea varieties you will not have encountered previously.

Da’an District is the residential, university-adjacent neighbourhood with Taipei’s best independent café culture. The streets around Yongkang Street have been called one of the best pedestrian café districts in Asia, and the soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung (the original branch is here) are the definitive version of that particular dish.

A final walk through the Daan Forest Park — a large green space in the centre of the district, popular with morning Tai Chi practitioners, elderly men playing Chinese chess, and dogs of various sizes — and you have covered enough of Taipei to know you need to come back.

Is Taiwan safe? Very — Taiwan consistently ranks among the safest destinations in Asia with very low crime. Food hygiene at street markets is generally excellent.

Do I need to exchange money? Taiwan uses the New Taiwan Dollar (NT$). ATMs are everywhere and work with international cards. Street food and small vendors are cash-only; larger restaurants accept cards. The exchange rate makes Taiwan exceptionally good value.

How is the weather? Humid and subtropical — January and February are the mildest and driest. Summer (June–September) is hot, humid, and typhoon season. Spring and autumn are optimal but still humid.

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