Sightseeing: Taipei 101, Beitou

After only a few months of living in Taiwan, the inevitable stream of guests has begun. This of course means an increased quota of sightseeing. Every so often I will blog about some of the places I have taken guests. First up, Taipei 101 and Beitou.

Yi Ling Yi - Taipei 101

Taipei 101 is currently the world's tallest completed structure (there is always another building somewhere aiming to go just a little bit higher). It has a website at http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/. To get there, hail a cab and tell the driver "Eee Ling Eee" (Mandarin for 1-0-1).

Inside the building's basement is a decent sized foodcourt with many decent options, and Jasons (a grocery store with an inhouse bakery and many western products). A variety of higher-end clothing stores and jewellers fill about 4 floors worth of space; worth a wonder around for those interested in shopping. For expats, the fourth level is a great place to find reasonably priced english language books at Page One.

Near the top of the building is an enclosed platform/floor open to the paying public with 360 degree views of the city. Tickets are purchased on level 5, next to the queue for the smooth high-speed elevators. Larger bags will need to be left at the ticket counter.

Tickets cost 400 NTD for each adult and 370 NTD for each child under 12, and include the audio guided tour around the viewing area of the city's major sights.


For a better view of the city, try to pick a day with better weather and minimal haze. The first time I visited the viewing platform, electrical thunderstorms were hanging over the city; not as helpful for visibility, but quite an atmospheric experience.

On this occasion, we made it to the viewing platform shortly before sunset, and watched the last rays dip below the horizon.


As the daylight faded away, the city began to light up. I would recommend this as a good time of day to bring guests. If they are particularly keen to see the city buildings, arrive with enough time to have the audio tour before sunset for better visibility.

Beitou - Spring City Resort

In the northern part of Taipei, steaming hot springs have led to a packed cluster of hotels for people to soak away their city stress. The easiest way to reach Beitou (especially if you're in the southern part of the city) is to catch the MRT.

This was the first time I had caught the MRT in Taipei, being mostly a taxi-hound. For the first time, students in the International Chinese Language Program have the proper National Taiwan University student ID cards. The major benefit of this is that those cards also act as stored value cards giving discounted MRT fares.

The MRT was easy to use, quick, well maintained, and not too crowded on ours journey from CKS Memorial Hall station to the Beitou station (pictured below). The full adult fare each way was 35 NTD.

We visited Beitou on Friday 10 October, which also happened to be my birthday. In light of this not so auspicious occasion, I booked an overnight stay at Spring City Resort (http://www.springresort.com.tw) for my first Taiwan hot springs experience. The resort had a free shuttle service between the hotel and the Beitou and Xinbeitou MRT stations.

Inside the Japanese themed grounds, we enjoyed a number of smaller pools, including several with different kinds of bubbles, quiet pools, sleeping baths (constructed for lying down in the hot bubbly water), a super hot pool for the brave, and an area laid with heated smooth marble stone slabs for resting on.

My favourite pool was the waterfall pool, where several waterfalls pummelled down giving my shoulders an awesome massage. The sole cold spring pool, a small circular granite pool with rose petals floating on the surface, was a close second; firstly for cooling off in between the hottest pools, and secondly because no-one else ever seemed to use it so I had a little floral scented paradise all to myself.

Another enjoyable feature of the hotel was the private hot spring tub inside the hotel room for use after retreating from the public areas:

As a closet hot spring junkie, I can see Beitou quickly becoming one of my favourite parts of the city, and can recommend the springs at this hotel. I look forward to trying out other hotels in the area too (for research purposes you understand, to give myself a basis of comparison -one must suffer for one's hobbies).