10 Things to Do in Taipei: Temples, Night Markets and Skyline Views
The best things to do in Taipei combine neighborhood walks, temples, food markets and a little time above the skyline. Start with the places that interest you, then group nearby stops instead of crossing the city for every attraction. Taipei’s MRT makes that approach straightforward.
For a first visit: explore Longshan Temple and Ximending in the west, pair Taipei 101 with the Xinyi area in the east, and choose one night market for dinner. Add the National Palace Museum or Beitou when you have another half-day.
This guide groups ten activities by area, with realistic visit allowances, ticket considerations and rainy-day alternatives. Times are planning estimates and exclude the journey from your hotel unless stated. For a wider route including Jiufen and Sun Moon Lake, see our 7-day Taiwan itinerary.
Choose your Taipei activities at a glance
| Activity | Allow | Main planning decision |
|---|---|---|
| Longshan Temple and Ximending | Half a day with lunch | Walk and use the MRT between neighborhoods |
| Dihua Street, Dadaocheng | 2–3 hours | Go while the shops you want are open |
| Liberty Square and memorial hall | 1–2 hours | Check current exhibition and demonstration schedules |
| Huashan 1914 Creative Park | 1–2 hours | Some exhibitions and events require separate tickets |
| Taipei 101 Observatory | 1½–2 hours | Buy the correct ticket and check visibility |
| Elephant Mountain | 1½–2 hours including approach and return | A stair climb; choose according to fitness and conditions |
| One night market | 1½–2½ hours | Pick a market that fits your route |
| National Palace Museum | 2–3 hours plus travel | Check the northern branch calendar and exhibitions |
| Beitou | Half a day | Avoid assuming museums, Thermal Valley and baths share opening rules |
Do not try to complete this table in one day. A temple, a neighborhood walk and a market can be enough, especially in humid weather. Museum visits and the northern districts need more time than a quick stop between central attractions.
Start in western Taipei
1. Visit Longshan Temple
Longshan Temple is a useful introduction to Taipei’s living religious spaces. Look at the roofs, courtyard and detailed decoration, while keeping the paths used by worshippers clear. Allow 45–60 minutes and follow posted rules about photography and access.
Longshan Temple MRT station is the practical starting point. Visit in the morning if you want to pair it with nearby streets and lunch before moving to Ximending. Dress respectfully, keep voices low and ask before photographing people closely. A visit should not interrupt worship for the sake of a picture.
2. Explore Ximending on foot
Ximending is a different kind of Taipei: busy pedestrian streets, shops, food and entertainment around Ximen station. Allow around two hours for browsing and a meal, rather than treating it as a single building with a ticket. The Red House area is a useful landmark; check the schedule if you want to enter an exhibition or attend an event.
Use the MRT between Longshan Temple and Ximen if you prefer to save your walking for the pedestrian area. An afternoon or early evening visit works well. Shops have individual hours, so an early-morning stroll will not offer the same experience as visiting later in the day.
3. Browse Dihua Street and Dadaocheng
Dihua Street suits visitors interested in old shopfronts, tea, dried goods and smaller shops. This is a separate neighborhood north of Ximending, so plan a transport connection rather than assuming the two pedestrian areas are adjacent. The city’s Dihua Street guide explains its place within historic Dadaocheng.
Allow two to three hours with a tea or coffee stop. Ask for the price and unit when buying goods sold by weight, and check packaging restrictions before taking food home. A riverside walk is an optional extension if weather and access suit you; it does not need to become another long sightseeing circuit.
Central Taipei: a public square and a creative park
4. Walk through Liberty Square and the memorial hall grounds
Liberty Square offers a spacious contrast to Taipei’s commercial streets, with the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall at one end and the performing-arts buildings nearby. Allow one to two hours for the grounds and selected exhibitions. Use Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall MRT station and check which entrances and galleries are open.
Do not rely on older advice promising an hourly guard change beside the bronze statue. The memorial hall’s official history records the relocation of the honor guard and training demonstrations to Democracy Boulevard in July 2024. Consult the current visitor programme if a demonstration is important to you; it should not determine the whole day.
5. Visit Huashan 1914 Creative Park
Huashan 1914 suits an afternoon of exhibitions, design shops and cafés in a former industrial setting. It is useful when you want something different from another temple or a shopping mall. Allow one to two hours, longer for a specific exhibition.
Check the official Huashan programme before traveling for a particular event. Walking through the grounds and entering a ticketed exhibition are different activities, and some spaces or queues are outdoors. Zhongxiao Xinsheng is a useful MRT station for access; leave time for the walk from the station.
Eastern Taipei: skyline views
6. Go up Taipei 101, or enjoy the area from street level
Taipei 101’s observatory makes sense if you want an elevated view without a hill climb. Allow around one and a half to two hours for entry, queues and the visit, with extra time during busy periods. Check the forecast and visibility before choosing a nonrefundable time slot.
Compare the actual ticket products on the official Taipei 101 website: standard observatory access and special upper-floor experiences are not necessarily the same purchase. The official page currently directs visitors to the Office Tower’s first-floor observatory ticket counter. Follow dated instructions on your booking rather than an older guide to the mall’s fifth floor.
Use Taipei 101/World Trade Center MRT station and allow time to find the correct entrance. If the view is poor or the ticket does not fit your budget, explore the surrounding Xinyi streets and shops instead. Seeing the landmark does not require paying to go up it.
7. Climb Elephant Mountain if the conditions suit
Elephant Mountain, or Xiangshan, offers a view that includes Taipei 101 itself. This is a stepped climb, not an accessible level promenade. From Xiangshan MRT station, allow time to reach the trailhead before starting uphill. Budget roughly one and a half to two hours for the approach, a viewpoint stop and return, adjusting for your pace and crowds.
Wear shoes with grip and carry water. Rain can make steps slippery, and a sunset visit means planning the descent in fading light. Avoid the trail during severe-weather warnings or closures. You can choose the observatory or a street-level outing instead; there is no need to do both viewing experiences in the same afternoon.
Choose one night market for dinner
8. Eat your way through a night market
The easiest night market is often the one that fits your route. Pick one, leave room for several small dishes and spend around two hours browsing and eating. You do not need to cross the city to compare three markets in a single evening.
| Market | Useful connection | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Raohe Street | Songshan MRT station | An eastern Taipei evening after Xinyi, with a separate transfer |
| Ningxia | Walk from the Zhongshan or Shuanglian area | After Dadaocheng or time in central-western Taipei |
| Shilin | Jiantan MRT station | An evening after northern Taipei, allowing travel time from the museum |
Look for dishes you want to try rather than following every queue. Pepper buns, dumplings, noodle dishes, oyster omelets and bubble tea offer different ways to build a meal, depending on the stalls you find. Ask about ingredients if needed: a vegetable-looking dish may still contain meat stock, seafood or sauces.
Carry small cash, check prices before ordering and keep the walking lane clear when eating or taking photos. Stall hours vary. The official Taipei Travel website provides attraction and market information for planning your evening.
Give northern Taipei a half-day
9. Visit the National Palace Museum
Choose the National Palace Museum if ceramics, painting, calligraphy and historic objects interest you. Reserve two to three hours inside, plus the journey. Pick a few galleries and read their explanations instead of trying to see the entire collection in one visit. Exhibits rotate, so check availability if a particular object is your reason for going.
The official admission page lists a regular ticket at NT$350; eligibility and special arrangements can change what you pay. Check the official hours and calendar for the northern branch before choosing the day. The southern branch is a different destination.
Plan an MRT connection toward Shilin followed by a suitable bus or taxi, checking the actual route for your starting point. The museum is not directly outside an MRT station. Avoid booking an inflexible central-city activity immediately afterward; travel and time in the galleries can easily use most of a morning.
10. Explore Beitou beyond the city center
Beitou combines a park setting, hot-spring heritage and the option of a separately booked bath. Travel toward Beitou and change to the Xinbeitou branch for the visitor area. Allow half a day including travel, with longer if booking a bathing session.
The Hot Spring Museum and Thermal Valley are sightseeing stops, not interchangeable bathing facilities. Taipei Travel currently lists Monday closures for both the Hot Spring Museum and Thermal Valley. Verify holiday exceptions and current notices before setting off. Do not enter the geothermal water.
For a bath, compare the facility’s own rules: public or private, session length, clothing requirements and booking conditions. A museum visit does not include bathing. You can also enjoy a shorter park walk and café break without purchasing a spa package.
How to spend one, two or three days in Taipei
| Time | A workable selection |
|---|---|
| One full day | Longshan Temple and Ximending; choose either Xinyi views or Dihua Street; one night market |
| Two full days | Western Taipei and Dadaocheng on Day 1; Liberty Square and Xinyi on Day 2, with a meal break before the evening |
| Three full days | Add the National Palace Museum or Beitou as a main half-day outing; keep the remaining time for Huashan or a slower neighborhood visit |
These suggestions assume full sightseeing days. An arrival afternoon and a departure morning are not two full days. Jiufen is outside Taipei and needs its own travel allowance; if you want to add it, replace a substantial part of a city day or extend the stay. Our one-week Taiwan route shows one way to include Jiufen and Sun Moon Lake.
Transport, spending and rainy-day alternatives
Getting around: use the official Taipei Metro website for maps, fares and first or last trains. Choose your hotel by its actual walking route to a useful station. Airport transport and intercity rail have their own arrangements; a convenient MRT base does not make every airport transfer direct.
What to budget: neighborhood walks and market browsing have no single attraction ticket, but food and transport still cost money. Paid viewpoints, exhibitions, museum tickets and private baths can change the total. Do not buy a sightseeing pass until you have compared its inclusions with the places you will genuinely visit.
As an illustrative day budget, allow NT$600 for food, NT$150 for local transport and NT$350 for a regular National Palace Museum ticket: NT$1,100 before accommodation. This is a worked example, not a claimed average. Taipei 101, baths, tours, airport travel and shopping require separate allowances; replace the figures with your actual choices.
In rain: move the museum or a ticketed exhibition to the wettest period, checking opening days first. Covered shopping and cafés can fill a shorter gap. Taipei 101 is indoors, but cloud can still limit its value as a viewpoint. Night markets and the approaches to museums are not completely sheltered.
Frequently asked questions
What should I prioritize for a first visit?
Choose one western neighborhood outing, one skyline experience and one night market. Add a museum, Beitou or another neighborhood according to your interests, rather than trying to cover every attraction before leaving.
What can I do in Taipei without expensive tickets?
Walk through Ximending and Dadaocheng, browse a market and explore public squares and parks. Temple access depends on the site’s arrangements. Food, transport and paid exhibitions remain separate, even when the surrounding area is free to explore.
Is Jiufen part of Taipei?
Jiufen is in New Taipei City, outside central Taipei. Treat it as a separate excursion with outbound and return travel, not a quick neighborhood stop between city attractions.
How many nights should I book?
Work backward from flights and the number of full days you want. Arriving the evening before three sightseeing days means three hotel nights if leaving late on the third day, or four if leaving the following morning. An early departure needs a final night and transfer plan suited to the flight.