Taipei
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Taiwan’s glitzy and bustling capital city is the usual entry point for most travellers to this country, and it’s a worthwhile place to spend some time in and take in the sights, such as the most prominent one of the all – the impossible-looking skyscraper “Taipei 101” (at over 500m once the tallest in the world). Taipei offers some significant dark-tourism attractions itself too and also makes a good base for excursions further afield.
>Combinations with other dark destinations
More background info: See also the chapter about the History of Taiwan in general.
Most of today’s Taipei is no older than half a century, much is significantly newer still. The city originally grew out of earlier settlements and was declared the capital of the island in the late 19th century while Taiwan was under Chinese rule. In the subsequent Japanese era from 1895 to 1945, Taipei remained the capital of the new colony of Japan, and the city’s name was adapted into Japanese as Taihoku. The Japanese vastly improved the city’s infrastructure, including roads and railways. Several buildings from the Japanese colonial era can still be seen today (see below).
After WWII and the defeat of Japan, Taipei became the capital of the new Chinese-ruled province of Taiwan. When the government under Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan after the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) lost the Chinese Civil War against Mao’s communists, Taipei became the capital of the remaining Republic of China (ROC).
The city has seen substantial growth since then. Today the population of the inner city of Taipei stands at around 2.5 million, but is over 7 million together with the whole municipality including New Taipei City (which surrounds the central city mostly to the north-east and the west). It’s one of the most densely populated conurbations in the world.
Taipei is Taiwan’s commercial, financial and political nerve centre and also a major transport hub, for roads, railways and air transport, sporting two international airports (although the smaller one, Songshan located within the city, mostly serves domestic routes, but also has connections to e.g. Japan).
Taipei has been likened to Singapore and Hong Hong, just with less English and more freedom. I would rather characterize it as a cross between Tokyo and Jakarta. It has much of a Tokyo-like hustle and bustle and glitzy modern architecture, though it’s less squeaky clean and super-efficient, but also has some of the griminess and chaos of Jakarta. Another similarity is the omnipresence of motor scooters that form the main means of private road transport and at times these are responsible for the somewhat bad air quality. Overall, however, air pollution in Taipei is far lower than in, say, Kaohsiung.
The most iconic modern landmark of Taipei is the skyscraper “Taipei 101” (so named because it has 101 floors). When it opened at the end of 2004 it was the tallest skyscraper in the world and the first to go above the half kilometre mark at a total height of 509m (1670 feet). It’s a structural engineering marvel, especially given how earthquake-prone Taiwan is; but the latest and largest damper technology is said to make it quake-safe. It hasn’t been directly hit by a strong earthquake yet, but suffered no damage in the big April 2024 quake near Hualien. The tower, which is shaped a bit like a super-elongated Chinese pagoda, also has to withstand super-strong winds during typhoons and proved itself in that respect in the devastating 2009 typhoon.
In addition to being an administrative, business and industrial powerhouse, it’s also tourism that plays a major role in Taipei’s economy. Apparently it is one of the most visited cities in Asia. Accordingly, tourism facilities are well developed (see below).
What there is to see: For the dark tourist there are a few of sites worth visiting within the city; these are the ones given separate chapters here:
Less significant, but also of interest to some may be the pompous Grand Hotel, allegedly a pet project of Madame Chiang (Chiang Kai-shek’s wife Soong Mei-ling), first established in the early 1950s and competed in 1973. Its architecture is faux-classical-Chinese style, and at 12 floors and an ornate roof at the top reaching 87m (285 feet) in total height it’s one of the tallest buildings in such a style. The almost 500-room institution and landmark is still a top address and has housed many high-ranking guests, including a long list of foreign heads of state. What makes it interesting from a dark-tourism perspective are the two air-raid-shelter tunnels underneath the hotel with a capacity that is said to accommodate 10,000 people. It was long rumoured that these tunnels connect to the presidential palace and residence, but in truth they end at secluded concrete entrances/exits in nearby parks. One of the tunnel’s spiral staircase down is complemented by a parallel slide, apparently for people with mobility issues – which sounds pretty unique. The tunnels are not regularly accessible, but there are guided tours. These are mostly limited to hotel guests and must be booked in advance, though there may be alternative arrangements with local tourism agencies. I had initially planned to stay one night at the Grand Hotel, precisely to get access to the tunnels, but at the time I was travelling (around Christmas and New Year’s Eve 2023) it was already fully booked long in advance so I had to miss out.
Easily and freely accessible at all times, on the other hand, is the nearby 823 Artillery Battle Memorial Park at the bottom of the hill that the Grand Hotel sits on just to the south-east. There are in fact steps leading down to it from the south-east corner of the square in front of the hotel’s main building. The park features some large and small artillery cannons as well as a 1950s fighter jet, all on open-air display, plus a few plaques. The park commemorates the 23 August battle of Kinmen (see also August 23rd Battle Museum there), hence the name.
There also used to be an Army Museum of the ROC (aka Armed Forces Museum or Military History Museum) in Zhongshan District. Founded as early as the 1960s, this museum closed down at the end of 2021. Apparently it’s to be replaced by a National Military Museum at some point in the future.
A short-lived addition to Taipei’s dark-tourism portfolio used to be the Ama Museum in the Datong District, which deals with the topic of the “comfort women”, who were forced to serve as sex slaves in WWII during the Japanese rule over Taiwan. Founded in 2016, it had to close down due to lack of funding and underwhelming visitor numbers before I could go and see it at the end of 2023.
Still in existence and perhaps of minor interest is the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial House. Sun is regarded as the founder of the ROC and a revolutionary that is one of the few figures equally revered in both the ROC and PRC. The building used to be part of a Japanese colonial-era inn and Sun had once stayed there. It has some artefacts/exhibits about its famous former guest, and a statue of the man in the courtyard, but not much else. I saw it only from the outside. (Note that there are other sites of exactly the same name e.g. in Macau and in Paris!)
Moreover there is a Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (a counterpart of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, though somewhat less grand), but this is currently closed for renovation. (Again, there are several sites of the same name elsewhere, including in particular on the Chinese mainland.)
Finally there is also a Monument for the Victims of the White Terror (cf. Jing-Mei) just south of the 228 Peace Park. It’s a largely symbolic concrete structure with a sunken water feature but next to no information.
Location: in a basin between a system of lower mountains and mostly to the east of the Tamsui River in the northern part of Taiwan.
Grand Hotel with air-raid tunnels: [25.0784, 121.5262]
823 Artillery Battle Memorial Park: [25.07699, 121.5268]
Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial House: [25.0477, 121.5201]
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall: [25.0399, 121.5603]
Monument for the Victims of the White Terror: [25.0395, 121.5141]
Main train station: [25.0479, 121.5172]
Taipei 101: [25.0335, 121.5648]
Access and costs: easy to reach and get around, not necessarily expensive.
Details: There’s a dedicated Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) train line from Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport that connects easily and quickly to Taipei Main Station, where it has its own separate terminus. The main part of the station is also the most significant rail hub of the country with countless connections to many parts of Taiwan.
Getting around is made easy by an excellent public transport system. This consists of the metro (also called MRT), which has six colour-coded lines (also named after their terminus). It’s safe, fast and very convenient and also extremely cheap compared to other capital cities of this stature. Using an EasyCard (see under Taiwan >practicalities) makes travelling by metro a breeze and even saves you a little money. Crucial information, like station names, are all also given in English.
In addition there are countless bus lines, which are also uncomplicated to use when using the EasyCard (note that you have to tap the card both on entering and exiting the bus). Here too, announcements are made in both Mandarin and English. Taxis exist too, of course, but will hardly ever be of much use to visitors.
Moreover, Taipei is a very pedestrian-friendly city (unlike many others in Taiwan), with wide and well-maintained pavements (sidewalks) and plenty of pedestrian crossings with traffic lights. In the past you had to keep an eye out for reckless drivers, but since the law has been tightened up, pedestrians have absolute priority at crossings, and violations of that are severely punished, so pedestrians are now safer than ever in Taipei. There are also whole pedestrianized streets, in particular in the Ximending District (which is sometimes called “Taipei’s Harajuku” due to the many fashionably dressed young people, though this aspect is not quite as extravagantly extreme as in the real Harajuku in Tokyo).
Accommodation options are plentiful and of great variety, ranging from budget hostels, numerous mid-range hotels and a few top-notch luxury options (such as the Grand Hotel – see above) or the Grand Hyatt with views of the Taipei 101. When choosing your accommodation, location will be key. I found the area around Taipei Main Station particularly convenient.
As for food and drink, Taipei offers a myriad of options, from Michelin-starred luxury restaurants to cheap roadside stalls and night markets. Useful and very budget-friendly without compromising quality are also the mainly self-service food courts found on the lower floors of large shopping malls such as Q Square by the Main Station or the one at the Taipei 101. English-language menus are more common in restaurants serving foreign cuisines than in Chinese ones, except if they are more formal.
Bars, including very Westernized ones, sophisticated wine, whisky or cocktail bars, and other watering holes are plentiful too. And for craft-beer aficionados there are few better places in Asia than Taipei. I’ve tried several craft-beer haunts here and my favourite one that I went back to repeatedly was a cosy little place (on Chang’an W Rd. not far from the Main Station) called “Beer Cat” – because of the two resident cats, who are super friendly towards patrons. And the range of taps and bottles in the fridges is excellent too. Another good place for trying otherwise hard to find Taiwanese craft beers is the “58 Bar” in the trendy Ximending District.
Time required: For seeing just the places listed above, three or four days could suffice, but if you want to explore further or use Taipei as a base for excursions to other sites in northern Taiwan (of which there are quite a few – see below), then you’ll need more nights’ accommodation in the city. If you also want to see a good part of Taipei’s non-dark attractions even a full week will hardly suffice.
Combinations with other dark destinations: in general see under Taiwan.
Places that can be visited as day return trips from Taipei include the Gold Museum and Kinkaseki POW camp memorial in Jinguashi, which can be reached by public transport from Taipei. To see Wanli or Suwang-dong (水湳洞選煉廠遺址), also to the north, you’d need a car (with driver, ideally – see under >practicalities in the general Taiwan chapter), likewise for the Chiang Kai-shek statue park and the Jiaobanshan residence.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: Taipei has plenty to offer outside the dark-tourism category too. There are numerous museums of all kinds, with the National Palace Museum out in the suburbs the most highly acclaimed (for Chinese art and treasures mainly). There are leafy parks as well, such as Daan Forest Park, and on the fringes of the city there are hot springs and thermal valleys (indicating the volcanic origins of the island) as well as a highly rated zoo.
Temples and such things are numerous too. But you won’t see many historical buildings. An exception is the North Gate west of the Main Station. This is one of the few remnants of the former city wall from the time the Chinese established Taipei in the 1880s. Most of this wall was demolished early on in the Japanese colonial era, but this gate survives in almost its original state. Two other gates, the Little East and South Gates are also still in existence, but those two have been heavily modified on KMT orders in the 1960s to make them look more Chinese in a rather clichéd way.
Some buildings from the Japanese era also survive, such as the edifice now housing the National Taiwan Museum (2 Xiangyang Rd.) built in 1913-15, Zhongshan Hall (98 Yanping S Rd.) built in 1936, or the Red House in Ximending District, a former theatre built in 1908.
However, Taipei is mostly characterized by modern architecture. While much of it is quite bland, there are also numerous more interestingly designed buildings and skyscrapers. By far the tallest and most iconic is the fabled Taipei 101, a 509m (1670 feet) high landmark visible from almost anywhere in the city. At night it is tastefully illuminated and hence even more visible.
