Two days in Taipei

Taiwan is home to more than 13,000 convenience stores. That’s one for every 1,703 people and second only to South Korea in density. 

Apparently, it’s statistically likely that from any street corner in Taipei, you will be able to see two 7-Elevens for Family Marts. When I looked on Google Maps for a 7-Eleven last night, there were four or more within 500 meters of our hotel. 

We didn’t pick Taiwan as a destination because of the density of convenience stores, but it’s been a theme. 

How we ended up in Taiwan

This trip was supposed to be all about Japan. A week of skiing “Japow” in the north and then a week exploring Tokyo. 

Unfortunately, my back had other plans, so we had to throw out some of the hard planning work Katy had done and come up with a plan B. 

Plan B turned out to be Taiwan. Why? Well, we hadn’t been before. We were in the neighbourhood, we had a good deal on our return flights to Tokyo, so we wanted to keep those, and Taipei is only four hours from Tokyo. 

Besides, with the way the world is going these days, we figured we should visit Taiwan before China invades, or the US invades Canada, for that matter. 

Kicking things off in Songshan

Despite a night of sleep in Tokyo, we were still pretty jet-lagged when we arrived in Taipei around midday.

With our first organized activity, a food tour in the Guangzhou Street night market, not until 7:30 that evening, we decided to ignore thoughts of a nap and use our afternoon to visit the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. 

A former tobacco factory, built by the Japanese when they ruled the island between 1895 and 1945, is now home to shops and exhibition spaces.

It was a short walk from our hotel, and we’ve always enjoyed repurposed spaces like this in other cities. This one was no different. 

It didn’t feel like a tourist destination. Something that was confirmed when we managed to get a free tour from some student interns practicing their guiding. One of them mentioned several times how she and her friends would meet there. 

Looking around, locals outnumbered the tourists. How can we tell them apart? Well, only locals bring cats who leave their strollers to sit on benches and peek at tourists around pillars.

Snakes soaked in booze and stinky tofu

We met our food tour group that evening at a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station near the Longshan Temple. The MRT is Taipei’s expansive and famously efficient subway system.

One of many available, we opted for the Guangzhou street night market tour with TourMeAway. 

Was it the best option? I don’t know, it’s the only one we tried. Did we eat food both delicious and a little gross? We sure did. So, I’d call that a success.

Tammy, our guide for the evening, explained that this particular night market, being near the port and those troublesome sailors, used to be a red-light district. She explained this as she was standing in front of a large glass jar with a couple of snakes soaking in liquor. 

Apparently, some shots of this help with virality after a visit with a… “lady friend” (this is a family blog). Tammy and the group didn’t show the same hesitation to talk about prostitution with Ella listening in. 

This belief was common enough that the street used to be lined with these snake bars, earning it the nickname “snake alley”. 

Today, there is just one left, with the rest of the area filled with food vendors and foot massage parlours. 

My favourite stops along our tour were the soup dumplings and the scallion pancakes. Ella liked those and the sweet potato balls. Katy couldn’t eat the dumplings (meat), but liked the other two. 

Stinky tofu lived up to its name and topped the list of things none of us enjoyed. Though we had the “level one” easy deep-fried version, as opposed to fried or barbecued, it was still too much. Ella and I also struggled to get the oyster omelette. Less for the flavour than the glutinous texture of the oysters in it. 

While we’ve had some good food, Taiwan has not come close to knocking Vietnam from the top of my favourite places to eat list.

Why there are so many convenience stores

Fittingly, one of the stops on our food tour was a 7-Eleven. It gave Tammy a chance to share a little more context on convenience stores and some of the interesting items. 

The thing about convenience stores in Taiwan is that they are really community hubs. Yes, you can buy a bag of chips, cilantro Doritos are uniquely Taiwanese and popular, but you can also pay your bills, get a coffee, have a warm meal, or pick up household essentials. 

A little dated, but some context on the importance of convenience stores. 

The gamification of tax audits

One of the other interesting things we learned at 7-Eleven is that every receipt has a QR code that serves as a lottery ticket. 

They are the legacy of a government program established to encourage people to obtain receipts as a means of reducing tax evasion. In essence, the state turned citizens into an army of tax auditors. 

These days, each receipt is a ticket for a bi-weekly draw with prizes of up to $10 million NTD. Tammy said we could win as foreigners, but as we won’t be around to collect, I try to remember to leave the receipts for the store employees. 

You’ve got five-minutes before the earth shakes

The highlight of our second day in Taipei was a bike tour, our favourite way to get to know a new city. 

The tour was run by local bike shop Taipei Bike Works. It included a traditional Taiwanese breakfast (delicious) before we set out on a route with a variety of stops, including: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Danshui Riverside Bikeway, and Longshan Temple.

We also got a reminder that, though you would never guess it walking down the street, Taipei (and Taiwan at large) are under several constant threats: 

Earthquakes – Rita, our guide on the tour, mentioned rather nonchalantly that earthquakes are common and that there is a system that will give you 5 minutes’ warning on your phone. 

Chinese invasion – Every year, the country has a 30-minute air-raid practice during which you have to stop everything. If you’re on the highway, this means pulling over or facing hefty fines. 

Typhoons – Toward the end of our tour, just as we left the Danshui Riverside Bikeway, we rode through a massive metal door that is part of a wall designed to keep the water out of the city in the event of a flood. 

Getting high in Taipei

No, not that kind of high. Our final two stops in Taipei both included some altitude gain. 

After the bike tour, we hopped on the MRT and made our way over to Taipei 101. 

We’ve done tall building visits in the past, in the UAE for example, but we probably would have skipped Taipei 101 were it not for the Alex Honnold special on Netflix earlier this year. 

We hadn’t planned to watch that climb, but once we turned on, it was hard to look away. Now that we were in Taipei, at a hotel just minutes away, it seemed silly not to go have a look.

Seeing the building in person made the idea of free soloing the building even more ridiculous. Taking what, as of today, according to one Google search, is the world’s third fastest elevator seemed like a much more reasonable approach.

After a quick snack at the base of Taipei 101, we got back on the MRT and made our way to Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan). A 30-minute hike will take you up the 183-meter mountain for a view of the downtown skyline.