Taipei City is the capital city and a special municipality of the Republic of China (commonly known as Taiwan) aka the province of Taiwan. Taipei is the political, economic, educational, and cultural center of Taiwan, and one of the major hubs of the Chinese-speaking world. Considered to be a global city, Taipei is part of a major high-tech industrial area. Railways, high-speed rail, highways, airports, and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island.
Tourism is a major part of Taipei’s economy. In 2013, over 6.3 million overseas visitors visited Taipei, making the city the 15th most visited globally. The influx of visitors contributed $10.8 billion USD to the city’s economy in 2013, the 9th highest in the world and the most of any city in the Chinese-speaking world.
*NOTE: MONEY CHANGER– Can only be done at Taiwan Banks. Be prepared for Money Exchange at the Airport.
Jioufen Old Street & Shilin Night Market
Jioufen Old Street is well continuing ancient food trading. Centuries ago the 100,000 people living in these two villages nearby, mostly earn from the mining factory. It also gave growth and prosperity to the village to become known as “Little Shanghai”. This site is a popular place centuries ago as their food and shopping district of Taipei.
Shilin Night Market. The night market is located at Shilin District of Taipei and it is considered the most famous and largest night market in the city. The maze of alleyways is filled with a variety of local, traditional, and international merchandise that attract locals and foreigners alike. The night market consists of two major elements: general merchandise and local cuisine. Along the western edge of the market is the Shilin Night Market Food Court, an underground food paradise.
THE TOP 20 ULTIMATE STREET FOOD IN ASIA
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SPRING ROLL ICE CREAM (ICE CREAM LUMPIA)
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
So unique, delicious, and crunchy dessert that you must never miss when in Taipei night market. It has a lot of savory ingredients which consist of shaved peanut brittle, 2 scoops of flavored ice cream (taro ice cream and red bean ice cream), wrap with thin paper spring roll and optional topping cilantro.
2. COLORFUL FRUIT CANDIES
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
The vibrant candies that every child will crave because of its fruity flavor and attractive color. This is sold 10NT about 15pesos each lollipop. It’s a sweet goodies to bring back home for my niece, nephew and neighborhood children.
3. GRILLED WHITE SWEET CORN WITH SOY & HOT SAUCE
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
Delicious grilled corn marinated with garlic, soy sauce, and hot sauce. One of the tasteful snack you can find in Taipei. It’s a good recipe that they have created since white corn for me has a small kernel, less sweet and not juicy unlike the yellow corn. But with their special sauce it has improved the quality of the taste. One bit can burst out it’s juiciness of the spicy sauce, the flavor and sticky munch.
4. FRESH STRAWBERRIES & FRUITS
LOCATION: Lane 101, Wenlin Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111
OPEN: Daily / 4:30 PM to 12:00 AM
The Ooh-soo-deliciously fresh large strawberry are display at the Shillin Night Market. They are arranged in big plastic cup and formed into a tower to attract consumer. Healthy and juicy to eat. Fruit shakes are also available for refreshments and acked of sliced fruits on the go can be bought too.
5. GLAZED STRAWBERRIES, TOMATO, BERRIES & CHERRIES
LOCATION: Lane 101, Wenlin Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111
OPEN: Daily / 4:30 PM to 12:00 AM
A traditional Chinese snack of candied fruit. The fruit is covered with glazed sugar as it hardens, it gives a shiny coating to the fruit and it is inserted with a bamboo skewer or plastic skewer. It is popularly known as “tanghulu”and it originated from northern china.
6. FRESH SQUEEZED ORANGE & LEMON JUICE
LOCATION: Lane 101, Wenlin Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111
OPEN: Daily / 4:30 PM to 12:00 AM
It’s a very refreshing juice, it helps when you get thirsty indulging variety of street food.
7. DUMPLINGS SIOMAI
LOCATION: 38-1, CHIEN KONG ST, SHILIN DISTRICT, TAIPEI, TAIWAN, 11170
OPEN: DAILY / 7:00AM – 9:00PM
I love the dim sum dumplings in Taipei because it is so delicious, you can taste the meat texture it’s juicy inside. A dip with soy sauce mix with mince garlic. ohh soo good nothing beats a local traditional meal. It’s full of flavor, it is served fresh and hot on your table. The texture and flavor of the dumplings is way different from what I have tasted in Hong Kong and Macau. This local food eatery is located beside our hotel.
8. FRIED DEEP SEA SQUID
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
The extra large size squid is marinated, coated with bread crumb and fried. The deep sea squid can be found around Asian countries. It’s hard to catch the deep sea squid since it would take time. It’s all about waiting if there’s any catch on the fishhook. Like in the Philippines especially in Mindanao, a deep sea squid can be found in Libertad, Misamis Oriental. The fisher folks would start throwing their hook lines on the deepest ocean at dawn with a bait of a fingerlings size milkfish (bangus) and they will wait until they catch one. The size of the squid is differentiated as extra large which is similar to the length of a 5 month old baby.
9. BOILED EGG
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
One of the popular food delicacies you can find in Taipei night market, a boiled egg that is heated with black tea.
10. COLORFUL FISH BALLS
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
The fish ball has its unique flavor with variety of seafood product. The balls are colored just to catch attention of the customers.
11. GRILLED MUSHROOMS
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
The huge size mushrooms are grilled and cane be eaten will your on the go.You can choose from a variety of flavours including spicy, mustard, salt pepper, lemon pepper and cumin.
12. GRILLED SNAILS
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
The fresh grilled snails smells good. when you buy, they will prepare your meal by taking the snails out of their shells and top them with a blend of salt, black pepper and hot sauce.
13. WHITE AMPALAYA BITTER GOURD
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
The unique color white bitter gourd is popular in Taiwan and is use for shakes. The bitter gourd can be blended with mix fruits so that you won’t taste the intense bitterness of the vegetable.
14. MONGOLIAN
LOCATION: 104, Taiwan, Taipei City, Zhongshan District, Songjiang Rd, 283號
OPEN: Daily / 11:30AM–3:30PM / 5:30–10:30PM
In early 1950’s, Mongolian barbeques is popularly known as stir fried noodle dish developed in Taiwanese restaurant. Typically, the diner has to choose the displayed ingredient these are: thinly sliced raw meat, leafy vegetables and sauce; put them in the bowl. Then give your bowl to the chef and he will pour the meat & vegetable to the grill.
15. TAIWAN GRILLED SAUSAGE
LOCATION: Lane 101, Wenlin Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111
OPEN: Daily / 4:30 PM to 12:00 AM
This is the most delicious sausage that I have ever tasted. It’s hot and juicy. The meat texture is sweet pork and its barbequed thru charcoal stove. The smoke flavorful smell, so good that it makes you want to buy more. I was craving for hanging rice (PUSO) to eat with but it my mind this is not philippines. LOL
16. GRILLED SQUID
LOCATION: Lane 101, Wenlin Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111
OPEN: Daily / 4:30 PM to 12:00 AM
Their grilled squid is big size and savoury in which it desires me to taste more street food. The meat texture is tender and well marinated. Yummy to eat while hot on a mini paper plate.
17. VEGETABLE & MEAT BUN (SIOPAO)
LOCATION: Lane 101, Wenlin Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111
OPEN: Daily / 4:30 PM to 12:00 AM
The vegetable bun is loaded with cabbages and season with salt and pepper. The other type of bun is the meaty bun loaded with pork meat and season with soy sauce. It is also tasty. But nothing beats the Philippine Asado Bun (Asado siopao) it’s stuffed with a lot of ingredient from marinated meat to egg to herb and flavorful sauce.
18. FLAVORFUL DRIED MINI FISH (DRIED DILIS FISH)
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
The dried fish has a lot of variety flavor. You can even have free taste of the different flavors. Some are sweet taste, sweet and spicy, salty and spicy.
19. MOON CAKE
LOCATION: Jioufen Old Street – Jishan St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
OPEN: DAILY / 24 hours
A Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiujie). Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. A rich thick filling usually made from red bean or lotus seed paste is surrounded by a thin (2–3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by tea.
Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for “longevity” or “harmony”, as well as the name of the bakery and the filling inside.
You can have a free taste and choose the variety flavor of the special cake.
20.
ADDITIONAL FOOD TRIP YOU MUST TRY:
21. HELLO KITTY CAFE
LOCATION: No. 1號, Jinshan N Rd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100
OPEN: DAILY / 11:30 AM – 10:00PM
Hello kitty cafe is so cute, a beautiful decorative cake design and you will crave for their desserts.
ALSO CLICK OTHER LINK RELATED TO TAIPEI:
- TAIWAN: TOP 5 NIGHT TOUR WHEN IN TAIPEI
- TAIWAN: TOP 8 BEST DAY TOUR IN TAIPEI
- TAIWAN: TASTE OF TAIPEI
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR TRIP.
Just click the link below for applying visa exemption Authorization Certificate, if you have a UNITED STATES VALID VISA.
We had the Visa-Free Entry Certificate to Taiwan because my mom and I have a Valid US Visa.
TAIWAN VISA:
- VISA-FREE ENTRY TO THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) FOR QUALIFIED PHILIPPINE PASSPORT HOLDERS:
Click This Link: For applying visa exemption Authorization Certificate
»To be eligible for an ROC Travel Authorization Certificate, the following conditions must be met:
- The applicant’s passport must have remaining validity of at least six months starting from the date of arrival in Taiwan.
- The applicant must possess an onward/return air or ferry ticket.
- The applicant has never been employed as a blue-collar worker in Taiwan.
»In addition, the applicant must possess at least one of the following documents issued by Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, any of the Schengen countries, the United Kingdom, or the United States:
- Valid resident or permanent resident card
- Valid entry visa (may be electronic visa)
- Resident card or visa that has expired less than 10 years prior to the date of arrival in Taiwan
- APPLY E-VISA (ONLINE VISA): Philippine passport holders who wish to travel to Taiwan are now eligible to apply for an E-visa (online visa). This simplified visa policy will facilitate the processing and save applicant’s time, traffic hassles, and economic cost. The applicant doesn’t need to physically appear in the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in the Philippines.
Click This Link:
eVisa Frequently Asked Questions
Fill out Online Visa Application Form on the BOCA Website
When an e-visa application has been approved, applicants are required to present the print-out of e-visa at the immigration checkpoint for verification upon arrival in Taiwan. An e-visa will be valid for 3 months upon approval with duration of stay up to 30 days.
The e-visa policy will be put on a trial basis for 1 year. Visitors may still file for their visa application at Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in the Philippines.
TOUR & HOTEL:
- For the tour & sightseeing book at Viator directly. You don’t need your local agency(middle man) it will be an additional or higher price and they will still book online. There are a lot of websites that you can find products that offer or same as travel booking such as viator.com, expat, cosmos, globus, gotobus or agoda.com for your hotel.
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FIRST SUGGESTION: CHIUFEN VILLAGE (JIUFEN) AND NORTHEAST COAST HALF-DAY
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MY SECOND SUGGESTION: ULTIMATE TAIPEI SIGHTSEEING TOUR
- (MRT) city train is one of the affordable transportation we use when going to the malls and popular places of taipei.
- By the way for our Hotel Booking we have booked directly at agoda.com
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CLICK THIS LINK: “BEAUTY HOTELS-STAR BEAUTY RESORT” 3.5 STAR HOTEL
38-1, CHIEN KONG ST, SHILIN DISTRICT, TAIPEI, TAIWAN, 11170
- Accessible to train station (MRT): 0.48 km Jiantan Metro Station 3minutes walk
- Just a few blocks going to (Shih-Lin Night Market: souvenir hunting).
- Clean room and comfortable stay
- Good Food: Free Breakfast Buffet included in the room rate chosen.
- Near Taiwan Bank for Money Exchange
- In front Subway/ Near Food Eatery or Food republic affordable meals/Next Block Fruit Stand/ In Front Family Mart
The Real Tourist 