Many of Taipei’s top tourist spots can be accessed from the red line! Although not all the station names clue you into the great destinations nearby. So here’s a reference for you, the next time you’re on the Red Line and wondering which station to explore!
(green font = link to blog on that place or activity, blue font = link to google maps pin)
The red line’s – Tamsui Station
Tamsui Pier:
This is the only MRT station that takes you all the way out to the coast. Tamsui pier is a nice spot to watch the sunset with the locals. And the street that follows the water is a fun one for souvenir shopping and street food tasting.
Bali Old Street:
Apparently you can take a quick ferry across the harbor to the other side where you will find Bali Old Street. We don’t know much about it except that we’d like to check it out the next time we’re up there! (googlemaps does provide directions to the ferry)
Shalun Beach:
This beach is not the best that Taiwan has to offer but it is a beach and for Taipei residents it may be the most convenient one to get to – at just a 20 minute bus ride away from Tamsui.
Qianshuiwan Beach, Baishawan, & Shimen Arch:
Tamsui is also a great jump off point for exploring the northern coast. About an hour up the coast by bus is the Quinshui Beach. Then another hour past that is Northern Taiwan’s favorite Beach – Baishawan Beach. Its a long flat beach, good for swimming in the summer and maybe even some snorkeling.
And finally another half hour up from there is Shimen Arch, which also is at a beach although its a rocky beach best for pictures and beach combing. During the day in the summer buses go by fairly frequently so its pretty easy to beach hop along the coast in this way.
The red line’s – XinBeitou Station
This area is on every best of Taipei list out there. And it’s right off the MRT, so you really shouldn’t miss it.
Beitou HotSprings:
There is a charming, old world public outdoor hotsprings just a 5 minute walk from the station on a walk that conveniently takes you right through the beautiful park with the Beitou Public Library. The cost of the entrance is less than $100NT pp, but make sure you have a real swimsuit (and by their definition boardshorts don’t count and they do double check before they let you in!).
Beitou Hot Springs Museum:
A 100 year old Japanese style bathhouse preserved now as a museum. It was under renovation the last time we went, but we plan to go in next time.
Beitou Public Library:
A large beautiful wooden building that is highly recognized for its environmentally friendly design. A lovely place to study in, hopefully by a window looking out onto the park.
The red line’s – Jiantan Station
Now here’s a station you could pass right by without knowing there’s anything to stop for. Although to be fair these highlights are more than just one step out of the station. But this stop does give you access to some pretty big Taipei highlights.
Shilin Night Market
One of Taipei’s most popular night markets beckons, just a 4 minute walk away from this station. A great mix of street food, souvenirs, clothes and who knows what; this place bombards the senses (as all night markets should). Josh and I have tried rolled icecream, stinky tofu, mango ice, stinky tofu, tongue bread (just the shape, not what its made out of!) and much more at this market.
Jiantan Mountain Trail
Just a few minutes walk away from this station is a hiking trailhead! Apparently it consists of a lot of stairs and leads past some temples up to a scenic view of Taipei City and The Grand hotel. Signs are posted leading you to the trail as soon as you exit the station.
The Grand Hotel
This is a bit of a walk (approx. 20 minutes) and there are a couple of other possible MRT jump off points for this this amazing building (the next station Yuanshan included), but they are all about the same walking distance away. You can still stay as a guest in the Grand Hotel. But you’re also welcome to just come admire the building. Sometimes live traditional music is played in the foyer and there is a café where you can have tea or something to eat.
The Martyr’s Shrine
The Martyrs Shrine is then just a 10 minute walk from the Grand Hotel, so once you’re there, you might as well bundle this in with it. Every hour there is a changing of the guard here, which is interesting to watch. Although the beautiful buildings and gate would be worth coming for even without that.
The red line’s – Yuanshan Station
Another station you could easily roll by without realizing all the fun to be had here. But this is definitely a station worth getting off at! In fact we wrote a whole blog post just about this stop.
The Taipei Expo Park
When you walk out of this MRT stop you come out above ground, overlooking the Taipei Expo Park. On weekends a couple different markets happen here. In that mix is a farmers market as well as a bunch of carnival like booths with games for kids. My favorite Taipei bagel shop can also be found here. It’s in the southeast corner where there’s a cute section of cafes and store fronts, called MAJI Square. There’s also lots of little art installations and some beautiful landscaping. And that’s all before you cross the street over to the Fine Arts Museum side!
Fine Arts Museum
A small but very engaging art museum, Taipei’s Fine Art Museum well worth crossing the street for! Read our blog post for more details.
And after hitting the museum keep on walking, because all of these free attractions are waiting nearby as well!
The Taipei
Rose
Garden
The
Garden Maze
The Pavilion of Angel Life /
The Taipei Collective Botanical Garden
The red line’s – Zhongshan Station
This isn’t an attraction packed stop but there ARE a few things of this station that Josh and I will make a special stop for!
Jing Shing Fa Co This is our favorite stationary store! You need to go to at least one stationary store while you are in Asia. And this is a great one to hit! Its not an expat/foreigner spot its just a great local source for all sorts of pens, stationary, stickers, and well everything else under the sun! But the pop up greeting cards are my favorite (especially during Christmas – they make incredible $1 Christmas cards). With the help of googlemaps you can walk there in 3 minutes flat.
Come Buy There are many Come Buys around Taipei, but this is the one we go to. And we go specifically for their purple rice hot chocolate! Taipei is famous for all of its creative drink options, so if you’re here for very long you’ll develop some favorites! This is one of ours.
Details: Open Daily 10:30 – 10:30.
珍煮丹飲品 (AKA the teashop right next to Comebuy)
Speaking of unique drinks, Taipei of course is home to the original bubble tea. But until just recently I had yet to see the big appeal. It was this shop that gave me pause. Thanks to Manya, who introduced me to this place and her favorite drink – their “pudding brown sugar bubble milk tea”. It is really good.
Details: Open Daily 10:00 – 10:00.
The red line’s – Taipei Main Station
There is SO much to do around this area! In fact, we wrote a whole blog post on this station. But here are the highlights.
The MOCA
The first museum we ever went to in Taiwan, and one of my favorites. It frequently has large crazy outdoor art installations in front (not to mention the whimsical permanent art park next the MOCA). Inside you never know what you will get but its sure to be interesting! And at a 50NT entrance fee its practically free! Take Exit R1 from main station to get here.
Underground Shopping
There are a lot of underground malls to explore connected to MRT stations but Taipei Main station brings multiple underground malls together. so its a great place to experience this kind of shopping! There are lots of maps posted so they will help keep you from getting thoroughly lost in this underground maze and also allow you to walk around underground and then just pop up to the surface at the place you’re wanting to visit (like the MOCA! 🙂 )
The National Taiwan Museum, the 2/28 Museum, Peace Park, & a 100-year-old bank
NTU station is actually closer to this super engaging couple block area of parks and museums. But if you are already getting off at Taipei Main you can easily walk from there to this area, it should be about a 15 minute walk.
We also give some food and drink suggestions for this area on our Taipei Main post.
The red line’s – NTU Hospital Station
Just the art installations in this station are worth mentioning. Check out our blog post about it along with more information on the peace park & museum.
2/28 Peace Memorial Park
A truly lovely park, with pagodas, statues, ponds, and some very thoughtful memorials for the 2/28 incident in Taiwan. Even if this was the only special thing about this neighborhood, it would be worth visiting.
228 Memorial Hall
The 228 memorial hall is located in the park and is a small museum which documents the 2/28 incident, the historical context in which it occurred and the governments eventual acknowledgement of it. It’s not an exciting museum, it is somberring but also a bit inspiring seeing a country try to honestly grapple with its own human rights failings. At least in this particular instance. As expats I think its important to take the time to try to understand not just the current culture in which you are living but its history. This place certainly helps with that.
National Taiwan Museum
This is Taiwan’s oldest museum and is simply beautiful inside and out. The Greek style architecture of this building is especially striking being that we’re in Asia. And its historically significant structure for many reasons. The day we went they had a really interesting geological exhibit we really enjoyed. And they were also offering free private English walking tours of the building and grounds explaining the history and architecture of the building!
Land Bank Exhibition Hall & Paleontology Exhibit
30NT gets you into both the National Taiwan Museum and this museum across the street. Here its dinosaurs and bank vaults! Not sure why or how this combination came to be, but they’re both fun! Although being from Montana, I’ve seen a lot of dinosaur bones so I was more taken with getting to explore the 100 year old bank vault.
The red line’s – Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall station
Another iconic place to visit in Taipei the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial hall is a huge plaza with two gorgeous concert halls on each side of the plaza. Any time of day is good to visit this spot! During the day you never know what random cultural event, marching band, dance practice, etc might be happening. At night, the buildings are lit up beautifully and if its recently rained you can get some beautiful pictures of the gate reflected in the cobblestones.
Our favorite burrito place is also right off this station and there’s a great 
dumpling place nearby too (both vegetarian friendly). There’s also Nanmen market open Tues – Sundays. For more on all these great spots check our post about this station on our green line station.
The red line’s – Da’an Park
Flying to Taiwan Josh noticed an advertisement for the Taipei International Jazz festival in the airline’s complimentary travel magazine. As it turned out we were flying in just in time to catch the last bit of it. So one of our first Taipei outings was to Da’an Park Station to catch live jazz concerts in the park!
I love how many free concerts happen in parks here. This was actually the only one we’ve ever intentionally attended, but we’ve happily stumbled upon many others! (from k-pop to Taiko)
Free concert or not though, Da’an park is a great city park! I was especially taken with it because of all the birds, turtles and fish at the pond! Along with butterflies, Taiwan boasts some great bird watching – and Da’an park might not be a bad place to start!
The red line’s – Taipei 101 / World Trade Center
Taipei 101
Of course you really shouldn’t miss visiting Taipei 101 if you’re in Taiwan. It was an incredible feat of engineering when it was first built and held the title of tallest building in the word. And it’s an iconic part of the city and part of the experience of visiting this country. And if that’s not enough, there’s the crazy fast elevator going up to the insanely high look out platform, which starts at the 5th floor and rockets you up to the 89th floor in a matter of seconds.
The red line’s – Xiangshan Station
Elephant Mountain
The redline bookends itself with Taipei locals two favorite sunset lookouts – Tamsui Pier & Elephant Mountain. Seriously this hike is enormously popular with tourists and locals alike so don’t expect to commune in silence on this mountaintop. Although there’s a reason its so popular! Many reasons. It’s super convenient to get to, it sports a fantastic view of Taipei 101 again the sunset, has some big boulders to pose on, and is a relatively short hike. Although its so much a hiking trail as it is just a really long stair case, which I suppose is invigorating for some and exhausting for the rest of us. But hey, exercise. And the scenic outlook is a pretty great reward at the end!