Experience Taipei Highlights: Modern Marvels, Markets, and Everyday Life

Arriving in Taipei stirs the senses: the city’s blend of futuristic skyline and old neighborhoods offers a welcoming puzzle to solve. Taipei is famous for Taipei 101 and night markets, but its energy lives in the little things the soft hum of scooters, the smell of incense, the call of a street vendor. As a travel writer who once called Taipei home, I wandered its alleys and lived among its rhythms. Each day, I discovered markets, temples, and family-run cafes that reveal real Taiwanese life. This post shares my experiences, top Taipei attractions, hidden corners, food districts, history, and what it means to be part of its daily street scene. Whether you visit for a week or just a stopover, Taipei will surprise you at every turn.

Getting Around Taipei: Metro Life and First Impressions

Most journeys in Taipei begin at Taoyuan International Airport. The straightforward Airport MRT whisks you into Taipei Main Station in 35 minutes a great introduction to the city’s organized chaos. Once downtown, the Metro (MRT) is the best way to move: clean, safe, efficient, and multilingual. Locals and travelers glide along colored lines. The polite hush on MRT carriages, the easy use of an EasyCard, and clear English signs make even a first trip feel simple. Buses crisscross the city, but I always loved the people-watching on the MRT: students with boba tea, elderly women carrying baskets, business folks glued to phones.

Taipei is spread between the river, low mountains, and the sea. Wide boulevards cut through a mix of glass towers and traditional shophouses. I walked many neighborhoods by foot the side streets always revealed something: a mural, a temple, or the aroma of pepper buns from a food stall. If you’re staying downtown, there are budget hostels, family-run guesthouses, and modern apartments. Each area Da’an, Ximending, Zhongshan has a different character, and the MRT means you’re always close to the action.

Taipei 101: Iconic Skyline and Urban Heartbeat

Taipei 101 is impossible to miss. Its bamboo stalk shape once made it the tallest building in the world. By day, the blue-green glass shimmers; by night, its tip glows above the city. Most come for the views take the world’s fastest elevator to the 89th-floor observatory and see the city stretch to misty mountains. I went at sunset once, watching Taipei light up, feeling every scooter below become a tiny spark. The shopping mall below is luxury land, but go outside to explore food stalls set up at night. Around New Year, fireworks erupt from every level locals picnic in parks, cheering with snacks and drinks.

In the business district below, street art decorates alleys, and late-night cafes buzz with students. A short walk brings you to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. I once stumbled upon a group of elderly men practicing tai chi under its trees at dawn, their arms moving in slow, careful patterns a dance as old as the city itself.

Old Taipei: Temples, Markets, and Rituals

History breathes quietly in places like Longshan Temple, in the Wanhua district. Built almost 300 years ago, it is more than architecture it’s a living space of worship and community. I remember the swirl of incense smoke, the sound of chanting, and old women lighting candles for health and fortune. Red lanterns hang overhead, and visitors sometimes join the soft rhythm of prayer. You might see fortune sticks being shaken or offerings of fruit and flowers on the altar ancient rituals still alive in modern Taipei. Bao’an Temple, less famous but equally intricate, sits in Datong; its painted eaves and dragon sculptures are a feast for anyone who loves folk art.

The markets around these temples are just as fascinating. I often wandered Huaxi Street, hearing the sizzle of oyster omelets, the call of a vendor selling herbal tea, and the chatter of mahjong games echoing late into evening. Shilin Night Market, Taipei’s biggest, is a carnival of food: fried chicken as big as your face, sweet potato balls, stinky tofu, and endless bubble tea. Raohe Street Night Market, with its arched red gate, is smaller and friendlier. There, I once watched an old man carving calligraphy on wooden fans—his hands steady and practiced after decades

National Palace Museum: A Thousand Years in One Place

No Taipei visit is complete without the National Palace Museum, home to one of the world’s largest collections of Chinese art. The green-roofed building stands at the city’s edge, surrounded by soft mountains. Inside, treasures from dynasties past jade carvings, bronze vessels, silk scrolls fill cool, hushed galleries. I learned you can’t see everything in one day; even guides joke that you’d need a year. My favorite piece was the famous Jade Cabbage, so lifelike that school groups giggled at its leaves. The museum is not only about objects it’s about stories: emperors who fled wars, artisans who worked by candlelight, and modern-day curators who keep these objects safe.

Visit the National Palace Museum to see centuries-old Chinese art, linking Taipei’s history with its modern spirit.

In the courtyard, elderly painters sometimes gather to sketch the old-style bridges and gardens. One afternoon, a retired teacher told me about his childhood in Taipei, when the museum was a secret destination for school field trips. For those curious about heritage and craftsmanship, this place is a treasure map.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall: Ceremonies and Collective Memory

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is one of Taipei’s most dramatic sights. Giant white steps rise to a blue-tiled hall. Guards in crisp uniforms stand watch beside a huge statue of Chiang Kai-shek, the controversial former leader. I watched the hourly changing of the guard boots echoing, rifles spun in perfect time, tourists silent as the soldiers marched. Outside, the large square is flanked by two orange-roofed theaters, home to music and opera. Sometimes, local students practice dance routines, or families feed the fat pigeons that gather by the fountains.

Yet, it’s also a place of protest and public voice. On weekends, I saw banners and speeches, remembering Taiwan’s complex past. The memorial is more than just a photo stop it’s a crossroads of memory, identity, and debate. The gardens nearby are peaceful, with ponds, willow trees, and turtles sunning on rocks.

Street Life, Food, and Taipei’s Night Markets

There is an old saying in Taipei: “Eat well, live well.” Food is a language here, and the night markets are its dictionary. Shilin, Raohe, Ningxia each has a personality. I once counted over fifty different snacks in one market pig blood cake next to Japanese takoyaki, mango shaved ice beside fried squid. In Ximending, the pedestrian streets burst with neon, music, and fashion. Teenagers shop for the newest Korean trends, while old vendors still flip oyster pancakes on hot griddles. This is Taipei’s youth district; walking here feels like being in a music video. I’d sit with a paper cup of salty soy milk, watching club kids blend with elderly street musicians.

For a quieter evening, Bitan Scenic Area by the river offers pedal boats and riverside cafes. Couples stroll under lanterns, sharing grilled corn and sweet tofu pudding. North in Beitou, hot springs bubble from volcanic earth, and the old Japanese bathhouses fill with steam. I once met a retired engineer who soaked here every dawn, claiming the minerals kept his joints loose for mahjong marathons. Taipei’s food districts each have a specialty: Yongkang Street for beef noodles, Gongguan for boba tea, and Tonghua for fresh fruit and late-night eats.

Mountains, Parks, and Escapes from the City

Taipei is green at heart. The city’s edge melts into mountains and hot springs. Elephant Mountain, a dusty trail just a few MRT stops from Taipei 101, gives hikers a postcard view of the skyline. I hiked up in late afternoon just forty minutes, but plenty of stairs and watched photographers jockey for the perfect shot as dusk painted the city gold and violet. On weekends, locals bring snacks and chat on the giant boulders at the top. Look for the “stone chairs” smooth rocks that serve as Taipei’s most popular seats.

Yangmingshan National Park, a short bus ride away, is the city’s backyard: misty trails, hot springs, and fields of wildflowers. In spring, cherry blossoms flutter over old farmhouses, and in summer, sulfur steam rises from hidden craters. I once joined a folk music festival here, where musicians played bamboo flutes and schoolchildren wore traditional outfits. Closer to downtown, Daan Forest Park is a local favorite Taipei’s “Central Park” with joggers, birdwatchers, and families flying kites under banyan trees.

Everyday Taipei: Community, Customs, and Surprises

Life in Taipei is both fast and slow. In the mornings, I’d see families eating soy milk breakfasts, students hurrying to class, and old men sweeping temple courtyards. In the evening, plazas fill with people dancing in groups an outdoor ritual that brings neighbors together. Some customs are simple: always return a bow with a bow in temples, remove shoes when visiting a home, and never point at the moon (it’s bad luck, or so I was warned by a friendly grandma at the flower market).

Ceremonies and festivals color the year. During Lunar New Year, red banners cover doors and firecrackers snap on every street. On Dragon Boat Festival, I watched teams race on the river, their drums echoing from bank to bank. The city runs on community events: from puppet theater in small alleys, to artisan markets where you can watch calligraphers or potters at work. I once tried my hand at making “pineapple cakes” in a family kitchen mine were misshaped, but the pride of the baker’s wife was contagious.

Music is everywhere: from buskers in Ximending to old men playing erhu (a traditional string instrument) near Bao’an Temple. Folk songs blend with the modern. Taipei’s respect for heritage means old crafts paper lantern making, tea roasting are still taught in workshops. Even in Miramar Entertainment Park, a modern mall with a rooftop Ferris wheel, you can find stalls selling hand-carved stamps and embroidered pouches, reminders of tradition in the middle of glass and steel.

Reflections: Why Taipei Feels Like Home

After months in Taipei, I realized the city is a living story one that mingles the delicate and the bold, the old and the new. What stood out most was not only the big attractions, but the tiny, daily rituals: a temple bell at sunrise, the taste of sweet pineapple cake, the laughter of a family under cherry blossoms. Locals treat strangers with warmth always ready to help, quick to offer food or directions, sometimes with just a smile and a wave.

For travelers, Taipei offers more than a checklist of places to see. It’s a place to listen, taste, and feel. Join the crowds at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, then find quiet at Bao’an Temple. Eat your way through Shilin Night Market, then watch the city glitter from Elephant Mountain. Let the MRT take you from Beitou’s hot springs to Ximending’s neon lanes. In every corner, there’s a story waiting some told in museums, others whispered in old alleys or shared over tea with new friends.

Taipei invites you to slow down, pay attention, and share in its everyday joy. Whether for a day or a year, it will leave you with memories as bright and lasting as the city lights themselves.

Author: Fiona Mbatha

Anthropologist and traveler admiring local customs, festivals and traditional arts.