Our flight to Taipei was around 10 pm, and we arrived a little past midnight. Taiwan Taoyuan airport was peaceful and there weren’t a lot of people around. We finally got to see the beautiful simplicity of the airport’s architecture in person and it was lovely. This is both our first time visiting Taipei and we were excited and anxious at the same time, we were looking forward to a lot of activities, places, and food to eat!
After going through immigration, the first thing we did was have half of our money exchanged right in the airport.
Side note: GUYS, this is really important! We made the mistake of not reading up about this prior to our visit, but Taipei is NOT like Hong Kong or the Philippines where you can easily find money changers in malls or on the street, only outlets that are accredited by the the local bank or in the bank itself. Since we only had money good for two days exchanged (Thursday and Friday), we were running out by Saturday. And since the outlets are either bank-accredited or the bank itself, it meant that they were CLOSED on the weekend! We definitely panicked that morning, and we sent a message to our Airbnb host asking for help. She suggested some outlets nearby and we went to each of them.
Unfortunately, some of them were still closed and the ones that were open didn’t accept Philippine Peso. Thankfully, the lovely woman suggested the money changer at Songshan airport because we completely forgot that there was another one nearer to the city center. So we took the train and after a couple of hours of panic and misadventure, we were able to reach Songshan and had all the rest of our money exchanged. PHEW! Lesson learned guys, if you ever find yourself in Taipei, have all of your money exchanged right when you land!😂
Since we arrived at midnight, we can only either take a cab or the bus to get to the city center. We wanted to save money as much as we can, and so we opted to take the bus. At the basement level of the airport there is a waiting area where you’ll see bus counters, pictured above. Only counter 7 is open 24/7 so take note of that if you arrive past midnight. We decided to just rest for a while before buying our tickets, and off to the city we go!
We got off on the last stop by the Taipei Main Station, it was around 4 am. You must be wondering where we are off to at this hour when the city is still asleep… 😆 Well, lucky for us, Taipei has an amazing 24-hour bookstore called Eslite!
Awake and wandering while the city is still asleep.
There are a couple of Eslite branches around Taipei but the Dunhua branch was the one open for 24 hours. Photography and videography aren’t allowed inside the bookstore but it was absolutely magical! There was a huge selection of books, magazines, mangas, and even e-books. There’s also a section where you can buy locally-made products like postcards, bags, toys, collectibles, stickers and magnets. Only a handful of people were inside and there’s a lovely, well-lit wooden table and chairs where we just read and rested until the sun was up. We definitely recommend this place. Cozy, inviting, relaxing…you can easily stay here for hours!
At around 6 am, we took the train and did some temple-hopping. Our first stop was one of the most popular temples in Taiwan, Xingtian Temple. It was quite small and a lot of people were already inside worshiping in the early morning. We just walked around for a few minutes and took some photos. You can read more about Xingtian Temple here and here.
After Xingtian, we took the train again and went to Confucius Temple at Dalong Street. We didn’t know that there are some other temples beside it, so we were in for a treat! Dalong Street is in Datun District which is very lovely in the early morning. Locals were enjoying breakfast on the wide streets with cheerful faces. We noticed a lot of residential apartments in this area too.
Cute little characters greeted us outside the train station.
Our first sight of Taipei’s U-bike system. You can rent these bikes and use to travel around the city!
Confucius Temple is really big. You should definitely allot an hour or so if you want to explore Confucius and its neighboring temples. The area was really peaceful despite the number of people strolling and groups of elderly women exercising. Read more about Confucius Temple here and here.
Confucius Temple.
If you ever find yourself in this area, don’t just walk around and take photos of what your eye-level can see. Look up! Look down and around. There are so many beautiful, intricate architecture to appreciate. Feel the whole vibe of the place while you walk, and enjoy the soft sound of the birds chirping.
Next, we went to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. We didn’t stay long, as there wasn’t much to see. It was also quite crowded that day. But there’s a lovely park where we had a good view of Taipei 101 so that was nice! You can read more about Sun Yat Sen Memorial park here and here.
Our last stop before we had lunch was the incredible Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It’s so grand and breathtaking. Photos won’t even justify the entirety of this place, but we hope you enjoy them anyway!
There was something about the grandeur of the different buildings that made it so surreal. If you search for photos of Taipei online, you’ll most likely see Taipei 101 Tower or this. And seeing it in person is quite overwhelming. The weather was pleasantly cold that morning and we were so tired from the flight hours ago with no sleep but this really made up for it.
It was really nice seeing people enjoy the scenery with their friends or family. A lot of groups also looked like they are on a tour, with their buses lined up by the entrance.
We just walked around, luggage in hand, and took photos of the place, the people and ourselves! We hope you guys get the chance to visit this beautiful place too. You can read more about this place here.
We went up the steps (there are a LOT of steps) with our luggage and backpack so you can imagine that it was really tiring. But getting up there will let you see the whole place in a new perspective. You’ll appreciate the architecture and landscape from up here even more, so you should definitely try it as long as you physically can.
What a beautiful view.
We were famished at this point, so we knew we had to keep moving and find some food. It also felt like our eyes were half open 😅 We planned on having some seafood and found the BEST place for it. Watch out for it on the second part of this day 1 blog!
We hope you enjoyed this post! What did you like about it the most? More Taipei adventures to be shared, so keep an eye out for that 😉 Let us know if you’ve ever been to Taipei and what you loved about it, or if you are planning to visit in the future. Talk to us in the comments below or connect with us through our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. 😊 On to the next one!
Marielle ❤ Leandro
Temples and Memorial Halls: First Day in Taipei Our flight to Taipei was around 10 pm, and we arrived a little past midnight. Taiwan Taoyuan airport was peaceful and there weren't a lot of people around.














