# Taipei

* For night markets - there aren't any *bad* ones - you'll have delicious food at any of them, really. I listed a couple of our favorites below though.

* Maokong gondola and tea village - ride the train to the Zoo and there you can catch a Gondola into the mountains, which ends at a tea-growing village. It's quite beautiful, with jungle and tea plantations. The restaurants all have views of Taipei and tea-themed menus - loads of good food made with tea! The weekend is PACKED, so go up on a weekday for a quieter time.

* Elephant mountain: Actually four mountains connected by a paved trail (and shit-tons of stairs), but Elephant mountain is the one closest in town. Trail starts nearby to Taipei 101, pretty easy to find on the map. If you go the whole length of the trail, there's a train station not far, which you can take back. Pro-tip: Stick to the paved trail, don't trust Google Maps.

* Good cocktails in Daan: Super fun and crazy cocktails at Fourplay and also at WA-SHU. Different nightlife scene from PDX, that's for sure.

* Favorite dumplings: Our "local" for dumplings, ate almost every day at one of these. https://goo.gl/maps/4Qt9qR8ZBJy (on the corner - the whole street is a food party actually) and https://goo.gl/maps/QXBdf7zJoGx (the one next to Snow Factory, where the front is open to the street).

* Favorite hot pot: We ate hot pot 2-3 times a week for dinner. It's every 10 meters in Taipei, and almost always delicious. There are too many. Just try all of them.

* Best beef noodle soup: This is absolutely worth going to for lunch - one of the most amazing noodle soups I've ever had. Right across the street from the post office. Grumpy guy runs tiny place, but just point at other people's bowls and it'll work out. Easy to spot, as it's the only place in that strip with a line. https://goo.gl/maps/JtEmzL72ZRG2 There's a soup dumpling stall in the same row, that's really good.

* Portland coffee, and Japanese skewers: I was introduced to this by Colin Black, who you might have met in PDX tech scene - he's part-time in Taipei now. During the day it is a PDX-themed coffee shop - super bizarre thing to experience, but excellent coffee. At night behind the big door on the left is an AMAZING Japanese yakitori place. Grilled cabbage was mind-blowing. https://goo.gl/maps/MmNdLet7GJy

* Coffee: Taiwanese as big or bigger coffee nerds than Portlanders. There's a ridiculous amount of good coffee in Taipei, but Coffee Lab is my #1: https://goo.gl/maps/1cbSQrhoqTs

* Design parks: A thing we've seen in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong is to take an old picturesque brewery or tabacco factory and turn it into a warren of design/creative shops and restaurants. Taipei has two (at least). Huashan 1914 https://goo.gl/maps/pPsEaB9g9Uv has a FabCafe, movie theater, tons of restaurants and design/craft shops - even a hand-set typography shop. Songshan has a design museum, the American Design Centre (WEIRD. Full of Nasa stuff last time I went by!), various shops, a huge Eslite, and upstairs is a maker-space-slash-startup-incubator, which hosts the Creative Coders meetup (can give details if you're interested). https://goo.gl/maps/YGHRQc67yk42

* Guanghua digital plaza: Huge electronics market, with accompanying alley-maze of street food and computer stores. https://goo.gl/maps/cSDBh3jaBr32 The Mozilla community space is also in there. They have open community meetups every night, and visitors are always welcome! If you want details I'll hook you up with that crew.

* Yongkang food street: The original Din Tai Fung (but now remodeled) is at the top of a street food area that's fun to walk around. https://goo.gl/maps/H6Wh9qfupzL2. This DTF is actually way better than Taipei 101 - we never had to wait very long at all, whereas Taipei 101 can take hours.

* There's a growing craft beer scene in Taiwan - the spots I know of are Landmark (https://goo.gl/maps/V7dDWFdZKbB2), Beer and Cheese (https://goo.gl/maps/hdHdQR6HdSF2) and Taiwan Bistro (https://goo.gl/maps/uARpXifX9yQ2).

* Salty soy milk soup with big crispy donuts at Yong He Soy Milk King. These type of places are all around, but this one was particularly good: https://goo.gl/maps/bYGkRD4kJFT2

* Biggest night market is Shilin. Well worth riding the train up there. https://goo.gl/maps/gXWXm83mQfD2

* Hot springs at Beitou. Just a few train stops past Shilin night market. Favorite place was Spring City - outdoors and 7-8 different types of baths. https://goo.gl/maps/C5yPq7oLL8G2. The public spring sounds fun, but was super crowded every time we went.

* Good food-focused night market is Ningxia. https://goo.gl/maps/aCY1CYUJ4vC2

* TAO: If you want to get out on a hike or other outdoor activity with someone who really knows the area, contact Taiwan Outdoor Adventures. Was having soup one day and met the guy who runs it. He does night hikes to look at snakes, etc. I didn't get a chance to take him up on a hike, but seems like a super rad guy.

* Yangmingshan: Take the train and then bus up to Yangmingshan mountain. Great hike over volcanic cone, can go up one side and down the other. On a clear day it's amazing hike. On a cloudy day, it's just a slippery, wet, cold walk through a cloud.

* Tamsui out on the north coast is fun easy train ride to nice coastal town to walk around, with night market that's on the carnival side of things - lots of games and rides, etc. You can take little ferries across the river. Looked like a place you can ride a bike out to also, which would be fun if you got hold of some decent road bikes.

* Day trip: You can take the bullet train to Tianan or Kaohsiung for day trips. Super fast.

* Day trip: Taroko Gorge is another fantastic day trip to a beautiful canyon for hiking and whatnot.

* Day trip: Juifen old city (looks like out of Spirited Away) and then to Yehliu rocks on the coast - crazy looking rock formations at a coastal park with a nice hike out to the point. Lots of good seafood restaurants out there on the coast highway.