# Taipei: map, what to do and when to go

Taipei brings together temples, night markets and food counters, with mountains and hot springs on its edges. Taiwan’s capital has about 2.4 million residents and a metro that handles most journeys for less than NT$65.

Canonical: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/
Language: en. Extended author commentary and itinerary notes may remain in Portuguese. Dates below belong to individual sources; this is not live availability.

## Direct answer
- **Taipei: what is Jiufen and how do you get there?** A former gold-mining village on the hillsides 35 km to the east, with stepped streets and teahouses above the sea.
- **Taipei: what's the currency and what's it worth?** The currency is the New Taiwan dollar (NT$), at about NT$31 to 32 to the US dollar and about NT$5.7 to the real in 2026.
- **Taipei: when is the best time to go?** October and November are the best months, with 22 to 28 °C, clear skies, and less rain, which is also why they're the busiest.

## The old west: Bangka, Dadaocheng, and the river
Get to Longshan Temple by 8am, while the collective prayer is still happening, then walk five minutes to the restored Bopiliao alleys.
- Longshan Temple
- Dihua Street and Dadaocheng
- Ximending and the Red House

## Museum, memorial, and hilltop views
Be at the National Palace Museum at 9am, at opening (closed Mondays), and set aside two to three hours for the bronze, jade, and calligraphy galleries.
- Taipei 101
- National Palace Museum
- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
- Elephant Mountain Trail (Xiangshan)

## Volcanoes, hot springs, and tea
Take the red line to Xinbeitou and start at the 1913 Hot Springs Museum and the steam of Thermal Valley.
- Yangmingshan
- Maokong Gondola

## Taipei 101
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-taipei-101
Xicun Village
A 508 m, 101-floor tower designed by C.Y. Lee, opened on December 31, 2004, and the tallest building in the world until 2010. The observatory occupies floors 88 to 91; the elevator climbs at 1,010 m/min and takes 37 seconds, and on the 88th floor you can see the 660-ton tuned mass damper that stabilizes the tower in typhoons. It's open roughly 10am to 9pm, with admission around NT$600.
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## National Palace Museum
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-museu-do-palacio-nacional
Shilin District
Opened in 1965 in Waishuangxi, it holds about 700,000 pieces from the Chinese imperial collection, taken out of Beijing between 1948 and 1949. Only about 3,000 are on display at a time, in rotation; the jade cabbage and the meat-shaped stone are the two pieces that draw a line. Closed on Mondays since 2023.
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## Longshan Temple
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-templo-longshan
Fumin Village
Founded in 1738 by immigrants from Fujian, the temple lost its main hall in the 1945 bombing and rebuilt it soon after. The front altar is Buddhist, with Guanyin; the rear one is Taoist, with Mazu and Yue Lao, the god of marriage, who receives written requests. There are three collective chants a day, at 6am, 8am, and from 3:45 to 5pm, when hundreds of people chant together in front of the main hall.
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## Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-memorial-de-chiang-kai-shek
Taipé · Up to half an hour
Opened in 1980, 70 m high with 89 steps: the generalissimo's age when he died. The honor guard changes hourly and moved from the main hall to the outer plaza in 2024. The complex includes the National Theater and the National Concert Hall, from 1987, and Liberty Square, stage of the 1990 protests.
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## Dihua Street and Dadaocheng
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-rua-dihua
Datong District
A commercial corridor for tea and medicinal herbs since the 1850s, with eclectic façades from 1910–1930 and shops still in business. It sells tea, dried mushroom, shark fin, fabric, and kitchenware; in January it becomes the city's biggest Lunar New Year market. Yongle Market and the Dadaocheng wharf, with sunset bars, sit at either end.
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## Beitou hot springs
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-beitou-termal
A valley commercially developed since 1896, when the Japanese opened the first bathhouse. The Public Hot Springs Museum occupies the 1913 bathhouse and is free to enter; Thermal Valley gives off water vapor at 80–100°C. It's the only place in the world, along with Akita, where hokutolite occurs, a radioactive mineral first described here in 1905.
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## Yangmingshan
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-yangmingshan
Taipé
A national park 30–40 minutes from downtown, over the dormant Datun volcanic group. Qixingshan, 1,120 m, is the municipality's highest point; the Xiaoyoukeng fumaroles smell of sulfur from a hundred meters away. Cherry blossoms between February and March, and calla lilies in the Zhuzihu fields in March and April.
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## Elephant Mountain Trail (Xiangshan)
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-trilha-do-elefante
Xinyi District · Up to half an hour
Twenty minutes of stone steps from Exit 2 of Xiangshan Station, second-to-last on the red line. The rocks at the lookout face Taipei 101, level with its 30th floor. It gets crowded late in the afternoon; the view changes completely once the tower's lights come on.
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## Ximending and the Red House
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-ximending
Up to half an hour
The country's first pedestrian mall, closed to traffic in 1999, heir to a Japanese-era 1920s entertainment district. The Red House is an octagonal 1908 brick market by Kondō Jūrō, today a theater and design shop; the square behind it holds the city's oldest LGBT bars.
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## Maokong Gondola
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/taipei/#g-lugar-teleferico-de-maokong
Taipé · Up to half an hour
Four kilometers of gondola opened in 2007 between Muzha Zoo and the tea-growing slopes of Maokong, with glass-floor cabins on some runs. Up top there are teahouses serving tieguanyin grown right there, open late. The ride up takes about 25 minutes and costs NT$70–120 depending on the section.
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**Taipei: what is Jiufen and how do you get there?**
A former gold-mining village on the hillsides 35 km to the east, with stepped streets and teahouses above the sea. From Zhongxiao Fuxing, bus 1062 gets there in about 1 hour 20 minutes.

**Taipei: what's the currency and what's it worth?**
The currency is the New Taiwan dollar (NT$), at about NT$31 to 32 to the US dollar and about NT$5.7 to the real in 2026.

**Taipei: when is the best time to go?**
October and November are the best months, with 22 to 28 °C, clear skies, and less rain, which is also why they're the busiest. If you can choose, avoid August, the hottest month and the one with the greatest risk of a typhoon shutting the city down for a day.

**Taipei: can I eat or drink on the MRT?**
Eating and drinking are banned throughout the paid area of the MRT, including stairs and platforms, and the ban covers water and chewing gum.

**Taipei: what is niurou mian?**
Noodle soup with beef braised for hours, either hongshao, a dark broth with soy sauce and spices, or qingdun, a clear broth.


## In the Nilo app
- Plan these 2 days on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/guide/taipei/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-itinerary
- Mark your hotel on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/map/taipei/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-stay

## Full editorial guide (Portuguese)
https://nilopelomundo.com/llm/taipei.md