HSR Discount for Foreigners?

Travel Taiwan Travel
1

Hi everyone,

So I found out at a hotel that they offer discounts to foreigners of up to 30% on the HSR. I tried to ask some questions, but the hotel clerk didn’t speak great English. All the printed info was also all in Chinese. Leave it to Taiwan to offer a discount on travel to foreigners and publish everything in Chinese. Anyway, I got a card with a QR code but still haven’t tried it out yet as I don’t have any plans to go on the HSR soon but would probably use it eventually. Does anyone know what I’m talking about and if so, have you been able to get the 30% discount successfully and with minimal hassle? It’s pretty substantial…makes a trip down to Kaohsiung 1000 NT cheaper.

2

HSR have regular discounts for everbody, but you likely don’t get them if booking on a short-term.

People over 65 always receive 50% discount, but you have to show proof (foreigners need to show their
passports).

Otherwise I am not aware of any other discounts foreigners are eligable of, but someone with better
knowledge might correct me.

3

You can supposedly buy a pass but it has to be purchased outside of Taiwan (according to the Web page test, although sales centers in Taiwan are also listed… :loco: There’s only one sales outlet listed in the US, and their Web site (referenced) doesn’t mention passes at all.

It’s also a little hard to see whether the information is up-to-date or not.

4

Is there any monthly tickets avilable? In europe there is a 1 month all you can travel for forigners. So if you are from Germany you can not get all you can travel in germany but you can get all you can travel in other european countries. Does Taiwan have this

5

I think there is an unlimited 3 or 5 day pass for foreigners that costs a little more than two roundtrip KHH to TPE tickets.

6

Sounds good, a month would be better value. I am going to get my taiwanese friend to go with me to the hsr info desk, i will post the info i find out.

7

[quote=“MoTi”]HSR have regular discounts for everbody, but you likely don’t get them if booking on a short-term.

People over 65 always receive 50% discount, but you have to show proof (foreigners need to show their
passports).

Otherwise I am not aware of any other discounts foreigners are eligable of, but someone with better
knowledge might correct me.[/quote]

I used to get the 50% geezer discount on the HSR by showing my passport, but the last couple times I traveled (most recent was 25 and 29 FEB 2016), I was refused. They now say that I need some special note on my APRC. I made an inquiry at the MRT a while back and they also mentioned the special notation. At that point I figured that the minor discount on MRT fare was not worth the hassle of getting the geezer certification on my APRC. However, I do take the HSR very occasionally, and the geezer certification is suddenly making sense. I plan to try for it.