There are day trips and overnighters, but I’m talking about places to go in the evening after work, especially mid-week.
A few that I have enjoyed recently:
Maokong teahouses and restaurants. When the gondola opens these will be easily accessible to you all. Float up one night and have a meal on a veranda overlooking the city. Listen to crickets and cicadas chirp while far in the distance, Taipei-ers are choking on exhaust.
Bitan. Vastly improved in the last year. And now there’s that pizza place Sandman mentioned. Right at the end of the Xindian line. As convenient as can be.
Jiaoshi. If you have a car it’s only 30-40 minuites through the new tunnel. The hot springs out there are good and cheap. Went to a place and got a nice room for two hours with a big jaccuzi tub (and hot spring water) for NT650. A private stone tub room costs NT250 for 50 minutes. Forget Wulai, go to Jiaoshi. Lots of nice restaurants around too.
Jinshan. I was there tonight again sitting on an open deck eating dinner not 30m from the water. Take the number 3 toward Keelung and then the 2 to Jinshan. About 40 minutes from Muzha. Just north of town is a stretch of beachside cafes and restaurants. I like the ones on the right, overlooking the water. Surf Beach is an elegant restaurant, while the Coffee House beside it is a more laid back place. Both have good food. Surf Beach shines spotlights on the water at night so you can see the whitecaps as the crash on the shore, and the lights of Jinshan Cape shine to the south. Very lovely spot. My only complaint is you get styrofoam and stuff washed up on the beach. But at night you can’t see it.
YangMingShan has some restaurants with views of the city no? I use to go, before I had kids. Are they still around, any more popped up? The ones I use to go to were on Dong Shan Rd. that shortcut up the mountain to the Chinese Cultural University. The views were excellent of the city lights at night and quite peaceful. I know there were others on the other side of Yang De Blvd. too. What about Damshui for the sunset? Can one make it out there before the sun sets over the Damshui river? TienMu’s Tony’s has Al fresco dining, quite nice as the weather warms up. After dinner walk around the corner to the new al fresco villa of Big Tod’s for Ice cream that just went up right on Chung Shan N. Rd., Sect. 7. WaiShuangXi has loads of wonderful outdoor dining places. One must visit is Chuan Lai! That place is amazingly beautiful to walk around at night as they light up all of the waterfalls over by the tea house and Japanese restaurant. Loads of al fresco dining as well. I always take visitors to Taiwan there.
Hey Muchaman, since you live in Mucha, you seem to be pointing out spots accessible from the south of the city, these spots I mentioned are more easily accessed from the northern parts of Taipei.
[quote=“Hobart”]YangMingShan has some restaurants with views of the city no? I use to go, before I had kids. Are they still around, any more popped up? The ones I use to go to were on Dong Shan Rd. that shortcut up the mountain to the Chinese Cultural University. The views were excellent of the city lights at night and quite peaceful. I know there were others on the other side of Yang De Blvd. too. What about Danshui for the sunset? Can one make it out there before the sun sets over the Danshui river? Tianmu’s Tony’s has Al fresco dining, quite nice as the weather warms up. After dinner walk around the corner to the new al fresco villa of Big Tod’s for Ice cream that just went up right on Zhongshan N. Rd., Sect. 7. WaiShuangXi has loads of wonderful outdoor dining places. One must visit is Chuan Lai! That place is amazingly beautiful to walk around at night as they light up all of the waterfalls over by the tea house and Japanese restaurant. Loads of al fresco dining as well. I always take visitors to Taiwan there.
Hey Muchaman, since you live in Muzha, you seem to be pointing out spots accessible from the south of the city, these spots I mentioned are more easily accessed from the northern parts of Taipei.[/quote]
Indeed, that’s why I hope others will post.
Chuan Lai in Waishuangxi sounds great. How do you get there?
Chaun Lai: Go passed the Palace Museum, umm…and there are some signs and you must turn left at a light and as you head up Yang Ming mountain’s back road, you see it after only a minute on your right. Huge entrance way. Hmmm…best if you had the name of that Left hand turn and the Chinese characters for the restaurant.
Dong Shan Rd.: From Zhong Cheng Rd., after passing Takashimaya and the baseball stadium and park on your right, turn right after the entrance to the parking lot at the light (But before you get to Tien Mu East. Rd.) which is kind of across the street from Jasper Villas and go straight crossing the backside Tien Mu East Rd. and then on up the mountain. Drive drive drive until you get to some coffeeshops and restaurants. There use to be three of them, the last one almost at the top. The one on the left had the best view.
[quote=“Hobart”]Chaun Lai: Go passed the Palace Museum, umm…and there are some signs and you must turn left at a light and as you head up Yang Ming mountain’s back road, you see it after only a minute on your right. Huge entrance way. Hmmm…best if you had the name of that Left hand turn and the Chinese characters for the restaurant.
[/quote]
Ping Jing Jie. connects to the small village of PingJing (Ping Jin?). busy on weekends as Yang De Blvd (the main access rd to yang ming shan) is restricted traffic at that time. 8am to 4pm i think.
another one up that way, much closer to the top is Ho Ho restaurant. not bad food, view is quite pretty, too.
Guan Yin Shan is nice place for a scenic drive in the evening, or to wander around some of the temple gardens up high and look back at taipei lights.
There’s a very cool place right near the Ho Ho restaurant that we played at a year or two back for Earth Day. Done out in orange-pink stucco with lots of open air dining perched on the edge of a bluff, large airy spaces inside, furnished with antique-style furniture. Pretty nice food according to Poagao. Well worth a visit, but I can’t for the life of me remember the name. Also, if you carry on up that road, its a pretty drive, with some nice grassy strolls up near the top.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]Wulai’s great at night, because there’s no traffic, no crowds and you can drive right in wothout paying.
For Yangmingshan, another bunch of restaurants which are good for some great night views are up XingYi Rd which is off Tianmu N Rd or thereabouts.
Brian[/quote]
I can drive right in for free hot springs? Awesome.
Actually, the toll booth was closed about two years ago.
You should consider going to Jiaoshi for hot springs though. Only 30 minutes once you’re on the freeway and much cheaper than Wulai. Mid-week you can get a taofang with a big jacuzzi tub for NT700 for two hours. And the water is actually hot spring water, unlike Wulai.
For Wulai, I like just sitting in the river at night with some free hot spring water (assuming you can still do that). I agree Jiaoxi is good, Haven’t been there for years either, Used to go on the train. There used to be good cheap communal pools (with all the various herbal baths and water massaging things - mixed sex, bathing suit) too.
I discovered you can’t. Wulai is dead as far as I’m concerned.
Went up midweek and the river, where the hotsprings were, is full of trash. It’s really filthy.
Wulai used to be one of my favourite places. Now it’s crowded as hell in the weekends, the hotel hotsprings are ludicrously overpriced (as they are almost everywhere) and the river hotsprings are now full of filth.
