I kind of agree that this is one of the coolest places around Taipei.
I bet some of the nice new housing developments in the hood pooled their money and bought some advertising which incidentally included a high ranking on coolest streets.
Easy artificial technique to increase sales value.
Some people in that neighbourhood clearly have connections. Look at the way Kao Chi was forced out.
Yes, I am still bitter about that.
Guy
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Since we were talking about alternatives to Yongkang Street in Taipei, how about the newly refurbished Japanese era structures along Jinhua Street nearby? These structures are adjacent to the now-disappeared Huaguang community (華光社區), whose residents were forcibly evicted during the Hau Lung-bin mayorship. Many complex layers of settlement, eviction, and tourist driven renovation are visible here, if you care to look.
Guy
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That’s hilarious. 
Which restaurant?
The Vietnamese noodle place.
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Not that this correlates to cool, but it seems like a good place to bring up my question:
Is there any section of Taipei that is super busy and densely packed with pedestrians? Like Shinjuku in Tokyo, Mong Kok in HK, Times Square in NYC, etc? Or does Taipei not really have that kind of experience? Thanks!
You could try to take the MRT from near Taipei 101 just after midnight on December 31. Enjoy!
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Ximending fits best I think. Not sure in these pandemic days though
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I was going to suggest that as well, but I think it’s too spread out to be comparable to those places.
Just a regular busy Taipei area IMO, and if the criterion is just to have a lot of people walking around there are quite a few other areas that fit the bill (around MRT stations in Yonghe when people are finishing work springs to mind…).
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Those couple of square blocks north of the subway station get pretty crowded!
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Yeah, but Times Square or Shinjuku crowded? I assumed OP was hoping for something more photogenic than a typical-for-Taiwan crowd of people walking past a Watsons…
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I don’t know, just going by what they said. If they want Times Square they might be out of luck
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I can’t find it. Are 熱鬧麵館 the right characters? I’ve tried other combinations, too.
you jest, but I probably will since I’ve never witnessed it before.
This is what my friends said too.
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Keep in mind that the greater Tokyo area comprises some 30 million people, while the greater Taipei area is probably closer to around 6 million. In other words, it’s more like Toronto than Tokyo. Nothing wrong with that, there are still lots of benefits, but I’d advise you to scale down your expectations. 
Guy
Greater Tokyo is actually over 37M, greater Taipei officially over 7M although if we use more uniform definitions then we’d probably include Taoyuan which should push it over 10M. In any case, you are correct that they are not comparable.
On the other hand, it’s a matter of population density and walkability, not total population. HK’s population is the same and it has multiple areas as I described. Macau has a walking street that is similar as well and its population is well under 1M.
Speaking of Toronto, this is a pretty cool scramble intersection in their downtown. But I think Taipei easily matches in some areas.
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No, I meant the area is “renao”. Too much so when it’s filled with foreign tourists to be fair. Anyway, it’s Thanh-Ky
Not great Google review totals I see, no idea how authentic it is but we like it.
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The Taiwan News article makes no mention of Huaguang Community. That’s a flagrant omission. Like Kilian points out in his video, that’s an essential piece of history of Taipei. It’s now totally obliterated. Yeah, it was an ugly shantytown, but that’s what the area was for decades. They could have at least done what they did at Four Four South Village, preserve a few vestiges of that era for remembrance sake. Otherwise Taipei would just turn into another faux Japanese town.