Taipei for Digital Nomads

Taiwan's capital Taipei has a lot to offer any digital nomad that chooses to venture here. It's a modern city with an exciting backdrop of mountains and hiking trails. It offers an extensive and affordable network of public transportation, and is clean, spacious and offers a wide array of foods.

It initially appealed to me as a destination because I'd been told it was just like Japan, but cheaper, which is great because I can't afford Japan. Now that I've been here, I can confirm that it's just like what I imagine Japan to be. Coming here from South-East Asia it felt like I took a giant step up the social ladder. Everything is cleaner, everything is quieter, the people are more patient and road laws are actually obeyed. I got to know some people that were visiting from Japan who said the exact opposite, and found it a step-down from Japan, so it's perhaps somewhere in the middle. It's the most developed and civilised place that I've been in Asia though.

Perhaps on the cusp of an explosion in visitors, it doesn't yet feel like it's really been 'discovered' as a tourism destination. I'm hesitant to write this article and contribute to any increase. Luckily no one reads this shite so I should be alright.

I think the best indicator of how much I loved it, was that I initially came here having booked a four-week stay. I ended up staying for twelve, leaving only as my visa waiver expired.

Lingxiao Palace is on a hillside and offers amazing views of the city. I rather liked this dragon.

Who is Taipei suitable for?

Let me start by saying who Taipei is not suitable for. It is not a place to come if your goal when travelling is to get drunk and party as much as possible. I've read that Taiwan consumes the least alcohol of any east Asian country by far, and having been here it's hard to dispute that. It's not a country that has a drinking culture, and there isn't enough of a foreign presence that one's been built for the tourists.

When local people go out to bars, they typically only have one or two drinks. And while there are bars you can go to if you want to get drunk, unlike in many other places in the world, if you do it here you'll be the outlier.

It's also not a place where you really see people sitting in coffee shops on their laptops all day either. Being an island, Covid didn't affect Taiwan to the extent it did other places, so remote working isn't really a thing among local people, and it doesn't attract many digital nomads (and long may that continue). So if you're a person who's attracted to the usual digital nomad hubs (Medellin, Mexico City, Chiang Mai, Bali, Lisbon etc.) that offer a faux local culture that caters to foreigners, then Taipei isn't going to be for you.

The people that Taipei is suitable for are those that are active. Almost all activities I did here were hiking or running or cycling or snorkelling etc. It's surrounded by mountains, so there is no end of hikes you can go on and places to explore.

Within the city itself, it's a place very comfortable with foreigners, but not to the extent the culture has really changed to cater to them. It's not a place you can get completely off the beaten path - if you want that then look elsewhere in Taiwan. Similarly, if you want to go to a tourist-aimed city where everything is easy and translated to English, then it's not for you either. It sits in the middle. Comfortable and welcoming to foreigners, but not really catering to them.

Yun Hsien Resort is a resort in Wulai, where one of the activities on offer is archery, and they provide absolutely no instruction. Never fired a bow and arrow before? Me neither, but I figured it out. All of my arrows hit the target.

Getting into Taipei

Taiwan offers nationals from many countries including the USA and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and many European countries (including the UK, Germany and France) a 90-day visa exemption. One of the requirements to get this exemption is an outbound air/sea ticket, but as I found, it's not strictly enforced.

Airlines get fined when they bring passengers who're denied entry, so if you're travelling without an outbound ticket you're more likely to have issues boarding the plane than you are at immigration.

When I flew to Taiwan I was yet to know how long I'd stay so I didn't have an outbound ticket. I've done this before for countless destinations, but on this occasion, the airline staffer checking me in asked me "Do you have an outbound flight?"

"No," I responded, "I haven't decided when I'm going to leave yet."

As I said this I was fully expecting he was going to tell me I needed to buy one before checking-in. Instead, he thought for a second before asking "do you want a seat with extra legroom?"

So that's how seriously they take the outbound travel requirement. When I went through immigration in Taiwan I got no questions at all, about outbound travel or anything else.

This was at Taoyuan Airport which, despite being outside of Taipei, is the the main airport that serves Taipei. It's connected to Taipei by an MRT line that gets you to Taipei Main Station in about 35 minutes.

Paying for things in Taipei

Payment systems in Taipei are a bit of a mess, in that there's no universal payment method.

A lot of businesses allow payment by card, but unless you have a Taiwanese card these are very hit-and-miss. I had my foreign card (that I've used without issue the world over) get rejected in a lot of places, including supermarkets, because it was not issued by a Taiwanese bank.

I ran into one issue in a Watsons store, where I tried to pay by card. I got a notification to my phone saying that the payment had been taken from my account, but the guy behind the counter told me it had been rejected. This led to a long wait while he phoned head office to try and get to the bottom of it, but eventually he gave up and told me that I could take my items and leave. About fifteen minutes later I got another notification from my bank saying "this transaction has been reversed by the merchant."

Had I not tried to pay by card, I'd have saved a lot of time.

Apple Pay is available in Taiwan, and I had a 100% acceptance rate any time I used it. It's just not accepted very widely.

EasyCard (see below) is similarly accepted in some bigger businesses, most notably 7-11, and so can be used for some purchases, but is far from universal and most businesses don't accept payment by EasyCard.

The most commonly accepted payment method is cash, and the good news is that the Bank of Taiwan doesn't charge you to make ATM withdrawals with a foreign card. I didn't try any other banks, so some others might offer fee-free withdrawals too. That means that so long as you aren't charged by your home bank, you can at least get your hands on cash for free and cash is accepted at 99% of businesses. The issue I ran into on a couple of occasions, is there are a minority of businesses trying to go cashless.

One was a bicycle rental shop where, on returning our bikes, we were told the price and offered the payment methods of Line Pay, card payment or EasyCard. I tried to pay by card but it got rejected for not being issued by a Taiwanese bank, I don't have Line Pay, and I didn't have sufficient funds on my EasyCard.

After a lot of jostling, where the guy working in the shop wanted us to go all the way to the nearest MRT station to top-up our EasyCards (quite a long walk), he eventually conceded and accepted cash, but it highlighted the ridiculousness of paying for things in Taipei.

Unless you have a card issued by a Taiwanese bank, then make sure to carry enough cash on you because you will quite often need it. And while I arrived in Taiwan and paid using my card wherever possible, I ran into so many issues that I soon gave up and reverted to paying for almost everything in cash.

EasyCard

EasyCard is a contactless smartcard. It is the easiest method of paying to use the MRT, local buses and YouBikes. EasyCards can be bought and topped-up in any MRT station, and getting one should be the first thing you do arriving in Taiwan - you will use it everyday.

Obtaining an EasyCard requires paying a NT$100 deposit. This deposit is used to pay the difference if you don't have enough money on your EasyCard to pay your entire fare. You will also need to load-up any balance you want on the card. I'd recommend topping-up an additional NT$400 when you buy the card (so it'll cost you NT$500 in total).

Getting around Taipei

Taipei is such an incredibly easy city get around. Not only does it have an extensive and affordable MRT network that can be easily navigated by English speakers, but YouBike, Taipei's bike sharing scheme, is the best I've ever seen. Between those two, everywhere in Taipei's accessible.

If you're posh, Uber is the taxi-hailing app of choice in Taipei, and the bus network navigates the entire city. A word of warning: When taking the bus remember to scan your EasyCard when getting on and when getting off the bus. If you forget, you'll have issues when you come to use your EasyCard again.

YouBike

YouBike (also Ubike) is my favourite thing about Taipei, and that's a pretty big statement seeing as I loved most things here. It's Taipei's bike sharing scheme, but it's done better here than anywhere else I've been.

YouBike docks are everywhere. You can't walk five minutes without running into one, so no matter where you want to start or end your journey, you're going to be able to find a place to collect and return a YouBike. You can rent a bike with an EasyCard. You have to register on the app, but once you have, getting a bike is so easy. Press a button, scan your card, and you're away. To return it, place the bike into the dock, scan your card again, and that's it.

In order to encourage people to ditch their cars in favour of cycling, as of March '24 rentals of less than 30 minutes are free, and most of the time you get a YouBike, it's going to be for less than 30 minutes. I took YouBike trips multiple times daily during my three months in Taipei; that's just how I got around, and I barely paid for any of them. Even if you do rent the bike for longer, the cost is negligible. It's an incredibly cheap way to travel.

Giant, the bicycle manufacturer, are both the biggest bicycle manufacturer in the world and Taiwanese. I haven't verified either of those statements, but they were proudly said to me by several people during my stay. All I know about them is when I lived in London and cycled all the time, they were way out of my price range.

Giant make YouBikes, so these aren't some Mickey Mouse clunky bikes by a no-name company. They are legitimately good quality bicycles.

And Taipei is the most cycling-friendly city I've ever been to outside of Europe. Many pavements include cycle lanes, and cyclists are allowed (and expected) to use the pavements throughout the city. While you can cycle in the road if you choose, it will never be necessary within the city centre.

A perhaps intentional side-effect of this, is by making every pavement in Taipei cycle-friendly, it also makes Taipei the most wheelchair-friendly place I've ever been to. If you don't have legs you'll love it here.

In order to use YouBike, you need to download the YouBike app (AppStore/PlayStore). It can be set to English. On the app you can register your EasyCard, see real-time maps of available YouBikes and empty docks, read some useful guides about how to use YouBike, and many other things. It's a very user-friendly app, even for English speakers.

Registering and renting a YouBike is a fairly straight forward process. If you're struggling, firstly look up the guides on the app. If they don't help enough, Googling how to use YouBike will yield some quite detailed articles that people have written. Unless you're really quite special, you'll be renting a YouBike in no time, and it's a joy. Fresh air, exercise, and you get to know the city so much better than travelling underground on the MRT.

YouBike docks are all over Taipei. This one is at the Jinzhou Street/Jilin Road intersection, right outside my third room in Taipei.

MRT

The MRT is the easiest way to get around Taipei. Every sign and every map is translated to English, and on the rare occasions I had to deal with a human person (like when I bought my EasyCard) they spoke English.

Fares range from NT$20 to NT$65 (not including to/from the airport, which costs NT$160), with trains going walking distance to basically anywhere you're going to want to go in Taipei. The trains are fairly modern, and while you can't always guarantee you're going to get a seat, I never experienced them getting so busy they were uncomfortable to travel on, even when travelling with luggage.

With signs in English, taking the MRT is pretty self-explanatory, but to give yourself a head-start, the Go! Taipei Metro app (AppStore/PlayStore) includes a map, travel times, fares and other information.

How affordable is Taipei?

Not very.

Once you're in Taipei, the food and transport are pretty cheap. I'd typically pay around NT$300 per restaurant meal, but if you eat in more local places you can pay less than NT$100. YouBike is free for the first thirty minutes, and even after that the cost is negligible, and apart from going to the airport, the maximum fare on the MRT is NT$65. The thing that's going to fuck you is accommodation.

What I paid for accommodation was on par with a mid-tier European city. Think of accommodation prices being equivalent to Athens or Budapest - cheaper than Western Europe or North America, but much more expensive than Eastern Europe and South East Asia. And what I got for that money was compartively unimpressive. Studio rooms with make-shift or non-existent kitchens. If you want something nicer you're going to get fucked even harder.

Is Taipei safe?

I don't even know if crime exists in Taipei. I'm usually very paranoid about the security of my possessions, but in Taipei I got very complacent because it's such a safe place.

In a city of 2.7 million people, it's mad to me that I would go out cycling with local people, and we'd just leave our bikes unlocked at the side of the road to go wandering around for a couple of hours, and I was the only person who feared they wouldn't be there when we returned. They always were.

It's a city where you can leave your wallet on the table while you go to the toilet, and it'll still be there when you get back. In that sense, I've never been to a place this safe before.

There are two safety concerns that hang-over Taipei, neither of which should worry you or stop you coming here.

The first is that China makes endless overtures about invasion. It'll probably never happen, but if it does you might want to consider not being here.

The second is is earthquakes...

The joys of living next to China. You'll see signs like this all over Taipei.

Will I die from an earthquake in Taipei?

Probably.

One morning, shortly after arriving in Taiwan, I was brushing my teeth when the room started shaking. "Well this is weird," I thought to myself, although it did make brushing my teeth easier.

Apart from a couple of almost unnoticeable tremors, I'd never experienced an earthquake before, but I'd timed it to be in Taiwan for the biggest one in 25 years. It left me a little shaken.

The Taiwan Central Weather Administration reports all earthquakes, and from that point forth for the duration of my stay it reported regular aftershocks in Hualien - the site of the initial quake. Most of these were imperceptible in Taipei, but with ever-decreasing regularity through the duration of my stay, my room would just shake for a few seconds. By the end of my time here it had just become normal.

Taiwan is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, but as such is one of the countries most prepared for them, employing very strict building codes. So if you are going to get caught in an earthquake, this is one of the best places to do it.

Getting a SIM card in Taipei

I always ignore airport vendors selling SIM cards when I arrive somewhere new. It can make finding my room a bit of a pain if I haven't got a network connection, but airport vendors invariably sell tourist SIMs, where as I like to get myself on a local tariff with a SIM that will still be active if I ever come back to the country again.

I ignored the airport vendors in Taipei, instead going to a Chunghwa store in the city after checking-into my room (Chunghwa is the biggest network operator in Taiwan, with Taiwan Mobile and FarEasTone being the other main ones). I asked to get a local SIM rather than a tourist SIM, but they declined, citing that as I was in Taiwan as a tourist I was only permitted to buy a tourist SIM.

Well fuck me then I guess.

Whether you can shop around in order to find a shop to skirt this rule I'm not sure. I couldn't be arsed so I just bought a tourist SIM. Therefore the only advantage I had of buying a SIM here rather than at the airport, is at the airport they only advertised tourist SIMs of up to 30 days, where as here I could buy one for up to 180 days.

The good news about these tourist SIMs is that they provide unlimited data that is truly unlimited. With no speed throttling no matter how much data you use, you can watch all the Pornhub you want. The bad news is that these plans are only available with 4G. 5G tourist SIMs are only available for up to 7 days, but for normal needs, 4G is fine. You'll have no speed issues for normal, everyday use, including tethering your laptop in order to make video calls.

The other bad news is that these SIMs cannot be topped-up and the plans cannot be extended. If you buy a SIM for 30 days, then after 30 days you need to go back to the store and buy another SIM with a different phone number. Given this limitation (and how long it took the woman in the Chunghwa store to fill-in my details on the computer), I opted to buy a 90 day SIM, even though my loose plan at the time had me staying in Taiwan far less.

With a 30 day plan costing NT$1,000 and a 90 day plan costing NT$2,199, I decided it was worth paying extra just to save having to sign-up again, and I'm glad I did because I ended up staying for almost 90 days anyway. No 60 day plan is offered.

I have a general hatred of rules that assume I can see into the future, because the whole point of being a digital nomad is to have the freedom to change your mind at a moment's notice, which is why getting onto a local tariff is always worth the hassle of getting from the airport without any data. Unfortunately that's not how it works in Taiwan.

Chunghwa tourist SIM prices - 30 days of unlimited data is NT$1,000, 90 days is NT$2,199.

What language is spoken in Taipei?

Mandarin is the national language. While other languages, primarily Taiwanese are natively spoken, the vast, vast majority of what you hear will be Mandarin.

When setting the language on Google Translate, choose 'Chinese (Traditional)'. Traditional refers to the writing system. Simplified charcters were introduced on the Chinese mainland to increase literacy rates, but as they never made it to Taiwan, traditional characters are still used.

The one thing that took me a bit of getting used to in Taipei, is that if you don't look like a local person in more touristy countries, for example Thailand, then local people won't ever attempt to speak to you in the local language. The vast majority of foriegn visitors to Thailand don't speak Thai, and locals know that.

Taipei is a bit different. There aren't that many foreigners here, and of those there are, many speak Mandarin. As such it's quite common for local people to come up to you and speak to you in Mandarin, then look shocked when you don't understand.

There is a decent amount of English spoken here, particularly by younger people, but it's not spoken by everyone.

Only "pee". Other "forbidden". Please cooperate!! I had quite a lot of fun running signs through Google Translate while in Taiwan, particularly in toilets for some reason. This is above the urinal in Yuli Your Home.

Throwing away your rubbish in Taipei

After checking-into my first room in Taipei, I received a message from my Airbnb host telling me I had to throw away my rubbish in the correct government-issued bags, and if I didn't it would be returned to me by use of the building's CCTV. These bags weren't provided by the host, and finding where to buy them was the biggest source of stress for my first week here. I could not figure-out where to get these government-issued trash bags, so just kept all my rubbish in my room with me. I went to multiple supermarkets, 7-11s and Family Mart stores and looked in the usual places, but I could not find them anywhere.

Turns-out they store them behind the counter, and I eventually found some in Carrefour; see the picture below. So hopefully that prevents you having the same issue.

If you're staying in an apartment, that will likely be the end of your trash-related troubles because you'll be able to dispose of your rubbish in a communal area, and the building staff will take care of it from there. If not, well once you arrive here, you might notice what sounds like a loud ice cream van playing its music late into the evening. On my first night here I was trying to sleep thinking "who on earth wants ice cream now?" It turns-out that is the sound played by the garbage truck so people know that it's nearby. And whereas in most places in the world you just leave your rubbish at the side of the road, in Taipei you have to put it into the truck yourself.

There will be two trucks in fact; one for rubbish and one for recycling. And if you're staying somewhere that doesn't take care of garbage communally, then every night or two, you're going to have to be out on the side of the road with the locals, waiting for the sound of Für Elise or another similar tune to indicate the garbage truck's arrival.

It's an issue so complicated to new arrivals in Taipei, that if you look on Google many people have written entire articles about how to throw away your rubbish (like this one).

The other trash-related thing to note is that there are very few public trash cans in Taipei. You'll find them occasionally in places like stations and parks, but in general you've got to get used to taking your rubbish home with you, because compared to most other countries, there just aren't very many.

I'll hasten to add: Please don't be one of the pricks that uses the baskets on the front of YouBikes as a trash can. If you take a YouBike, take your shit with you. Don't just leave it there for the next person to have to deal with, you utter bellend.

The first few days I was in Taipei my biggest stressor was trying to find blue government-issued trash bags. The mistake I was making was looking on the shelves. In actuality they're kept behind the counter with the cigarettes and alcohol, such is their value. This is the Carrefour local to my first room. The trash bags are the two shelves of blue things, behind those yellow crates.

Is the tap water drinkable in Taipei?

This is a question of which I was never able get a straight answer. I was told by locals that it's safe to drink, but we usually boil it first.

Well if it's safe to drink, why do you boil it first?

It was also explained to me that Taipei city produces clean, drinkable water, but that the piping and water tanks in some buildings, particularly older buildings, does pose a risk. So the safety of the water is ultimately going to depend on the building you're staying in.

So should you drink the water then?

I found that the tap water had a bit of a funny taste to it compared to bottled water, so the routine I ultimately settled on was when drinking straight water, I drank bottled water. Six-litre bottles are available at any supermarket for about NT$40. For everything else, including cups of tea (where the water was boiled and the taste was masked), I used tap water.

Things I didn't like about Taipei

I've spent this article so far waxing lyrical about how much I loved Taipei, and how it's one of my favourite places in the world. To prove my impartiality, I searched deep within to think of any things I didn't like, and I came up with five.

Crossing the road

I've never been somewhere before where road signals are so blindly obeyed by pedestrians. In most of the world if there's a red man at a crossing, but you can clearly see there are no cars coming, then you cross the road anyway.

Not in Taipei. If there's a red man here you don't cross no matter what, and it's absolutely infuriating. By the end of my time I just didn't give a fuck anymore. "I'm not standing here like a lemon for the next two minutes while the road is completely clear" I'd think to myself while feeling like a criminal for crossing the road.

Whenever you walk anywhere in Taipei, if it looks like a thirty-minute walk, then give yourself forty, because you need that extra time just to cross the road.

The elderly

In almost every country in the world there's a built-in respect for the elderly, like offering your seat if one of them gets on the bus. In Taipei that respect has been taken to weird levels, and there's a sense of entitlement around Taipei's elderly that makes them as a collective, a little unlikeable.

On every MRT, for example, roughly one quarter of the seats are dark blue priority seats, but a weird dynamic has been created where unless you fall into the 'priority' category, it's socially taboo to sit in these seats even when they're not needed by an old person. You'll see them sit unused while dozens of people are standing on crowded trains.

And if all the priority seats are taken by legitimate old people and another one gets on, you'll see them go and stand uncomfortably close to a sitting young person with the expectation that the young person gets up for them. They're not even always that old.

Another one is I've seen long queues for buses, and as soon as the bus arrives, old people just push to the front and assume they have some divine right to board first because they're old.

It's just a really weird sense of entitlement from the elderly that goes entirely unchallenged.

Most people in Taipei are really happy. For some reason this woman seemed determined to give the middle finger to as many people as possible. When she started cycling again, she did so one-handed just so she could keep going.

Urinals

You'd think that the country responsible for most of world's semiconductors would have some of the most talented engineers on earth. Why then, is it that every urinal in Taipei is built like a slide and there's no way that you can pee so it doesn't get sprayed right back at you? Unless you stand so far away that it's a challenge to even get it in, your shins are going to come out wet.

I've never been to a country with such bad urinals.

Dogs in buggies

There's a weird trend in Taipei where people, primarily women, get dogs and treat them like babies.

This is a phenomenom in much of the world, but Taipei has taken it to a new level. There's a whole industry dedicated to people who want to treat dogs like babies. If you see someone pushing a buggy around the streets, make sure to have a look inside, because more often than not it's a perfectly able-bodied dog that would rather be out and running around.

I'll add that I'm not against the concept of women testing the waters to see if they're suitable for motherhood; that's just being responsible, and perhaps a reason that crime is so low here is that so few kids are born to unfit parents. If you want something to baby though, why not choose something that can't walk, like a snake or a grapefruit? Leave the dogs out of it, they deserve to be free.

Trash in YouBike baskets

For a city as clean as Taipei, it's astounding how few public bins are available to throw away your rubbish. You'll find them in train stations and you'll see them around parks, but just walking around the city? You won't find many.

What you will find in abundance is YouBikes, and as such people have taken to using YouBike baskets as trash cans, and it drives me up the wall.

When I'm cycling the last thing I want is to be cycling with someone else's shit in the basket. Apart from anything else, I'll often use the basket to put my hat in. And so out of principle I would never rent a YouBike if there was trash in the basket, even if it meant having to walk to another dock.

If you're reading this and you're someone that leaves your shit in a YouBike basket for someone else to deal with, I just want you to know that you're the absolute worst of humanity. Complete scum. The world would be a better place without you, but it's not too late to do the right thing, Taipei has a lot of bridges.

Getting vegan food in Taipei

When it comes to being vegan in Taipei, you'll find that there are many vegan or vegan-friendly restaurants dotted all over the city. You'll also find that supermarkets aren't very vegan-friendly, so it's good news for people staying somewhere without cooking facilities.

A peculiarity about Taipei that I hated, is that almost all restaurants close for an hour or two in the afternoon. I'm not sure if it's a legal requirement or just a custom here, but from around 3pm to around 4:30pm (exact times vary by restaurant) almost every restaurant closes. As someone who doesn't really stick to an eating schedule and often likes to eat in the afternoon, I found this really annoying.

I'm again unsure if this is legally required or just a custom, but almost all restaurants provide free drinking water, and there's no expectation that you buy a drink when you eat somewhere. Tipping is not done in Taiwan either (and I actually saw some locals get a little angry at a foreigner who suggested we leave a tip), so when you go to a restaurant you really just pay for the food that you eat and nothing more - exactly how it should be. Although note that fancier restaurant may add a mandatory 10% service charge.

My favourite restaurants in Taipei are detailed below, and I'll add a section about shopping for vegan groceries.

Nibble Burger is a vegan restaurant that oddly only sells three burgers. It's a small place without much seating and the staff aren't very friendly. The food is good though, especially this Bacon Beef Veggie Steak Burger, which costs NT$299.

Yuli Your Home

Coming here once or twice every week, I visited no restaurant in Taipei more than Yuli - a fully vegan restaurant selling local food. The menu consists of curries, bibimaps, hot pot and dumplings.

It's more expensive than your typical local restaurant, the menu is translated into English, and the counter staff speak very good English. Despite that, the vast majority of customers are locals.

A menu update mid-way through my stay precipitated a slight price increase, but even then I found it fair. Typically I'd get a curry (starting at NT$200 after the menu change) and a bowl of dumplings (NT$105 for six). That's a good-sized and healthy feed for just over NT$300.

One thing to beware of is that the days they're closed each week seems to fluctuate with no rhyme or reason; that burned me a couple of times. They post in the window which days they're closed that month, and so far as I can tell, it seems to be random.

The opening hours on Google Maps seem to be kept mostly up-to-date, so if Google Maps says they're open, they're probably open.

They're also one of the very few restaurants I went to in Taipei that doesn't close in the mid-afternoon. They stay open all day, so as someone that often likes to eat around then, it was good to have somewhere to go.

Yuli is a fully vegan restaurant that offers curries, bibimaps and hot pot. This is the fried vegan shrimp rings curry. It was on the original menu for NT$235, but got removed when the menu got updated. You can still build it by getting a vegetable curry and buying the shrimp rings separately from the a la carte menu.

Burger Su Veggie

Burger Su Veggie is a vegetarian (not vegan) burger restaurant in Beitou. If you're unfamiliar with Beitou, it's north of the city centre, across the river.

I originally came here after tearing my calf, because I couldn't walk very well but I could cycle. As such I was cycling a lot for exercise and sought-out far-flung restaurants to ride to. From my room in Xinyi, Burger Su was a lovely 90-minute cycle along the riverside, so if you're looking for somewhere to go one day, I recommend it.

Even once I was able to walk and run again, I continued to come back here because I thought the food was so good. The menu is translated into English, and the staff too have decent English. All items on the menu are marked as either vegan, lacto, or lacto-ovo, and as you might be able tell from the name, the focus of the menu is burgers, the most expensive of which, a Beyond Meat burger with black truffle sauce, costs NT$299, so no matter what you get it's going to be pretty good value.

I couldn't taste any difference between the Beyond Meat patties and the cheaper Neo Food patties. Getting the latter with vegan tuna costs NT$259, and it's some of the best vegan tuna I've ever had.

As well as burgers they offer sandwiches, salads and some finger food. If you aren't in the mood for a burger though, I'd suggest you go elsewhere as they dominate the menu.

Burger Su offer different types of burger patties and each one can be accompanied by various other fillings. While it's a vegetarian not vegan restaurant, every item on the dual-language menu is marked as vegan, lacto, or lacto-ovo, with the majority of items being marked vegan. This is a Neo burger patty with black truffle sauce. It's NT$269 on its own, or can be made into one of four different combos. The cheapest of these adds a hash brown and a black tea for an extra NT$50.

Loving Hut

Loving Hut is a chain of vegan restaurants that exists globally. Beyond the name and the fact that they're vegan, little connects each restaurant as they have the freedom to create their own menu. It did get me wondering what the point was, and in researching found that Loving Hut was created by someone that some people consider a cult leader.

I won't go down that rabbit hole, and whatever the motivations are they don't detract from the fact that at this branch at least, the food is really high quality. It's mostly Asian, but you'll also find items on the menu like pizza and pasta dishes, each costing in the region of NT$300. I really recommend the 'Lemon shredded chickenless', although beware they aren't messing around with the chillies.

This is the lemon shredded chickenless - basically just vegan chicken on lettuce with a load of hot things on top. I loved it. Costs NT$300.

Grocery stores

There are two main supermarkets that you find all over Taipei - Carrefour and PX Mart. PX Mart stays open late, and Carrefour stores are open 24 hours per day. Neither are especially vegan-friendly; you'll find very sporadic vegan items dotted around their stores, but they don't have vegan sections, and they're not especially health-conscious either. For example, they both sell many different brands of pasta, but you won't find any wholewheat pasta in either.

As someone that tries to eat wholefoods as much as possible, and who also eats a lot of pasta, the difficulty in obtaining wholewheat pasta in Taipei became a real frustration. The only place I found that sells it is Fresh Mart. They sell overpriced wholewheat spaghetti.

More upmarket and less numerous than Carrefour/PX Mart, is Mia C'bon - there are a few branches around Taipei. While I'd normally expect upmarket supermarkets to be more vegan-friendly, here it isn't really the case. I didn't find much in Mia C'bon that wasn't available in the cheaper supermarkets, so I wouldn't bother going to them.

If this is depressing you, then let me finish with some better news. Supermarkets here don't dominate groceries like in western countries. There are many specialised local shops, and in particular, on any high street you'll find a fruit shop every block or two. I eat a lot of fruit, so perhaps that excites me more than you, but both the selection and price in these fruit shops is better than the fruit you can buy in the supermarkets (as often, is the quality). So while getting intentionally vegan items in the supermarkets is a bit of a no-go, getting raw ingredients is pretty good value, just not in the supermarkets.

And as a side note, if you're someone that eats a lot of nuts (and I'm someone that eats a lot of nuts), the supermarkets here are great for buying nuts. I don't know why, but they sell big tubs of nuts, very reasonably-priced. I would bet I ate at least 10kg of nuts over my twelve weeks in Taipei. So if you like to eat fruits, and you like to eat nuts (and they make up about 70% of my diet), then after the initial disappointment of the supermarkets, you'll find Taipei to be very friendly to your dietary needs.

While the supermarkets in Taipei aren't great for fresh produce, you'll find fruit shops dotted all around the city that have better selection, quality and price. This was my favourite while I was staying in Xinyi.

Running in Taipei

Taipei has big, wide pavements, traffic is minimal for a large Asian city, and the air quality is comparably good. So I know what you're thinking: Taipei must be a great city to go running in.

Nope.

While being in a city where the rule of law is followed almost to the letter is mostly a positive, the place where I really found it annoying was crossing the street. Even at tiny crossings where you can clearly see that there are no cars anywhere in the vacinity, people stand there and wait for the green man. At bigger crossings this can take a couple of minutes, so when you go anywhere on foot or by bike in Taipei, however long you think it's going to take, add on 25% for waiting to cross the road.

That's an annoyance on foot, but it downright ruins a perfectly good run, so unless you're willing to have a very stop-start run (I'm not), then I'd describe Taipei's streets as unsuitable for running. Thankfully you have some alternatives.

I ran in four different locations in Taipei - Da'an Park, the National Taipei University of Technology Sports Ground, the National Taiwan University sports field, and along the riverside. I'll detail each of these places below, but Taipei is littered with viable alternatives, with the caveat that you must be comfortable going around in circles.

There are many running tracks dotted around the city, including on university campuses, so get onto Google maps and either by searching or looking at satellite view, you'll be able to find one pretty nearby to where you're staying.

For example there's a public running track on the grounds of the Taipei Arena. I didn't run there myself, but I walked past it and it appeared free and open to the public. Or you could try Minquan Sports Park in the north of the city, or Fukuwa Sports Park just over the river in New Taipei City, or the sports field at the National Taiwan Normal University, as well as several parks dedicated to sport such as Wenshan Jingmei Sports Park or the Erchong Floodway Sports Park.

In the unlikely event that you can't find something close to you, then because of the big, wide pavements in Taipei, just running around the block that you're staying on may be viable.

All of this is great if you don't mind running around in circles. For shorter runs and guided runs or runs when you're listening to an audiobook or a podcast, it can be nice to be running around a flat track where you don't really have to think about where you're going or where you're stepping. Doing that for long, slow runs will drive you up the wall though, so if you want to actually run somewhere without having to stop to cross the road every two minutes, then the only place I went in Taipei that's viable is along the riverside.

Da'an Park

When you come to Taipei and ask people the best places to run, their first answer will invariably be Da'an Park.

Don't listen to them, it's shit.

It's a decent-sized park in the city centre with a roughly 2.2km circumference, and even better it includes a jogging track. Unfortunately, despite having almost an entire park of not jogging track to go on, people not jogging feel the need to not jog on the jogging track, so this narrow track will be populated with walkers, senile old people, groups of people, people in wheelchairs etc, much impairing your ability to jog on the jogging track.

Furthermore, if I ever encounter the person that designed Da'an Park, then I hope I'm carrying a mirror because they need to have a long, hard look at themselves. The jogging track goes around the outside of the park, but only three quarters of it. At the north end of the park it ceases existing, leaving you to navigate this part of the park on the paths, and Da'an Park is a very popular tourist spot, particularly with old people, and you know how slow and immobile they are. Making your way through the sea of wrinkles you're at times forced to slow to little more than a walk.

The best example I can give of how shit Da'an Park is for running, is if you ever come here you'll notice that far more people run on the pavement outside the park, than actually run in it. That is for good reason.

The Da'an Park jogging track, just wide enough for a wheelchair.

National Taipei University of Technology Sports Ground

The National Taipei University of Technology Sports Ground, as Google Translate tells me it's called (國立臺北科技大學運動場 in Chinese) is a 200m running track, open 24 hours per day on the National Taipei University of Technology campus. This is where I did the majority of my running in Taipei.

For my first run here I did a steady 5k, which is 25 laps and is just depressing, going around and around and around and around. Luckily I was in terrible shape and in an attempt to rectify that started doing guided HIIT runs and interval runs instead, and for this kind of run having a track, even just a 200m one, is perfect.

I don't think at any point I had to share the track with more than four other people, no matter what time of day I came. Taipei is already incredibly safe, and being a small track on a university campus, you can bring a bag and leave it unattended with little worry it'll get nicked, and there are toilets in the surrounding university buildings.

It's basic and it's no thrills, but it does the job.

The running track at the National Taipei University of Technology might be small at 200m, but it seldom has more than three people on it. As you can see in this photo, it can pool water and become a little slippery when it's raining, but even then it's a good place to run.

National Taiwan University Sports Field

I tore my right calf muscle midway through my stay in Taipei, and it's with regret that I only ran at National Taiwan University as part of my recovery, because they have a really nice running track. Much nicer than the National Taipei University of Technology Sports Ground (above). It's blue, and I don't know what it is about blue, but running on a blue track makes you want to run faster. I had to hold myself back from breaking-into a sprint and reinjuring myself.

There are YouBike docks dotted all over the campus, including immediately next to the running track, so getting here is easy. It's a nine-lane running track, yet there were never more than five or six other runners any time that I came. Being a university campus, you can leave a bag at the side of the track with little fear it'll go for a walk, and the adjacent buildings have toilets in.

I don't know what it is about blue running tracks that make you want to run fast, but blue running tracks make you want to run fast. This is a nine lane, 400m running track, and feels very posh.

Riverside

The banks of both the Keelung River and the Tamsui River have concrete paths running along them, and are void of vehicles (other than bicycles).

I only ran along the riverside twice, but I cycled along it a lot and I didn't go anywhere that was unsuitable for running. For example, I cycled from Raohe Evacuation Gate to Tamsui MRT, a distance of 25.4km. This route is exclusively along the vehicle-free riverside path, and is very suitable for running. Tamsui MRT is on the red line, so you can get on a train and come straight back into town, or if that run isn't long enough for you, you can turn around and run back again to do a 50k ultra. That route doesn't include the beginning nor the end of the riverside path (I have no idea where they are), so you really can just keep going to your heart's content.

Or if you're not staying on that side of the city, the Tamsui River is just as runnable. I never ran here because it wasn't near to where I was staying, but I did cycle the above route after going to Burger Su when I needed some exercise burn off the calories - this riverside path is also vehicle-free and very running-friendly.

If you're a runner who likes to actually go somewhere (and not just around in circles), the frustration of spending half your life waiting to cross the road might initially make Taipei feel like an unfriendly running city. The riverside is the great equaliser, and whether walking, running or cycling, should be explored while you're here.

I took this one while cycling along the river in south-west Taipei. The track is pretty sparsely populated, meaning there's plenty of room for both runners and cyclists.

Being sociable in Taipei

There is a very active Meetup community in Taipei. Pretty much everyone I got to know here, I either met at a Meetup, or I met through someone that I met at a Meetup.

While there are some events centred around alcohol, they are in the minority with hiking and outdoor activity groups, fitness groups, and language exchange groups being much more popular. I attended the weekly event of the Language Friendship consistently while in Taipei. Each event attracted up to sixty people, with some regular attendees and some new people each week, so was a really great resource to get to know people. If that doesn't look your kind of thing, there are many other groups to try.

The only real downside I found is that almost every group has its events on the weekend (usually Saturday). On weekdays there isn't so much going on.

At a hiking Meetup on the Qingtiangang Grassland.

Staying in Taipei

Accommodation takes-up a disproportionate amount of your budget in Taipei. While things like transport, groceries and restaurants are really good value here, accommodation is not; at least not for short-term visitors. Locals with long-term leases did insist on telling me that I was paying excessively by staying in Airbnbs (more excessively than in other places in the world), but in checking the usual places (Airbnb, Agoda, booking.com etc) I didn't really find anything that was better value than what I paid.

There are definitely cheaper rooms available than those I stayed in, but at the sacrifice of facilities or location.

I stayed in three different areas in Taipei, and I loved all of them. With the exception of Ximen, I didn't go anywhere in Taipei that I didn't like. The perfect area for me is perhaps around Da'an Park/NTU - it's always nice to have a big park nearby, NTU makes it a relaxed studenty area, the campus has a gorgeous running track, and two of my favourite vegan restaurants are nearby. By taking a YouBike though, anywhere in the city is quickly and cheaply accessible, so I'd focus more on the accommodation than its location.

As for why I don't recommend Ximen - I only went there one time. It was to check-out the area as I found that accommodation there was cheaper than in other parts of the city. With good reason. It's crowded, full of tourists and homeless people, and is generally awful. Unless you like shopping, and I hate shopping, there's nothing nice about it.

The reason that the rest of Taipei is so nice, is that all the shit bits of Taipei are in Ximen.

Where I stayed

5 mins to MRT Zhongxiao Xinsheng, studio for 2

No.5, Section 1, Bade Rd

At the time I stayed here, this apartment near Zhongxiao Xinsheng MRT was the second most expensive place I'd stayed as a digital nomad, so you might think it's rather lavish.

Nah, accommodation in Taipei is just expensive. It's tiny, but it does have all the essentials and I loved the location.

The number one thing I look for when choosing accommodation is that it gets a lot of daylight. Nothing puts me on the path to depression quicker than waking up in a dingy room, and with its big windows I thought this room would be sufficient. And it is, with one caveat.

The room is in the centre of a horseshoe of rooms. With the bed right next to the window, if you leave the blackout blinds open, people in the adjacent rooms can look in and watch you sleep, so staying here is a bit of a battle between leaving the blinds open enough that daylight gets in, but not so much that you wake up with people looking at you. Closing the left blind completely and half-closing the right one was the best middle-ground I found, but even then people in some of the higher rooms can still look down at you in bed, which is a bit weird.

That aside, I'd say that this room has everything that you need... but only just. For example, there isn't a kitchen but there is a plug-in hob and a pan that you can use on the desk. That desk is the only surface in the apartment, so you have a workstation and you have a kitchen, just not at the same time.

There's only one sink in the apartment too. It's a bit weird brushing your teeth next to a draining rack and with a dish-cloth in the sink. You do have a bathroom sink and a kitchen sink, but again, just not at the same time. These aren't issues unless you want them to be, because if you're here alone it's unlikely you're going to be brushing your teeth while doing the washing up, but it is something to be aware of.

And while it is a compact room, by laying my mat diagonally I had space to exercise while playing my workouts on the TV. The sofa's comfortable enough as an alternative workstation, and I had absolutely no issues with the wifi throughout my stay. The buttons on the space-age washing machine are all labelled in Chinese and Google Translate is only so helpful. Doing your laundry is a little bit of pot-luck, but my clothes always came out cleaner than they went in.

If you search on Airbnb, you will find bigger rooms for cheaper. One thing you're paying for to stay here is the great location, and it is a great location. Zhongxiao Xinsheng MRT station is a short walk away. That's on the blue line just two stops from Taipei Main Station, so everything in Taipei is within easy access, but most things you need are actually walking distance.

The street that the apartment's on, including the building that it's in, is almost solely electronics shops, so if you like tech you'll be living your wet dream. There are loads of little eateries nearby, including the vegetarian branch of Mayur Indian Kitchen if you want vegan/vegetarian food, as well as a Carrefour supermarket. It's very close to the National Taipei University of Technology, making it a studenty area, but more importantly being walking distance to the university's running track. Da'an Park is a slightly longer walk (or a short YouBike ride) but is still easily accessible on foot.

I at no point felt I was living a life of luxury when I stayed here. For the price I perhaps should have done. But it had everything I needed so I was comfortable for my month here.

If like me, you place importance on the amount of natural light a room gets, you might be lured-in by the big windows you see here - the blinds aren't even open all the way in this photo. Unfortunately the apartment is in the middle of a horseshoe, with residential apartments and businesses flanking it on both sides, meaning that in the absence of any drapes or translucent curtains, if you leave the blinds open, people in adjacent rooms can see in (particularly when you're lying in bed), but if you close them no light gets in. The best middle-ground I found was to entirely close the left blind while sleeping, and to half-close the right one. It didn't give me total privacy, but it did at least stop the apartment immediately to the left being able to see in from about a metre away, which would be weird, and it let in enough light that I at least rose with daylight.

5 mins to MRT Taipei 101, elevator studio for 2

245 Zhuangjing Road

This room has the same Airbnb hosts as the room above and costs almost exactly the same. Which is better then? Well it's actually quite hard to pick between them.

This room is in Xinyi, about a 5 minute walk from the Taipei 101/World Trade Center MRT station. That's a less central, but equally vibrant location. The apartment is on a main road with everything you need within an easy walk. Restaurants galore, and the nearest supermarket (PX Mart) is only 2 minutes away. There's a small park about 30 metres from the building entrance, that contains some very convenient YouBike docks. It's not the nicest park in the world so had little significance to me, until I injured my leg and became very immobile. At that point being able to hobble around the corner to this park and sit there reading my book while getting some daylight became invaluable to my mental health.

If you look at the pictures below, you might think that with its large windows, this apartment gets loads of natural light. Bzzzz, wrong. The sign for a business covers the top half of the window severely limiting the light that gets in (and the view to the outside), and as this room's only on the first floor, for any privacy you need to keep the blinds at least partially shut as well, so I found myself getting less light than in the room above. Where it does exceed my previous room, is that it's just that little bit more spacious, and that little bit better equipped.

Moving the coffee table out of the way, there's ample floor space to exercise here. It also has a desk, and a separate kitchen area including sink, so you can have a workstation setup, cook your lunch, and brush your teeth all at the same time like some kind of king. Although worth noting that the washing machine in this room firstly doesn't use any hot water, so my clothes never came out very clean, and secondly isn't a drying machine. There's a hanging rail and loads of coat hangers which is a sufficient alternative.

As with the room above, the included equipment is a little sporadic. There's a large pan and a large skillet to cook with, but only two very small bowls to eat from. And there's a chopping board, but no cutting knife. Not a problem if you carry your own equipment, but something to be aware of if you don't. I didn't have any issues with the wifi throughout my stay.

After a tempered start where I had to adjust to the lack of daylight, I grew to really like this room. I'd happily come back again.

It's a decent-sized apartment. Moving the coffee table out the way makes for a good-sized exercise area in front of the TV and beneath the air conditioner, and while the chair leaves a little to be desired, the desk makes a good workstation. I was able to work there for eight hours on consecutive days without feeling any discomfort. Unfortunately none of the windows open. As the apartment is on a main road, you probably wouldn't want them open much anyway, but I did miss being able to get outside air in from anywhere other than the air conditioner.

J62 Room with much sunlight and view,5 min to MRT

No. 284, Jilin Rd

Staying here was a last minute decision when I decided to extend my time in Taipei. Considering that it could have been a lot worse.

Although I booked it on Airbnb, I would consider it more of a hotel room than an apartment. The room got fully cleaned once during my stay but staff come through the floor every day, so if you want fresh towels, for example, leave your dirty towels outside the room and they'll replace them. I also don't think any residents, at least on my floor, are long-term. In both of the rooms adjacent to mine, the tenants rotated a lot. I know that because the walls are frustratingly thin. That's the biggest flaw of this room.

It's on a main road, and there is some very impressive sound-proofing to ensure the sounds from the road below don't disturb you. Unfortunately they spent all their efforts sound-proofing from the road, and made no effort to sound-proof from other rooms so you can have a nice bedtime story if the people in the next room are talking into the night.

With that exception I can't really fault this room. It has huge, east-facing windows next to the bed that get so much glorious daylight in the mornings. That is without doubt its best feature, but the desk and chair are pretty comfortable to work at, and I should mention it has one of the best showers I've ever had. So powerful, it's like getting a free massage in the morning. The wifi is fast and reliable, the bed is comfortable, there's plenty of space to store your clothes, the AC is cold and there's a not very thoughtfully-placed fridge.

It's below the TV. I thought about trying to move it, but there wasn't really an alternative place. The reason it's so annoying is that if like me, you like to use your TV for exercise then you're going to struggle. Once you're lying on the floor you can't see the TV because someone put a fridge in the way. I had to do workouts on my phone.

There are no washing facilities in the room, but there's a washer and dryer shared by the rooms on the sixth floor. The washer is free with detergent provided, the dryer costs NT$50 (you need 5x NT$10 coins). As there's a clothes horse in the room, unless you're in a rush you're not going to need the dryer.

The location of the room is pretty awesome. A PX Mart supermarket is literally just across the street, with a YouBike dock being similarly close. Xingtian Temple MRT station is about a five minute walk from the room. There are a couple of fruit shops less than ten minutes walking from the room, and a limited amount of vegan food available nearby. When I wanted to run I'd grab a YouBike from outside the room, cycle for ten minutes and drop it opposite the Fine Arts Park, then walk to the river from there.

Considering staying here was a last minute decision I was pretty happy with how it turned out - in many ways it's a really nice room. Just be aware that the sanctity of your stay will be determined by the bedtime and the thoughtfulness of the people in the adjacent rooms. If you're unlucky enough to have noisy neighbours that stay up late each night, you're probably not going to have a good time.

Unlike my previous two rooms, this apartment legitimately does get a lot of glorious daylight. The windows are huge, they include drapes, you're up on the sixth floor so don't need to close the curtains for privacy, and even better...