Flight to Taiwan for SQ878 took off at 1155 and arrived at 1640 in Taiwan, Taoyuan Airport. At the airport custom area, everyone queued up in a single row and there may or may not be an officer who will direct you to the counter. Thus, it is up to your judgement to move to the desired counter for immigration clearance. Their clearance method require you to take a photo with their webcam and as well capturing of your two index fingers. However, do note that they are quite specific about your location in Taiwan. Thus, when I wrote Zhongsan (where my stay is located), they wanted me to write the full address and even provide my host’s contact number. The other form, custom declaration form only need to be filled up if you have things to declare. Other than which, no one will collect that form from you.
Purchasing SIM card can be done before or after the custom clearance. However, I would recommend you to do it after custom clearance so that you can do a comparison of the package offered and the price offered as there are three companies set up there. The location of the place to purchase SIM card is on your left when you clear the custom.
To go to the city from the airport can be done in a few ways. I chose to take the Taoyuan Airport MRT. From where you buy the SIM card, turn right and go down the first escalator you see. At the end of the escalator is the entrance to the Airport MRT. You can buy the Easy Card or Single Journey Fare there. I would recommend to buy the Easy Card as you can use it in other journey in Taiwan. The deposit of the card is 100TWD, and is refundable at the end of the trip.
View from the Taoyuan Airport MRT
The MRT allows a person to go from Taoyuan area to Taipei city. There are two kinds of train, the express train which only stop at 5 stops including the airport stop and Taipei City stop and the commuter train which stops at every stop. Unlike the Thailand Airport Rail, there is no price difference between the two type of train. The cost fort the train ride is 160TWD which is slightly expensive compared to the bus to Taipei city which is 125TWD. But the benefit is that the MRT is more luggage friendly in the sense that you do not need walk too far to take the train and that you do not need walk too far to transfer to other mode of transport as the Taipei MRT is linked to the airport rail via an underpass.
Speaking of Taipei Main Station, is a mini hub of many transportation(Taiwan Train, High Speed Rail, Bus and Taipei MRT) and also allow linkage to other places near to Taipei Station and even to Zhongsan and Suanglian Station. There are four shopping areas underground near to Taipei Main Station. So when you reach Taipei, you can immediately start your shopping spree. There is the Y area which is the Taipei Underground Street. K area which is the slightly prestigious area for shopping area where you can find the starbucks. Z area which is the Station Front Underground Street. R area which is Zhongsan underground street. Each of the areas have its own set of exit which links to various part of Taipei. The R area allow you to walk till Zhongsan area and Suanglian area. Taipei station, Zhongsan station and Suanglian station are along the red line or Dansui-Xinyi station. As of when I returned, the R area is still under renovation and not all shops are opened yet thus it is more like a ghost town.
Entrance of the Zhongsan Underground Street
This shows how the three station, Taipei station, Zhongsan Station and Suanglian station are linked
Beautifully decorated shutter at Zhongsan Underground Street
Place for people to practice their dance, when you see this you know you are near Suanglian Station
So I went to my place of stay by walking via the R area from Taipei Main station.
Dinner was at Ningxia Night Market. It is walkable from Zhongsan or Taipei Main Station via the R area to Suanglian Station. Then, take the first escalator you see when you reach Suanglian Station and you will reach the surface then you see a signpost which will point you to the left to where Ningxia Night Market is. Then walk straight till you can see Ningxia Night market. Apparently, I came one day before Dumpling Festival Public Holiday, thus there were quite a lot of people. The streets were relatively narrow as well and you would face problem walking at times especially if both side have people buying food.
Signpost telling you the direction to Ningxia Night Market and Di Hua Street
Sign showing that you are at the night market. Top is when you walked from the MRT. Bottom is at the end of the night market if you walk from the MRT
Number of people! That’s how squeezy it is
If you have quite a lot of tie, you can walk from Ningxia Night Market to Dihua Street, where is an old street famous for Chinese New Year goodies. It is just go further down the road in the direction you took to Ningxia Night market.
That’s day 1!
Overseas trip 