Revisiting Taiwan after Moving Away

---

In my last TravelBlog article, about two years ago, I talked about how my family moved from Taiwan (where I'd been living for 10+ years, married a Taiwanese, and had two kids) back to my hometown in Canada just before COVID started. I mentioned how COVID had killed my Taiwan travel business, but there was hope in the horizon that things were improving.

Well, I'm happy to report that things have improved A LOT since then! After being totally closed to tourists for 2.5 years, Taiwan finally reopened its doors to tourists again at the end of 2022. My Taiwan-focused website recovered very quickly. In 2023, I started a second Taiwan website called TaiwanObsessed, which is also doing very well now.

We actually visited Taiwan when COVID was still raging there and tourists weren't allowed in yet (we could still go because we are permanent residents/citizens). It was our first time back since leaving the country, and the trip wasn't ideal – we had to quarantine for 14 days (yup, stuck in a small apartment with our two kids), wear masks the whole time in tropical heat, and so on.

In late 2023, I visited Taiwan again on my own for researching and updating content on my Taiwan websites. In this post, I'd like to focus on that trip.

My 2023 Taiwan Trip: New Places

As you may or may not know, I am one of the foremost experts about traveling in Taiwan. I've written a book and numerous articles for travel magazines about Taiwan, I manage two websites about Taiwan, I've worked with the tourism board in Taiwan a few times, and I run Taiwan Travel Planning, the most active Facebook group about Taiwan travel.

Still, despite my experience and credentials, and despite the fact that Taiwan is a relatively small country, there are SO MANY places there I still haven't been to. On this trip, I wanted to fill in a few major gaps in my websites. I also wanted to get updated photos and information about many places and aspects of traveling in Taiwan (EasyCards, SIM cards and eSIMs, luggage storage lockers, and so on). Things are changing all the time, and I love to stay on top of these changes so that I can provide the most current info to my readers.

First and foremost, I visited Cingjing Farm, which is one of the most famous leisure farms in Taiwan. Unlike the many others, which are just places for city folk to interact with animals and get a taste of rural life, Cingjing Farm has some fascinating history behind it. A group of KMT soldiers from Yunnan province in China were settled here after the KMT army lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan. It was them who first opened this farm, so you can even taste authentic Yunnan foods there today.

What's more, the farm is located at 1700 meters above sea level, so it features fantastic scenery and cherry blossoms if you visit in winter.

But guess what: I didn't really like it. In fact, I was quite disappointed to find that the farm facilities are old and run down, with some parts closed. What's more, the weather sucked, so I couldn't even enjoy the mountain views. Anyways, you can check out the Cingjing Farm guide I wrote in the end if you're interested!

After Cingjing, I also went for my first time ever to Hehuanshan, one of Taiwan's most famous mountains. The mountain area has the highest navigable pass not just in Taiwan but all of East Asia. It's also the best and easiest place to see snow in Taiwan if you visit at the peak of winter.

While Cingjing Farm disappointed me, I was blown away by Hehuanshan. I hiked 3 of the country's top-100 peaks and witnessed one of the best sunrises I've ever see. I also managed to score a room at Songsyue Lodge, which is a former ski lodge (there used to be a ski hill in tropical Taiwan!) and is very hard to get a room at. Here's my Hehuanshan guide.

I should mention also here that I rented a car and drove to these two places. This may not seem like anything special, but it is for me. In all my years of Taiwan, I had never driven a car, even though my wife and I had one. I had always figured the traffic was just too intense for me, so I let my wife do all the driving. On this trip, I finally conquered that fear.

One more new place I visited was Zhang Mei Ama's Farm, another tourist farm (more like a petting zoo though). This one has skyrocketed in fame in recent years – tourists (especially ones from Asian countries) flock there to meet many exotic (and totally not Taiwanese) animals. The capybara in particular has become super popular across Taiwan and Asia in the last few years, so I also visited about half a dozen capybara places on this trip, including a capybara cafe in New Taipei City and a capybara shrine in Kenting.

Revisiting Old Places

On this trip, I also revisited several places that I hadn't been to in many years so that I could write more updated articles about them. These included Kenting National Park at the southern tip of Taiwan, known for its beaches, as well as Taipingshan, another famous mountain.

I also revisited Rainbow Village, which is the home of a former Chinese KMT soldier. To save his house from demolition, he painted it in vibrant, cartoonish designs and it became a tourist attraction. On this visit, I met "Rainbow Grandpa" for the first time ever, at the impressive age of 100. Sadly, only a few months after I met him, he passed away. There's another sad side to the Rainbow Village story – if you're interested, you can read about it in my Rainbow Village guide.

I also visited Taipei 101, the country's most famous landmark. I'd been there many times before, but this time I tried the new Skyline 460 activity, which involves walking on the actual roof of the building with safety harness, rather than the usual indoor observatory. See the cover picture of the post, or more pictures in my Taipei 101 article.

Last but not least, I did a whole lot of eating on this trip. I've made it my mission to visit every major night market in Taiwan, and I'm just about there. Some tourist-oriented night markets were majorly affected by COVID and the lack of tourists, so I was able to revisit those are see what stalls were still open. I produced around half a dozen new night market guides on this trip, including detailed walking routes and food recommendations for some of the biggest and most famous ones: Shilin Night Market, Tonghua Night Market, and Raohe Night Market.

I also investigated the best 24-hour restaurants in Taipei, vegetarian restaurants and food stalls across the country, and more.

What Has Changed in Taiwan?

So you may be curious, what has changed in Taiwan since I first moved away in 2019 (and COVID happened!) Well, Taiwan remains just as fantastic, safe, and welcoming to travelers as ever before. The tourist numbers STILL haven't fully recovered, but they are getting close. So in late 2023, I found that some places weren't quite as busy as before. But as I write this in early 2024, they are probably just as busy as they've ever been.

A few major businesses or attractions didn't survive COVID. For example, the Ximending branch of Modern Toilet (a poo-themed restaurant) closed (the Shilin branch remains), as did the famous Starbucks in Taipei 101 (it has now been replaced by another cafe). There are also some brand new attractions, like a Pokemon store near Taipei 101.

Taiwan has gone even more cashless than before (but still not quite as cashless as a few other Asian countries). You can pay for more things with digital wallets or cards, but travelers do still find that they need cash for a lot of things. Food ordering apps like FoodPanda and UberEats, with their colorful delivery scooters, are more popular than ever before. And when I was traveling around, I found that many hotels or hostels had self-check-in machines so I never even saw or met the staff.

Like everywhere in the world, there are more places with digital menus you have to access on your phone. Taiwanese book even more things online than before – perhaps convenient for them, but this can be harder for visitors when the booking systems are all in Mandarin.

Not surprisingly, a lot of Taiwanese are still wearing masks all the time, even outside. Mask wearing in Taiwan was common even before COVID, but it was so universal for 2.5 years during COVID that I think many locals will just never stop wearing them. For travelers, though, you don't need to unless you need to visit a hospital or medical facility.

Last but not least, I met up with my Taiwanese family and many of my old friends in Taiwan. Most of us first arrived in Taiwan in our 20s or early 30s. And now, well, we are in our 40s...Suffice to say that we don't party in the same way (or until nearly as late) as we used to.

Next Visit: 2024

As I write this, I've already got my next trip planned to Taiwan this April to June. This time the whole family will be coming along. I'll be checking off a few more places I've never been, notably Matsu Islands (which belong to Taiwan but are just off the coast of China) and a stunning wild hot spring called Lisong Hot Spring which I've tried to visit a few times before but never made it.

To be continued!

---

Photos

Me on top of Taipei 101
The new Skyline460 Experience