For our second day of Taipei, we are going to head to the tallest building in Taiwan: Taipei 101. After visiting the observatory deck, we will have a nice lunch at Din Tai Fung, followed by a hike up Elephant Mountain to see Taipei 101 from a distance.

→ TAIPEI 101 台北101观光台

To get to Taipei 101, we walked from our hotel to the Taipei Main Station where we took the Red Line straight to Taipei 101 station. After you exit the train, just follow the signs to take the exit toward Taipei 101. When you enter Taipei 101, take the elevator or escalator up to the fifth floor to purchase your tickets.

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Observation Deck tickets for adults are $600NT but you can also purchase your ticket ahead of time from Klook for a discount. I purchased my tickets when I arrived rather than online because I wasn’t sure if things would go according to schedule.

When you purchase your ticket, it will ask you to select a 30 minute time slot. This is merely the entry time, it does not mean you can only spend 30 minutes on the observation deck.

The number on the ticket will be announced and displayed on the screen when it is your turn to line up. After lining up, you will pass through a security check and walk through the photo area. The staff will take a photo of you with a green screen (to later place Taipei 101 behind you). You can purchase this photo on the 89th floor.

The 89th floor is the indoor observation deck. You can see most of Taipei through these glass windows. However, due to the sun coming from behind you, the pictures you take with the background would always turn out dark. I’m sure a professional photographer could tweek it but I’m not one.

You can also purchase snacks and souvenirs. There is another photo area up here where you could take pictures with another green screen and put the picture on mugs, t-shirts, or tote bags. But we already purchased the photo we took with the first green screen so we didn’t bother. 

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If you spend $2000NT or more, you can go to B1 level of the mall to get a tax refund. HOWEVER! If you buy something consumable, such as the pineapple cakes, or face masks, you cannot eat or use them. They say to get the tax refund, these items must be brought out of Taiwan within 90 days. I did not know this initially so we applied for the tax refund but wanted to eat the pineapple cakes. SUCH A DILEMMA! In the end, we had to go to the tax refund counter at the airport and return our tax refund (of ~$196NT). Essentially, the tax refund is not worth it unless you buy something really expensive, like designer bags or jewelry.

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Next, we headed to the 91st floor to view their outdoor observatory. They used a lot of bars to prevent people from climbing, so there wasn’t a good view. If you hold the camera up higher and angle it downwards, you could take pictures of the view below. However, the guy that took the picture for us didn’t know how. There weren’t many people up here and it wasn’t all that interesting so we left after 5 minutes.

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The 88th floor is the wind damper, you could hear the wind traveling through and supposedly this is what helps Taipei 101 stay upright. I didn’t know that (o_o)’

Lunch Time @ DIN TAI FUNG 鼎泰丰←

Ok first off, we wanted to avoid the lunch crowd so purposely went to eat later around 2pm, but the line was CRAAAZY! Anyways, after some time, we got seats and gave them our pre-selected choices. Due to the long lines, they give you a menu to select your choices while you wait. Once you sit down, you can give them your choices and food will be served almost instantaneously. Here are some of the food we ate.

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Usually when the food lands on the table, I just gobble it up (especially since we waited so long). For instance there was a bitter melon + pork soup, and the beef noodle soup that I forgot to take pictures of. (>.<”) You know it’s not a professional food photo when there are shadows of the phone present!

→ ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN HIKING TRAIL 象山步道

We were going to walk from Taipei 101 to Elephant Mountain but then decided that since we will be hiking up stairs once we arrive, we opted to take the MRT even if it was only for one stop.

Why did we want to hike this trail? Because at the top, you can view all of Taipei and Taipei 101 is in the center. Hey, if it’s for a good photo, why not? LOOK HOW STEEP IT IS!! This was just the beginning. There are two decks for taking pictures. After 15 minutes, we only made it up to the first deck.

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There were no lights around the stairs so my parents were worried that if we continued hiking up then it would be hard to come back down. Hence, we ended our trek here. Next time I come back to Taipei, I will most definitely go all the way up- but with the right gear!