Ni hao! No trip to Taiwan is complete without visiting Maokong or taking the Maokong gondolas. We went to Maokong on our second to the last day in Taiwan. The cable car ride alone is quite an experience to have.
Maokong is located in the Wenshan District of Taipei, and it used to be the biggest tea growing area in Taipei. The entire city of Taipei can be seen below on a cloudless day. Maokong can be reached by gondolas, which connects to the Wenshan Line of the Taipei Metro at Taipei Zoo Station.
We arrived there just a few minutes after nine in the morning, so there was not a long queue yet. The gondola fare is NTD120 but if you have an Easycard, you get a $20 discount on a weekday. No discounts on weekends.
You can include Taipei Zoo in your activity for the day if you are in the area since they are right beside each other, if you so desire. We skipped the zoo altogether and just went up into the mountains.
We chose the gondola that had a glass floor so we could see the view beneath our feet and it was very cool! My sister was a bit nervous at first but once we got on, she was fine. There is a separate queue for the glass cabins, and if you go there during busy times, you may have to wait longer as there are only a few glass cabins interspersed with the regular ones.
The gondolas run for about 4 kilometers over the hills of South Taipei and rises 275 meters from the first to the last station.
There are four stations that are serviced by the Maokong gondola, namely, Taipei Zoo, Taipei Zoo South, Zhinan Temple Station, and Maokong Station being the last. Me and my sister had the whole gondola to ourselves, so we were able to do everything we wanted wothout getting embarrased, ha ha.
On board the gondola we already passed by some tea fields, but we had bad weather that day. It was very windy, there was a light drizzle, and of course, it was hazy, so the views of the city were not clear, sadly.
It was nice seeing local people working on their fields. It would have been a lot nicer if it was a clear day though.
The higher you get on the gondola, you get to see the entire city below. I just took pictures despite the hazy conditions.
It was nice seeing greenery all around throughout the cable car ride. The journey took around 20 minutes or so, if I remember correctly.
I took this picture through the glass floor. If you are afraid of heights, this may be a little nerve wracking, but if not, it sure is a fun experience.
Here is another picture of the city. The Taipei 101 should be visible in the distance but it is not. Once we arrived, there is a free shuttle bus that goes around Maokong, it is free if you took the gondola, you just tap your Easycard and the driver knows you took the gondola, he'll then give you a 'pass' that you can show every time you get on it.
We took advantage of the free shuttle and we were able to cover quite a lot of area. We took a walk around as well, and we saw a lot of other things aside from tea fields. This is parsley by the way.
People can walk freely in the area, and we took our time walking around the fields, taking pictures and breathing in the fresh mountain air.
There was a vantage point where the whole city can be seen. Here we can barely see the silhouette of the Taipei 101.
There are a lot of tea houses in the area and they also sell food, so if you are feeling tired and hungry, you can just drop by one of the tea houses and have some tea and refreshments.
As you can see, we walked quite a lot. But since the weather was getting worse, and my sister was of course, again, feeling cold because she did not wear enough, we had to come down and went to Ximending instead.
Ximending is known to be the "Harajuku" of Taipei, and is known to be the trendiest shopping district in Taipei. It is where the youth go for shopping, as it boasts a massive variety of various clothing shops, eclectic restaurants, clubs and bars.
Also in the area is the iconic Red House Theater, also known as Ximen Red House. IT was built by the Japanese in 1908 as a market building but was later used as a theater.
Ximending is located just west of the Taipei Main Station. TheXimending Pedestrian Area is one of the most popular destination for tourists. One can take the Red Line MRT and get off at Ximen station, and get out at exit 6.
We arrived there late in the afternoon and we just walked around the alleys and looked at the various shops, bought some food, sat down to rest our feet, but since we were exhausted from all the walking we did in Maokong, we did not stay long.
The overall vibe in the area is indeed trendy, so I can understand why it is the place where young people come to.
We indeed had a great time in Taiwan. We had good food, and my sister was especially happy that she got to see so many places and experienced a lot of things.
Stay tuned for more adventures! For more travel articles, you can go to this page.
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