Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan Cruises

We did our own tour here. There is a train station within minutes of the port and it was so easy to get into central Taipei. We walked around all the main temples and was going to go up the Taipei 101 tower but when we got in the queue there was a sign saying visibility was really poor so we gave it a miss.

Amazing and beautiful place if you can get out into the countryside. We did an excursion to see the north coast and an old gold mining town. A Teahouse there is said to be the inspiration for the bathhouse in the anime movie “Spirited Away”. We also walked quickly around the Keelung night market before the ship left. The sights, sounds and delicious smells would have easily been worth an overnight port of call. We wished we could have done the Taipei 101 Tower, but there was simply not enough time. Next time.

Who knew one of our tour group person can speak Taiwanese;-) The train station is only a 5-10 minutes walk from the port, the train ride into central Taipei station take 30 minutes. Once we got into town we went straight for local Taiwanese breakfast at Yong He Soy Milk King. Than toured National Palace museum, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, The National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and finally up to the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, there were many local buses from the Taipei zoo up to Pingxi (USD$4?) FYI, you don't need tickets to see the Lantern festival, it's free. You can even buy lantern onsite to release for $5 USD. The expensive tickets are for inside stadium area group releases.

Visited: Feb 18, 2018

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One of the best place to enjoy sea foods by street market next to port itself. We stayed overnight traveling around the city markets & shops exploring the city. Definitely worth to visit 👍🏻

Taipei trip is worth it.

Visited: Oct 06, 2008

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