My brother came to stay with us last Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year, but most Taiwanese people I’ve met call it Chinese New Year). I was a little apprehensive about finding things to do during the trip as CNY presents a unique challenge for visitors in that the first few days everything tends to be closed, and then the last few days everything tends to be overwhelmingly busy. BUT we had a great time! Here’s the 7-day itinerary that we used which worked perfectly.
Chinese New Year’s Eve and Chinese New Year’s Day tend to be very quiet with many shops and restaurants closed as most people go home to see their families. Then the rest of the holiday tends to be much busier as people take advantage of their days off to go sightseeing and go out to eat.
Here’s the quick version of the 1-week itinerary that worked for us…
- Arrive the day before CNY Eve and take the HSR from the airport to Taipei.
- On CNY Eve, do some Taipei sight-seeing, such as Chiang Kai Shek Memorial and Xinmending..
- On the first day of CNY, go to Jiufen or Yangmingshan. If going to Jiufen, go very early.
- Day 4, head to another city outside of Taipei, like Taichung.
- Day 5, go on a hike, such as the Fengbo Ecological Trail in Ershui.
- Day 6, do some sight-seeing in the city you’ve chosen. We chose Taichung.
- Day 7, head back to the airport. Be sure to book your bus, HSR, or train tickets well in advance!
The day before Chinese New Year’s Eve
My brother arrived the day before Chinese New Year’s Eve. A lot of people tend to be traveling home on this day (and on CNY Eve). This means that a lot of the roads are busy as people try to leave the cities all at the same time, but that worked to our advantage because my brother arrived at the Taoyuan International Airport and it was pretty easy for all of us to take the HSR (high speed rail) north to Taipei as everyone was heading in the opposite direction. We didn’t even book the tickets in advance. If you’re heading North, then this is a good day to travel. We didn’t do much on this day, just checked into our hotel in Taipei and grabbed some food at a restaurant nearby. Plenty of restaurants were still open on this day.
Chinese New Year’s Eve
On CNY Eve we did Taipei things. We hiked up Fuzhoushan to see Taipei 101. (We decided to avoid Elephant Mountain because every time I’ve been it’s been unreasonably crowded.) After snapping some pics we headed to the basement of Taipei 101 for lunch. This is probably the only thing I’d change about this day as the food court was very busy; we probably should have just grabbed something at 7-Eleven instead. Then we went to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial to take some more photos. And finally we took some YouBikes back to Ximending (where we were staying). Ximending was preparing for the lantern festival that was going to start soon after CNY, so there were plenty of lanterns already set up. Almost every restaurant and shop in Ximending was open, so we had no problem finding dinner.
Aside from Taipei 101, we completely avoided any major crowds and had a great time sight-seeing and puttering around Taipei.
We used a combination of YouBikes and metro to get around the city and the lack of crowds made this an easy and cheap combination.
Chinese New Year
We really wanted to go to Jiufen on the first day of Chinese New Year even though several people had warned me that it would be crazy busy. We also considered going to Yangmingshan, which I’m sure would have been fun for some hiking, but ultimately decided on Jiufen, and I’m glad we went!
The trick is to go early.
We took one of the earliest buses from Ximending to Jiufen. I can’t remember exactly what time we caught the bus but it was around 7-8 a.m. in the morning, so we arrived in Jiufen a little before 9 a.m. A lot of shops weren’t open yet, but Jiufen was still gorgeous. We had a lovely time sight-seeing and there were plenty of little coffee shops and other places slowly opening up, so we sat down and had a nice breakfast at a little cafe. We stayed in Jiufen until all the shops opened up and even got to hike up Mount Keelung. When we decided to leave around 3-4 p.m., the crowds had definitely arrived, but there were tons of volunteers helping people get back on buses to Taipei. The government had increased the number of buses to deal with the influx of visitors. We waited patiently and were on a bus in about half an hour despite the long lines. The buses and the lines were very well-organized.
We had dinner in Ximending again that night.
The day after the first day of CNY (3rd official day of the holiday)
I had heard from many people that this was going to be the day when places started becoming crowded, so we decided to head back to Taichung in the morning. Again, we didn’t book these tickets in advance and had no problem buying them at the HSR station.
We went to Taichung because that’s where my husband and I live, but I imagine most big cities along the west coast, like Kaohsiung and maybe even Tainan, would be pretty easy to travel to on this day. For us, we decided to use the day to do some sightseeing in Taichung. We ate lunch at Chun Shui Tang (Dadun Branch) and had some famous bubble milk tea. Then we headed to Taichung Civic Square to people-watch and soak up some sun. After that we went to a random bar near Civic Square and had a few drinks before heading home.
We grabbed some bento boxes from a restaurant on the way back to tuck in for the night.
Not every restaurant/bar was open on the 3rd day of the Chinese New Year holiday, but there were enough that we had plenty of choices.
CNY Day 4
I was a bit nervous about our plans this day because I’d been warned that things would be very busy. The original plan was to head up the Jiji rail line, getting out at a few stops along the way, and eventually visiting Checheng before heading back. To get to the start of the Jiji rail line, you need to go to Ershui. When we arrived in Ershui, despite heading out fairly early, it was evident that people weren’t joking about the Chinese New Year crowds.
We caught the train from Ershui to Jiji and got out in Jiji. We puttered around Jiji for a bit. There was a market on, so we got some snacks and had some fun nosing around, but when we went back to the train station, we decided we couldn’t continue on the Jiji rail line as the crowds were just too much.
Instead we took a train back to Ershui and decided to climb Fengbo Ecological Trail which is famous for its resident Taiwanese macaques. We saw plenty of monkeys on the trail, which were both terrifying and hilarious (it depends how you feel about monkeys). My brother and husband climbed all the way to the top of the mountain where there’s a temple called Shotian Temple. Because of the holiday they said the temple was very beautiful and busy. There was also a market going on, so they picked up some drinks and headed back down. I opted to sit in the sunshine and read my book farther down the mountain, so we all had a great time.
The train back to Taichung that evening was busy but not terrible. I guess a lot of people drive to Ershui and take the Jiji rail line from there.
I would NOT recommend trying to do the Jiji rail line during Chinese New Year even if you get up early. Do a hike instead!
We ate dinner in Taichung that night, which I booked ahead using Google Maps. We ate sushi. I’d definitely recommend booking any popular restaurants ahead of time during CNY.
CNY Day 5
Again we had a few ideas for Day 5. We considered going to the 921 Earthquake Museum, but since it was my brother’s last full-day in Taiwan, we didn’t want to end on a depressing note. We also considered the Dakeng Trails, but we were all pretty tired from hiking in Ershui the day before, so ultimately we decided to hang out in Taichung.
This turned out to be a great idea because Taichung was so lovely and lively on Day 5. First, we went to Shenji Village around 11am when it opened. After that we took a bus to Yizhong Street Market and also walked around Taichung Park.
In the late afternoon we took a bus up to Top City and took out a number for Ding Tai Fung. The wait was going to be at least two hours, so we used our free time to take some photos in front of the National Taichung Theater. Then we went and sat in the nearby Maple Garden for an hour. Finally we went back to Ding Tai Fung and ate some yummy soup dumplings. At the end of the day we did some shopping in Eslite Spectrum Taichung 480, and then we headed home.
CNY Day 6
It was time for my brother to fly back home! This was the one day where it was 100% necessary to book HSR tickets in advance. I stupidly booked HSR tickets for the wrong day and didn’t notice until the week of CNY. Through sheer dumb luck, there happened to be a single ticket still available on Klook from Taichung to the Taoyuan airport by bus.
Don’t be like me. Definitely book any bus, train, or HSR tickets to the airport in advance and don’t rely on luck.
And that’s it!
I know when I was trying to find information on Taiwan during Chinese New Year, despite having spent New Year’s here in the past, I was pouring over blogs and vlogs. It’s one thing to hang out here during the holiday and another thing to actually go sight-seeing. Hopefully those tips help someone have fun in Taiwan on a week-long itinerary during CNY.
