Fun Taiwan Chapter 3 - Ximending 西門町

Generally, Ximending (西門町) is a very happening business district like 'Bukit Bintang'/ Star Hill in Malaysia or Mongkok in Hong Kong. Ximending business district is located in between four main streets; they are 東起中華路、西至康定路、南至成都路、北至漢口街.

Ximending is definitely a heaven for entertainment and more. It is a place where you can get the most trendy and fashionable clothing & cosmeticssss, loads of nice foods - from street food to some fine dining restaurants and most novelty toys etc. There are loads of cinemas (they have a street called the cinema street there) and KTVs!

As my back was injured during my visit to Taipei, I did not manage to shop a lot there, so it did not cause too much damage to our wallet, not sure if it is good... or NOT! Nevertheless I can assure you that Ximending is definitely a good place to shop - if you are a fashionable person like me, Oops... The prices for clothing and food are very reasonable.

Food wise, we had not tried enough to comment/ recommend. Of those we have tasted, I would recommend the following:

1. 50 Feng Bubble Milk Tea - Updated 01-Oct-10 It should be 50 Lan ( 岚 is pronounced as Lan)
   
2. Tian Ren Ming Cha (Tian Ren Milk Tea)
3. Papaya Milk
4. 阿宗面线 (Ah Jong Mian Xian)
5. Taiwan KFC/ McD (They server grilled chicken and grilled chicken burger there and they are so so so so much better than our GCB!!)
   
6. Taiwanese sausages
7. Stinky Tofu (We don't like but we think those who like stinky tofu will like it)
8. Stew Pork Rice (We don't quite like it too cos' it's too fattening; I think they should name it 'stew fat' rice instead of stew pork rice -.-)
9. Snacks and drinks from 7-11; there are loads of them!!
   

During our stay in Taipei, we stayed in a hotel located at Chengdu Road called Royal Castle (成都饭店) which is very near to Ximending business district - 5 mins walk/ 450m from the MRT station of Ximen. Please see the map below for location of Royal Castle Hotel:

View Larger Map


If you are visiting Ximending, below are the business district and MRT maps for your reference:
Map 1:
Click on the map to view the full size image.

Map 2:
Click on the map to view the full size image.

Map 3: MRT Map


Click on the map to view the full size image.

If you can read Chinese, here is the official website of Ximending for your reference - http://www.ximen.com.tw