Gourmet Flyer Ximending is a unique, trendy, and vibrant district in Taipei that will take your breath away. My first visit was during Chinese New Year in 2024, and I was so mesmerized by it that I visited the area twice again shortly afterwards. It really has a little bit of everything – shopping, dining, mainstream fun, weird stuff, cosplay, street performers, and even a night market. Some people call it the Times Square of Taipei, but I don’t think that’s a fair comparison as Ximending has a lot more local flavors and diverse cultures than the New York hot spot. It is also a lot hipper and chicer and caters to a younger crowd.
The best time to start your visit is probably late afternoon so you have time to sample some street foods and snacks just before the place gets really busy and packed. This also gives you plenty of time to do some shopping and exploring before catching all the interesting actions at night. You might then conclude the evening at the night market, perhaps grabbing dinner there as well.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Red House
- LGBTQ District
- Dining
- Shopping
- Graffiti
- Tattoos
- Street Performers
- Special Events
- Conclusion
Introduction
Ximending was named during the era of Japanese occupation where ximen (西門) literally means west gate and ding (町) is the Japanese suffix for a town or “cho”. It is bordered by the main thoroughfare Zhonghua Road to the east, Kangding Road to the west, Chengdu Road to the south, and section two of Hankou Street to the north.
The easiest way to get there is by taking the Green Line or the Blue Line of the city’s subway Metro Taipei (MRT). Get off at Ximen Station and take exit number 6. As soon as you step out of the exit, you’ll see the iconic Rainbow Six, a symbol of the country’s support for a diverse culture and gender equality. In fact, Taiwan was the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage in the year 2019.
The Red House
If you take Exit 6 from the MRT you are just steps away from the Red House, a historical landmark, so I suggest that you may as well go there first. Alternatively, you can certainly make it your last stop if you are taking the same subway back to where you are staying, but in that case, note its closing hours.
The Red House was built in 1908 while the country was under Japanese rule. It was a local cultural and entertainment center which quickly became a melting pot of Japanese, Chinese, and Western cultures. In the 1940’s, during its glorious days as the Red House Theater, it was home to numerous Chinese operas and dramas. In the 1960’s it also became a venue of black and white western movies. Through the years, it has become “the living room of the western district” where memories of the past meet generations of the future.
Inside this historical building today is a café and a couple dozen boutiques selling trendy apparels, accessories, and cosmetics. The merchandise is mostly high-end fashionable clothing appealing to the younger crowd. There are also several very cool specialty stores selling contemporary gifts, crafts, and gadgets.
LGBTQ District
The courtyard surrounding the Red House – and very appropriately near the Rainbow Six crossing – is the LGBTQ district of the city. It is saturated with gay bars and cafés which showcase Taiwan’s most tolerant and inclusive culture in all of Asia. The area is generally safe to visit, even late at night. Many bars hang rainbow flags or other symbols to identify themselves, while some are more subtle. But all are welcome! In fact, many people go there just to check out the vibrant and friendly gay and lesbian scenes of the city.
Café Dalida (map) is one of the most popular outdoor gay and lesbian bars which is always packed even into the wee hours of the morning. The nearby G Paradise and G2 are also popular hangouts for the local LGBTQ community, making this small cluster outside the Red House one of the liveliest scenes in the district.
Dining
While Ximending is not best known as a foodie’s paradise, it actually is! You can find all kinds of foods within your imaginations – from the most trendy and innovative cuisines to the most traditional and homemade Taiwanese comfort food.
One of the must-tries for first-time visitors is the iconic Taiwanese beef noodles and one of the most famous restaurants is right here in the heart of Ximending. Lao Shan Dong (map) is well-known for their freshly made and hand cut noodles and their rich and fragrant broth that accompanies the melt-in-your-mouth tender beef.
Another favorite local fixture with insanely long line all day and all night is Ay Chung Flour Rice Noodles (map) known for their cheap and flavorful noodle soup that comes with pork intestines – I know, it may not be your cup of tea but it’s wildly popular in Taipei.
Another signature dish of Taiwan is xiao long bao or more commonly called XLB. These are dumplings filled with meat and a large spoonful of delicious soup, so they are also known as soup dumplings. You can find plenty of eateries that specialize in this iconic dumpling – in restaurants, food courts, as well as street vendors.
Boba milk tea is not only one of the most loved drinks in all of Taipei, but also almost like a culture. Few places do it better than Xing Fu Tang (map), best known for their freshly made and hand-crafted brown sugar boba.
The location here is their flagship store and it is so popular that there is always a long line, regardless of the hour of the day or night. In fact, you can usually spot the queue from a distance before you can even see the store.
The street food scene in Ximending is highly mobile and it is not a typical night market as all the vendors tend to move around. There are also many alleys away from the main road that house some of the best eateries in town. So, look out for signs that point you to the right direction and don’t pass up on any narrow alleys or even basements as there is no shortage of yummy good eats that are hidden gems.
To truly enjoy all the street foods in Ximending, and in Taiwan in general, you do need an open mind and an adventurous appetite. Some of the yummiest treats may not look, sound, or even smell pleasant at all. Just like the rice noodles with pork intestines that I mentioned earlier. Another challenge is stinky tofu, which really do smell quite unpleasant due to a special fermentation process. But most Taiwanese people think they are delicious. Give it a try! Other very popular but bold street foods include the crispy, juicy, and moderately spicy pepper buns and oyster omelets hand crafted on a sizzling griddle. If you want to go for something more mainstream, try fried chicken, grilled Taiwanese sausages, or the richly flavorful and savory braised pork rice.
Cooking Class
If you like Taiwanese food so much that you want to be able to make them at home yourself, then consider taking a Xiao Long Bao, Beef Noodles & Boba Tea Cooking Class. This three-hour adventure is highly immersive and teaches you all the techniques, including kneading dough from scratch. In addition to taking home all the recipes and memories, you’ll greatly enjoy this interactive cultural and culinary exploration. This is a small class suitable for all levels of cooking experience, and you will get plenty of personal attention from the instructor.
Shopping
Ximending has a lively and pedestrian friendly “walking district” (map) which boasts a wide variety of stores, fashions, activities, and cultures. A large percentage of shops sell apparels, shoes, cosmetics, and accessories with a taste that gears toward young fashionable females. Japanese and Korean imports dominate the markets and make up the majority of the name brand merchandise. Large chains like Uniqlo and Muji have a strong presence. American sports brands like Nike and Champion are also quite popular.
Some of the more refined and higher end fashions are usually found in smaller specialty boutiques stores which are more selective in their displays and merchandise. If you are shopping for an elegant cocktail dress or a trendy clubbing outfit, you need to look outside of the large chains and focus on the smaller local retailers.
But not all things are expensive. For example, Japanese chain Don Don Donki (map) sells cosmetics, health care products, food, and even some gadgets and jewelry at discount prices. Another budget shoppers’ favorite in the area is Daiso, also from Japan.
Whether you like Molly and collectibles or not, a visit to the Pop Mart Ximen store (map) is a must. If you’ve never had a blind box before, consider getting one today. It’s a mystery box which content is unknown to the buyer at the time of purchase, hence giving you the feeling of surprise and anticipation – somewhat like opening a wrapped gift that you receive from someone. This flagship store of the global chain from Beijing, which is famous for its colorful and animated cartoon characters, has the look and feel of a vintage movie theater and is a contemporary playground for today’s teenagers and youths.
You are not going home without first buying some souvenirs and yummy Taiwanese snacks, are you? Ximending is home to dozens of souvenir stores, many of which focus on food and snacks. Of all the yummy good eats available, the most iconic Taiwanese dessert is pineapple cake (鳳梨酥), a buttery and shortbread like pastry filled with thick, sweet, and slightly chewy pineapple jam. Another similar favorite is taro cake. Other popular items to take home with you include nougat candies, maltose and honey filled sun cakes, chewy and sweet glutinous rice balls called mochi, and pork paper – a literally paper-thin pork jerky that comes in many flavors.
Due to its cool and misty climate in the northern region and rich volcanic soil, Taiwan’s Oolong tea is world famous and is the perfect gift for the tea connoisseur in your family.
Graffiti
Whether it’s graffiti or street art is a touchy subject open to numerous debates, so I am not going to go there. But there are some pretty awesome paintings or murals in the streets of this neighborhood that you might like to explore or even appreciate. You can find many of these at Lane 96 of Kunming Street, aka America Street (map).
Tattoos
If you want to bring home a permanent souvenir from Ximending, you have quite a few options at Lane 50 of Hanzhong Street, aka Tattoo Street (map). While originally mostly associated with gangsters and crimes, the tattoo culture has gently shifted among Asians in Taipei to use them as an art form of personal expression and is now popular among the younger generation and even females.
The tattoo parlors here are mostly friendly and open doors – that is, you are welcomed to watch the actions from the outside. If you’ve ever contemplated getting a tattoo of a Chinese character or a poetic phrase, which is getting very popular nowadays in America, you’ll certainly get a much clearer and more insightful interpretation of the meaning and significance of the message over here.
Street Performers
Most shows start after dark but could begin as early as 7pm in summer. Shows are usually comedic, musical or acrobatic. There are several of them scattered around the night market area, but the main acrobatic show is usually in the space outside a Watsons store (map). The shows here are very different from those in Times Square – which are mostly talk, talk, and talk with very little actions. Over here, the presentation is usually elegantly and smoothly performed. Most of them work and train very hard, so please tip generously.
Special Events
Ximending is home to many special events throughout the year, usually around festival times and Chinese New Year. For the past few years, the Taipei Lantern Festival has been held on a pedestrian bridge which could be seen from a distance. This really accentuated the joyous atmosphere of CNY and made the entire district a lot more festive.
The entire bridge was filled with lanterns with vibrant colors and robust designs. This was one of the loveliest photo spots for Chinese New Year.
This was to welcome the arrival of the year of the dragon.
A luminous corridor and artworks were displayed along Zhonghua Road to celebrate the audio and video industries of the country.
Colorful and animated displays featuring many countries in Asia celebrated the tourism industry in a special presentation.
Conclusion
Ximending is a bustling district where trendy fashion sets the norm while J-Pop and K-Pop dominate the youth culture. This is where cosplay and tattoos are the ways to express yourselves. Here is also a community where gender tolerance and inclusiveness are celebrated. This is the playground the younger generation go to live the moment; but is also the memory lane their parents go to reminisce their past. This is a paradise punctuated with plenty of yummy good eats but sometimes an adventurous appetite is required. It is a kaleidoscope of dazzling lights, vibrant atmospheres, energetic crowds, mesmerizing moments, and nights of endless fond memories.
