Taipei and Taroko Gorge
Half the gorge is still shut — this routes around the closures, not past them.
Food & Wine · 5 days · October to December
The April 2024 earthquake took Taroko's famous walks out of service, and Shakadang, Swallow Grotto and Baiyang are not expected back before 2031. What remains open is still worth two days, provided you accept that Highway 8 through the gorge only releases traffic in five short windows a day and you build the morning around the first of them. The Taipei half is planned around the eating, and the way home breaks at Ruifang for Jiufen instead of running straight back into the city and paying for it again as a separate day trip.
Day by day
- Day 1
Ridge, then night market
A short climb for the skyline at sunset, then dinner six hundred metres long.
16:30Xiangshan Trail
Taipei 101 at eye level as the light goes, and the crowd thins the moment you climb beyond the first viewing deck.
The stone stairs from Xiangshan MRT take about 20 minutes. Keep going past the first platform to the boulders — that is where the tripods stop.
19:00Raohe Street Night Market
One straight line with no side alleys, which makes it the most manageable first night market in the city.
Enter from the Ciyou Temple end. The pepper bun oven is the first stall and the queue is shortest before 19:00.
- Day 2
Temple, treasure, sulphur
A working temple at prayer time, the imperial collection, and the valley that heats the city's baths.
08:30Longshan Temple
A temple in use rather than a monument, which is only obvious if you arrive before the tour groups at ten.
Chanting sessions run early morning and again around eight. It is busiest on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month.
10:30National Palace Museum
The Qing imperial collection that left Beijing in 1948, of which only a sliver is ever on show — go for the bronzes and the calligraphy.
The Jadeite Cabbage rotates between here and the southern branch in Chiayi. Check which building has it before you plan a morning around it.
15:00Beitou Hot Spring Museum
It explains the valley you are about to soak in, and the public baths a few minutes uphill cost a fraction of any hotel spa.
Closed Mondays, and shoes come off at the door — the building is a 1913 bathhouse, not a gallery.
- Day 3
East to the coast
Three hours through the tunnels to Hualien, then grey stones and the Pacific.
16:00Qixingtan Beach
A crescent of grey stone against the Pacific with the Central Range standing behind it, and it takes the ache out of a long train.
Pebble beach with a steep shelf and a strong undertow. It is for looking at, not swimming.
- Day 4
The gorge, on its terms
In on the first traffic window, out to the cliffs that the earthquake left alone.
07:00Taroko Visitor Center
The park's own closure board is updated here daily and is the only trustworthy account of which trails opened this week.
Highway 8 into the gorge opens in five windows only — roughly 06:30-08:00, 10:00-10:05, 12:00-13:00, 15:00-15:05 and 17:00-17:30. Miss the first and the morning is gone.
09:30Xiangde Temple
Tianxiang is the deepest part of the gorge still open, and this stair is the one climb here that came through the quake intact.
Reached by a suspension bridge and a stair climb out of Tianxiang; the Tianfeng Pagoda is another hundred steps above it.
16:00Qingshui Cliff
Cliffs dropping most of a kilometre straight into the Pacific — the part of Taroko the earthquake did not take.
The Chongde rest area viewpoint reopened in July 2025. It sits outside the gorge, so the Highway 8 windows do not apply.
- Day 5
Ruifang break, then out
Get off the train early for the tea houses, and close the loop from the top of the tower.
10:30Jiufen Old Street
Ruifang is already on the line home, so Jiufen costs you a short bus ride instead of a whole separate day out of Taipei.
The Hualien-Taipei train stops at Ruifang, where the station lockers let you climb up unencumbered. Weekday mornings before 11:00 are the only quiet slot.
16:30Taipei 101 Observatory
Having walked the Xiangshan ridge on day one, going up closes the circle — you can pick out the rocks you stood on.
The 660-tonne tuned mass damper is on display between the 87th and 89th floors, on the way through to the observatory.
Questions
- How long is the Taipei and Taroko Gorge itinerary?
- The Taipei and Taroko Gorge itinerary runs 5 days and covers 11 stops across Taipei, Hualien, Jiufen.
- When is the best time to do the Taipei and Taroko Gorge itinerary?
- October to December is the best window for the Taipei and Taroko Gorge itinerary.
- What happens on day one of the Taipei and Taroko Gorge itinerary?
- Day one is ridge, then night market: A short climb for the skyline at sunset, then dinner six hundred metres long.
Sources
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