Taipei Travel

It's a place of revitalized buildings hosting shops, cafes and restaurants, cinemas, exhibition or concert. Nice place to visit.

Many nice cages, galleries and shops with interesting exhibits and things to look at and browse. Ambience is chill and relaxing, quite different from many other places close by. My teenagers were totally enthralled by Wooderful and spent ages there

Recommended by my Taiwanese colleague as it seems to be the hype recently in Taipei, thus went to check it out since this trip is pretty chill and relax. Another one is Songshan Culture and Creative Park which I didn't get to go & check it out. The place have quite a number of shops, pop-ups, exhibitions/ programs including a cinema on site. Not sure if the pop-ups will change on & off but I think it's worth the time to go at least once to look around for few hours.

Comparing to Songshan Culture and Creative Park, i prefer the Huashan 1914 more as it provides a wider varieties of shops, pop-ups, exhibitions/ programs including a cinema on site. Things don’t open till at least 11am but if you want some quite trolling along before everyone comes it and gets too busy, going a bit earlier was a good option.

In 1916 the buildings were the privately owned Taihoku Winery during the Japanese occupation, producing sake and ginseng wine. It underwent many name changes and due to community pressure which saved it from the developers, they created the Huashan 1914 Creative Park which opened in 2005 and offers artists a place to develop their creations and non-profit organizations a venue to hold activities. Since then theatre groups, painters, wood sculptors, writers, movie producers and directors have found a timeless place to showcase their creative talents. There are cafes, galleries, shops selling unique products and even a cinema. I saw an excellent film from a recent film festival with English sub-titles. It is the sort of place that there is always something going on here. There is an information centre who supply maps. If you have small children this should be the first place you visit in Taipei and head straight for the Wooderful Life Shop. This is a wonderland of handcrafted wooden figures which would be perfect to occupy a doll's house, or for a therapist using a sand tray, or any other creation that requires tiny people, trees, automobiles etc. (See my photos). There is a special area where children can actually play with these wooden items, while the parents browse the shelves for Christmas and birthday gifts. Get the MRT to the Zhongxiao Xinsheng station and exit 1, head west for one block and cross under the elevated road, and the park is on the right.