While planning my first itinerary for Taiwan, I wanted to go to so many places in my one week there. Good food, great scenery, shopping and more shopping!! And while during my research, I got a little confused as there are many types of trains and sometimes the stations are labelled carelessly in English. Such as, Tao Yuan Train Station. High Speed Rail or Railway or Metro? Help? Someone? In the end, I had to switch to Mandarin to do my research lest I wanna end up at the wrong places waiting for the wrong trains, following the wrong schedules..
I will do an explanation on the modes of transport in Taiwan.High Speed Rail (HSR) 高铁 most expensive land transport in Taiwan.
It is fast, comfortable but only have selected stations throughout Taiwan. Do check the time schedule before boarding the trains as while it is on the same track, the routes might slightly differ as some trains do not stop at all stops. There are 3 different prices for the tickets; Business Class, Reserved Seating and Non-reserved Seating. For non-reserved seating tickets, only cabins 10 - 12 are allocated so you might end up standing throughout your journey, which isn't that bad as the journey is smooth and relatively quick. http://www5.thsrc.com.tw/en/
Taiwan Railways (TRA) 台铁 cheapest alternative to travel to many parts of Taiwan. Stops in many cities and have a few different companies running. Price of tickets and type of trains differ according to the railway company. Do take note that all routes differ. In fact sometimes, departing from one city and travelling to the next, you may have a choice of scenery. You may have to alight at one city to transfer to another company's train route. Taiwan railways travel slower compared to High Speed Rail. Do take note that the two rails do not stop at the same station for the same cities. Unlike HSR, no Non-reserved seating is available. Check your train schedules and order your tickets online here: http://www.railway.gov.tw/en/index.aspx
Previous two transport have to be paid by cash/credit so you do not need any travelling card. From here on, you might want to consider getting an Easy Card (优游卡) , or search for the different day passes. Easy Card is a prepaid card, can be used on Taipei Metro (臺北市捷運) http://english.trtc.com.tw/ and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit (高雄捷運) http://www.krtco.com.tw/en/index.aspx as well as some other modes of transport such as buses and boats.
Buses. There are many bus companies, of those I have rode Ubus and Kuo Kwang before. At every bus station, you will see the bus service numbers and bus routes. Unlike Singapore where only the remaining journey of the bus route is displayed, in Taiwan the full route is shown so make sure you ask before boarding the bus otherwise you may just travel in the wrong direction. Depending on the bus, you either have to tap once when you board or only tap out when you alight. Do also search for shuttle bus service as some malls provide shuttle bus~
Boats. In Kaohsiung, you can travel to the nearby Cijin Island (旗津島) by 5-10mins boat ride. The boat reverses it way from Kaohsiung to Cijin Island. At first, I thought it was reversing to do a u-turn, and then I was wondering why is the boat still reversing, and the next thing you know everyone is rushing off the boat. Yeap! You have arrived at your destination. Another boat ride that I know but have not tried is at Dan Shui in Taipei.
Taxi. These drivers are very desperate to get passengers so stay off the curbs unless you want to grab a cab. Not a cheap mode of transport. I believe the flag down fee is NTD70, jumping NTD25 per beep?
Bicycles. Can be rented throughout the city of Taipei and some other cities in Taiwan. Other than the bicycle rental stores which I rented once in Dan Shui, Taipei, there is a service by the Taipei authorities called Youbike http://www.youbike.com.tw/home.php?eng=1 It is relatively new but seems convenient to use. There are many Youbike stations along the Taipei Metro stations. Keep your eyes peeled as there are no physical rental stores. This service basically works like a locker rental service, tap your Easycard at a rental machine and you can ride a bike and return it at any other Youbike stations. I have not tried yet, but will try when I have the chance to next time.
Motorcycles. Not every tourists can get a chance to travel on the renowned mode of transport for Taiwanese. I did, and while at first it is pretty scary, I soon enjoyed when my local friends gave me a ride. Keep your eyes on the road and you will notice people driving their Golden Retrievers around (seated between their legs) or a family of four or five squeezing on a bike. Yes, it is actually common. Traffic regulations? I am not aware if there are any against those riders, but whatever floats their boat~ If fact, the Taiwanese are so reliant on motorcycles that it is even allowed for them to ride their bike onto boats to get to the other side of the sea. Should you get a chance to be given a ride, make sure you get those cute little face masks selling at NTD20-25 at night markets. The air in Taiwan can get a little dry so I prefer to put on a mask while flying down the roads of Taipei. Just a word of caution, don't just ride anyone's bike just because they are friendly. Make sure you really know the person before agreeing for a ride. It is still dangerous to be over-trusting overseas.
