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..

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/

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.



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.
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