I was only 1 year old when I first flew to Taiwan with my pregnant mom to see my grandparents, and I’m told I didn’t cry once on the plane. As soon as I could walk, I wanted my own suitcase, and I used to scamper through O’Hare International Airport with my miniature pink Hello Kitty roller bag thinking I could take on the world.
Fast forward a few decades and I’m visiting Taiwan again with my mom, this time on EVA Air’s new Hello Kitty Besties Jet that flies between Taipei and Chicago, decorated with colorful Sanrio characters.
When I was a toddler, I would spend the long flight watching cartoons and playing with the cheerful Hello Kitty-themed playing cards.
As an adult I’m more excited for the flight amenities, such as Jurlique skincare, Kavalan single malt whisky, Alishan Jinxuan oolong tea and soft Jason Wu-designed pajamas — all EVA Air partnerships showcasing premier Taiwanese brands.
We landed in Taipei just after 5 a.m. and were pleasantly surprised when Mandarin Oriental Taipei allowed us to check in at sunrise. This type of hospitality is why it’s been considered Taiwan’s top luxury hotel for a decade, famous for its afternoon tea and Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant, Ya Ge.
The club lounge is well worth the upgrade, with beef noodle soup and black sesame croissants at breakfast, hojicha scones with Taiwanese pink guava jam for afternoon tea, and an outdoor terrace that feels like an urban oasis.
I’ve always believed the best cure for jet lag is an excellent massage, preferably immediately upon arrival. The spa at Mandarin Oriental offers an Oriental Qi massage, customized via Chinese medicine principles to balance yin and yang energies based on your current constitution. It was just what I needed to reset my body for a 14-hour time difference.
A taste of home
Taipei is divided into 12 districts, and it’s convenient and cheap to get around by metro. Bigger metro stations are full of shops, so I find myself easily distracted by skincare products and soft serve. Eslite’s underground book street beneath Zhongshan station is a local favorite, and above ground, you can walk along Xinzhongshan Linear Park and explore the myriad offshoot alleyways full of hair salons, boutiques and snack shops.
Take a beading class to make your own necklace, catch an independent movie at the Taipei Film House in the former U.S. ambassador’s residence, or find dessert shops specializing in shaved ice, cinnamon rolls and scones.
My mom, Chi-Pei Gibson, and I cooled off with a refreshing bowl of chilled tofu pudding with slippery grass jelly, her favorite childhood snack. When she was growing up in Kaohsiung, she recalled, a tofu pudding vendor would bike down her street with a big aluminum tank of warm tofu pudding, honking his horn to entice neighborhood kids to run outside with their own bowls for servings.
We used to visit my grandparents every summer when I was growing up, but since they passed we don’t have family in Taiwan anymore. On this trip, we met up with several of my mom’s childhood friends and their children, many of whom I hadn’t seen in nearly 20 years.
When it comes to Chinese food, the more the merrier because everything is meant to be shared at big round tables with lazy Susans. Flower Restaurant in Songshan was a highlight, with signature dishes like Taiwanese basil omelette, minced pork with chive flowers and pork intestines with bitter melon.
Ubers and yellow taxis are readily available, but we tried out a new door-to-door car service, Daytrip, when switching hotels. These drivers are guaranteed to speak fluent English, and you can add stops for sightseeing or dining in between.
Neighborhoods and night markets
One of my favorite aspects of Taipei is that it feels quite relaxed for a big city, not nearly as frenetic as other Asian capitals like Tokyo or Hong Kong. Every neighborhood has its own personality and noteworthy sights.
For first-time visitors, Taipei 101 is a must-see attraction in the heart of the city’s premier shopping district. It was the world’s tallest building upon completion in 2004, and the pagoda-inspired design still makes for a stunning landmark.
There are several hotels within a few blocks of the skyscraper, including Humble House Taipei, Curio Collection by Hilton. The boutique hotel’s seventh-floor outdoor pool has a spacious terrace and close-up views of Taipei 101.
Da’an is another one of my favorite Taipei districts to stay in, popular among young professionals with a mix of eateries, cafes, art galleries and trendy boutiques. There aren’t many hotels here because it’s a more residential neighborhood, but Kimpton Da An is a great pet-friendly pick with a helpful concierge team and excellent truffled egg Taiwanese sesame flatbread (shaobing) breakfast sandwich. I requested help booking a blowout, one of my favorite little luxuries in Taiwan. You can easily get a shampoo and blow dry for less than $15, including a luxurious scalp, neck and shoulder massage, and it has been a favorite mother-daughter activity since I was little.
With our hair looking extra shiny and smooth, we took the metro to Yongkang Street, another fun neighborhood for snacks and shopping that I loved as a kid. Famous Taiwanese exports like Din Tai Fung restaurants and Sunmerry bakeries got their start here, and there’s a mix of new and old storefronts hawking scallion pancakes, soup dumplings and lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, all of which you can enjoy under the shade of banyan trees in Yongkang Park.
My favorite find this time around was a new gelato shop, KaKaZan Ice Club, with super-creamy and not-too-sweet genmaicha and black sesame walnut gelato served from cylindrical Pozzetti containers. Yongkang is also a great spot to shop for gifts like oolong tea, nougat crackers, herbal skincare products and handcrafted souvenirs from Taiwanese artisans at Lai Hao gift shop.
As much as we love oolong tea, my mom and I were enticed by Taipei’s plethora of charming coffee shops and we noticed that fruit-flavored coffee, adding espresso or cold brew to tropical juices like passion fruit, guava, coconut and mango, is all the rage. Come True Coffee and Dreamers Coffee were a couple of our favorite local chains with inventive specialty drinks.
There’s no better way to end a day in Taipei than at a bustling night market. Shilin is the largest, but it’s become an overcrowded tourist trap over the years. Ningxia has a better quality and variety of vendors. Go earlier in the evening on a weekday to avoid crowds. There’s a nice mix of more adventurous eats like oyster omelettes, all kinds of offal and mung bean slushies alongside crowd-pleasers like fried sweet potato balls, fried rice and refreshing fruit juices. Snacking your way through a night market is the best kind of girl dinner, cramming onto tiny stools and eating with bamboo sticks.
After a week of nonstop eating, my mom and I were almost too stuffed to eat on our flight home, but that would have been a mistake. EVA Air’s meals are even better flying from Taiwan, including partnerships with local Taiwanese chefs. For me, simple congee with pickles and pork floss was perfect to help with digestion after more than a week of decadent meals.
Congee was my favorite winter breakfast as a kid and I leaned over to toast my mom with Champagne, feeling grateful for the new memories, inside jokes and our time with old friends.
