Must-see shopping in Taipei

  • Tonghua Night Market

    Taipei

    Taipei's liveliest night market, and all the better for being local and less touristy. Food-wise there are steaks, sushi, animal-shaped biscuits,…

  • Lin Hua Tai Tea Company

    Taipei

    The oldest tea-selling shop in Taipei, dating to 1883. The current fourth-generation merchants are more than happy to talk tea and let you sample the…

  • Lao Mian Cheng Lantern Shop

    Taipei

    Handmade lamps with painted dragons, bold flowers, bamboo and calligraphy, are solid red, and as big as a gym ball or small as a fist. There are also…

  • ATT4FUN

    Xinyi

    This popular mall is good for kids with the Donguri Republic store in the basement (selling merchandise from Studio Ghibli, of Spirited Away fame) and…

  • SunnyHills

    Songshan

    Visitors to this famous pineapple-cake maker are seated at a wooden table and given a complimentary tray holding a bowl of black tea and a wrapped cake…

  • Antique Mall

    Taipei

    A rabbit's warren of old gems. You'll find everything here from ornate furniture to kimonos, chinaware, plastic toys, dial-up telephones and rocking…

  • Yongle Market

    Taipei

    The rather ugly concrete structure, grafted onto a beautiful colonial-era facade adjacent to DaDaoCheng Theater, houses a huge fabric market on the 2nd…

  • Wannian Commercial Building

    Ximending & Wanhua

    Serving shoppers since 1973, this small mall is old school but aimed squarely at the youth. Four floors of jeans, sneakers, toys, games, bags and shoes,…

  • Jianguo Weekend Holiday Jade Market

    Taipei

    This giant market peddling jade and other semiprecious stones is under Jianguo Overpass. There are also beads, pearls, religious artefacts and copper…

  • Chuan-Der Buddhist Art

    Songshan

    This stretch of Guangfu Rd has a gaggle of Buddhist shops, and this is the mother of them all. Three floors of incense, statues, books, scrolls and beads…

  • coco.Brownies

    Taipei

    Rich, moist chocolatey squares of heaven. It's always worth stopping off for a slice of the unusual. Their bestseller is Earl Grey, and they also have…

  • Breeze Nanshan

    Xinyi

    Housed in the new, sleek, sexy black tower is Taipei Nanshan Plaza, the only building (at 272m) to give Taipei 101 a run for its money in the height…

  • Breeze Nanjing

    Songshan

    Just across from Taipei Arena, this shopping mall is one of the more pleasant branches of Breeze, less crowded and home to more individual smaller brands…

  • inBlooom

    Taipei

    This funky fabric shop uses bold and bright designs in cotton canvas to make bags, purses, laptop cases, book covers, Japanese wall curtains and anything…

  • Eslite Spectrum

    Xinyi

    Yes, there are lots of Eslite shopping malls around the city, but this one is special because it's set in the gorgeous grounds of Songshan Cultural &…

  • Syntrend

    Taipei

    Looking like a 1980s spaceship, Syntrend is a much-posher electronics mall than the scruffy Guanghua Digital Plaza next door. You'll find computers,…

  • VVG Thinking

    Taipei

    In the funky loft space above a fusion restaurant in the Huashan 1914 Creative Park, you'll find this quirky, boutique design shop with a rich collection…

  • Sunmerry

    Ximending & Wanhua

    The place to get inexpensive boxes of pineapple cakes (NT$180 for 12 cakes), the standard gift to give people when you holiday in Taiwan. This small shop…

  • Eslite Xinyi

    Xinyi

    Spread over two floors, the Eslite bookshop here (open 10am to midnight) is one of the best in the city and has a fancy teahouse. There's also a great…

  • Zang Xi

    Taipei

    There's no English name, but the colourful designs of Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama's portrait on the door will alert you to this cosy corner shop…

  • Flying Squirrel Culture Studio

    Taipei

    On the ground floor of compact Huashan Market, this little shop (no English name, look for stall A19) sells some curious indigenous handicrafts, brightly…

  • Ten Shang's Tea Company

    Taipei

    Hailing from a mountain tea-growing community in central Taiwan's Nantou, Mr and Mrs Chang have been selling organically grown oolong teas from all over…

  • Wolf Tea

    Songshan

    A tiny sliver of a shop, easy to overlook – hunt for the wolf-head logo. Gently designed gift boxes and tins in bright colours of Taiwan-grown teas,…

  • Eslite

    Taipei

    This is Taipei's most renowned bookshop chain, with locations all over town. This branch is the famous 24-hour location. There's a good selection of…

  • Love Boat

    Taipei

    A shop for the lesbian community with both in-store and online sales. In recent years it has expanded into a cafe and hosts local events, tarot-card…

  • GinGin Store

    Taipei

    GinGin's is a gay-and-lesbian shop offering books and adult magazines (Mandarin only), DVDs, stationery, gifts, posters, sex toys and clothing. See if you…

  • Wufenpu

    Songshan

    Wufenpu is a lively grid of streets, selling cheap clothes and accessories, wholesale and retail. You'll find big bags of T-shirts, jeans and shoes. It's…

  • Shen Bai

    Songshan

    Shen Bai stands out from the rest of Wufenpu with its focus on sparkly clothing. It is stacked with sequined denim shorts, T-shirts and tops. There are…

  • Forbidden

    Ximending & Wanhua

    One of the best sex shops in the gay bar district, selling underwear, swimwear, T-shirts, lube, condoms, sex toys and one of Taiwan's craziest novelty…

  • National Palace Museum Shop

    Shilin

    Gifts for all price ranges based on the museum's collection. There's everything from a tiny jadeite cabbage phone pendant made from resin (NT$150) to an…

  • Guanghua Digital Plaza

    Taipei

    Six storeys of electronics, software, hardware, laptops, peripherals, mobile phones and gadgets of all kinds. Dozens of smaller shops speckle the…

  • Little Garden

    Taipei

    This third-generation shop is the last remaining traditional embroidered shoe outlet in Taipei. Most of the dainty little items (with patterns such as…

  • Taiuan-e-tiam

    Taipei

    This lovely independent bookshop, run by Mr Wu, stocks a selection of scholarly history and political books on Taiwan in English, as well as maps,…

  • Deyu Shenyaohang

    Taipei

    Traditional Chinese medicine store with both dried herbs and prepackaged remedies. There's no English sign. You can spot this place by its old wooden…

  • Eslite Bookstore

    Shilin

    A small branch of this popular book chain, which stocks a selection of English books and magazines. Nice place to browse. Take Exit 2 from Shilin MRT…

  • ArtYard67

    Taipei

    In a restored long shophouse from 1913, this exceptional ceramic studio carries the Hakka Blue brand, inspired by the indigo colour of Hakka clothing.

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