Kuang Chin Sheng Paper Umbrella
Southern Taiwan
This shop in a courtyard house is the Louis Vuitton of Taiwanese oil-paper umbrellas. It was founded during Japanese rule and appeared on the cover of an…
Must-see shopping in Taiwan
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,…
Tainan
An airy bookshop-cafe with large windows framing the sky, trees and canal outside. The books are mostly in Chinese, and lean towards the arts and…
Tainan
The elegant Hayashi Department Store sells attractive homewares and fashion created by Taiwanese designers, as well as gorgeously packaged Taiwanese cakes…
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…
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…
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…
Taitung
One of Taiwan's niche coffee growers, little family-run Kintuka also bakes homemade, stick-shaped coffee biscuits, creates turmeric-yellowed tea and…
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…
Hualien
It's not cheap, but spacious A-Zone presents a handy one-stop opportunity to browse a vast range of regional and Taiwanese products from leatherwork to…
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…
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…
Matsu
The museum-like showroom of Matsu's distillery sells many variants of its sorghum-based Kaoliang liquor (高粱酒, Gāoliáng jiǔ) and medicinal rice wine (老酒,…
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…
National Cultural and Creative Gift Center
Taipei
Four floors of jade, ceramics, tea sets, jewellery, scrolls, Kinmen knives, Kavalan whisky and handmade soap are just some of the highlights of the…
Kaohsiung
A delightful bookshop strong in the arts and humanities. Most books are in Mandarin, but there are photography titles in English as well as CDs of music…
Eastern Taiwan & Taroko National Park
A wonderfully wacky one-stop souvenir stop for all your minicanoe and owl model needs, with a 'museum' in the house next door.
Hualien
Semiprecious stones, made into anything from tiny brooches to 500kg jade dragons, are sold from this photogenic series of stalls set in a small garden…
Kaohsiung
Who says pens and erasers are obsolete? All the kinds of stationery that a kid has ever dreamed of owning – you'll find them here, including retro items…
Tainan
This family-run incense business started 120 years ago in the Qing dynasty. Today the fragrant sticks and cones are still handmade from all-natural…
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…
Hualien
Da-Ai (meaning 'Big Love') specialises in turning recycled PET plastic bottles into fabrics from which it creates lightweight garments, blankets,…
Kinmen
The most famous of Kinmen's knife-makers has an elegant central shop displaying rusty bomb casings as well as selling the knives (NT$560 to NT$15,000)…
Kaohsiung
A small fabric-art boutique selling lovely bags, garments and souvenir items printed with images native to Taiwan; in particular, the island's flora and…
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…
Kinmen
Taste before you buy at this elegant shop that specialises in delicious local beef jerky (NT$150 for 180g); the black pepper version is superb.
Taitung
For handmade leather craft and bags fashioned from repurposed sacking, visit this workshop/boutique in a quirky little neighbourhood of graffiti-muralled…
Kinmen
Ceramic bric-a-brac, crockery and wind lion statuettes are arrayed around the photogenic courtyard of what initially appears to be a typical traditional…
Taichung
This hippy indie bookstore specialises in social science and literature, with a small selection of tomes in English. It also has its own cafe decked out…
Kaohsiung
A funky vintage shop selling interesting pre-1990s garments, watches and earrings from all over the globe. What we also love is the colourful glass art by…
Western Taiwan
Founded in the 1940s by master Wu Dunhou, this shop attracts collectors from all over the world. These days you're likely to see Wu's sons (highly skilled…
Kaohsiung
A deliciously musty shop chock-full of vintage toys, beaded handbags, used books and other exotic paraphernalia. There's usually a small exhibition on the…
Eastern Taiwan & Taroko National Park
For 80 years before its 2002 closure, this plant was one of Taiwan's biggest sugar refineries. Today, the main factory building is essentially derelict…
Tainan Kuang Tsai Embroidery Shop
Tainan
Mr Lin, one of the last remaining embroidery masters in Tainan, has been working at his craft for more than 50 years and now he and his daughter have…
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…
Hualien
This Ji'an workshop is where celebrity sculptor Adic Chun Kuan Wang and his apprentices turn driftwood and other waste timber into unusual furniture,…
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…
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…
Pingtung County
A small studio operated by Paiwan artist Cho Jinhua (周錦花) from her home. Cho paints, engraves and decorates leather with glass beads and embroidery and…