Taipei: What to Know Before You Go

Short answer: pick up a reloadable EasyCard at the airport, carry New Taiwan dollar cash for night-market food stalls, never eat or drink water once you cross the yellow line inside an MRT station, and keep a small bag for food wrappers when walking through night markets.

EasyCard, Taipei Metro etiquette and YouBike

Taipei is one of the safest, cleanest and easiest cities in the world to navigate independently. Your single most useful item is an EasyCard (YouYouKa), sold at Taoyuan Airport MRT desks and every 7-Eleven or FamilyMart convenience store. Tap it to ride all Taipei Metro (MRT) lines, city buses, local TRA trains to Ruifang (for Jiufen) and the Maokong Gondola, to unlock YouBike 2.0 shared bicycles across the city, and to pay for snacks at convenience stores. Inside Taipei MRT stations and trains, one rule is enforced strictly: eating, drinking (even plain water), chewing gum and vaping are completely prohibited once you step past the yellow floor line at the ticket gates. Always stand on the right side of MRT escalators and queue within the painted platform lines before boarding.

New Taiwan dollars (TWD), night-market cash and receipts

Department stores, hotels, sit-down restaurants around Taipei 101 and high-speed trains take Visa, Mastercard and Apple Pay, but night-market stalls at Raohe, Ningxia and Shilin as well as traditional breakfast shops operate largely on New Taiwan dollar (TWD / NT$) cash. Keep 100 NT$ notes and 50 NT$ coins handy so vendors do not have to break 1,000 NT$ bills for a single snack. Notice the two-letter, eight-digit numbers printed on every Taiwanese shop receipt: they are automatic tickets in Taiwan's bi-monthly Uniform Invoice Lottery, which you can drop into charity donation boxes at convenience stores or the airport before flying home.

Public rubbish bins and 24-hour convenience stores

Because Taipei charges households per rubbish bag, public street bins are scarce; most night markets place recycling and waste stations at the main entrances and exits. Compare areas in where to stay in Taipei.