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Taro balls above the sea

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Eat in Keelung (Taipei) · #5 of the port's ten

Taro balls above the sea

on your Jiufen trip — the round trip from the gangway, with the 60-minute margin kept aside.

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Photo: SIA YANG / CC BY-SA
Round trip
5 hr
From the ship and back
Fits
a 4–6 hour stop ashore
Margin already counted
Getting there
On foot or by taxi
See the rides below
Booking
Just turn up
Nothing to reserve
Why we send people here

Warm, chewy taro and sweet-potato balls in a teahouse hanging over the coast — A-Gan-Yi ladles the famous bowl at the top of the stairs. The view does the rest.

Before you count on it
  • 5 hr door to door means a 2–3 hour stop ashore cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
  • It is a view, so it is weather. Check the morning sky before you commit the hours.
  • No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
The story

Why Taro balls above the sea is famous

Taro balls are chewy dumplings of taro and sweet potato, served hot in syrup or cold on shaved ice. The Jiufen shops sit above the old mining town, so the view from the seating is the coast dropping to the sea. A Gan Yi has been making them since the 1970s.

Where to have it

Three places, three different answers

The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.

The famous oneA-Gan Yi Taro Balls

Above the Jiufen steps since the 1970s, and the seating looks straight down the coast.

Open in Google MapsWhere locals goJiufen Lai A-Po Taro Balls

The other name on the street, argued over locally, with a shorter climb.

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The day this belongs to

Routes that already include it

Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.

The Jiufen round4–6 hours · ~5h door to doorThe lantern town, timed to dodge the tour-bus tide
Pairs well with

What to put beside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.

Build your own day →
See · ~5h round trip

Jiufen lantern town

Gold-rush lanes stacked on a sea cliff, red lanterns lighting the teahouses at dusk — the town that launched a thousand postcards.

See the detail →Eat · ~1.5h, walkable

Miaokou Night Market crawl

Taiwan’s street-food canon ten minutes from the gangway — crab thick soup, one-bite sausages, the "nutritious sandwich" fried to order.

See the detail →See · ~5h

Yehliu Geopark

The Queen’s Head and a shoreline of mushroom rocks carved by wind and sea — geology doing sculpture.

See the detail →
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard. Build the whole day on the Keelung (Taipei) plan page.