- +0:00
Walk to Zhongzheng Park, climb to the GuanyinThe white goddess over your ship
Full guide: Zhongzheng Park → - +0:50
Descend to Miaokou Night MarketDay stalls run too — crab soup at stall 5
Full guide: Miaokou → - +1:20
The canon: nutritious sandwich, dingbiancuo, paopao iceThree stalls, one education
- +2:10
Lee Hu Bakery — pastries since 1882Pineapple cakes locals actually queue for
- +2:30
Walk back to the terminal
Transport spend: NT$ coins — the night market is the budget.
If you're running late: Rain (Keelung’s specialty)? The market arcades are covered — this plan is nearly weatherproof.
- +0:00
Taxi to Jiufen (~40 min) — go EARLYFix the round-trip price; drivers expect it
Full guide: Jiufen → - +0:45
Jishan Street lanes before the crowdsThe teahouse views open at the cliff edge
- +2:00
A-Gan-Yi taro balls above the seaThe famous bowl at the top of the stairs
- +2:45
The lantern-lane photo stops on the descentShengping Theater corner is the postcard
- +3:30
Taxi back to Keelung
- +4:15
Spare window: Miaokou stalls near the gateFull guide: Miaokou →
Transport spend: train to Taipei ~NT$100 round trip pp.
If you're running late: Buses swarming by 1:30? Retreat uphill — the top lanes stay quiet while the postcard corner drowns.
- +0:00
FORK: private loop (Jiufen+Shifen+Yehliu) or train to TaipeiBook the loop before sailing; the train needs no booking
Full guide: Jiufen → - +0:45
Loop: Yehliu’s Queen’s Head first — light and tidesTaipei: 101 first, up before the haze
- +2:30
Loop: Shifen — launch a sky lantern on the tracksTaipei: Palace Museum’s jade cabbage (2h)
Full guide: Jiufen → - +4:30
Loop: Jiufen teahouse late lunchTaipei: Din Tai Fung early dinner at 101
Full guide: Jiufen → - +6:30
Drive/train back to KeelungTaipei trains every ~15 min; allow 75 min door to door
- +7:45
Back at the gangway~60+ min margin on a 10h call
Transport spend: trains ~NT$150 + one Taipei entry (temple free, deck if you choose).
If you're running late: Undecided? The guided loop wins — it carries the clock risk, and Taipei rewards a future land trip more.
- +0:00
Walk to Miaokou Night Market~10 minutes; the main lane is covered
Full guide: Miaokou → - +0:30
Eat your way along itDing bian cuo, nutritious sandwich, crab soup. Small portions, many stalls
- +1:45
Taxi to Zhengbin harbourThe painted Japanese-era houses; cafés along the water
- +2:45
Ghost Festival Museum at Zhongzheng ParkFree, indoors, and better than it looks from outside
Full guide: Zhongzheng Park → - +3:30
Back to the ship
Transport spend: ~NT$200 pp. Museums free.
If you're running late: Jiufen in heavy rain is a wet stone staircase 40 minutes away. Do not attempt it on a short call.
SHOW THIS TO A TAXI DRIVER — 運転手さんへ
| Please take me back to the cruise ship (Keelung (Taipei) port) | クルーズ船乗り場までお願いします |
| Jiufen lantern town | 九份老街 |
| Miaokou Night Market crawl | 基隆廟口夜市 |
| Yehliu Geopark | 野柳地質公園 |
| Taipei 101 & the city | 台北101 |
Point at a line. Taxis are metered and honest; tipping is not expected in Japan.
THE TWO-MINUTE PORT TALK — read aloud at breakfast
Everyone wanted Keelung. Keelung is a deep natural harbour at the northern tip of Taiwan, facing the shipping lanes to Japan and the Chinese coast. Between 1626 and 1945 it was taken by the Spanish, the Dutch, the Qing, the French and the Japanese — and each of them left something you can still see.
Miaokou. Most cruise ports make you travel for the food. Keelung docks you ten minutes' walk from one of Taiwan's most famous night markets — around two hundred stalls under matching yellow lanterns, wrapped around a temple that has been there since 1873.
Jiufen. Jiufen was a mining settlement that boomed on gold under Japanese rule, collapsed when the mines closed, sat nearly empty for decades, and then became one of the most visited places in Taiwan because a Taiwanese film used it as a location in 1989 — and because a great many people are convinced, wrongly, that a Japanese animation was based on it.
Fifty years. If your ship came here from Japan, you will notice things: the railway, the loanwords, the fish cake called tempura, the way the older generation of Taiwanese sometimes greets a Japanese visitor. Taiwan was Japanese territory from 1895 to 1945, and the relationship it left is more complicated and more affectionate than anywhere else Japan occupied.
