Pick your hours and you get a finished day — every step timed from the gangway and back, and each route says how much room it leaves you before all-aboard. Swap anything you don't fancy.
Timed shore plans, measured from your gangway · port-of-japan.com/keelung/ · Verified
Finished days, timed from the gangway
Your day in Keelung (Taipei), hour by hour
Pick the one that fits your call. Times count from the moment you step off, and every plan is back on board an hour before all-aboard.
For a 4.5-hour call or longer · 2 hr 30 min door to door
The Miaokou graze
Ten minutes from the gangway — Taiwan’s street-food canon
Fits a 4.5-hour stop with nothing to add (off the ship 30 minutes after arrival, back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard). A longer call gives you the extra time; on this one, do not add a stop.
+0:00
Walk to Zhongzheng Park, climb to the Guanyin
The white goddess over your ship
+0:50
Descend to Miaokou Night Market
Day stalls run too — crab soup at stall 5
+1:20
The canon: nutritious sandwich, dingbiancuo, paopao ice
Three stalls, one education
+2:10
Lee Hu Bakery — pastries since 1882
Pineapple cakes locals actually queue for
+2:30
Walk back to the terminal
Running late? Rain (Keelung’s specialty)? The market arcades are covered — this plan is nearly weatherproof.
The lantern town, timed to dodge the tour-bus tide
Fits a 7-hour stop with nothing to add (off the ship 30 minutes after arrival, back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard). A longer call gives you the extra time; on this one, do not add a stop.
+0:00
Taxi to Jiufen (~20 min, longer in traffic) — go EARLY
Fix the round-trip price; drivers expect it
+0:45
Jishan Street lanes before the crowds
The teahouse views open at the cliff edge
+2:00
A-Gan-Yi taro balls above the sea
The famous bowl at the top of the stairs
+2:45
The lantern-lane photo stops on the descent
Shengping Theater corner is the postcard
+3:30
Taxi back to Keelung
+4:15
Spare window: Miaokou stalls near the gate
+4:45
Back through the port gate to the quay
The quays are downtown — Miaokou is a few minutes on foot
Running late? Buses swarming by 1:30? Retreat uphill — the top lanes stay quiet while the postcard corner drowns.
Transport spend: taxi to Jiufen ~NT$400–450 each way per car (meter floor), or bus 788 about NT$30 each way pp. Full route, map and photos
For a 10-hour call or longer · 8 hr door to door
North coast or Taipei — decide once
Long calls — two great days, one choice
Fits a 10-hour stop with nothing to add (off the ship 30 minutes after arrival, back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard). A longer call gives you the extra time; on this one, do not add a stop.
+0:00
FORK: private loop (Jiufen+Shifen+Yehliu) or train to Taipei
Book the loop before sailing; the train needs no booking
+0:45
Loop: Yehliu’s Queen’s Head first — light and tides
Taipei: train to Taipei Main, then Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
+2:30
Loop: Shifen — launch a sky lantern on the tracks
Taipei: MRT to Taipei 101; the observatory opens at 10:00 (NT$600)
+4:30
Loop: Jiufen teahouse late lunch
Taipei: lunch under 101, Din Tai Fung if the queue allows
+6:30
Drive/train back to Keelung
Taipei trains two or three an hour (e.g. 14:20, 14:40, 15:15 from Taipei Main); allow 75 min door to door
+7:45
Back at the gangway
~60+ min margin on a 10h call
Running late? Undecided? The guided loop wins — it carries the clock risk, and Taipei rewards a future land trip more.
Transport spend: trains ~NT$150, plus the Taipei 101 deck (NT$600) if you go up. Full route, map and photos
Rainy day · 4 hr door to door
The rainy-day Keelung
Wet weather — and Keelung is among Taiwan’s wettest cities
Fits a 6-hour stop with nothing to add (off the ship 30 minutes after arrival, back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard). A longer call gives you the extra time; on this one, do not add a stop.
+0:00
Walk to Miaokou Night Market
~10 minutes; part of the main lane is covered
+0:30
Eat your way along it
Ding bian cuo, nutritious sandwich, crab soup. Small portions, many stalls
+1:45
Taxi to Zhengbin harbour
The painted Japanese-era houses; cafés along the water
+2:45
Keelung Tower lift up to Zhongzheng Park
From Yi 2nd Road; reopened 22 August 2026, 09:00–21:00, closed the last Monday of the month. The Ghost Festival hall up here is closed for renovation
+3:30
Back to the ship
Running late? Jiufen in heavy rain is a wet stone staircase 40 minutes away. Do not attempt it on a short call.
Round trips are measured from the gangway and include getting back. Two stops in the same direction overlap, so a real day usually comes in under the total you see, never over it.
From the West terminal: ~4 min to the station’s north exit
From the East terminal: ~10 min to the station’s south exit
Both quays are in the middle of town — this is the rare port where the station is closer than the taxi rank. Miaokou night market is about 400 m from the gate.
NT$62 on local trains, NT$97 on Tze-Chiang expresses (adult, one way)2–3 an hourIC cards OK
How to get there
① TRA from Keelung to Taipei Main — about 45 min
An EasyCard works on the gates (tap in and out), but not on Tze-Chiang 3000, Puyuma or Taroko trains. Local trains are unreserved. The senior half fare is for Taiwanese nationals only.
about NT$30Weekdays roughly every 15–40 min by day, gaps up to 50 min in the afternoon and 80 min before 06:40; weekends no bus back from Jinguashi 11:30–12:30; Shuinandong not served at weekends.IC cards OK
How to get there
① Keelung Bus 788 from Keelung Transfer Station (about 5 min walk from either terminal) — Ruifang, Jiufen Old Street, then Jinguashi
Allow 45–60 minutes each way (estimate). If the return gap does not fit, take a taxi: about NT$405–415 plus time charges.
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard — every day above already banks it. Phones auto-switch to local time, but all-aboard runs on ship time. Check the daily programme's clock, not your lock screen. More to pick from on the Keelung (Taipei) guide and the Top 10.
MY SHIP DAY — fill this in before you walk off
Ship
Date
Docked at (berth)
All-aboard (SHIP time)
My deadline = all-aboard − 60 min
Last shuttle back
Phones auto-switch to local time; all-aboard runs on ship time. Write both if they differ.
GETTING AROUND — the facts that don't change by day (today's times: ship's program or Google Maps)
Keelung Railway Station: From the West terminal: ~4 min to the station’s north exit From the East terminal: ~10 min to the station’s south exit
Taipei Main Station: ① TRA from Keelung to Taipei Main — about 45 min Fare NT$62 on local trains, NT$97 on Tze-Chiang expresses (adult, one way). 2–3 an hour.
Jiufen & Jinguashi: ① Keelung Bus 788 from Keelung Transfer Station (about 5 min walk from either terminal) — Ruifang, Jiufen Old Street, then Jinguashi Fare about NT$30. Weekdays roughly every 15–40 min by day, gaps up to 50 min in the afternoon and 80 min before 06:40; weekends no bus back from Jinguashi 11:30–12:30; Shuinandong not served at weekends..
Yehliu Geopark: ① Bus 790 from Keelung Transfer Station (about 5 min walk from either terminal) to the Yehliu stop; ride time not published every 15–20 min at peak, 30–40 min off-peak, 05:00–22:00.
SHOW THIS TO A TAXI DRIVER
Point at the terminal your ship is at.
West Cruise Terminal, 16 Gangxi Street
基隆港西岸旅客中心
East Cruise Terminal, 1 Zhongzheng Road
基隆港東岸旅客中心
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.
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 the 1870s.
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.
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard — every plan above already banks it. · Free guide: port-of-japan.com/keelung/ · By Takumi Yamada, Tokyo, Japan
