TAIWAN on a budget: Historical places to visit with no entrance fee

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

The fact that Taiwan is considered to be one of the nearest country to visit, it is cheap and you can explore the whole island in just 5-6 days. It is well-known for its original milk teas, they're rich in culture and they have a lot of historical places to visit. From traditional Chinese temples, museums, parks, modern cities and mountainous terrain, you can explore the whole country because of its organized train system.

Taoyuan International Airport

 🔼Pre-Travel Guide🔼

We booked our flight 6 months before our actual date of arrival. I highly recommend you to book early flights since the cost will be a lot cheaper. Another thing is you always look for seat sale. Airasia and Cebu pacific mostly offers seat sale. Who knows? You can score up to piso base fare, right?

Travel Tip

If you are planning to visit Taiwan, I highly recommend you to buy an easy card. Easy card has a lot access, you can use this to buy foods inside the airport, for subway or train, e-bikes, vending machines, even buses and you can use this to pay entrance to Taipei zoo. From our trip, we bought an easy card that cost NTD100 (PHP180), we reloaded the card that cost us NTD1000 (PHP1800). 

For our 5-day stay in Taiwan, we were able to budget the whole load in our easy card. You can purchase easy card inside the airport or even in 7-11 stores. 

Easy card

If you are spontaneous like me, MRT system has its brochure which you can look to. You may plan your destinations based on the stations that you may see in the brochure. They've included a lot of attractions for each train stations. As you can see, all lines may it be red, blue or brown are connected with each other. Indeed, an organized mode of transportation system in Taiwan!

Street of Taipei is very instagrammable!

Aside from the fact that all tourist spots are easily accessible, some of the destinations does not have entrance fee. Make sure to include this in your itinerary.

⧪⧪ National Palace Museum ⧪⧪

If you are interested to know more about the Chinese culture and history. I highly encourage you to visit this place. This museum is well-known for its artifacts and to tell you, they host the largest number of artifacts compared with forbidden city in Beijing. 

How to get there?

• From Taipei Main Station, ride an MRT going to Red Line Shilin Station, fare is NTD15 which is payable by the use of easy card
• From Shilin Station, board a bus with R30 sign, fare is NTD15 going to the National palace museum.

You may opt to visit Shilin Night Market once you go back. Shilin is one of the best night market in Taipei.

Know more about Taiwan: Authentic street food market in the heart of Asia

⧪⧪ Chiang Kai Shek Memorial ⧪⧪

This is one of the known historical landmark in Taiwan. This was erected in honor and memory of the late former president of  the Republic of China, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. Located near Chiang Kai Shek is the presidential office which resembles to a beautiful Japanese style buiding.

Presidential Office Building

Outside the Presidential Office Building

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

Chiang Kai-Shek, former President of the Republic of China

How to get there?

• From Taipei Main Station, you may take a Red line or Green Line to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial or C.K.S Memorial Hall.

⧪⧪ Sun-Yat Sen Memorial Hall  ⧪⧪

This hall is a tribute for the founder of Republic of China, Dr. Sun-Yat Sen. The hall offers a lot of Sun's accomplishments from the revolution of Qing Dynasty. With no entrance fee, the hall is open for exhibition and appealing attractions such as contemporary art exhibitions, historical documentary and photo exhibits.  We also had an opportunity to witness the hourly exchanging of guards. 

Outside Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Memorial, people of Taiwan uses it as a practicing area. You will also see a glimpse of Taipei 101 which is the 2nd tallest building in the world.

Hourly exchanging of guards inside the memorial hall. 

The museum displays the accomplishments of the founder of Republic of China.

How to get there?

• From Taipei Main Station, take the blue line to Sun-Yat Sen Memorial Hall or S.Y.S. Memorial Hall.

Overall, this trip will not be complete without knowing where it all started. Visiting a country is a great way to know more about their culture and history. 

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