台湾春天之旅 2013-Crash course to taking trains in Taiwan

A few of my friends asked me about taking trains in Taiwan after my trips. Seems difficult to some trying to figure out the steps. But if you really try to understand enough, it is not that difficult after all.

That being said, we don't really have a railway system in Singapore, unless you count KTM which most of us don't even take.

So before I forget my experiences, let me document down what I have learnt from my previous trips.

Prior to my trips, I will always refer to Taiwan Railways Adminstration (TRA) website to check out timings of the train. This is pretty essential if you are travelling longer distance like to Taichung or South Taiwan.

Also, it is useful to plan you trip if you interested to travel to Pingxi or Jiji Line where train frequencies are not that high.

http://twtraffic.tra.gov.tw/twrail/English/e_index.aspx#

Of course, this is presuming if you know the English name of the station and the subline or area you are travelling to.

Subline/station selections

Using "Quick Search"  you select the Area/Subline you are taking, then followed by the station.
I always google the station name if I am not too sure which area/subline the station falls under.

For instance when travelling to Ershui which is the transfer station for Jiji Line, I mistakenly thought it is under Taichung Line(台中） but in fact it falls under Changhua Line(章化）and I didn't know Changhua has its own line. All along I thought it is part of Taichung.

Select the area & station name

Trains type/ date selection

I usually will select All types of train since express trains don't stop at smaller stations and their frequencies are not that high. Local train though have higher frequencies and cheaper travelling prices but it has 1 of the longest travelling time too as it will stop at every station along the way. Also, you are not guarantee a seat in local train. So it pretty much depends on your requirements.

Since I planned way before the trip, the selection of my desired date might not be available. I think the latest you can see is 2months from the day you are checking. Usually I will select the day that is similar to my travelling day. i.e if I plan to take this particular route on a Tuesday, I would select a Tuesday to check out the schedules.

Not that the difference would be big but some routes have extra trips on weekends so if you travelling on a weekday, there might be no such timing.

Hit "Search" after you selected all the require fields

Search results

Search results

A list of timing of trains will be reflected in the results screen. Here, estimated time of departure/ arrival will be shown. Fares and estimated travelling time will also be indicated.

If you click on the train code, it will also show the list of stations that the train passes through. It is not very essential but I usually will print it out so that I know if I am nearing my destination during travel.

List of stations

With these, it makes things much easier while planning my trip and also the cost of travel.

Of course the timings here are indicative. You will only get to know whether there is any delay during the actual travelling day.

Purchasing of tickets

I did not figure out how to buy tickets from the machines and thus I always queued up at the counter to purchase the tickets. All you have to do is to tell the sales your destination and time of train you wanna take and no. of tickets.

If you really must take any particular timing, it is best if you booked or purchase before hand as tickets might be sold out especially on weekends on the more popular routes. We didn't managed to get on the 9am train bound to Ruifang on a Saturday as it was sold out. End up taking a later train and missed the connecting Pingxi train. The day's schedules got pushed back quite a lot.

I did try to purchase advance tickets 1 day prior to my departure as I am afraid of it getting sold out. But the stress is that you have to stick strictly to the timing while preparing to leave the place. 

Train schedules at stations

If you did not check the timings before hand, you can do so at the station too. For example in Taipei Main station, there is a huge board indicating the trains for the day and whether they would be on time or delayed.

But here, they would only show where the train is bound and not the list of stations the train will pass thru so unless you know which line to take, the information is pretty useless.

Alternatively you can check with the counter staff but it would jammed up the queue and also you will be hurried to make the decision once you are informed of the next train timing during long queues or peak hours.

I don't really like this kind of feeling and thus would check before hand. 

Train schedules at Taipei Main station

Train schedules in Keelung station

Train scheules in Taichung station

 But if you are at smaller stations travelling within the subline, you can just depend on the timings in the station as the frequency is pretty fast. It just depend on the fact on whether you want to pay more of a ticket on the express train or less for local train ticket. Difference would not be substantial unless you are on really tight budget.

When we are travelled between Jiaoxi (礁溪）， Yilan （宜兰） & Luodong (罗东）. We brought the tickets from sales counter by checking their printed schedules. If you are not travelling far from the subline, it is not very essential to check the timing beforehand even if you want to travel on impromptu to other parts in Yilan line. But you must also know which side to take as there are 2 routes, 1 travelling towards Taipei and the other towards Taitung.

I did however, print out a list of stations before and after Jiaoxi to understand the direction of train I will be taking. It is not too difficult as we can check with the counter staff. The stations here are smaller and thus there will only be 1 or 2 ticketing counters.

I am not sure whether the ticketing counter staff can speak English or not as I conversed in Mandarin with them.

Train schedules in Jiaoxi station

Similarly when we are at Ershui(二水) checking timing back to Taichung station(台中）, we checked using their printed schedules. Reason being, we are a bit out of our initial planning and I didn't prepared other timings print out to check. The schedules are quite easy to understand for they did state the timing and stations the train will make a stop.

But here, it is totally in chinese so you must really be able read the words. If all else fails, ask. I am sure someone might be able to help though.

Train schedule in Ershui station

 Boarding the train

It is essential to know where to board your train in Taiwan train stations for there are usually 2 platforms. 1 serves the clockwise direction and the other the anticlockwise. 

But for the case of Taipei station, there are 4 platforms, 3A, 3B, 4A & 4B, that is if my memory does not failed me. You will need to check which platform to go to upon entering the station since the train stops for a while only, you might not have enough time to rush to the correct platform. I usually will double confirm with the station master while entering the station. 

As a rough guide, Platform 3A serves Western line South bound trains going to Banqiao, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Pingtung. 

Platform 3B serves Eastern Line Northbound train going to Banqiao, Shulin.

Platform 4A Western Line North bound trains going to Song Shan, Keelung

Platform 4B serves Eastern Line South bound train going to Yilan, Hualien, Taitung, Kaohsiung

For instance, if you are going to Jiaoxi which is on Yilan line, you should wait for your train at Platform 4B. 

Even that, since the train frequency is high, you should check the train no. of the arriving train. Usually prior to the train arrival, the indicating board would display the arriving train information, stations it is passing through etc. They would also have English display but you must be alert enough not to miss. 

The next arriving train might not be yours since there can be a delay or you might be too early. 

Announcing arrival of the train

 Kmowing which type of train you are taking also helps as you can differentiate by the train's outlook whether it is local train, Chu-Kuang Express, Tze-Chiang Express or Taroko Express. Usually Express trains will skip quite a lot of smaller stations and thus if you board it accidentally, you might end up somewhere far from your destination.
 

Local train

Chu Kuang express train

Taroko Express train

 

Tze Chiang Express on the right

All stations will indicate the general direction of the trains, so its a rough guide for you to know where to board the train. 

Understanding the train tickets

Train tickets for Express trains like Chu-Kuang, Tze-Chiang and Taroko pretty much look the same.
It will state Train number, departure and arrival station, estimated departure and arrival time, carriage number, Seat number and price of tickets. Not difficult to understand in my opinion.

Tickets for Tze Chiang Express

 An experience of us is once while travelling back to Taipei station, we board an Express train while holding a local train ticket. Being the 1st time there, we did not even know we board the wrong train.

All we did is asked whether the train is going back to Taipei and hoped on happily and found seats. And there is no train master to check our tickets, perhaps due to the short distance from Song Shan to Taipei.

But as we are exiting Taipei station, the station master informed us that we had board the wrong train, tickets are more expensive for Express train and thus we are "fined". I forgot the amount but since it's for 1 station only, it is not too expensive.

Tickets for Chu Kuang Express

After that, I make it a point to check whether it is the correct train we are boarding. For if you are travelling on long distance, you might not get a seat with the wrong tickets as seats are pre-assigned during purchase. You are also subjected to a fine if you board the train of higher amount that your tickets.

There are train masters checking your tickets on long distance trains. Usually they will start checking when the trains moves out of Taipei district.

Tickets for Taroko Express

Tickets for local train however, have no train and seat numbers stated. Its free seating on the carriages. You will have to surrender the tickets while exiting the station for some reason unknown to me.

Tickets for Local train

This is basically what I have gathered during my 3 trips to Taiwan. We used the railway more intensively during the most recent trip and is impressed by their system. Cheap and efficient it makes travelling through the cities a breeze. Hope it does help :)

台湾春天之旅 2013- Dinner in Hsin Chu (新竹凤城之月)

After our visit to  Natural Science Museum, it was time to make our way to airport for our night departure. 姗姗姐had offered to drive us up from Taichung but we declined as it is too far journey. The Taiwanese 热情 was not to be underestimated and thus we settled to let her drive us to 新竹 where we will catch a HSR to Taoyuan and transfer to the airport. This is on the pretext that we are accompanying her back to 新竹 from 台中...

The journey to 新竹 is ard 1 hr and she kept telling us it pretty near..We were so apologetic as she had drove from 新竹 the day before down to 台中 where she stayed at her parents' hse for a night before picking us up this morning. Even her parents' place is a good 45 min away from where we are staying. Faints...

Anyways, before dropping us at the HSR station, she suggested dinner as there is still abit of time left and we left the choice to her since she is the 地头蛇 hahaa..She brought us to this special restaurant named 凤城之月..The 之 is actually a Japanese word "no" since I am unable to type it out, I translated it to chinese. Hee..

Menu that looks like a textbook

The restaurant is decorated to be like the olden days of Taiwan. Its like we are seated amidst an old street in the 60's of Taiwan having our dinner. They have quite an array of display of olden days toys, discs and also make shift barber hse, provision stalls street vendors, moive theater that let you have a glimpse of the olden Taiwan.

As we were rushing for time, I didnt have the time to go ard taking pictures of this special restaurant. Furthermore, it is quite rude to leave my host there alone while we venture to take photos. So, I settled for whatever is infront of me and took some photos. Hehe.

Chapter 1

Even the menu was designed to be like an old chinese textbook, with chapters inside separating the various specialities they have to offer.  Again, we told 姗姗姐 to make the decisions of what to order.

Chapter 2

姗姗姐 decided to order Hakka cuisine（客家菜) as she reckon that we didnt really try it in Taiwan before. True enuff, Mr Love and I usually will concentrate on the 小吃that Taiwan had to offer.. Haha.. So here's what we had:

1). Pork stir fry with 竹笋

I am not a veggie lover, in fact can be consider a carnivore  and thus for this dish, I totally didnt touch the bamboo shoots, only eating the meat. Though it is abit impolite to do this infront of our host, she totally can understand me since we had meals together prior to this. Hehe..

The pork served is super tender and when stir fryed together with bamboo shoots, cashew nuts, chilies and some other veggies I cannot pin point, gives it a very fragrant taste.

Stir fry pork with bamboo shoots

2). 水莲根

I do not know the english name of this dish but I was told that this is a speciality in Taiwan. I had neber seen it in SG before. But since it looks similar to my favourite 豆苗, I decided to give it a try. This is stir fry with mushrooms and 枸杞子 and is quite tasty. The taste is similar of that to 豆苗 and thus I can accept it better though. We polish this off the plate in record time.

水莲根

3). Hakka Style chickedn - 白斩鸡

This is similar to our SG version of Hainanese chicken. The version here is steamed too I believed. The meat is tender and juicy. This is not much of a surprise to us due to the similarity of it to the SG version. But if you really want a comparison, I can only say that the chicken they served here tastes fresher than ours. Haha

Hakka 白斩鸡

4). Salted egg bittergourd - 咸蛋苦瓜

I nearly fainted when I saw this dish served. This is my nemesis. Not only I neber eatten bitter gourd before, any dishes that have this in them, I totally stay away. I mean who likes bitter taste? But then I was too paiseh to decline to try this by now given that I didnt touch the bamboo shoots earlier.

Furthermore,  姗姗姐 keep saying that Taiwanese bitter gourd is not bitter at all. I was not convince at least, if bitter gourd is not bitter that the name itself will be an irony isnt it?

Well, I am a big gal now, I cannot always pout my out of such situations and I decided to give it a chance since it is stir fry with salted egg(my favourite 配料）。

I took a small piece coated with alot of salted egg and tried. Surprisingly, there isnt any tinge of bitter taste to it. Zero, nil, zilch! 姗姗姐 was rite! The bitter gourd in Taiwan is not bitter at all...Yay... All I can taste is the salted egg taste..Furthermore, they have fry the bitter gourd till so soft that it is not crunchy..Another yay since I hated crunchy veggies. Haha.

She later told me that she dun understand why the bitter gourd she brought in SG is always so bitter as compared to the Taiwan version. Neither do I! haha I cannot give her an explaination too..

This is indeed a nice dish and I too helped to finish them all. The bitter gourd I eaten here is more than what I have took in the past 29 years of my life. Haha..

咸蛋苦瓜

The billed came out to around NTD 1000 which is about SGD 50, in my opinion its quite the price since the ambience is good and interesting. I would love have more time here to take pictures of the special settings they had but we are simply rushing for time. Perhaps the next visit, I would be able to appreciate the settings more :)

Restaurant page

台湾春天之旅 2013- Random stuff - Donations of another kind

Not sure whether you notice but the receipt that you get at the stores is actually also a lottery ticket. This is known as 统一发票 (uniform receipt) in Taiwan. 

I actually didnt know of this when I 1st visit Taiwan in 2010 as I usually will not keep receipts. It is Mr Love who told me that it is also a lottery ticket and the draw date is every alternate month. But since we are always there for a short period of time, this is of no use to us.

But then, I did notice there will be an old lady standing infront of the 7-11 in Ximending during night fall, waiting to collect the receipts that any 1 is willing to give her. So, I always make it a point to keep the receipts from my purchases in the day and will pass all to her when we go and make our usual night snacks purchase from the 7-11. Not sure whether did she win anything but I didnt see her for my next 2 trips oredi, I hope she did though, as she look pretty poor.

Bento shop at Taipei main station

As you go ard Taipei, you can smtimes find bins that collect receipts that states that the winnings will be donated to some charity. If I am not able to give away the receipts, I will usually put in the receipts as I come across the bins.

Instead of throwing them away, why not do someting good? For all you noe, yours might be a winning ticket that can help others.

I am not able to remember the exact place of these bins but can recall 1 as I took a photo of it. Its located outside the bento shop in Taipei Main station near to the West 3 gate. This is where I deposit my 5days worth of receipts into. Hope it does help someone :)

The donation bin

台湾春天之旅 2013-Taichung National Museum of Natural Science (国立自然科学博物馆）

This is 1 of the most recommended place to visit when I was doing research about places of interest in Taichung. Many had raved about the interesting exhibitions they had to offer here though you will need to understand chinese as all the introductions are written in chinese.

As Mr Love has no interest in shopping, I guess this might be a good place for us to kill time before departing for Tao Yuan for our night flight.

From Taichung station, bus 71,83,88 goes to National Museum of Natural Science however, I am not sure of the alighting point as Shan Shan Jie had offered to drive us here from Taichung station. It was quite a distance it seems but I am glad she is with us as we can leave our luggage in her car rather than at the hotel where we will need to go back n collect before departing.

Entrance tickets

We were wowed by the huge area of this museum when we 1st reached. Its like I dun even noe where to start visiting from. With only 2 hrs here, we only intend to visit the permanent exhibits and thus only brough tickets to the exhibit halls which cost NTD 100/pax.

Entrance to 3D Theatre, space theatre, greenhouse and science center are charged separately. We wanted to catch the 3D show but the next show time is quite rush for us and thus we gave up.

Outside the museum

Mammoth

Not knowing where to start with, we went to the 1st exhibition that we saw - Gateway to the living world. The exhibits are all magnified thousands of times to allow you to see the structure of things that we thought we knew.

A big ass bug

Jelly fish

 We moved on quickly to the next exhibit - The origin of life. Here, they showcases planet earth 3.8 million years ago where there is no oxygen present and then slowly move to the beginning of life.. There are some interactive stations here that you can try your hands on to further understand structure of DNA etc..

Beginning of Life in planet Earth

Evolution of marine life

We also saw the showcase of the reproduction stages of different animals here. Though some of the things here we had learnt during my primary school days but it kinda open our eyes up more with the various exhibits.

Fetus in different animals

You can tell that the exhibits are abit aged given their colour and display but these are the facts that wun changed for the next 1000yrs. Personally, I like the idea of having such a museum for the kids to visit and learnt through interactive ways outside the classrooms.

While here, we saw a few school trips and the kids are all having fun while the teacher tries explain to them the facts.

Mama snake and her eggs

乌龟下蛋

 We move on to Taking landing area where the journey of animals from water to land takes place some 400million years ago are explained to us. Here, certain reptiles are showcased as examples.

Explanations all in Chinese wordings

African Crocodile

Dimetrodon

Then came the Dinosaurs age where many replicas of dinosaurs fossils, footprints, shells are displayed.

There also 4 robot like dinosaurs on displayed here which actually gave me a fright when I went near them. They have limited moving abilites, trying to re-create how a real life dinosaur should behave and the sounds they would male.

Mr T-Rex and his smaller friend

My teacher once told me that taller dinos are plant eaters

Hunch back

Coming out of the enclosure

Velociraptor- Which I am most turn off by

Mummy and her babies

We are no big fans of dinosaurs but we spent the most time here, trying to read every introduction they did on the various dinos. It is interesting and most certainly educational.

I cannot stop laughing at this camo dino hiding on level 2

Moving on quickly through the 2 other exhibitions- Taking flight & Extinction we came to The Evolution and Adaptability of Mammals.

The gallery shows selective animals and how they try to adapt to live on Earth. Some of the facts here are not known to us prior to coming here. Its like we came here on a study trip. Haha. We moved thru the museum pretty quickly from here as Shan Shan Jie was due to pick us up and send us to the airport for our return flight. 

The bear and I

Kangaroo

Zebra

Duck mouth dunno wat..

And of cuz the primates

Our short stay visit here was indeed an eye opener. The museum do have lots of other exhibits that we did not have time to see. A full half day here would be good if you wanna decently look at what they have to offer.

I was very impressed by the scale of this musuem and judging from the outlook it was started for quite sometime. It does gives every 1 who visits an insight of life million or billion years ago. For us, it won hands down as compared to visit a shopping centre here.. Shopping can be done anytime when we are back in SG but having missed this, we would not have a chance to see in SG.

If we ever go back with our kids in tow, I will be sure to spend time here..

National Museum of Natural Science
One Guancian Road
Taichung, Taiwan 404

Closed on Mondays