20 Best Places to Go Shopping in Taipei

The ATT 4 Fun department store is home to many big international fashion brands, as well as some of the top nightclubs in the city and a 500-seat auditorium. You can expect to find clothes and accessories by the likes of Zara, Che Che New York, Nami&Yami and GAP, making it a great place for trendy shoppers.

The building’s fifth floor has a small but good choice of restaurants. You’ll also find chic homeware and handmade cosmetics among the items for sale.

Bellavita styles itself as a bespoke luxury mall, specialising in high-quality retailing in chic surroundings. The classical-styled building contains 9 levels, with cathedral-like stone construction, high ceilings, and a relatively small selection of high quality stores.

Names like Vera Wang, Yohji Yamamoto, Giorgio Armani and Tiffany & Co. grace its floors and the B1 level contains an art gallery alongside a Lamborghini showroom. The very bottom floor (B2) contains an almost incomparable food court while the upper levels hold some of the top restaurants in the city.

Breeze Center is a massive mall on Fuxing South Road, stretching from a supermarket on B2 up to a cinema on the 9th floor. In between, you’ll find an impressive number of high and mid-range quality stores, such as Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, UNIQLO, and Jimmy Choo. There are also a number of restaurants, falling into a similar quality and price bracket.

Breeze Center is the star of the Breeze brand, with Breeze II and Breeze Taipei Station offering similar experiences in other areas of the city.

Sometimes also known as Living Mall, the Core Pacific City shopping mall is distinctly recognisable for the 11-storey granite-clad sphere in front. Deservedly described as a city within a city, it goes 12 floors up and seven underground.

The mall is home to an extensive Mira Department Store selling premium trendy designer labels, an extensive range of restaurants, a large cinema and 1,650 sqm of floor space devoted to pampering and cosmetics. The Shoes Gallery on 1F is particularly impressive. Also 1,650 sqm, it has over 10,000 items of footwear to choose from and a foot spa for when trying them all on gets to be too much.

Dihua Street in Datong District is best known for its busy New Year’s Market. Thousands flock here for Chinese New Year to buy their essential supplies, including decorations, gifts and food. At every other time of the year, the stores on this street offer traditional goods at fair prices, with wares including Chinese medicine, incenses, spices and handicrafts. It’s said to be the oldest street in Taipei, so many of the stores are in beautiful historical buildings and the street has a distinctive olde-worlde charm.

At of the 4-floor Eslite Spectrum Mall its heart is the extremely popular bookstore brand Eslite. This is surrounded by a selection of boutique stores, generally selling what you might call cultural or artistic products. This includes unique handicrafts on the 2nd floor and high-end fashion on the 1st floor.

The third floor is billed as ‘Tea with books’ and is home to the bookstore with a choice of cafés. The B2 level has a great food court, an art gallery and a performance hall. Eslite Spectrum Mall is situated right next to Songshan Cultural Park and is a good place to find something different and highly cultural in Taipei.

Far Eastern SOGO covers 14 spacious floors of big brand shopping, mostly focusing on fashion. You’ll find everything from children’s wear to sports equipment, to lingerie and accessories, as well as practically everything in between.

There is a supermarket on the very bottom floor (B2) and an events hall on the very top (12F). There is also a good range of restaurants on 11F. If you are looking for an extensive clothes shopping experience for the whole family, there is nowhere better in Taipei. Conveniently, it is connected directly to the Zhongxiaofuxing MRT Station.

Guang Hua Digital Plaza is a kind of a flea market for second-hand computers and books. Inside the 6-storey mall where the Zhongzheng and Da’an districts meet, you can buy CDs, computer parts, and other electronics at very reasonable prices. Up on the top floor, you’ll find plenty of repair shops for restoring some life to your old computers. The market is very competitive, so there is a lot of scope for bargaining.

More commonly known as Snake Alley for its unique food offerings, Huaxi Street Night Market is a unique shopping experience in the Wanhua District of Taipei. Food highlights famously include deer penis, turtle testicles and the snake meat and blood which gave the market its nickname. Dishes containing Chinese herbs and medicine are also very popular.

The entrance to the market is marked with a traditional Chinese gate. This leads to a bizarre collection of stalls and stores which are extremely popular with tourists. Huaxi Street Night Market is very close to the smaller Guangzhou and Wuzhou night markets and Longshan Temple, making it a good place to start for a tour of this ancient part of the city.

Jianguo Weekend Jade and Flower Market is located in a car park underneath an overpass, but remains one of the top places in the city to find great souvenirs. As the name suggests, the market takes place every weekend (and holidays) and specialises in flowers and jade goods, including bracelets and Buddhist charms. You will also find some stalls selling other trinkets and handicrafts. The colourful and fragrant displays make it a very popular place, with both tourists and locals. A small artists’ corner adjacent to the main market is also a popular attraction.

Miramar Entertainment Park certainly earns its name, being home to one of the tallest Ferris wheels in Taiwan and also one of the largest cinema screens. The fat that it’s also a great shopping mall is practically a bonus.

The mall’s 6 floors are home to mid-range and top-class stores like Chanel, Roberta di Camerino and Montblanc. Unlike other malls in Taipei, the focus is not exclusively on fashion. There’s also a great range of sports equipment, toys, accessories and cosmetics available, and there's a very good food court, too.

Ningxia Night Market boasts a cool old-Taiwan style and is noted for its distinctiveness. It’s best known for its traditional gourmet snacks like fried taro balls, oyster omelette and Imperial Guangdong Porridge. The fact that they’re all sold at affordable prices makes it as popular with locals as it is with tourists.

There are also old-school arcade attractions and quirky stalls around the market. One of Taipei’s older markets, the 300-metre market is also a popular place for buying Chinese New Year goodies.

The oldest of the city’s night markets, the 600m length of Raohe Street has been a popular tourist attraction since 1987. Passing through the decorative archway at the entrance to the road, shoppers face a great variety of shops and stands. Wares range from a huge variety of food to electrical goods, games, DVDs, beauty products, clothing and accessories to a small amusement arcade for the kids. Its popularity means that it does get very busy which can make it uncomfortably cramped.

The main attraction is the street food, and you can often spot TV crews working on cookery programmes among the impressive selection of stands selling local dishes and delicacies. Top dishes include spare ribs stewed in Chinese herbal medicine, oyster vermicelli, and spicy stinky tofu.

Found in a trendy part of town, behind the National Taiwan Normal University, Shida Night Market is famous for its fashion. Many of the stalls and stores in the network of side-streets off Shida Road are run by young entrepreneurs selling their unique designs. You will often also find young musicians practising their trade and a good range of local and traditional food offerings. The market is very popular with the local students and has an almost bohemian, boutique feel to it. If you’re looking for something a bit different, you’ll probably find it here.

The biggest and most famous of the many night markets in Taiwan, the sprawling Shilin Night Market, it is always busy with locals and tourists. Much of the central market is covered to protect it from the rain, but the shopping opportunities spread around the surrounding streets, making the whole area a paradise for bargain hunters.

Particularly popular wares on offer include souvenirs, clothes and over 500 food stalls. You’ll find plenty of Chinese tea sets, ceramics and pottery, which make for interesting and original gifts. A visit to the brightly-lit and vibrant market is all but considered a must for any visit to Taipei.

The Taipei Station store is the biggest and most popular of the 4 Shin Kong Mitsukoshi malls in Taipei. Housed inside the Shin Kong Tower, it has a broad range of stores, covering brands from the budget end of the spectrum up to the top end. Noted for having practically anything you could possibly want as well as being perfectly placed at the heart of several transport networks, it is effectively a one-stop shopping experience. As a bonus, the food court is big and is joined by a good collection of eateries.

Tianmu Creative Market is found in the suburbs of Taipei where many western expats live, so you can expect to find mostly western wares on sale. Especially popular is the food, with plenty of foreign delicacies available from market stalls and surrounding stores.

Other than food, you’re likely to find plenty of clothes and accessories, as well as Buddhist statuettes, bone china and jade ornaments, many of them pre-loved. With no trader registration required, each weekend’s market is unique as vendors come and go.

Occupying the first few floors of the iconic Taipei 101 tower at the heart Xinyi District, Taipei 101 Mall specialises in luxurious shops from around the world. The mall stretches from the food court on B1 to financial services and digital products on 5F, with floors of fashion and fine dining in between. Top-end boutiques like French Connection, Armani Exchange and Versace are among the many well-known brands available. Naturally, the mall’s setting is one of luxury, featuring a lot of smooth lines and white marble.

Taipei City Mall is divided into 3 sections, selling clothing, electronics and food. With its heritage as a market, the wares on sale are generally (though not universally) on the budget end of the scale. You can also find street musicians playing and massage shops. If you are an anime lover, this place comes highly recommended for its range of specialist stores and stalls.

Wufenpu specialises in clothes, to the extent that it is sometimes referred to as the city’s garment district. It is sometimes also referred to as a wholesale district because of its remarkably low prices and, sure enough, buying in bulk can give extra savings.

Over 1,000 stores sell the latest fashion trends, catering to all ages. Women’s and kid’s clothing is particularly common, as are discount racks, but you will still find plenty of men’s items. Big brands are not widely represented, but top fashions (at a fraction of the high street prices) are.