MRT XINBEITOU Station (新北投站)

[This post will be updated if new information about places around the station comes available. 🙂 ]

From Beitou Station take the Xinbeitou Line to Xinbeitou Station where you can experience hot-spring bathing. Also visit the Taipei Hot Spring Museum and the Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch both inside Beitou Hot Spring Park, and also the Thermal Valley and Beitou Museum, both north of the park.

Beitou Hot Spring Museum (北投溫泉博物館)

Built in 1913, this was Taiwan’s first public bathhouse and at the time East Asia’s largest spa. The large bath on the first floor features Romanesque columns and arches, and the second has a large Japanese-style tatami room. The museum shows cultural artifacts and historical materials about bathing culture, spa history, and local customs.

Add: 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2893-9981 (Closed on Monday and national holidays)
Website: hotspringmuseum.taipei

Beitou Garden Spa (北投親水公園露天溫泉浴池)

In addition to its upscale hot-spring inns and bathhouses, Beitou also offers less-expensive facilities, such as the six public-use outdoor pools, ranging from 38 to 42 degrees Celsius, at the Beitou Garden Spa, in Beitou Park by the Beitou Creek. Mineral-soaking joy awaits for just NT$40.

Add: 6, Zhongshan Rd., Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2897-2260 (Open 5:30-22:00)

Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch
(臺北市立圖書館北投分館)

Also located inside Beitou Hot Spring Park, between the museum and the public pools, is an interesting building that resembles a giant ark. This is the Beitou Branch of the Taipei Public Library, an ultra-efficient modern building constructed with protection of the environment in mind and offering a pleasant space for reading and studying. Opened to the public in 2006, the library is housed in an award-winning green building with such features as solar panels on the roof, rainfall capturing/storage systems, and a design that keeps power consumption to a minimum.

Add: No. 251, Guangming Rd., Beitou Dist., Taipei City
( 臺北市北投區光明路251號 )
Tel: (02) 2897-7682

Plum Garden Beitou (北投梅庭)

Built in the 1930s, once a summer getaway for famed Taiwan calligrapher Yu You-ren, this official city heritage site has a spacious, well-shaded courtyard, a bomb shelter beneath the wooden Japanese-style structure, an exhibit on the architecture, and a tourist information center.

Add: No. 6, Zhongshan Rd., Taipei City
(台北市北投區中山路6號)
Tel: (02) 2897-2647 (closed on Monday and national holidays)

Beitou Garden Spa (北投公園露天溫泉)

In addition to its upscale hot-spring inns and bathhouses, Beitou also offers less-expensive facilities, such as the six public-use outdoor pools, ranging from 38 to 42 degrees, at the Beitou Garden Spa, in Beitou Park by the Beitou Creek. Mineral-soaking joy awaits for just NT$40.

Add: No. 6, Zhongshan Rd., Taipei City
(台北市北投區中山路6號)
Tel: (02) 2897-2260 (Open 5:30-22:00)

Ketagalan Culture Center (凱達格蘭文化館)

Taiwan’s first multifunction culture center with its indigenous tribes as focus, this facility introduces the history and lifestyles of Taiwan’s Ketagalan and other indigenous peoples, and stages periodical exhibits on indigenous artifacts, artworks, etc., bringing visitors more in-depth understanding of the groups’ historical and cultural development.

Add: No. 3-1, Zhongshan Rd., Taipei City
(台北市北投區中山路3-1號)
Tel: (02) 2898-6500 (closed on Monday)
Website: www.ketagalan.gov.taipei

Beitou Museum (北投文物館)

This complex of Japanese-style architecture was built in 1921. Originally the Kazan Inn, Beitou’s premier hot-spring inn, it is said that during WW II the facility served as a final rest and entertainment venue for kamikaze pilots before their missions. Today a cultural arts exhibition space, visitors can also experience traditional tea-ceremony culture and kaiseki cuisine.

Add: No. 32, Youya Rd., Taipei City
(台北市北投區幽雅路32號 )
Tel: (02) 2891-2318 ext. 9 (closed on Monday)
Website: www.beitoumuseum.org.tw

Heart Village (中心新村)

This is a rare Taipei sight – a fully preserved military dependents’ village. Fully preserved as a testament to history, like Gongguan’s Treasure Hill it’s now registered as an official “historical village.” Stroll among the buildings to feel the charms of old-time military dependents’ villages. The annual Taipei Military Dependents’ Villages Cultural Festival will be held here in November.

Add: No. 52, Xinmin Rd., Taipei City
(entrance at junction of Ln. 22 and Ln. 46, Xinmin Rd.)
(台北市北投區新民路52號)

Solo Singer Life

This café of great character, hidden down a quiet alley off Wenquan Road, is in a converted old residence. The exterior is prettied with a large mural. Inside, designer goods and handmade sundry goods are sold, and exhibits and cultural-arts performances are periodically presented, imbuing the space with a cultured air.

Add: No. 1, Aly. 1, Ln. 7, Wenquan St., Taipei City
(台北市北投區溫泉路7巷1弄1號)
Tel: (02) 2891-8312 (Closed on Monday)

If you are the adventurous type, note that you can do rock climbing in Beitou as well. Check out Outdoor Fun: BEITOU Rock-Climbing.

Hotels in the Area

Spa Spring Resort (水都溫泉會館)

Located next to Thermal Valley, Spa Spring Resort provides high-quality sulfur hot-spring water, rich in microelements and minerals and with outstanding skin care and health-promoting properties. Each guestroom has a hot-spring bath tub where private hot-spring bathing can be enjoyed. For families and groups, the large outdoor furo public hot-spring pool offers fine views and relaxing soaking in an open space.The resort hotel also has three eateries, Shui-Yue Restaurant, Fu Kitchen, and Full Coffee that meet different food and drink requirements. Shui-Yue Restaurant serves creative Taiwanese cuisine and has premium private wings where guests can dine, sing, enjoy a hot-spring bath and stay overnight. Next to the hotel main entrance you will find a hot-spring egg boiling facility where fun can be had boiling eggs in a small bamboo basket, an activity that is very popular with children and adults alike.

Add: No. 283, Guangming Rd., Beitou Dist., Taipei City
(台北市北投區光明路251號)
Tel: (02) 2897-9060
Website: www.spaspringresort.com.tw