📚 Taipei D02: Letterpress, Eslite, Ximending

We started our day at Yong He Soymilk near Ximending (where our Airbnb was) - which i realised now it’s not the original one LOL but ok anyway 😝

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📇 01 | Ri Xing Type Foundry

📍 No. 13號, Lane 97, Taiyuan Rd, Datong District, Taipei City, Taiwan 103

We took the metro and got off at Taipei Main Station, and then walked about 15 mins to Ri Xing Type Foundry. This was an old school foundry that offers custom made metal stamping using traditional chinese characters! (and i think this is the last of its kind in Taiwan!!)

The cost to make your own chinese letter stamp was also very reasonable, i think it was ~SGD8 for 3 chinese characters. Just simply write the chinese characters you want on a piece of paper, and pass it to the store attendant :D They will find the characters for you and do the rest of the work!

📚 02 | Eslite Spectrum

📍 No. 14, Nanjing West Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei 10491 Taiwan

There are many Eslite stores (誠品書店) around Taipei - all around Taiwan actually! If you have to stop by one department store, it really has to be Eslite 😍 Apart from being a book store (imagine kinokuniya-level!!), they sell branded items and also feature smaller local arts and crafts. There is so much to see that I think easily half a day could be spent at an Eslite store!

🏠 03 | Ximending Red House

📍 No. 10, Chengdu Rd, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

The Red House is a must-visit if you are in the Ximending area. Besides its wonderfully restored architecture, the place really comes alive at night, with bars and bazaars spilled over onto the streets. On the inside, there are local creators selling their crafts as well.

This was my third time here and i did notice the crowd was significantly lesser (i did go on a weekday afternoon though), and there were lesser creators selling their stuff 😢 I remembered the second floor having retail shops too, but they are now replaced with standees for photo taking. Not sure if this is due to covid :(