Jason Panuelos | The Dapper Drone: Taiwan 2017 Part 8 | Shopping in Taipei: Zhongxiao & Ximending

After almost a week of going around the different parts of Taiwan, I was honestly just so excited to be back in Taipei because re-exploring the city after almost 7 years is what I really wanted to do. As much as I wanted to spend more time though, the time that was given to me to do this was literally not even half a day thanks to the tour. And we would already be leaving for Manila the next day. :(

We arrived in Taipei at about 3 in the afternoon and they made a quick stop at Taipei 101 for a quick photo. Let's face it, there's not really much to do in 101 unless you want to take a photo or you're really into shopping high-end stuff so we quickly moved on. The tour was actually supposed to go to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial and National Museum next, but I've visited both twice so I used that time to get dropped off at the road nearest to Zhongxiao with my siblings because I've honestly been dying to authentically experience the city without a tour group.

After about 3 minutes of walking we finally reached the Zhongxiao Road on the Dunhua side. I've been dying to check this area out for about 3 years now and I was really happy to finally get here. Zhongxiao actually has 2 main districts - Zhongxiao Dunhua & Zhongxiao Fuxing - both of which you can easily access by train! It's actually pretty hard to read on these areas because there's not a lot of info out there except to say that this is where the hipster crowds of Taipei like to go - so I'll try to explain it as best as I can!

This is the main Zhongxiao Road that you'll get out of from the subway. The really big road is where the big stores are like ZARA, Forever 21, etc. However, if you want to access the hipster areas with all the small stores and cafes, you simply just have to go to the streets parallel to this one. So take any alley you can find on this street on either side and this will lead you to smaller streets where the cafes and random stores are and just explore away!

GU in the distance!!! Definitely one of the things on the agenda when I visited Zhongxiao. However, I will say that generally affordable places like GU and UNIQLO in Taiwan are shockingly pricey - similar to K-Beauty where they're priced similarly here in the Philippines except you change the currency to theirs. For example, PHP590 shorts here in Manila would be NT$590 in Taipei which is almost double the price! But I do recommend looking in the sale piles because those are still insanely cheap! I got a turtle neck in GU for about NT$100 and I wish I'd gotten it in more colors!!! #regrets

Once you take the side streets, you'll be suddenly transported to quiet neighborhood with small buildings and quaint stores like this ARTIFACTS store! I can't accurately say where this is but this is on the ZARA side of Zhongxiao Dunhua. Just take the alley beside the ZARA building!

If you're looking for K-Beauty in Taiwan, 86shop is your best bet. I visited a lot of branches even in Taichung, and I have to say their branch in Zhongxiao is probably the most complete and the most detailed. The prices here are pretty decent too! You can find brands like Neogen, 3CE, Rire, and even Pony Effect! The way the products are organized can be a bit tricky though so just keep looking for what you want to buy because they're not always obviously in sight.

We also passed by this men's clothing store that sold products from Korea!! I can honestly vouch for these because I remember seeing many of the pieces from my last trip to Seoul and the prices are pretty much the same with Korea so it's pretty safe to buy from here if you like something because of the fair price. However, I didn't get to buy anything because well... men's clothes in Korea are a bit pricey. Hahaha!

As much as I wanted to keep exploring Zhongxiao though, we had to leave because of the rain. It was hard to explore thanks to the weather and the slightly dim streets. We decided to head back to Ximending so we'd be closer to the hotel.

It was still raining a little when we got to Ximending but this was such a familiar sight from my student days! Back then, I couldn't recognize the famous Red Theater and paid it no mind. Hahaha! And we would always explore the old part of the area which is why I was unaware about the more commercial areas which were directly opposite from this.

On the other side of the Red Theater is the area we explored on our first day here and I was excited to try and explore it as best as I could with the few hours I had left for the night :|

Tried the Hokkaido Milk Soft Serve at the Japanese-themed stall! Pretty good but obviously not as good as the real thing according to my brother hahaha! I haven't been to Hokkaido sadly, but I thought this was pretty good lol

We then proceeded to look for a good milk tea place and that'd have to be 50嵐! (50-Lan) I remember really loving the milk tea from there in my student days and a few people I know who've recently visited Taipei still agree. Haha! I'm not exactly sure how I found it because it was located at a small alley.

If you look up, you'll see the sign and that's how you'll know it's the right alley. Hahaha!

I really love 50嵐's Milk Tea especially because of the option to have really small pearls! I grew tired of the usual sized pearls because I didn't really like chewing them. These are perfect! I am however glad that I can get the similar experience here in Manila by just going to Coco in Trinoma! Trust me: Coco's White Pearl Milk Tea at 30% Sugar, Less Ice = AMAZING.

Obligatory night market photo! Not bad too for just being taken with my Galaxy Note 8! (All these photos are taken with it btw and I'm so impressed!)

Afterwards, we had some chicken at Hot Star, shopped in Fifty Percent then went to the hotel because the stores were starting to close. Huhu

Last day blues! Can't help but feel really bummed about not getting to explore the city more but at least the night before at Ximending was fun!

Before heading to the airport, we stopped by another outlet called Gloria Outlets which is your typical outdoor outlet mall. Again, here, you have your typical sports stores with some surprising pricey local brands that have outlets here. However, the real prize here is...

The Palladium store!!! I literally did a double take because this was honestly the most unexpected thing. I'm actually a HUGE fan of this brand mainly for the crazy comfy and crazy beautiful design. However, it is pricey so it's hard to collect haha!

For those who've been wanting to buy a pair, this place is absolutely amazing. Their prices are crazy low. I actually got a pair of boots for about 1800-PHP from its regular price of almost 5000-PHP. Isn't that so crazy? Needless to say, me and my siblings got a pair each because how could you not? Definitely worth going to Gloria Outlets just to splurge on Palladium!