First-time business travelers to Taipei, the alpha capital of the Republic of China, tend to scratch their heads and wonder: “What’s going on here? Isn’t this China?”
Well, it is—but it’s not mainland China with 1.3 billion people just across the Formosa Strait. It’s “the other China” with some 23 million people that grew out of the 1949 split between Mao-Tse-tung’s Communist China and the military forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek that retreated to the island of Taiwan (formerly Formosa under the Japanese).
Today, Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, is the envy of cities everywhere because of Taipei 101, the world’s tallest skyscraper named for its 101 stories (and not for a college course covering, say, “The History of a Spunky Chinese City”).
The glittering bamboo-like tower tells a lot about Taipei’s—and Taiwan’s—aspirations. In sum, they’re sky-high.
The city (pop. 2.9 million) is the seat of government, but its style is almost all business—with a yen to party long after the day’s work is done. While it patiently eyes a bigger future, it is bent on making the most of the present.
The Case of the Disappearing Embassy
In any case, the two-China battle has a slightly unreal David-and-Goliath look to it, if only because Taiwan is no bigger than the state of West Virginia while mainland China seems to fill up most of the Asian continent. And the undercurrent of tension between the two countries has led to some oddities in Taipei.
For the uninitiated American visitor disembarking at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, it comes as a big surprise that we don’t have an embassy in Taipei. That’s because of our diplomatic recognition of Beijing in 1979—and downgrading of Taipei. How could you ever formally acknowledge two Chinas? Or so went the argument.
The idea behind the diplomatic move was simply to not rub it in—that is, downplay the independence of Taiwan to which the rulers in China lay claim as a part of their country. In place of an embassy or even a major consulate, the United States has maintained a low-profile American Institute in Taiwan that handles any red tape involving American visitors, encourages an ongoing dialogue between Taipei and Beijing, and gathers intelligence on both Chinas.
So sensitive is the Taiwan issue that it has taken over half a century to open minimal air service between Taipei and the mainland. It just happened last December—with charter flights to Hong Kong, itself not quite the mainland and still sporting the trappings of its days as a British crown colony.
Flights to Taiwan
Count them all, and there are some 34 international airlines that serve Taiwan.
• Taiwan’s two national carriers are China Airlines (www.china-airlines.com and not to be confused with mainland China’s Air China) and EVA Airlines (www.evaairlines.com, an up-and-coming carrier owned by Taiwan’s giant container-shipping company). Both offer nonstop flights from several U.S. gateways.
• American, Continental and Delta have direct flights to Taipei from many U.S. cities.
• If Taipei is a stop on a swing through various Pac Rim countries, you can fly there from various Asian gateways on Cathay Pacific, Garuda, Japan Airlines, Northwest, Philippine Airlines, Thai Airways International, Singapore, United and other international carriers.
Customs: If you have a U.S. passport valid for at least six months ahead and a ticket for a flight out of Taiwan, you don’t need a visa. But you must obtain a visa if you’re staying in Taiwan for more than 30 days.
To learn more about EVA Airlines, read our feature: EVA Airlines Upgrades Long-Haul Fleet
Transfer to Taipei
Taiwan may be small—just 250 miles long and 60 miles wide—but the towering Arrival Hall at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport is rather grand. To accommodate increasing traffic—it jumped from about 3 million travelers in 1980 to about 20 million in 2005—CKS has added a Terminal II connected to Terminal I by a free shuttle service. (Domestic flights to cities such as Kaohsiung, the island’s second largest, use the small Taipei-Sungshan Airport close to the city.)
Customs: Business travelers often undergo close questioning. That’s because customs officials keep a close watch over commercial products and currency taken in and out of the country.
Business facilities: If you need to do some work or hold a meeting at the airport, contact the More International Business Centre & Premium Lounge (0-3-393-1111) on the fourth floor Departures level of Terminal II. You can also use conference and communications facilities at the CKS Airport Hotel about a mile away—also with free shuttle service to and from the airport.
Currency: Taiwan uses the New Taiwan Dollar, which by now is pretty old and checks out at about NTD$32 to our US$1 compared to NTD$27 or so in the ‘90s. You can pick up some local currency at ATMs in the airport.
Transportation: The trip into town—some 25 miles east of the airport—takes 45 to 60 minutes on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (named after the famous and revered leader of modern pre-Communist China). Buses depart frequently from the Arrivals hall and drop you off at or near major hotels. Taxi fares are on the high side, especially in the evening hours when there’s a 20 percent surcharge.
Car rental: Picking up a rental car at the airport makes sense only if you plan to visit some outlying factories or indulge in a bit of sightseeing in mountainous central Taiwan. Taxis in Taipei are plentiful to get from hotels to appointments.
Transit in Taipei: The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) subway system is fairly easy to use if you’re on a tight budget; it has five major and three branch lines, altogether covering the city both north-south and east-west.
Company car: Many Taiwanese manufacturers will greet you at the airport with a company car. You may even have the use of it during your stay. Tactfully bring up the matter in advance—it may work.
Downtown Grid Unlocked
Finding your way around Taipei is relatively easy, thanks to the city’s grid pattern and its two rivers, the Keelung on the north and the Tanshui to the west. Big avenues and boulevards—among them Chunghsiao Road running east-west, Chungshan North Road going north-south—also help give you a sense of where you are.
Towering over everything—and visible from all over the city and suburbs—is the skyscraping Taipei 101, completed in 2003 and opened to the public last year. Located next to the all-important Taipei World Trade Center in the popular new East District, it houses the Taipei Financial Center and includes an Observation Deck on its 89th floor. The architects designed the tower in the shape of a bamboo stalk with dragons at each of the eight-floor “nodes” and offices correctly positioned in consultation with a feng shui master.
Most of the government ministries you may be visiting are in the southwest part of town near the Tanshui River (south of Chunghsiao Road). Corporations and banks are north of Nanking East Road in the center of the city (around Sungchiang Road and Tunhua North Road).
You’ll find that most factories are across the Tanshui—to the west—in Banchiao, Sanchong, Yungho and Chungho. Some are even further out near the CKS International Airport.
But over the past decade the spread-out capital has mostly pushed eastward, building on former flatlands and farmlands and creating what is now the fashionable East District with sleek banking and corporate offices and chic Westernized restaurants and shops.
Showcase for Exhibits
Drawing businesses away from the older part of the city in droves is the Taipei World Trade Center, a four-building complex east of downtown on Hsinyi Road that hosts dozens of toy, textile, electronics, and other industrial shows each year in its Exhibition Hall and International Convention Center.
In the 34-story World Trade Building you’ll find the offices of many American and other foreign corporations. One of its key tenants is the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), formerly called the China External Trade Development Council (CETRA), with hundreds of trade specialists who can help you do business in Taiwan.
Where to Stay
All major hotels, some of them branches of well-known international chains, others less familiar, open their arms to business travelers. Some of the top hotels are jumbo-size with 500 to 900 rooms, and under their roofs are everything from clusters of restaurants (Chinese, Japanese, French or continental) to mazes of shopping arcades (with tailors who specialize in “overnight” made-to-order suits and other outfits). Virtually all hotels have executive suites, business centers, and large and alert staffs.
Room rates are on the high side, ranging from about $225 to $400 for a single and reflecting Taipei’s heavy business traffic. Be sure to bargain for a corporate rate.
Warning: Book well in advance during the heavy fall and spring business season. If a big trade show is on, space can get tight. Also check with your Taiwanese contacts to be sure your trip plans don’t conflict with Taiwan’s lunar calendar of festivals (the Lantern, Dragon Boat, Ghost and Mazu Culture among them) when businesses close.
Best hotel choices:
• The 856-room Grand Hyatt in the Taipei World Trade Center is about as good as hotels get—and they’re generally quite good in Taipei—despite its convention size, but you pay for it with a starting room rate of around $340.
• The 703-room Sheraton Taipei, a.k.a. the old Lai Lai Sheraton, is the best in town for many veteran visitors and, after a three-year, $60 million renovation, for Taipei’s government and corporate elite as well, including President Chen Shibian who has held several private functions there.
• The 288-room Westin, close to business addresses on Nanking East Road, has everything the brand promotes from “heavenly beds” to Executive Club floors.
• The 422-room Far Eastern Plaza scores high partly because of its site in a 43-story office and shopping complex that features a sky-lit atrium garden and waterfall.
• The 345-room Sherwood with a name that few American travelers have ever heard of rings bells with business guests as a superbly equipped and efficiently run winner with a slew of restaurants, a good bar, and a Mercedes at your beck and call.
• The 750-room Holiday Inn Asiaworld overcomes its huge size by offering a full line of services, especially including lots of function rooms if you want to hold a meeting or celebrate a deal.
• The 538-room Grand Formosa Regent is an omnibus hotel, part snooty, part commercial, with enough clout with the executive class to use Four Seasons and Regent Hotels & Resorts as its overseas reps.
Other good choices: the 378-room Caesar Park, a former Hilton; the 606-room Howard Plaza, near the World Trade Center and very popular with Taipei regulars, and the 420-room Far Eastern Plaza, a well-located, handsomely furnished outpost of the Shangri-la chain.
Out-of-the-ordinary:
• The 490-room Grand Hotel, north on the other side of the river, has survived decades as the giant pagoda where the Taiwan government always parked visiting heads of state and other dignitaries and as a shabby-chic hotel for the public that needed frequent infusions of maintenance money. At its best, the oriental resort hotel looks like what you thought China should be. And you can get to business appointments easily by taxi. But, the rooms are worn-out and aren't comfortable, so this hotel may do better as an addition to your "tourist site" list. The building itself, including its rather colorful and whimiscal lobby, is worth a detour.
• The 61-room-and-suite Ambience, a streamlined boutique hotel with celebrity-designer Philippe Starck’s odds and ends and Botanicus bath-and-body products, all for $150 a night, highlights how Taipei is playing catch-up with the international trend toward smart small hotels for business and leisure travelers..
The Taipei Executive
The Taiwanese take an entrepreneurial, hands-on approach to business. They’re quick off the mark with products that fit—or set—a new trend (see “From High-tech Products to Tourist Attractions” below).
While highly competitive among themselves, Taiwanese executives have a long history of working hand in glove with the government bureaucracy to define foreign markets and target new products accurately. And they’re multinational in outlook—naturally, since they do business in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Los Angeles, New York and other business centers.
There are some true tycoons in Taipei who manage pyramidal conglomerates involved in many industries. But on their home ground, top executives tend to be clubby, staying off by themselves and, to their credit, not making a show of the money they’ve made.
Hundreds of Taiwanese companies have had long and good relations with American business, including Fortune 500 companies. Even so, getting appointments with officials in the various ministries isn’t easy. Phone or e-mail well in advance, preferably using an upper-level Taiwanese in the United States to pave the way.
As for closing deal, expect a snail’s pace early on in the negotiations. But when the details fall in place, things suddenly happen. And a verbal agreement is almost as good as a contract.
Business Entertaining
Doing business with Taiwanese executives begins—as almost everywhere in the world—by establishing a personal rapport. Tea, rice wine and beer are the local beverages of choice for socializing.
If you get along well with your Taiwanese business contacts, no doubt you’ll end up having breakfast, lunch, dinner or a night on the town with them. One of your hotel restaurants (usually Chinese, Japanese or European) can serve as the perfect platform for getting acquainted, even an early-morning business talk over breakfast.
For instance, the Café Studio (2523-8000), a comfortable Italian bistro in the Grand Formosa Regent, is a good spot for lunch over antipasto, pizza or pasta. Another mid-day or early-evening candidate is Capone’s Chophouse & Cabaret (2545-9365, 166 Fushing North Road), with a wine and drink list, including single-malt scotches, almost as impressive as the steaks.
When you’re a luncheon guest of a Taiwanese company, expect the courses to stretch on for several hours after the formal welcoming handshakes and obligatory exchanges of business cards. If it’s an evening get-together, you’re in for a lot of fun sampling jazz or cabaret, doing your karaoke thing, and wandering through one of the city’s many night markets.
If you’re picking up the check, note that restaurants put a 10 percent service charge on bills. So tipping is optional—and, if anything, small change.
From Snacks to Something More
On your own? Or on the town with a favorite Taipei contact? Try eating out.
You’ll never find better Chinese food than in Taipei, not even in three-star Hong Kong (see the sidebar, “The Cuisine Circuit”). The city also has an array of superior Japanese, Thai, Indian and British pub-style restaurants.
Be prepared for sharp contrasts in restaurant décor: Some gourmet hideaways are little more than holes-in-the-wall or just plain nondescript while others are slick bistros in Taiwan’s many malls and office buildings. And—when you need an American fix—look for the nearest McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut and local Mosburger.
You probably won’t go wrong if you let your Taipei business contact pick out a favorite restaurant. And your concierge is a good source for advice on where to dine in your hotel’s neighborhood.
10 Recommended Restaurants
For food explorers, here’s a starter list of 10 restaurants that are the pick of people who dine out a lot:
• Din Tai Fung (2321-89027.194 Hsinyi Road, Section 2), put on Taipei’s culinary map as the best in town thanks to a New York Times write-up, with a signature dish—dumplings Shanghai-style and freshly steamed—and a lively scene of dozens of cooks, heaps of bamboo steamers, and piles of pork and dough.
• Lai Yuan (8770-6565, Westin Hotel), where thirtysomethings feed on downhome Taipei country food such as duck, freshwater shrimp and betel-nut shoots—with pork oil rice and taro root among the favorites.
• House de Havana (2719-5970, 199 Fushing North Road), specializing in surf and almost as good turf in elegant surroundings with a cigar humidor (appropriate for the restaurant’s name) for after-dinner conversation.
• Jake’s Country Kitchen (2871-5289, 705, Section 6, Chung Shan North Road), an early-morning haven for business breakfasts.
• Shao Shao Ke (2351-7148, No. 15, Lane 41, Ranai Road Section 2), stir-fried grated potatoes with a touch of garlic, vinegar, chili, and pickled vegetables, but don’t overlook the tofu called Tiger Skin Stew and a vegetable dish that mixes lotus flowers and mushrooms.
• Sao Sao Ke (2351-7148, 15, Lane 41, Jen Ai Road), your first shot at Tibetan food in a dingy little place—no credit cards, no dress code, and popular with foreigners.
• Sate House (2732-5048, 15 Lo Li Road), if you’re yearning for Indonesia’s splendid cuisine, all cooked to order and spicy as you like it—try the baked chicken.
• Tsai Fung Shuen (2523-8000, Grand Formosa Regent), seafood delicacies for fine business dining at lunch or dinner.
• Celestial (2563-2171, 3/F No. 1, Nanjing West Road), at this venerable restaurant ask for the Peking duck, called roast duck locally, which is crispy with delicious pancakes.
• Xiao Wei (2371-8427, 3/F, 13 Gongyuan Road), crowded, old-fashioned restaurant featuring Sichuan cuisine, Taipei’s favorite Chinese food, with hot and sour soup, steamed bread, spicy minced pork, and shrimp stir-fried with dried chili peppers.
Other interesting dining-out options:
Warner Village (American, Asian, Chinese in the Hsin Yi district), Gipsy Folk Music Restaurant (deli, dinner food in Wan Hua), Very Thai (Thai in Sung Shan), Hindustan (Indian in Sung Shan), Jao Ho Street Night Market (Chinese in Sung Shan), and Mos Burger (American in Hsin Yi).
Pubs and Sports Bars
For quick lunches and after-work chilling out, you’ll find Taipei’s pub and sports-bar scene as lively as anything back home. Some rest stops for drinking and dining: My Place, Taipei’s oldest British pub (in the Soho Night Life District, also known as “the zone”); Malibu West, with an extensive western menu (also in the zone); Saints & Sinners, a stylish pub with Chinese, Thai, and Western dishes and a large TV screen (on Anho road), and My Other Place, a cozy retreat (near the Sherwood Hotel).
Chiang Kai-shek’s Showcase
Don’t leave Taipei without visiting the National Palace Museum, which houses the treasures (or spoils of war) Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek took with him when he left China. It’s the world’s largest and best showcase of Chinese art.
The Imperial Collection, with riches dating back to the 10th century, moved about China for centuries before it found a home in Peking in 1928—three years later to be transferred to Shanghai when Japan invaded China. As the war spread, the collection was dispersed among several cities, finally coming to rest in Nanking and Peking.
Just before the Communist takeover, the Generalissimo and his lieutenants shipped the collection to Taiwan and stored it in mountain caves. In 1965 the artwork was uncrated and put on display in Taipei.
So vast is the museum’s storehouse that even with exhibits changing frequently, it would take 20 years to see everything. Endless rooms are devoted to a variety of art and dynasties (ancestral paintings, scrolls, porcelains, ceramics, jades, laquerware, bronzes and enamels). Sign up for a cassette or guided tour, and check the museum shop for reproductions before leaving.
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