Taipei

Taipei, Taiwan · January 2026

Stayed

Kimpton Da An Hotel, three nights, on Chase points

How I got here

A stopover on the way home from Manila

Paid with

EVA Air business class from Chicago, 80k EVA miles each way

Where

25.03° N · 121.57° E

Where I stayed · Kimpton Da An Hotel

Three nights, booked through Chase Travel with Points Boost: 25,000 points plus $532.56 on the card. I was trying to stack two Sapphire Reserve credits, the IHG hotel credit and The Edit, for $500 off, but this hotel wasn't in The Edit. So I only got the $250 IHG credit back, paid some cash, and breakfast wasn't included. Which is fine.

Out front

Downstairs

The room

Breakfast

Part one · Elephant Mountain

The climb

Up from Xinyi, a few hundred stone steps

The view

Taipei 101 from every angle the mountain gives you

At the top and back down

Part two · Taipei 101

I came right after Alex Honnold free-soloed the outside of this building, live on Netflix. On my visit you couldn't even see the top.

Getting there

A wet Xinyi afternoon, the top lost in the clouds

Inside the cloud

The observatory, with the fog rolling past the windows

The damper

The giant steel ball that keeps the tower steady in typhoons and earthquakes

Part three · Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Getting there

Through the gardens to the hall

The hall

White marble, a blue tile roof, and 89 steps, one for each year of his life

Changing of the guard

The honor guard rotates on the hour

Looking back

Part four · There and back on EVA Air

EVA Air business class between Chicago O'Hare and Taipei, 80,000 miles each way, booked through EVA's own Infinity MileageLands program.

The way out · Chicago to Taipei

Leaving in the snow

De-icing trucks out the window at O'Hare

The small things

Dinner and a late snack

Bed and breakfast

The way home · Taipei to Chicago

On board

A Royal Laurel seat by the window

The first meal

Served course by course, with French butter and a dessert cart

Lights down

Before landing

Part five · A night market

The night market pictures weren't so great and didn't really capture the energy, but I wanted to show some of it.

Through the gate

Part six · Walking in the rain

I was walking around for a while and taking a lot of pictures. I like an Asian city in the rain.

Grey days

Wet nights

The rain keeps going

Leaving