Taipei Main Station is massive, a cavernous labyrinth of interconnecting tunnels and areas. There are very large markets in this subterranean area, at least four stations and I wouldn’t like to guess the area of this station underground. It has quite a few levels so you seemed to be either going up or down a level. I don’t think I’ve been in such a large station before, and I’ve been in some large stations like Shinagawa in Tokyo.
The experience in this station was overwhelming, but for the wrong reasons. The sign posting in this station was good and bad; there were signs with good information, but they were hard to find and they didn’t appear to follow each other. The maps also were so difficult to understand and orientate to also.
On our way home one night from a night market we got the subway back to Taipei Main Station, no problem; in fact pretty easy. However, trying to get ourselves to an exit to get out of the station so we could cross the road to our hotel was not making life easy for us. As we stood somewhere in this station trying to work our where we were, and how we were going to get out, we decided we would have to go through the station gates, across a platform, and out the other side to get where we needed to get to.
Then out of the blue we were approached by two young ladies who asked of our plight. Me of course, always on the lookout for some wrongdoing, was at first cautious. We were in a sticky situation and didn’t have a plan, so we accepted the help. They navigated through the station with us, having some idea of where they were going, and making some of it up. They showed us the exit we needed, M4, which also contained the name of our hotel. Not only did they guide us in the right direction, they took us underground directly to our hotel, right to the lift.
So, if you’re visiting Taipei Main Station for the first time I would definitely recommend taking a large ball of cotton or wool so you can at least set yourself a trail to get you back home safely and quickly!!
