When I first published this article (in late 2024), it had been a rough year for weather disasters in Taiwan, including the devastating Hualien earthquake in April and destructive typhoons Gaemi in July and Kong-rey in October.
On top of that, many popular hikes and tourist attractions were closed for renovations that year. 2025 is looking up (I personally think this will be a year of many things reopening), but there are still many things closed.
Since these closures are so commonly asked about in my Taiwan Travel Planning group, I thought I should make a running list of all the things that are closed in Taiwan.
I will continually update this list as things change so you guys can reference it when planning your trips.
Things that Are Closed in Taipei
- Shilin Underground Food Court: The underground food court in Shilin Night Market has been closed for renovations for a couple years. The supposed reopening time posted at the entrance has already passed, with no news of when it might reopen.
Most of Shilin Night Market remains open, though. See my Shilin Night Market guide for more info.
- Ningxia Night Market (REOPENED): The road construction work that was disrupting the night market for several months this year finally seems to be finished. The night market is now fully open again.
- Qixingshan Trail (REOPENED): Due to damage caused by Typhoon Kong Rey in October 2024, the popular trail from Xiaoyoukeng to Qixingshan peak in Yangmingshan National Park was closed for two months. On January 7, 2025, the national park reported that the trail is now totally open again.
Another trail in the park, Juansi Falls Trail, also closed around the same time and hasn’t reopened again yet.
Read about Qingtiangang Grassland, another great hike in the park which is still open, and others in my Yangmingshan guide.
- Wistaria Tea House: One of the most famous traditional tea houses in Taipei, Wistaria is closed right now according to GoogleMaps and recent reviews.
Fortunately, there are several other similar traditional tea houses in Taipei which are still open.
- Meerkat 75: The Songshan location of Meerkat75, Taipei’s Meerkat Cafe, closed in late 2024. But the Da’an location, which I reviewed here, is still open.
- Beitou Public Hot Spring: Beitou’s cheapest and most popular hot spring will close for one year for renovations from January 24, 2025.
The best alternative is Spring City Resort (book adult tickets on Klook / KKday for a big discount). This is the only other co-ed (with bathing suits) hot spring at Beitou and it is nicer (but further from the MRT) than Beitou Public Hot Spring. See my Beitou guide for more info.
- Plum Garden, Beitou: This lovely Japanese-era home of a former scholar next to Beitou Public Hot Spring has been closed for a few years. There are still plenty of other attractions to enjoy in the area, though.
- Taipei 228 Memorial Museum will be closed until Feb. 28, 2025, but 228 Park remains open.
- Futai Street Mansion, a small historical attraction near Taipei Main Station, will be closed for at least a year.
- Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall: The inside of the memorial hall, which usually includes a gift shop and some small exhibits, is currently closed. The hall grounds outside, which include some ponds and views of Taipei 101, are still open.
Some places in Taipei that are permanently closed include:
- The Barbie Cafe
- Touching Cafe, which was a raccoon cafe
- World’s highest Starbucks in Taipei 101 (see the new even higher cafe here)
- Taipei Discovery Center (it will close its doors for the last time on December 30, 2024)
- Taipei Living Mall (shaped like a huge golf ball) and ATT e Life (two malls which used to contain many indoor children’s playcenters)
Monday Closures
Many restaurants, food vendors, and popular tourist attractions in Taipei close on Mondays. Note: if the Monday is a national holiday (long weekend), these places will be open.
Also check GoogleMaps before you visit anywhere on a Monday. Places which close on normal Mondays include:
- National Palace Museum
- Several things in Beitou, including Beitou Hot Spring Museum, Thermal Valley, Ketagalan Museum, and Beitou Museum, but all the hot springs there are open every day. See my Beitou guide.
- Maokong Gondola (the gondola also closes in stormy weather and for a few weeks every year for maintenance – always check the official site for closures. Note, you can also reach Maokong by bus).
- Taipei Children’s Amusement Park
Places that are open on Mondays include temples, Taipei 101 Observatory, Taipei Zoo, and many more. Monday is also a great day for hiking or for doing a day trip to Yehliu, Jiufen, and Shifen.
Closures in Northern Taiwan
- Tea Pot Mountain: The trail to tea pot mountain is closed due to typhoon damage. You can still hike part of the trail to see the views (only the “teapot” at the top is closed) or do another hike in the area and see the teapot-shaped stone from afar.
For the alternative hike, which also starts from Jinguashi, hike up to Jinguashi Shrine, which is the ruins of a Japanese shinto shrine. If you keeping climbing up higher past the shrine, you can see Tea Pot Mountain from afar. Or, see my guide to many other excellent hikes in northern Taiwan.
- Houtong Cat Village: The village remains totally open, but the cat-shaped tunnel bridge from the train station to the village is currently closed for repairs. An temporary alternative bridge has been set up. See my Houtong guide for more info.
- Badouzi Station: Often considered Taiwan’s most scenic train station (along with Duoliang Station in Taitung), Badouzi Station is closed and the train from Haikeguan to Badouzi is not running. It is expected to reopen on March 1, 2025.
If you want to ride from Shen’ao Rail Bike, which goes from Badouzi Station to Shen’ao Station, that is still running. The Badouzi Station of Shen’ao Rail Bike is different than the above Badouzi Station. Although they have the same name, the two stations are 80 meters apart.
- Bitoujiao Trail: The main trail is open, from Bitou Cape Park to Bitou Primary School, but an extension of the trail which goes to Bitoujiao Lighthouse at the end of the cape is closed.
- Wufengqi Waterfall Trail, Yilan: Members of my Taiwan Travel Planning group have reported that this popular and easy waterfall train just outside of Jiaoxi hot spring village is currently closed.
It’s still possible to do some hiking in the area, but just not to the waterfall. A hike to a church (Shengmu trail), Matcha hills, and Yuemeikeng Waterfall (all longer hikes) all still seem to be open.
- Taipingshan Bong Bong Train: The popular “Bong Bong train” in Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area is not closed, but the ride is greatly reduced. Before, you would ride the train for 2.6 km, get off and hike for an hour, then ride it back.
Until renovations on the railway line are finished, you can now only ride it for one kilometer and then ride it back, with no stop for hiking at the end. The ride now only takes 20 minutes (before it was 1.5 hours).
Recent visitors have also reported that there is landslide damage on the road to Taipinghshan, which may cause some delays when driving up.
Read my Taipingshan guide for more info.
Closures in Central and Southern Taiwan
- Taroko Gorge, Hualien (PARTIALLY REOPENED): Here’s the big one. Taroko Gorge was severely impacted by the April 2024 Hualien earthquake. Repairs are ongoing and it will taken years before the gorge is fully restored.
It is currently possible to drive a car in the gorge, but there are road opening/closing times every day. IslandLife Taiwan is now the only operator I know of running a Taroko Reopening Tour. Still, you must know that most trails and sights are still closed, so you will be doing a lot of sightseeing from the vehicle.
Silks Place, a five-star resort in the gorge, is now taking bookings again (see on Booking / Agoda) but all other hotels in the gorge remain closed.
I’ve covered this situation in detail, including which attractions might reopen first and exactly when, in this article: Is Taroko Gorge Open?
I’ve also got this article introducing all the things to do in Hualien besides Taroko Gorge, which I wrote based on a visit after the earthquake. Use it to help you decide if you still want to visit the region – I think you should!
- Qingshui Cliffs, Hualien: Highway 9, which runs north along the coast just north of Taroko Gorge, was also impacted by landslides in the April 2024 earthquake. After several months of only being open three times per day to cars, Highway 9 is now totally open.
However, the two main viewpoints of the cliffs along the highway, here and here, remain closed.
It is still possible to see the cliffs from Chongde Beach (around here) or from the sea on this paddle boarding activity. You can also appreciate the coastal scenery at Qixingtan beach between Hualien city center and Taroko Gorge.
- Emerald Valley and Mukumugi Valley: These two natural attractions in Hualien have been closed for years due to landslides and land claims issues with local aboriginals.
I tried to visit them both post earthquake and can confirm that both remain closed. Emerald Valley has multiple signs, while there is a police stop preventing visitors from driving to Mukumugi Valley.
- Starbucks Promiseland: This popular fairy tale-like Starbucks location near Promiseland Resort south of Hualien city is currently closed for renovations. See my guide to other cool Starbucks in Taiwan (including a few others in Hualien).
- In Taichung city, the Totoro Bus Stop closed years ago, but there’s a smaller one still there at Painted Animation Lane.
Rainbow Village (OPEN) was partially destroyed by disgruntled workers of the company hired to manage it, plus Rainbow Grandpa passed away in 2024. The site remains open.
See my guide to whether Rainbow Village is still worth visiting after considering the above two factors.
- Ci’en Pagoda, Sun Moon Lake (REOPENED): After being closed for renovations in late 2024, Ci’en Pagoda is now open in 2025.
Also note, the sunrise hike from Shuishe village to Mount Maolan has some minor typhoon damage. Recent travelers mentioned that there’s a sign saying it’s closed, but according to them, the trail was totally accessible and perfectly fine to walk.
- Shuishan Trail, Alishan: One of the less popular trails in Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Shuishan Trail, is partially closed right now. The main trail (60 to 90 min return) to the giant tree, which starts here near Chaoping Station, is closed.
However, you can still walk to the giant tree on a much shorter trail which starts here on the car road from Alishan Station to Chushan sunrise viewpoint. The main trail is supposed to reopen on March 9, 2025. See my info in my Alishan guide.
- Chikhan Tower, Tainan: This famous historical sight in Tainan city center is still open, but parts of it are under renovation, so you may see some scaffolding. See my Tainan city guide.
- Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, Kaohsiung (REOPENED): After a nearly two-year period of being closed and coffered in scaffolding, Dragon and Tiger Pagodas at Lotus Lake are now totally reopened! Note – it may not always be possible to enter them.
Read more about them my Kaohsiung city guide.
- East Coast Highway 11, Hualien and Taitung: Recent travelers have mentioned that the late October 2024 typhoon caused major damage to several attractions along the coast, and most are still in a state of repair – some are still open but under repairs.
These include small coastal attractions like 月崖灣親子農場, Xinshe Rice Terrace, Shitiping, Fengbin Skywalk, Qinbuzhizi Walk, and Niushanting.
Sanxiantai (REOPENED), which was undergoing renovations in early 2024, is totally open now. Note: they sometimes close it on stormy or high wind days.
Read about these spots in my guide to driving down the east coast.
- The South Cross Island Highway (Highway 20) is closed (one section of it in the middle) every Tuesday and Thursday.
If you plan to visit Lisong Hot Spring from Chishang, the hot spring is located before the closed section, so you can go there any day of the winter.
But keep in mind that it’s only possible to visit this hot spring in winter (dry season), otherwise it will be underwater.
- Near Luye in Taitung, the Walami Trailhead (REOPENED, here), the first hour of which can be walked without a permit, was closed due to typhoon damaged but reopened in January 2025.
Holiday and Lunar New Year Closures
During Lunar New Year, most restaurants, food stalls, and small businesses in Taipei and other major cities in Taiwan close for a few days.
For major attractions in Taipei, several of them only close for one day (Lunar New Year’s Eve) but open again from Lunar New Year’s Day. Read my Lunar New Year’s guide for more info about each day of the holiday and exactly what will be open or closed each day.
Night markets in Taipei are open every day of the year, but some of the stalls might take a break for a few days during Lunar New Year holiday.
For other holidays in Taiwan, including January 1 and all long weekends, virtually everything stays open as normal. Christmas is not a holiday in Taiwan, it’s just a normal workday.
Het Nick! Just went to the Pagoda today at sun moon lake and it was completely open (and beautiful!). For the bus ride back to Taichung it was one big chaos though, with way too many people for too little amount of buses so we had to transfer in Puli, but oh well, it was a great day so we went with it.
Thanks for the update!
Worth noting that Sanxiantai bridge will be closed on high wind days (according to the sign there).
A couple more I’ve noticed while cycling around Taiwan recently:
Fengbin Skywalk / Qinbuzhizhi walk is closed (seems to be under repair)
The Emerald Valley area outside Hualien (Liuli Falls, Zimu Falls, Bat Cave, etc) is entirely closed according to the staff at Mukumugi visitor center. I don’t speak Chinese so I’m not sure exactly what’s going on.
Also FWIW I was in Fenqihu 12/26 and the logging trail seemed to be open — maybe there was a closed section that I missed though.
Thank you!
Emerald Valley and Mukumugi have been closed for years. I knew that but forgot to add it. Thank you!