Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is a former tobacco factory turned design-focused arts and culture hub. It is Taipei’s largest cultural and creative park and one of the best-known in Taiwan.
The sprawling site features historic factory buildings, a design museum, creative shops, restaurants, a scenic pond, and a modern complex housing a department store, Eslite Hotel, and Taipei’s last remaining 24-hour Eslite bookstore.
In this guide, I’ll cover everything you need to know about visiting Songshan Cultural and Creative Park—including the bigger question for travelers with limited time: Is Songshan actually worth visiting on a short trip to Taipei?
Songshan Cultural and Creative Park: Key Things to Know
- Location: In Xinyi District between Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall and Taipei Dome to the south and National Railway Museum to the north (see location here on Google Maps).
- Access: Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall MRT, Exit 5
- Entrance fee: Free, but certain attractions and events have an entry fee
- Opening hours: The park grounds and Eslite Bookstore are open 24 hours, while the main factory building is open 10 AM to 6 PM and closed on Mondays. Other buildings each have their own opening hours.
- Best for: Design, architecture, history, shopping, and special events
- Time needed to visit: 1 hour for a quick walk-through or 2-3 hours for a more thorough visit
- Check coming exhibitions and current events here (scroll down to the bottom, but this is only available on the Mandarin version).
Despite its name, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is actually in Xinyi District, not neighboring Songshan District. This is because Xinyi was part of Songshan District until 1990, decades after Songshan Tobacco Factory received its name.
What is Songshan Cultural and Creative Park?
Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區 or SCCP) was built in 1937, during the Japanese colonial period, as the Matsuyama Tobacco Factory. It was Taiwan’s first modernized cigarette manufacturing plant.
After World War II, the factory was taken over by the Taiwan Provincial Monopoly Bureau and became known as Songshan Tobacco Factory (松山菸廠) – “Songshan” being the Mandarin reading of the same characters, 松山, that were read Matsuyama in Japanese.
Locals still commonly call the site Songyan (松菸 or “Song tobacco”), short for Songshan Tobacco Factory, while English speakers often often simply call it Songshan.
As demand for its products declined, Songshan Tobacco Factory closed in 1998 and was designated a historic site in 2001.
In 2011, it was transformed into Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, following the success of other cultural redevelopment projects in Taipei such as Huashan 1914 Creative Park and 44 South Village.
Taiwan’s cultural and creative parks (文創園區) typically repurpose historic buildings as venues for exhibitions, cultural events, creative businesses, shops, and public spaces. Many have become popular free attractions and local hangout spots.
With its strong focus on design, creative businesses, exhibitions, and events, Songshan bills itself as “Taipei City’s Hub for Originality.”
A couple years after opening, the Eslite Spectrum Songyan complex was added on site, complete with department store, hotel, and 24-hour bookstore, adding a touch of modern appeal to the historic site.
For a cultural and creative park with zip lines, wild slides, and percussion performances, visit Ten Drum Cultural Village in Tainan, built in a former sugar factory.
Is Songshan Worth Visiting?
For short-term visitors to Taipei, if you only have time for one cultural and creative park, I would personally choose Huashan 1914 Creative Park (a former sake factory).
Compared to Songshan, Huashan is a little more compact and centrally located, while I find its historic buildings more visually impressive.
It also tends to have more cute pop-up events (like the few I’ve pictured here) and is more bustling, especially on weekends.
Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is still worth visiting.
But I would prioritize it for visitors who are particularly interested in design, want to do more shopping, plan to attend a specific event, escape big crowds, or have already visited Huashan and want to explore more of Taipei’s creative parks.
Getting to Songshan Cultural and Creative Park
The easiest way to get to Songshan is to take the MRT Blue Line to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall Station and take Exit 5.
The exit will bring you up to the southwest corner of the new Garden City and Taipei Dome complex.
Walk north on Guangfu South Road (光復南路) for three minutes to find the western entrance to Songshan here. This would also be a good spot to arrive by taxi.
It’s also possible to enter the grounds from further east on Zhongxiao East Road (the eastern side of Taipei Dome) and from the eastern side of the grounds around here.
Lastly, there are a few entry points on the north side, which are best for going directly to Eslite Spectrum Songyan or Eslite Hotel, or for connecting to the National Railway Museum.
However, public transportation to the north side of the complex is more limited, so you may want to arrive at that side by taxi.
Things to See and Do at Songshan
Below, I’ll take you on a roughly west-to-east walking tour through Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. See here for a detailed map here of all the buildings I’ll be mentioning.
Songyan Ave
Songyan Ave (松菸大道, here) is a pedestrian boulevard leading from Guangfu South Road to the main (western) entrance to Songshan.
The palm-lined avenue is surrounded by modern buildings, giving it a tropical urban feel.
When I visited, there were cartoon statues of Mayday (五月天), one of Taiwan’s most famous rock bands, in celebration of their 25th-anniversary tour.
Like many artworks on display at Songshan, these could be replaced by something else by the time you visit.
Also watch for the whimsical decorative inlays embedded in the pavement along the avenue, which are a permanent feature.
Songyan Ave leads directly into the park grounds.
Office Building
As soon as you enter the park, you will be facing the Office Building (辦公廳舍, here, building A6 on map).
This is an elegant Japanese-era building with a pale façade, strong horizontal lines, tall wooden-framed windows, and custom-cut stonework. It once contained the tobacco factory’s offices and meeting rooms.
Today, the building contains a Visitor Information Center and the Design Pin Shop (設計點, here, 10 AM to 6 PM daily), which is worth a look. Note the beautiful stonework at the base of most walls inside.
Exiting the back (east) side of the Office Building will take you into Songyan Court (松菸口, here), a leafy courtyard connecting the Office Building to the Tobacco Factory.
Tobacco Factory
The Tobacco Factory (製菸工廠, here, building A7) was the original cigarette rolling and packaging facility and largest remaining historic structure at Songshan.
The two-story, 160-meter-long rectangular building has a large internal courtyard. Its interior features long hallways single rooms (former working spaces) without partitions, while numerous columns on the first floor supported the weight of the heavy machinery once installed on the second floor.
Today, the Tobacco Factory houses several of Songshan’s main features, facilities, and shops.
Personally, my favorite part of the building was not the formal displays, but just exploring the hallways on the first and second floors and discovering random artworks in them.
A theater and several rooms inside host rotating fairs, exhibitions, pop-up shops, and other events, some of which require advance tickets.
When I last visited, there was a huge line of people (what you see in the image below is only part of it) waiting to enter an anime event.
The street running along the north side of the Tobacco Factory is called Cultural and Creative Boulevard (文創大街). The street along the south is Maple Tree Ave (楓香大道), while the street along the east side is Palm Tree Ave (椰林大道).
The following four entries are all inside the Tobacco Factory building:
Taiwan Design Museum
Several rooms containing rotating exhibits in the Tobacco Factory are collectively known as the Taiwan Design Museum (台灣設計館, here, 10 AM to 6 PM, closed Mondays).
The rotating displays cover various aspects of contemporary Taiwanese and international design, from everyday products and graphic design to technology, materials, sustainability, and more experimental design concepts.
Some exhibitions may require an entry fee, but at the time of my visit, they were all free.
Not Just Library
Also in the Taiwan Design Museum area is Not Just Library (不只是圖書館, here), a separate design-focused library occupying the factory’s former bathhouse.
It’s the first space you encounter after entering the Tobacco Factory through the entrance marked “Taiwan Design Museum” in Songyan Court, so it feels like part of the museum.
The beautifully renovated space contains a large collection of design books and international magazines while retaining elements of the original bathhouse.
At the time of my visit, Not Just Library required a TWD 100 ticket, which I purchased from a machine. When there are other paid exhibitions on site, a combined museum and library ticket may be available.
Baroque Garden
At the center of the Tobacco Factory is the large Baroque Garden (巴洛克花園, here), which once served as a recreation and relaxation space for factory workers.
The garden has a three-tiered fountain at its center, ample vegetation, and European-style statues throughout.
Creative Shops
The eastern side of the Tobacco Factory houses several creative shops selling clothing, fashion accessories, creative items, jewelry, books, liquor, and more.
These include Square Studio (方坊, here), Songyan Style Gallery (松菸風格店家, here), HMS Beagle (小獵犬號, here), MixGene Gift Shop (here), Tao Bar (討酒吧, here), and Tsutaya Bookstore (here).
The Five Warehouses and Inspection Room
Directly north of the western end of the Tobacco Factory are five parallel former warehouses. These are numbered A1-5 (1號-5號倉庫) and each one is labeled on Google Maps (here’s Warehouse #1).
The warehouses are generally reserved as venues for special events and exhibitions.
I once attended a friend’s fashion show in one of these, while at the time of my last visit, there was a line of people waiting to enter an exhibition on STAYREAL, a streetwear brand founded by the lead singer of Mayday.
Unless there’s an event you want to attend, you probably won’t enter the warehouses, but don’t miss the cool conveyor belt (輸送帶) connecting the second floor of the Tobacco Factory to Warehouse #2.
Just west of the five warehouses is the Inspection Room (檢查室, building A0), a small wooden building former employees once had to pass through on the way to work.
The space is now rented out to small businesses – at the time of my visit it housed Lepu Tang dessert shop (here). Consider popping in for a treat when you first enter the park
Machinery Repair Plant and Nursery Room
Just east of the Tobacco Factory, the Machinery Repair Plant (機器修理廠, here, building A9) is, as the name suggests, a former facility for repairing factory machines.
Today, the long and narrow building houses a FamilyMart (A8) and a restaurant (here).
Just behind FamilyMart, the Nursery Room (A11) is a small, green, wooden building where factory workers could leave their children while they worked – see the black-and-white photos on the side of it.
The Nursery Room now contains another restaurant (here).
Boiler Room
The Boiler Room (松菸鍋爐房, here, A10) is a small but recognizable building southeast of the Tobacco Factory or directly south of the Machinery Repair Plant.
Oil was once burned here to provide energy to the factory. The smokestack was once a Taipei landmark, but today the Boiler Room is boxed in by much taller modern buildings, creating a striking contrast between old and new.
Currently it houses a branch of the Taiwanese coffee chain Cama Coffee Roaster (here).
The tall, shiny building directly behind it is the InterContinental Taipei (see on Agoda).
Eslite Spectrum Songyan
The modern Eslite Spectrum Songyan complex (誠品生活松菸, here, 11 AM to 10 PM) occupies the northeastern corner of the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park grounds.
The building has a striking contemporary exterior, with a broad, gently curved façade wrapped in pale geometric panels. Its sleek modern design provides a sharp contrast to the low-rise historic factory buildings surrounding it.
The western portion of the building contains the three-story department store. Besides the usual clothing and accessory boutiques, there’s also an Eslite Wine Cellar (here on the ground floor) and a basement-level food court.
On the second floor, Kun’s Crystal Glass Blowing (here) offers DIY classes (see my full list of DIY activities in Taipei).
Eslite Spectrum Songyan is best-known for its Eslite Bookstore (here on the third floor), which currently is the only Eslite Bookstore in the city that still remains open 24 hours per day (see other things to do in Taipei at night).
Besides winning awards for its interior design, the bookstore contains a record shop and café.
The rest of the complex belongs to Eslite Hotel (誠品行旅, here, see on Booking / Agoda / Trip.com).
See other hotels I recommend in Taipei here.
Rooms here offer excellent views of the cultural park, city beyond, and Taipei 101 (see my Taipei 101 guide and other best spots to view Taipei 101).
The hotel’s ground floor has a library-like café called The Lounge @ Eslite Hotel (here), where shelves of books are available to browse while you enjoy a drink or snack.
There’s also a sleek restaurant called The Chapter Café (here).
Ecological Pond
The eastern end of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is a green space around the Ecological Pond (生態景觀池, here).
Originally built for fire control, the pond has been repurposed as an urban ecological wetland, with ducks, frogs, insects, wooden bridges, and boardwalks.
Many locals working in nearby businesses come here to eat bento boxes on their lunch break.
Final Thoughts
Songshan Cultural and Creative Park isn’t on my list of absolute must-sees for a first trip to Taipei, but it’s one of the city’s best stops for design lovers and anyone who enjoys repurposed historic spaces.
If you’ve already visited Huashan 1914 Creative Park, or have time for both, Songshan offers a larger, quieter, and more design-focused take on Taipei’s creative park scene.
Even if you aren’t especially interested in design, it’s free to wander through, so it’s easy to combine with nearby Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall or the National Railway Museum.