When we travel — and especially when we get to spend such a long time in one place — we try to go beyond the most popular tourist activities and find the things that make us feel like we’re really experiencing the local culture. We were in Taipei for a week, and we took the opportunity to try out three unique experiences that helped us gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of life in Taiwan.
Here are three unique experiences in Taiwan you can’t miss during your visit!
1. Taiwanese Baseball Game
I’m a pretty big sports fan, and while baseball isn’t necessarily one of my favorites, I knew we couldn’t miss the chance to watch a baseball game in Taiwan. From everything I’d read, a Taiwanese baseball game was “a whole different ball game” compared to American baseball and the MLB. (Excuse the pun.) I was curious how different it would actually be, so we bought tickets for the Rakuten Monkeys vs. the Brothers one night while we were in Taipei.
There are currently six teams in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), Taiwan’s top-tier professional baseball league. While each team has a home city, they’ll play games all over the country since the league is so small. In fact, there are 19 different stadiums across Taiwan where games can take place.
Our game was at the Taipei Dome, the largest indoor stadium in all of Taiwan. There is some food for sale at the stadium — including lots of things you’d never find at an MLB stadium, like takoyaki — but you can also bring your own food to the game! We saw lots of fans bringing in boxes of pizza, McDonald’s, and other takeout.
While neither the Monkeys nor the Brothers are local Taipei teams, the Monkeys seemed to have been designated the home team for the night. When we bought our tickets at the box office, we were put in the Monkeys fan section, which was most of the stadium. But the Brothers had their own cheering section — a bunch of fans wearing bright yellow, and they even brought a pep band with them!
And the Monkeys, as the home team, had the “Rakuten Girls” to help pump up the crowd. They performed before the game, and I was expecting they would be a lot like NFL cheerleaders, where you wouldn’t really notice them too much. But I was totally wrong! The Rakuten Girls kept the energy high throughout the entire game!
When the Monkeys were batting, the Rakuten Girls would stand on the roof of the dugout and lead cheers, singing and dancing, for the entire duration of the half inning. And these were intricate songs and dances, not just generic “Let’s Go Monkeys” type cheers either.
And it got the crowd so involved. Many of them would be standing, doing the cheers and dances along with the Rakuten Girls! Between the Rakuten Girls, the Brothers cheering section, and the rest of the fans, the whole experience was so high-energy and engaged. Which is something that I don’t think happens too much in the MLB outside the playoffs or World Series. This was just a random Friday night in the middle of the season.
As for the game itself, it was probably the least interesting part of what was going on. There wasn’t too much scoring until halfway through the game, when the Brothers started to run away with it. But I don’t think anyone even cared that much — everyone was just having a good time singing and cheering.
The CPBL baseball season in Taiwan is between March and October, so if you’re going to be in Taiwan during that time, I highly recommend checking out a game! Even if you’re familiar with American baseball, you’re bound to be in for a unique experience.
2. Chinese Calligraphy Class
A few years ago, when we were living full-time in Kansas City, I created a travel gallery wall in my office to help me feel connected to all my travels while I was stuck at home during COVID. When we went to Mexico City in 2022, I took a little art class where I got to paint my very own “Aztec protector” based on my birth chart, using traditional paints and materials. And I loved hanging it up on my gallery wall! Ever since then, I’ve been on the lookout for unique experiences through art that help me learn about another culture — while also doubling as a cool souvenir.
And that’s how I came across the idea of attending a Chinese calligraphy workshop while we were in Taiwan. I knew next to nothing about Chinese writing or calligraphy, but I was excited for the chance to learn and give it a shot! (Matt was a little less excited, but he was a good sport, LOL.)
I booked with Teresa from Calligraphy Zen, and we showed up bright and early on Sunday morning for our class… just to find out that it was going to be a private lesson! She offered us some tea, and then it was time to get started.
Teresa had a presentation about the five different styles of Chinese calligraphy and how they evolved over the years. She was a great teacher, and when she quizzed us over the styles at the end, it was easy to get them all right. Throughout the presentation, we got to practice the different calligraphy styles at our table, using a brush that was dipped in water. It helped us learn how to hold the brush and make the strokes without wasting a bunch of ink and paper — the water would dry after a minute or two, and then it was like it was never there.
Finally, it was time for us to prepare to create our own Chinese calligraphy scrolls. Teresa asked whether we had something specific we wanted to write, and we didn’t have any ideas… so she offered a great suggestion! Since it was our honeymoon, she shared a traditional Chinese wedding blessing that we could write in two parts, each of us writing a half, that would make sense when hung together: 月圓花好. It means “blooming flowers and full moon.”
We got to choose which of the five calligraphy styles we wanted to use for our piece, and then Teresa wrote them carefully for us and gave us some slips of paper to practice… with actual ink this time! And finally, when we felt confident (or when Teresa told us we were ready) it was time to do it for real on a gold-flecked scroll. We finished them off by stamping them with a red seal — an important part of any authentic Chinese calligraphy piece.
This was totally outside the norm of anything we’d ever done before, and I loved getting the chance to be creative while also learning something new! And Teresa was a great teacher — she was so easy to talk to, and we got to ask her all kinds of questions about living in Taiwan, the difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese writing, and more. I definitely recommend booking a class with her if you’re in Taipei!
Book Your Chinese Calligraphy Class with Teresa
TripAdvisor: Calligraphy Zen
Klook: Calligraphy Cultural Experience
(Note: Both of these should be the exact experience we booked with Teresa, though they are named differently on the platform.)
3. Shrimp fishing
This one definitely takes the cake as the most unique experience we had in Taiwan! I think when I was researching things to do on our trip, I came across a Reddit thread where someone was talking about it, and I was intrigued. So I told Matt: When we’re in Taipei, we’re going shrimp fishing one night. I don’t think he knew what that meant.
But we went! And it was such a fun and interesting thing to do.
In Taiwan, shrimp fishing is a popular social activity. You grab some friends, and maybe your own shrimp fishing rod if you have one, and head to a dedicated indoor shrimp-fishing pond to hang out and try to catch some shrimp. You can either take home what you catch, or you can grill your shrimp onsite and eat dinner there! A lot of these ponds are open 24 hours, or at least until 3 or 4 a.m. (something we noticed a lot in Taipei), which makes it feel even more unique. You typically pay to rent your fishing rod/use the pond by the hour, plus more if you cook and eat there.
It was our first time, obviously, so we weren’t 100% sure what to expect. When we walked into the facility, we went to the front desk where “the boss” handed us our fishing rods, some plates of bait, and a laminated paper with English instructions on how to catch the shrimp. Then we found two chairs together around the large, square pool in the middle of the room, where about 15 people were already fishing.
(I am calling him “the boss” because all the reviews of this place I read on Google were in Chinese, and when I translated them to English, that’s what they called him. I am unsure of his actual role or position. 😂)
It turns out that shrimp fishing isn’t anything like regular fishing. There’s no reel, so you have to just jerk the rod if you feel a bite. There is a bobber, but you should wait about 10-15 seconds before trying to hook the shrimp once you see it go underwater. We were a little bit worried that we wouldn’t catch anything — at least I was, because I’d read reviews of other foreigners trying it and having a hard time — but within like two minutes of being there, Matt had already caught his first shrimp.
When you catch one, you add it to your little blue net that hangs in the water in front of your station.
Meanwhile, a guy who was seated near us came over and started chatting with me and offering me some tips because I was still trying to get the hang of it. (Have I mentioned yet in this article how nice Taiwanese people are?!) I asked if he worked there and he said no, he just came there a lot and liked to practice his English while helping out the foreigners who were trying shrimp fishing for the first time.
Matt continued catching shrimp at an enviable pace, and I was eventually able to catch a handful myself. Every once in a while, the boss would grab some shrimp from a large tank in the back room and dump them into the pond to restock it as the supply got low. The other people who were fishing had drinks and snacks — there were beers and sodas for sale in a fridge when you first walked in — and they all looked like they were locked in for a few hours.
After about an hour and 10 shrimp in the bag, Matt and I decided we were finished. And then the boss offered to grill up the shrimp for us! We handed him our shrimp bag, went to grab a table in the front of the room, and got some drinks while we waited. When the shrimp arrived, we took a moment to respect the shrimp and be thankful for the nourishment it would be providing (especially because it was a gluten-free meal for me, which was extremely difficult to come by in Taiwan).
Overall, it was a lot of fun and such a unique way to spend an evening! There weren’t any other foreigners there when we visited, so it really felt like we had the opportunity to experience a real slice of life in Taiwan, which was so different from anything we’d ever done before. I would definitely do it again next time I’m in Taiwan!
By the way — this is the fishing pond we went to in Taipei: 全佳樂釣蝦場
So… now you know my top three picks for the most unique experiences in Taiwan. Have you ever done any of these, or what would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments!
-Cathy
This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you.
Leave a Reply