Decided yet on what city—and even what country—you want to be in this year for the big New Year's Eve countdown? No? Well, then, let us roll out the red carpet for you here in Taipei! We offer you the bombastic“bombs bursting in air”Taipei New Year's Eve Countdown Party, attended by a great many people from overseas each year, capped off by the pounding Taipei 101 Fireworks Show at midnight. The glitter and the dazzle grow year by year, rolling out the red carpet for the brand new year and the new beginnings this means for us, individually and collectively.
While hundreds of thousands come to the area immediately below the Taipei 101 skyscraper to enjoy the glorious fireworks spectacle, countless others pick out prime outlying spots. Among the most popular and ad-vantage-eous are Rainbow Riverside Park (彩虹河濱公園), the Maokong (貓空) tea-plantation area, Yangmingshan (陽明山), and Elephant Mountain (象山). All offer sweeping, unobstructed views, more open space to sit yourself down in, and a black-as-pitch night sky canvas that is free of fireworks smoke, maximizing the effects of the explosion art.
Rainbow Riverside Park is beside the Keelung River (基隆河), a premier location for taking Taipei 101 photos. The wide open expanse, sparkling river water, and colorful lights of nearby MacArthur No. 1 and No. 2 bridges (麥帥一橋、麥帥二橋) add up to a mise-en-scene of wonderful splendor and a venue of romance and glitter bursts on New Year's Eve. Another good riverside site is Dajia Riverside Park (大佳河濱公園), also on the Keelung river, beside Dazhi Bridge (大直橋). There are fewer high-rises in this area, and the unobstructed river-and-sky sight lines making this an excellent viewing platform. Nearby Dazhi, Miramar Entertainment Park also puts on a brilliant fireworks show on New Year's Eve. The two fireworks extravaganzas plus the bright neon lights of the entertainment park's giant rooftop ferris wheel, second-biggest in Asia, add up to a feast of lights as art.
Looming high on the city's north side is the Yangmingshan massif, its eagle-eye views down into the city from many spots making for great night-time vistas (daytime too!). It's no surprise that these are popular romantic rendezvous spots as well. One such location is on the mountainside behind Chinese Culture University (中國文化大學), reached via along Yangde Blvd. (仰德大道), a place of pretty views perfect for you and your sweetheart to take in the New Year's show, the color of the fireworks expressing the passions of your heart. After the big bangs subside, locals love to head to nearby hot-spring resorts for a romantic soak—and so should you.
The tranquil Maokong area has a remote and hidden-away feel to it, high up on slopes carpeted with fields of tea. Bring a group of friends, sit yourself down to some fine tea and good conversation, and from the commanding heights take in the full New Year's Eve fireworks spectacle at a glance. Since last year, the good Maokong Gondola started adding extra runs on this night, the grand views extra-special seen through the special glass-bottom gondola cars.
Another place of sweeping overviews that though right on the edge of the bright city lights has a faraway Arcadia-like feel is Elephant Mountain. During the day, its trails are busy with neighborhood folks out for some easy recreational hiking, but at night it becomes something of a private studio for photography buffs, who set up tripods in the open Six Boulders area (六巨石區) for coruscating panoramas of the Xinyi District and Taipei 101 directly ahead, which looks like a giant miniature model so close you can reach out and touch it. On New Year's Eve, naturally enough, the photographers come out in numbers, as do, naturally enough, a great many other spectacle-loving folks.
Whether watched with family, friends, or sweethearts—or all of the above—New Year's Eve in Taipei is a night of fireworks and a sweet romantic air. Where will you be? The people of Taipei and all Taiwan invite you to join them in the countdown to this country's next 100 years.
