MRT Ximen Station → Taipei Hero House-Friends of Armed Forces Association Restaurant (breakfast) → The Red House (browse historic site, cultural-creative merchandise) → Mei Guan Yuan (Japanese-style lunch) → Hanzhong Street, Wuchang Street (singers, street performers) → Tattoo Street (enjoy graffiti subculture) → American Street (popular clothing fashions) → Taipei Cinema Park (graffiti-art walls, second-hand clothing bazaar), Ximen Backstreet Festival → Amba Taipei Ximending Hotel (dinner, overnight accommodation)

Taipei’s Ximending area (西門町), the city’s most popular entertainment district, means movies, clothing, anime, music, street performances, and other entertainments ad infinitum. Crowds of fashionably dressed young men and women roam the streets, especially the pedestrian-only areas, on weekends and holidays. This is perhaps Taiwan’s most iconic youth-culture enclave. Yet despite the emphasis on chic modernity, this is also a district with a nostalgic heart, filled with historical sites and a grand buffet of heritage eateries and restaurants. It’s a unique area where old and new, traditional and modern live together in harmony. Want to find out what defines“cool play”in Taipei? This is cool-play central.

New and Old in Creative Ferment

Early one morning, travel to MRT Ximen Station, take Exit No. 2, turn right, walk toward Changsha Street (長沙街), and you’ll soon come to the Taipei Hero House (國軍英雄館). Head up to the Friends of Armed Forces Association Restaurant (軍友餐廳) on the second floor: it’s time for breakfast! The food here is Chinese, with traditional congee and side dishes as the main fare, along with fresh soybean milk, poached eggs, fruits, and other delights, presented in Western-buffet-style. Feast as you wish for just NT$100.

After breakfast, head to the intersection of Zhonghua Road (中華路) and Chengdu Road (成都路). Standing in an area off the junction, surrounded by taller buildings, is The Red House (西門紅樓), an important heritage building. Opened in 1908, this was Taiwan’s first publicly operated market. Today an official city historical site, it is also a key Ximending cultural-creative base. The front part is in the form of an octagon, and the rear is cruciform in shape. The rear part houses the Creative Boutique (十六工房) – the Chinese name translates directly as the“16 Studios”– and what is called the The Cradle of Cultural Creative Dreamer (文創孵夢基地). Here you’ll find small shops and craft items of great variety. Creative bazaars are staged in the courtyard area beside The Red House on weekends/holidays, with imaginative illustrated postcards, designer T-shirts, hand-crafted decorative items, and many other attractive surprises awaiting your discovery.

Savoring Old-Style Food Treats, Enjoying Street Performers

After The Red House, visit the Hanzhong Street (漢中街)/ Emei Street (峨眉街) pedestrian area. Here you’ll be amidst a forest of chic fashion-attire statements, styles and prices aligned with the needs and desires of the student crowd. Meander around this area and you’ll soon find yourself infected with a vigorous, youthful world-view. In this bustling district you’ll find an old Japanese-style business, called Mei Guan Yuan (美觀園), that’s been here 60 years. The proprietor says this restaurant’s cuisine is best described as“Japanese-Chinese”(和漢料理), for local Taiwan ingredients are integrated into the original Japanese recipes. The emphasis is on the freshest foods at the most reasonable prices. Travelers who enjoy the freshest in fine Japanese cuisine can’t go wrong by coming here for lunch.

Emerge from the restaurant and you’ll be greeted by the many street performers that add color to this area in the afternoons. There are buskers, portrait artists, spray-paint artists, dough-figurine artists, drummers, and talent of many other types. East and West are mixed, creativity and originality is impressive, and Ximending’s most vivid streetscapes are brought to life. In this same area, on weekends/holidays at the plaza on the intersection of Hanzhong Street and Wuchang Street (武昌街), the hottest pop singers come out to sing their latest releases. Come on out to experience the star-chaser culture of Taiwan’s student population.

Next, walk along Hanzhong Street to Lane 50 .(刺青街) Here you’ll find a side lane that specializes in tattoos, drawing many a subculture aficionado. You might well see tattoos as graffiti art for the body, and if you’d like to see the real thing, head to the other end of this lane and to the end of Lane 96, Kunming Street (昆明街96巷), where you’ll see artwork on walls created by visiting graffiti artists from overseas. This unique form of artistry has given rise to the name“American Street”(美國街), and along this artery you’ll also find shops specializing in earlier-period American second-hand clothing, defining hip-hop regalia, skateboarder clothing and accessories, and other declarations of international chic. This is a pulsating market for the hottest in the most popular youth brand names.

Experiencing the New Youth Culture — Staying at a New-Style Cultural-Creative Hotel

By way of the end of Lane 96, you enter the wide Taipei Cinema Park (臺北市電影主題公園). On non-workdays a succession of graffiti-art, skateboarding, dance, and second-hand clothing events take the stage here, at what has become a key node in the popular youth lifestyle of the city. Step out of the park via the main entrance, go right, and you’re facing Ximending’s well-known Movie Street (電影街). The name was coined in the 1960s, when up to eight movie theaters stood shoulder to shoulder here. Though today there are only four, the air is still thick with the ambiance of film-culture.

As dusk falls, you’ll likely be in the mood for a special dinner and a bit of relaxation, the Amba Taipei Ximending (臺北西門町意舍) is just the place. A stylish hotel opened in February this year, motifs recalling Ximending abound in rooms, along corridors, and elsewhere. Music and fine food are brought together in a place that exudes originality and design confidence. Illustrators have adorned corridors and elevators with iconic Ximending images, and rooms feature illustrations in different themes, along with designer slippers and designer door cards. The lobby area features an open-concept art gallery, with periodic showings of works by contemporary artists. In the Chiba (吃吧) dining area, which features rustic wooden bookshelves and meals served on rustic wooden boards, enjoy East-West fusion dining. Perhaps the most special touch of all is Tingba (聽吧), a cocktail and music lounge, which every Saturday and Sunday night features a dedicated DJ, with music videos screened in sync with the various music themes. The area’s youth-chic vitality and“cool play”atmosphere is thus with you until your very last moments in Ximending.

Ximen Backstreet Festival

Sponsored by the Taipei Culture Foundation (台北市文化基金會), the Ximen Backstreet Festival (西門町後街文化祭) is an artful mix of graffiti art, skateboarding, creative DJs, street dance, music, and much else from the backstreet pop-culture world. Also introduced into the mix are movie special-effects make-up, 3D painting, and other nifty stuff. The city’s west-side street culture is put on full and glorious display.

This is the third edition of the festival, and it’s going on until October 31, every Wednesday night from 19:30 to 21:30 at Taipei Cinema Park. In addition to the main highlights, the Infinite Cosplay Theater (無限人形劇團) is putting on“Infinite Cosplay Workshop”(無限人形工作坊) sessions, with free sign-up. Be sure to also take part in the rollicking good fun of the October 27“2012 Ximen Halloween – What the Devil Are You Up To!”(2012西門萬聖，搞什麼鬼！) activities.