Taipei's Modern Sports Centers
Text Twelli
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For many people, a healthy lifestyle includes regular workouts and engaging in sports activities. Taipei is a city of many parks and bikeways, and the great outdoors in the form of verdant mountains with a network of great hiking trails is just a short drive or bus ride away. For those who prefer working up a sweat indoors or are looking for facilities on bad-weather days, the city has numerous excellent sports centers as well.
Each of Taipei City's 12 districts has at least one sports center administered by the municipal Department of Sports. These centers, featuring a wide range of facilities, are open to the public and can be used by both residents and visitors to the city without the need to apply for any membership.
While the centers might have various facilities in common (gym, dance rooms, swimming pools, etc.), some of them are equipped with unique facilities for more unusual sports as well, allowing you to find a center to your liking for almost any indoor sport.
If swimming and/or diving is your thing, head to the Song Shan Sports Center, which has large swimming pools (50m/25m). Free-diving is possible at certain times of the day in special areas, and you can sign up for free-diving classes. Swimming, springboard diving, kayaking, and water polo classes are available as well.
Over its 10 floors, the Shilin Sports Center has a marvelously wide range of options, the most interesting of which are the climbing wall (5th floor) and the small-sized soccer field (top floor; artificial turf).
Want to test your skill with a bow and arrow? Head to the Jhong Jheng Sports Center! On the 9th floor of the center is a 30m shooting range with 12 lanes. On other floors, you'll find spaces for badminton, table tennis, and snooker (incl. foot snooker). In the basement is a 50m swimming pool.
The Beitou Sports Center comes in handy if you want to jog indoors, but not on a treadmill. On the center's 3rd floor is a 110m track, circling the basketball court (in view) on the floor below. Also on the same floor is a squash court, and in the basement you'll find a 50m swimming pool.
Nan Gang Sports Center has a rock-climbing wall (beside the 3F basketball court) and a 30m archery range on its top floor (8 lanes). The most unusual facility of the center, however, is the air pistol shooting range on the 5th floor.
Finally, you can go inline skating indoors in the Da-Tong Sports Center! The international-standard 50×25m skating rink is used for both skating and inline hockey.
For an overview of all centers, visit the venue booking site.
2025 World Masters Games
Next year will be another important sports year for Taipei. After successfully hosting the Deaflympics in 2009 and the Summer Universiade in 2017, Taipei City will again, this time together with New Taipei City, host a major sports event, the World Masters Games. What makes these games special – and different from professional sports events like the Olympic Games – is that anyone can register to participate (there are minixmum age restrictions and limited slots, however). Around 30,000 athletes from across the world, competing individually and not as part of national teams, are expected to compete in 35 different sports. For more information about the World Masters Games, check out the official website.
This year there will be a series of warm-up events. If you are interested in taking part in these events, you can register until the maximum number of participants has been reached.
Sign up here: www.wmg2025warmup.org.tw
