Day 1: station, office exterior, memorial
Morning: North Gate, then the Presidential Office exterior and Ketagalan Boulevard. The Taiwan Museum or the railway park — go deep at one. Lunch at Nanmen; He Xing cakes are a snack, and if you already ate in the market do not order another round. Afternoon at the memorial and Liberty Square, one guard ceremony. Stop at the square. Not Longshan, an Ximen shop loop, or Elephant Mountain today. If the museum is closed, use the railway park, and do not wait for the next guard change. Keep this stretch inside two hours. Note the metro exit before you start, leave as soon as you have seen or eaten, and do not queue a second door.
Day 2: Dadaocheng or Zhongshan — pick one
Dadaocheng: Dihua to Xiahai, Yongle only if you want cloth, the wharf at dusk, dinner only at Ningxia — not also the Circle. Or Zhongshan: Chifeng and a look at Tiaotong, Shuang Yue or Lin Dong Fang as the one meal, Xingtian in the late afternoon, and not both Shuangcheng and Liaoning. Do not join the two axes, and do not add the Palace. Change axes by metro. Do not walk from the wharf to Chifeng. Stop once in the middle. When you have eaten or looked, walk on. Do not turn passing shops into a list, and go back by the station you came in on.
Day 3: one Xinyi dusk
Daytime: the Sun Yat-sen hall, or two department stores at most. If you queue Din Tai Fung, that meal replaces Tonghua as the main sitting. Clear dusk climbs Elephant Mountain and skips the observatory; rain or a day that should skip the steps uses the observatory and cancels the mountain. Dinner at Tonghua. Raohe, Shilin and Beitou are other days. Both heights are listed so you pick one. After the stores, look at the sky, then choose the climb or the observatory ticket. Stop the day here. Leave the other district for tomorrow. Do not add a stop before the last train, and trust the station board over this guide.