Daytime: two halls, or the Sun Yat-sen hall
Enter the quarter at Taipei 101/World Trade Center. Department stores, Eslite Xinyi, Breeze, Shin Kong — go deep in two at most. The rest are pass-through. Eslite Dunnan has closed; do not cross to the East District looking for it. The Sun Yat-sen hall can take the morning, as a flat alternative, not as a third mall. Four Four Village is a short stop. Link two department stores indoors. Pass through a third only to dodge rain. 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.
One dusk, one kind of dinner
On a clear day climb Elephant Mountain and do not buy the observatory. Rain, or a day that should skip the steps: use the observatory, hours and tickets following the 101 site with no exact fare here, and cancel the mountain. If you queue Din Tai Fung, that is the meal and Tonghua is not also a main sitting. Without that queue, dinner is Tonghua. Both heights are listed so you pick one. Queue only after you have read the sky. Do not take a number for both the observatory and the mountain. 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.
Do not append Raohe, the Palace or Dahu
Raohe, Ciyou and Wufenpu are the Songshan evening. The Palace is a Shilin afternoon. Miramar in Dazhi and Dahu in Neihu are two other Wenhu days — do not ride over for the wheel. Do not finish Xinyi and then go to Beitou. The shape of Xinyi is two halls, one dusk, one kind of dinner. Xinyi ends at Taipei 101/World Trade Center or Xiangshan. The Raohe exit waits for the Songshan day. 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.