Business travel in Taipei

Business Travel Get in and out of Taipei with ease
Many people are so excited to travel abroad for their first business trip thinking of flying business class, Benz waiting in the airport arrival hall for pick up, staying at the 5 star hotel and dining at a haute cuisine, etc. But the days are gone for budget luxury corporate travel. Now we are back to square one with tight budget travel with many restrictions and long guidelines to follow. Don’t worry, here, with years of experience in business travel in Asia, the author can give you the inside-out on how to get around Asia’s cities as a local. Let’s start with Taipei as the first stop of your business travel destination.

Pre-departure planning: hotel search and customer location identification
It is always very important to do some homework before boarding your plane at your home country airport as you may not know what will go wrong when you arrive at your destination. Don’t worry too much though, as the English proficiency of the people of Taipei is high enough to help you.

Even you are working in one of the major multinational companies, but you still need to find out where the company prefers the hotel located, whether it is close to the client site or far away. Since understanding the locations of each client site goes a long way in planning the meeting time and arranging transportation to get there.

For big corporate travelers who work at HP, Dell, Intel, GE, etc., they usually have corporate rates with Taipei Sheraton Hotel, Taipei Sherwood Hotel, Taipei Grand Hyatt, Shangri-la Taipei, Westin Taipei, Taipei Farmosa Hotel, Yu Shan Hotel and another 5 star hotel. What about people who have their own business or work in a small business? It is too luxurious to stay in a world class hotel, sometimes it is really unnecessary. You can try some business hotels which are mainly located in Chong Xiao East Road, Taipei Main Station, Ming Sheng East Road, Ming Quan East Road, etc. These business hotels range from NT$1800-NT$2500 (taxes included) with breakfast included, one of the author’s favorites is Delight Hotel Taipei, which is so convenient that the Zhong Shan Guo Zhong MRT is only a 5 minute walk away and The same goes for the 7-11 convenience stores.

You need to understand where your customer site is, whether it is in Taipei City or Taipei Prefecture. Customer sites are around Neihu, Shichi, Chonghe, Banqiao, Tucheng, and some even in Xinchu. If your client is in Chonghe, Tucheng and Banqian region, staying in Chonghe is a better choice. A good reasonably priced hotel around NT$3200 (including tax) is Fourpoints Sheraton Hotel Chunghe, the convenient store is just 10 steps on the left hand side of the hotel entrance.

Transport and access information
It is not advisable to get a hotel pick up from the airport as it always costs a few hundred NT dollars more than taxi and sometimes even thousands of NT dollars more than the pre-arranged private service because many MNCs applied what they we call it “MiMi” (it’s usually the Toyota Camry 2.4L version, not bad at all!). The hotel pick up cost range from NT$1900-NT$3000 depends on the type of limousine you ordered; Taxi is around NT$1100 to Taipei City; “MiMi” car costs around 800NT$ to Taipei city center. If you are not in a hurry, try the shuttle bus which costs around NT$110-NT$150, only 10% of what you paid for the taxi! It takes about an hour to get to Taipei City. Just find out your hotel address and show it to the lady at the bus ticket counter, she will tell you which bus to take. Just be sure to check at the counter with the bus driver asking when you get close to your stop, remind them to get off. Don’t worry, once you are in Taipei City, you can easily take a taxi and getting around will cost you little only between NT$100 and NT$250.

Once you are in the city after check-in, you can travel using the subway or MRT, which is very convenient and easy to go anyway. Therefore, it is important to find a hotel that is closer to the MRT station as it will help you save a lot on your transportation fees. Since MRT is so cheap starting at NT$20, with EasyCard you will get 40% discount! Get one at the subway ticket office.

Shared business lunches and personal dinners
Do you know that business travel doesn’t mean you should only eat in a 5 star restaurant, you can also have the same quality of food in many local restaurants or even in the night market? Save a few dollars for rainy day use. You can have the business dinner at any restaurant in Taipei City, where you can find it easily. Here, what the author wants to share the most is the night market foods that the foreign business traveler must try after a full day of tiring business meetings. Visit Shiling Night Market, simply board the MRT at any station along the red subway line and stop at Jiantan Station. Don’t go directly to the food court in Shiling market, instead go to the night market and check out the little street shops on the side of the road, some really great delicious foods like fried chicken drumstick, jelly drink , rap ice cream in fine flour with peanuts, crab meat soup and many more. Not to be missed is the ice shop inside one of the valleys off the main street of the Shiling Night Market, which sells all kinds of crushed milky ice with different types of toppings. Try the strawberry or mango toppings, really delicious! Business travel can be fun too!