We arrived in Taipei just an hour before lunchtime, so we decided to dedicate the rest of the day to roaming around Ximending. We visited Don Don Donki, Jinart, Pop Mart, and other stores. We also had dinner at one of the local noodle and dumpling places called Xiao Xiao Hong Dumplings & Soup Dumplings (小小虹水餃小湯包). 🥟

Our last stop for the day was Eslite Bookstore located in Eslite Spectrum Mall—it’s a huge bookstore that takes up the entire 5th floor of Eslite Spectrum. They have so many books translated into Mandarin, toys, and a wide selection of stationery like letter paper, notepads, post-its, pens, highlighters, and more. The bookstore also has a hidden cafe that locals simply refer to as “the bookstore’s drink bar.” We really enjoyed their honey lemon tea—it was so refreshing and perfect to quench your thirst after walking around in the Taiwan heat. 🍋

I didn’t buy a book here since they don’t have a lot of English titles available, but I did get some highlighters—they even have a Hello Kitty mildliner!—and two sets of letter papers! 🩷