Business Travel Getting In and Out Easily in Taipei
Many people find it so excited when going abroad to have their first business travel thinking about having flying in business class, Benz waiting at airport arrival hall for pickup, staying in the 5 stars hotel and dinning in full course fine dining restaurant, and etc. But the days are gone for luxuries corporate travel budget. We are now back to square one with tight budget travel with kind of many restriction and lengthy guidelines to follow. No worries, here with years of business travel experience in Asia, the author can provide you the inside out information on getting around like local in Asia cities. Let's start with Taipei as the 1st stop of your business travel destination.
Pre-Departure Planning - Hotel Searching and Customer Location Identification
It is always very important to do some homework before you board your plane at your homeland airport, since you may not know what things will went wrong when you arrive at your destination. However, please do not worry so much as Taipei people English proficiency is high enough to help you.
Even you are working in a top multi national companies but still you need to find out where the corporate prefer hotel located whether is it near to customer site or very far. Since by understanding the locations of each customer site it helps a lot in planning the meeting time and arranging transportation to get there.
For big corporate traveler working in HP, Dell, Intel, GE, etc, usually they have corporate rate with Taipei Sheraton Hotel, Taipei Sherwood Hotel, Taipei Grand Hyatt, Shangri-la Taipei, Westin Taipei, Taipei Farmosa Hotel, Yu Shan Hotel and other 5 star hotel. What about for people that with own business or work in small corporate? It is too luxurious staying in such world class hotel sometimes it is really unnecessary. You can try out some business hotel which are mainly located in Chong Xiao East Road, Taipei Main Station, Ming Sheng East Road, Ming Quan East Road, etc. These business hotels are ranging from NT$1800-NT$2500 (tax included) including breakfast, one of the author prefer is Delight Hotel Taipei which is so convenient which the Zhong Shan Guo Zhong MRT is just 5 minutes walk and same goes to the 7-11 convenient store.
You need to understand where is your customer site as whether is it in Taipei city or in Taipei Prefecture. Customers sites are around Neihu, Shichi, Chonghe, Banqiao, Tucheng and some even as far as in Xinchu. If your customer is in Chonghe, Tucheng, and Banqian region, stay in Chonghe is a better option. A good hotel with reasonal price around NT$3200 (tax included) is Fourpoints Sheraton Hotel Chunghe, convenient store is just 10 steps away at the left hand side from hotel entrance.
Transportation and Access Information
It is not wise to get a hotel pickup at airport, as it is always cost few hundred NT dollars more than Taxi and sometimes even a thousands dollar NT more than pre-arrange private service car that a lot of MNC applied which we called it "MiMi" car (usually is Toyota Camry 2.4L version, not too bad at all!). Hotel pickup cost range of NT$1900-NT$3000 depends on what type of limousine you ordered; taxi cost about NT$1100 to Taipei city; "MiMi" car cost about NT$800 to inner city of Taipei. If you are not rush, try the shuttle bus cost about NT$110-NT$150, only 10% of what you paid for taxi! It takes about an hour to reach Taipei city. Just find out your hotel address and show to the lady at the bus ticket counter, she will let you know which bus to take. Just ensure you counter check with bus driver asking him when approaching your stop, please remind you to get off. No worries, once you are in the Taipei city, can get taxi easily and getting around will cost little only within NT$100-NT$250.
Once you are in the city after check-in, you can travel around using the subway or MRT which is so convenient and easy to go anyway. So it is important to find a hotel which is nearer to MRT station as it will help you save a lot of your transportation fees. Since MRT cost so little from NT$20 onwards, with EasyCard you will have 40% discount! Just get one at the subway ticket counter.
Business Dinning and Personal Dinning Sharing
Do you know business travel does not mean you only suppose to have your meals in 5 start restaurant, you too can have the same quality of foods in a lot of local restaurant or even at night market. Save you some dollars for raining days use. Business dinning can have it in any Taipei city restaurant which you can easily find it. Here which the author want to share more is the night market foods which foreign business traveler should try out after a whole day of tiring business meetings. Check out Shiling night market just board the MRT at any station along the red color subway line and stop at Jiantan station. Don't straight go after the food court at Shiling market, instead go into the night market place and check out the small hawker stores beside the road, some really cool delicious foods like fried chicken drumstick, jelly drink, ice cream rap in thin flour with peanuts, crab meat soup and many more. One should not miss is the ice shop inside one of the valley beside main street of Shiling night market, selling all sort of milky shredded ice with many different kinds of toppings. Try out the strawberry or mango toppings, really delicious! Business travel can be fun, too!
