Urban turtles in Daan Park
Daan (pronounced Da-aan) Park is one of Taipei City’s many parks and a very popular running spot. You can’t run on the streets in the city – it’s far too crowded – so people here run on tracks in the parks or on the cycle tracks along the river. Both are beautifully maintained, litter free and totally safe, whatever time of day or night you choose to run. The thing that really blew my mind as a South African (apart from being able to run safe at night) was the fact that I could put my jacket and water bottle down on a bench in the park, go off for an hour’s run, come back, and SHOCK! HORROR! my stuff was exactly where I’d left it, untouched!
A semi-urban old goat in Daan Park
Even the caterpillars chill in the park!
I did several short runs in various parks and along two different rivers, but the highlight of my Taiwanese running must surely be the race which we did just outside Taichung.
It wasn’t one of their major races so us three foreigners were quite a novelty – it was pretty cool being cheered on by spectators just because I was a visitor! Races are very popular in Taiwan and a lot of them are HUGE – if you blink when entries open, you miss out. Almost as bad as trying to get into the Two Oceans Half here, so I was very grateful to my two boys for managing to snap up entries for this one.
I ran alongside a Taiwanese gentleman who spoke a little English. He seemed to find it fascinating that a woman of my age was running – apparently women of my generation in Taiwan don’t run as a rule. Unlike here where there are whole bunches of over-60’s knocking off Comrades year after year!
It transpired that he was in fact 74 years old and still running strong. Very inspirational – I hope to follow in his footsteps.
The certifcate (in Chinese) gives me my time and also tells me that out of 163 women in the race I was number 57 – awesome!
Run Happy 
What a great post; thank you. I am visiting Taipei for a couple of weeks. I plan to run Daan Forest Park most mornings from 3.63 to 16.3 miles, depending on daily itinerary/scheduling. But I read it’s expected to be quite warm and humid, even around 7:00 AM, when I expect to run. And where I live in West Hartford, CT, it is now in the upper 30’s around 7a, so I think the drastic change might run havoc on my ancient physiology as I struggle to improve and restore my stamina. (I’m returning to running after 18 months off my feet following a broken left foot followed by a fractured right ankle, so I think the sand running path at the Park–if memory serves–will help.) Thanks for the information; cheers!
Sorry about the late reply, life has been hectic! The heat and humidity in Taipei do make it difficult to run but I thoroughly enjoyed that sand running path in Daan Park and there is lots of shade. Running at night is also an option – lots of people out and about until late! Take it easy and enjoy!