This site is and will always be primarily a hiking site, but there are a couple of other fields that interest me enough to warrant inclusion. Thrift stores and second-hand shops is one such subject (as is travel stamp collecting). My reason for shopping at these places is primarily to reduce the environmental impact of my purchases where possible—why make something new or send something to landfill if there’s another one out there already waiting for a second chance?

That said, second-hand shopping can be a little tricky if you’re new to Taiwan and don’t know where to look. Indeed, I think it took me a couple of years before I realised that shops like these even exist. So, to make things easier for others in a similar predicament, I have compiled a map of all the thrift stores I’ve come across in Taiwan.

The map icons have been divided into three categories for ease of use. The first category is market stalls. These are excellent for clothing—women’s clothing in particular—and I think I’ve bought my workwear and everyday wear exclusively from these places for the past few years. The main challenge with these is figuring out when they will be visiting different markets since the vendors tend to have a weekly schedule that sees them visiting a different neighbourhood each day of the week. The second type of place listed are flea stores (in Chinese, the word for “flea” is “跳蚤” and searching for this on Google is a good way to find stores like this). These range from chain stores that are relatively well-organised to basically what looks like a hoarder’s back room, and they’re excellent for finding any household essentials. Finally, there are a handful of weekend flea markets around Taipei, where you can find the usual flea market stuff.

Note: The map is not exhaustive and may have some mistakes where stores have closed or vendors have changed the days that they visit certain markets.