Songshan District: Raohe, Ciyou Temple & Minsheng Community.

At dusk outside Songshan station’s Exit 5, the tiered roofs of Ciyou Temple light up gold and red, a queue forms at the charcoal drum where pepper buns are slapped onto the oven walls, and the first shoppers drift into the long, bright lane of Raohe Night Market. Walk the other way, behind the temple, and a red steel arch carries cyclists over the Keelung River as the sky turns orange. Ten minutes north by bus, the tree-lined streets of the Minsheng Community are winding down for the evening — dog walkers, a bakery closing up, a café with its lights low — while planes glide in over the rooftops to the city airport. Estate agents like to call Songshan Taipei‘s most liveable district, and for once the sales pitch is not far wrong: it is a place where people actually live, with one of the city’s best night markets tacked onto its edge.

This guide covers Songshan as a district to explore: its history as a river port and airfield, Ciyou Temple and Raohe Night Market, the Rainbow Bridge and the riverside, the Minsheng Community and Fujin Street, Nanjing East Road and the Taipei Arena, the airport’s observation deck, where to eat and how to string it all together. One clarification first: despite the name, the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is not in Songshan District — it sits just over the border in Xinyi, named after the old Songshan tobacco factory it occupies. Details were checked in October 2026; treat prices as the right order of magnitude. For how Songshan fits into the city, see our overview of Taipei neighbourhoods.

Songshan at a glance

	The short version
Where	North-eastern Taipei, between Songshan Airport and the Keelung River, north of Xinyi
Nearest MRT	Songshan (Green Line terminus), Exit 5, for Ciyou Temple and Raohe; Nanjing Sanmin and Taipei Arena for Nanjing East Road; Songshan Airport (Brown Line) for the airport and the western edge of Minsheng
Time needed	An evening for Ciyou Temple, Raohe and the river; an afternoon for Minsheng and the airport
Best times	Late afternoon into the evening; weekend mornings for brunch in Minsheng
Entry	The temple, the market, the riverside, the airport observation deck and Minsheng’s streets are all free
Do not miss	Ciyou Temple at dusk, a pepper bun at the Raohe gate, sunset from the Rainbow Bridge, a stroll down Fujin Street

What things cost

Item	Typical cost (September 2026)
MRT to Songshan station from central Taipei	From NT$20–30 with an EasyCard
Ciyou Temple, the Rainbow Bridge, the riverside parks	Free
A Raohe grazing dinner of four or five snacks	Roughly NT$250–400
Songshan Airport observation deck	Free
Pineapple cakes from a famous bakery	A few hundred NT$ a box; tastings are often free
Brunch or coffee in Minsheng	Roughly NT$150–450

Understanding Songshan

Songshan is a compact district with four distinct parts:

• The old river town in the south-east, around Songshan station, where Ciyou Temple, Raohe Night Market and the Rainbow Bridge cluster by the Keelung River.
• Nanjing East Road, the office corridor that runs through the middle of the district, with the Taipei Arena, banks, hotels and bakeries.
• The Minsheng Community in the north, a planned residential neighbourhood of tree-lined streets, parks and cafés.
• Songshan Airport in the north-west, the city’s own airport, with the Keelung River curving round the whole district to the north and east.

The Green Line ends at Songshan station; the Brown Line skirts the district’s western edge via Songshan Airport and Nanjing Fuxing. For the heart of Minsheng you will walk, cycle or take a bus. See our MRT guide and bus guide.

From river port to city airport

Long before it was called Songshan, this was Xikou (錫口), a river landing on the Keelung River where boats carried rice, tea and goods between the Taipei basin and the coast. The village grew up around its Mazu temple, Ciyou, built between 1753 and 1757, and the old market streets that ran down to the water. In 1920 the Japanese renamed it Matsuyama — “pine mountain” — which in Mandarin is Songshan.

The Japanese also gave Songshan its most famous modern feature: an airfield, opened in 1936, which became the city’s airport. For decades after the war, Songshan Airport was Taiwan’s main international gateway, until the new airport at Taoyuan opened in 1979; today it handles domestic flights and short regional routes. Around it, from the late 1960s, the city built the Minsheng Community on the rice fields to the east, while Nanjing East Road filled with offices and the old river town became a quiet neighbourhood with a busy night market. The arrival of the Green Line at Songshan station in 2014 made the area far easier to reach.

Ciyou Temple

Near Songshan station, Exit 5, Songshan Ciyou Temple (松山慈祐宮) is dedicated to Mazu, the sea goddess who protected the boatmen of the old river port. Construction began in 1753 and finished in 1757, and the main structure was rebuilt after a fire in 1981.

It is a busy working temple, full of worshippers in the evening, and it is the perfect prelude to the night market that begins at its gate. Take fifteen or twenty minutes: climb to the upper halls if they are open, watch people consulting the divination blocks, and look back over the lights of Raohe Street. Be respectful of people praying; our guide to religion in Taipei explains the customs, and our best temples guide puts Ciyou alongside the city’s others. On Mazu’s birthday, in spring on the twenty-third day of the third lunar month, the temple marks the day with prayers and processions.

Raohe Night Market

From the temple gate, Raohe Night Market runs along a single pedestrian lane about 600 metres long. It opened in 1987, and it is one of the best night markets in Taipei for food: compact, easy to navigate in one loop and packed with good stalls. The most famous is right at the entrance, where Fuzhou-style black pepper buns — crisp shells, peppery pork and spring onion inside — are baked on the walls of a charcoal drum oven. Our Raohe guide covers the other stalls worth queuing for, from herbal pork rib soup to grilled squid and mochi.

Two tips: come at dusk, see the temple, then eat your way down the lane and back; and come on a weeknight if you can, because on Friday and Saturday nights the lane becomes a slow shuffle. Our guide to the best night market in Taipei explains why we rate Raohe so highly.

Raohe in five bites

If you only have room for a few things, these are the classics, and most cost well under NT$100 each:

• A black pepper bun from the charcoal oven at the entrance. Let it cool for a minute; the peppery juice inside is scalding.
• Herbal pork rib soup (藥燉排骨) — a dark, fragrant broth of Chinese herbs with tender ribs, best on a cool evening.
• Oyster vermicelli or an oyster omelette, the two great Taiwanese oyster dishes, each with its own sweet-savoury sauce.
• Stinky tofu, fried with pickled cabbage or stewed in a spicy broth, if you have not yet tried it elsewhere.
• Something sweet to finish: fried sweet potato balls, grilled mochi, shaved ice or a fresh fruit juice.

Our guide to night market food in Taipei explains what all of these are, and how to order them.

The Rainbow Bridge and the riverside

Behind Ciyou Temple, a gate in the flood wall leads to the Rainbow Bridge (彩虹橋), a pedestrian and cycle bridge whose red steel arch curves over the Keelung River. It is one of the prettiest spots in the east of the city: the river is broad and calm here, and at sunset, when the arch is reflected in the water and the lights of the night market come on behind you, it is lovely. The Rainbow Riverside Park along the bank has cycle paths, lawns and space to sit.

The riverside is part of the network of paths that follows the Keelung River all the way round the north of the city. A YouBike from near Songshan station takes you west along the river past the airport to Dajia Riverside Park, where the Dragon Boat Festival races are held, or east towards Nangang. Come half an hour before sunset, walk over the bridge, then go back for dinner at Raohe.

The Minsheng Community and Fujin Street

In the north of the district, the Minsheng Community (民生社區) is one of the most pleasant places in Taipei simply to walk around, and it has an interesting story. Planning began in the 1960s for a model community on about 110 hectares, following American planning ideas and with American aid loans. The result, built through the late 1960s and 1970s, was unlike anything else in Taipei at the time: a grid of tree-lined streets with wide pavements, power lines buried underground rather than strung from poles, the first modern sewage treatment plant in Taiwan, generous parks, and apartment blocks set back behind small front gardens. It was the city’s model suburb, and it still feels calmer and greener than almost anywhere else in central Taipei.

There is nothing in Minsheng you have to see; the pleasure is in the atmosphere. Fujin Street (富錦街), shaded by big trees, is the best-known street, with independent cafés, design and homeware shops, bakeries and brunch places in the ground floors of the old apartment blocks. Minsheng Park and the smaller pocket parks are full of dog walkers, children and elderly neighbours chatting on benches. Rising rents over the past decade have pushed out some of the independent shops that made Fujin Street’s name, so it is less of a design destination than it once was, but it is still a lovely half-day of slow wandering, coffee and people-watching. The city’s tourism magazine ran a feature on the neighbourhood in 2026, which is on travel.taipei (in Chinese).

Minsheng is also a good place to try pineapple cake: the SunnyHills (微熱山丘) shop in the community invites visitors to taste a pineapple cake with a cup of tea, free, in a calm tasting room. Our guide to the best pineapple cake in Taipei compares it with the rivals.

A stroll through Minsheng

The best way to see the community is on foot, in a loose loop of about two hours with stops. Start at Songshan Airport station and walk east along Minsheng East Road into the grid, and notice what is missing: overhead cables. The low apartment blocks of the 1970s, with their tiled facades and balconies full of plants, sit back from the pavement behind small gardens, and the streets are unusually quiet for Taipei. Turn onto Fujin Street and follow it east under its canopy of trees, stopping for coffee or brunch; wander through Minsheng Park and the smaller pocket parks, where neighbours sit and dogs are walked; then finish at SunnyHills for a pineapple-cake tasting. From there it is a short bus or taxi ride to Songshan station for Ciyou Temple and Raohe at dusk.

Nanjing East Road and the Taipei Arena

Nanjing East Road, running east–west through the middle of the district, is one of Taipei’s main business corridors, lined with office towers, banks and hotels. It is not a sightseeing street, but two things bring visitors here. The Taipei Arena (臺北小巨蛋), by Taipei Arena station, is the city’s main indoor venue for concerts, from Mandopop stars to touring K-pop and Western acts, and it also has a public ice rink; check what is on before you go. And further east, near Nanjing Sanmin station, Chia Te Bakery (佳德糕餅) is one of the most famous pineapple-cake bakeries in Taipei, with queues of visitors buying boxes to take home. Our guide to Taipei souvenirs has more on what travels well.

Songshan Airport and its observation deck

Songshan Airport sits inside the city and has its own MRT station, so it is easy to combine with the rest of the district. Planes approach low over the Keelung River and the rooftops of Minsheng, which makes the district a good place for plane-spotting.

The airport’s observation deck, near Terminal 2, has reopened after renovation. It is free and has a café where you can sit and watch the aircraft take off and land. It is a surprisingly good hour with children, or for anyone who likes planes. The airport’s official page has current details.

Getting between Songshan’s sights

From	To	How
Songshan station, Exit 5	Ciyou Temple and Raohe Night Market	Close by, on foot
Ciyou Temple	Rainbow Bridge	A few minutes’ walk through the flood-wall gate behind the temple
Songshan Airport station	The observation deck	A short walk through the airport terminals
Songshan Airport station	Fujin Street and the Minsheng Community	About fifteen minutes on foot, or a short YouBike ride
Nanjing Sanmin station	Chia Te Bakery	A few minutes on foot along Nanjing East Road
Songshan station	Taipei Arena	Two stops on the Green Line
The Minsheng Community	Songshan station	Bus or taxi, around fifteen minutes depending on traffic

Where to eat in Songshan

• Raohe Night Market — the obvious choice for dinner: pepper buns, herbal pork rib soup, grilled seafood, stinky tofu and sweets.
• The streets around Songshan station — ordinary neighbourhood noodle shops and dumpling houses, cheaper and quieter than the market.
• Minsheng’s cafés and brunch spots — the best area in the district for a relaxed breakfast or lunch; see our guides to the best brunch and the best cafés in Taipei.
• Nanjing East Road — office-lunch restaurants, food courts and hotel dining, busy at weekday lunchtimes.
• Bakeries — Chia Te and SunnyHills for pineapple cake, and Minsheng’s neighbourhood bakeries for bread and pastries.

A day in Songshan

1. 10:00 — Brunch in Minsheng, then a stroll down Fujin Street and through Minsheng Park.
2. 12:30 — SunnyHills for a pineapple-cake tasting.
3. 13:30 — Songshan Airport observation deck, for an hour of plane-spotting and coffee.
4. 15:00 — Nanjing East Road: Chia Te Bakery for gifts, and a look at the Taipei Arena.
5. 17:00 — Ciyou Temple as the lights come on.
6. 17:45 — The Rainbow Bridge for sunset over the Keelung River.
7. 18:30 — Raohe Night Market for dinner.

If you only have an evening, do the last three steps. And if you want to add a creative park, the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Xinyi is about fifteen minutes by taxi from Songshan station; our Xinyi district guide covers it.

Songshan on a rainy day

Rain is no reason to skip Songshan. Ciyou Temple’s halls are covered, and it is at its most atmospheric with rain on the roofs and incense hanging in the damp air. The Citylink shopping centre built into Songshan station has restaurants and food courts for a dry lunch. The Taipei Arena’s ice rink and the shopping centres along Nanjing East Road fill a wet afternoon, and Raohe’s stalls carry on under their awnings in all but the heaviest downpours. Save the airport deck’s outdoor garden, the Rainbow Bridge and the Minsheng stroll for the dry spells; our rainy day activities guide has more ideas.

Songshan through the year

• Spring. Mazu’s birthday brings celebrations at Ciyou Temple, and the Minsheng streets are fresh and green.
• Summer. Hot and humid; come in the evening, when the river breeze makes the Rainbow Bridge pleasant and the night market comes alive.
• Autumn. The best season for cycling the riverside paths and for long walks through Minsheng.
• Winter. Raohe’s herbal soups and hot snacks are at their most welcome, and Ciyou Temple is especially busy around Lunar New Year, when worshippers queue to pray for the year ahead.

Songshan with children

Songshan is one of the easiest districts in Taipei for a family day. The airport observation deck is free and has a café and a constant parade of aircraft. The riverside parks by the Rainbow Bridge have cycle paths and space to run, and YouBike has child seats on some bikes in the city. The Minsheng Community‘s parks have playgrounds and shade, and its flat, wide pavements are some of the best in the city for pushchairs. The Taipei Arena‘s ice rink is a fun hour on a hot day; check the public session times first. And older children usually love Raohe‘s game stalls and snacks, though the lane is too crowded for pushchairs at peak times, so bring a carrier. See our guides to Taipei with kids and Taipei’s best parks for children.

Practical tips

• Getting there. Songshan station, Exit 5, is right beside Ciyou Temple and the Raohe gate. For Minsheng, take the Brown Line to Songshan Airport station and walk east, or take a bus or YouBike.
• Cash. Raohe’s stalls prefer cash or an EasyCard; Minsheng’s cafés and the bakeries take cards.
• Crowds. Raohe is packed on Friday and Saturday evenings; Minsheng’s brunch places fill up at weekends.
• Accessibility. Minsheng is flat, with wide pavements by Taipei standards — it was planned that way — and the MRT stations and airport are step-free. Raohe’s single lane is very crowded in the evening and hard going in a wheelchair at peak times. See our accessible Taipei guide.

What we would skip

Looking for the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park here. It is in Xinyi District, despite the name. Plan it with Xinyi, not with Raohe.

Raohe at 20:00 on a Saturday. The lane is so packed that you will spend more time shuffling than eating. Come at dusk or on a weeknight.

The Wufenpu garment wholesale market, just across the railway from Songshan station in Xinyi, unless you enjoy rummaging for cheap clothes. It is a maze of wholesale fashion stalls, and it is not for everyone.

Treating Minsheng as a sight. There is no single attraction. Come for a slow morning of coffee and walking, not a checklist.

Across the Keelung River from Songshan, Neihu makes a good morning to pair with an evening at Raohe. Climb Jinmian Mountain for a view straight down onto the Songshan Airport runway, walk round the lake at Dahu Park, or ride up to Baishihu for strawberries in season. Our Neihu guide covers the trails, the farms and the Brown Line stations that reach them.

Related Taipei guides

• Taipei Neighbourhoods: A District-by-District Guide
• Raohe Night Market
• Songshan Airport
• The Best Temples in Taipei
• The Best Pineapple Cake in Taipei
• The Best Night Market in Taipei
• Xinyi District Guide
• The East District (Dongqu)
• YouBike in Taipei
• Things to Do in Taipei

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Songshan District known for?

Raohe Night Market and Ciyou Temple, the Rainbow Bridge over the Keelung River, the leafy Minsheng Community and Fujin Street, the Taipei Arena on Nanjing East Road, and Songshan Airport, the city’s own airport.

Is the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Songshan District?

No. It is in Xinyi District, about eight minutes’ walk from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall station. It is named after the old Songshan tobacco factory whose buildings it occupies.

How do I get to Raohe Night Market and Ciyou Temple?

Take the Green Line to its terminus at Songshan station and leave by Exit 5. Ciyou Temple and the start of Raohe Night Market are directly across the road.

How old is Ciyou Temple?

Songshan Ciyou Temple is dedicated to Mazu, the sea goddess who protected the boatmen of the old river port. Construction began in 1753 and finished in 1757, and the main structure was rebuilt after a fire in 1981.

Is Raohe better than Shilin Night Market?

For food, most locals and most of our writers would say yes: Raohe is compact, easy to walk in one loop and full of good stalls, while Shilin is bigger, more touristy and more about shopping and games. See Shilin once for the scale if you like, but eat at Raohe.

Where is the Rainbow Bridge in Taipei?

Behind Ciyou Temple, at the end of Raohe Street in Songshan District. It is a pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Keelung River, best at sunset, and it links to the riverside cycle paths.

What is the Minsheng Community?

A planned residential neighbourhood in northern Songshan, built from the late 1960s with American aid and American planning ideas. It has tree-lined streets, wide pavements, buried power lines, front gardens and parks, and Fujin Street is known for its cafés and small shops.

Is Fujin Street worth visiting?

Yes, for a slow morning of coffee, brunch and browsing under the trees. Rising rents have pushed out some independent shops, so treat it as a pleasant neighbourhood stroll rather than a shopping destination.

Can you watch planes at Songshan Airport?

Yes. The observation deck near Terminal 2 has reopened after renovation. It is free, open 09:00–21:00, and has a café.

Where can I buy pineapple cakes in Songshan?

SunnyHills in the Minsheng Community offers a free tasting with tea, and Chia Te Bakery on Nanjing East Road, near Nanjing Sanmin station, is one of the most famous pineapple-cake bakeries in the city.

How much time do I need in Songshan?

An evening for Ciyou Temple, the Rainbow Bridge and Raohe Night Market. Add an afternoon for Minsheng, the bakeries and the airport observation deck if you have the time.

Is Songshan a good place to stay in Taipei?

It is quieter and more residential than the centre, with good hotels along Nanjing East Road and easy access to the airport. It suits business travellers and repeat visitors; first-timers usually prefer a more central base. Our guide to where to stay in Taipei compares the options.

The Bottom Line

Songshan is where Taipei lives rather than where it shows off. Its big moment is the evening: Ciyou Temple glowing at the station exit, a pepper bun from the charcoal drum, the red arch of the Rainbow Bridge over the river at sunset and a slow walk down Raohe Night Market. By day, the tree-lined streets of the Minsheng Community, a pineapple-cake tasting and an hour watching planes at the airport make a gentle, rewarding afternoon.

Look for the creative park in Xinyi, not here, and avoid Raohe at its Saturday-night peak. Otherwise, give Songshan an afternoon and an evening, and you will see a calmer, more everyday Taipei than the one in the brochures.

Photo Credits

Ciyou Temple and Raohe Street Night Market at night: 2017-07-02 Songshan Ciyou Temple & Raohe Street Night Market by Felix Filnkoessl, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Inside Ciyou Temple: Ciyou Temple in Songshan 11 20251222 by 阿道, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Rainbow Bridge over the Keelung River: Songshan Rainbow Bridge 20110425 by 玄史生, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fujin Street: Fujin Street 20141022a by 玄史生, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

An apartment gate in the Minsheng Community: Apartment Gate with Bonsai in Minsheng Community 20180419 by 玄史生, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Taipei pepper buns: Oven baked Hujiao bing ready being fetched and for sale in Taipei by ThomasYehYeh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.