Conquering the Route Between Neihu and Downtown Taipei—Zhongshan Bridge

Introduction

I have never been someone who especially enjoys exercise.

But somewhere along the way, I started to love riding a bike.

Thinking about it, the reason may be that taking the MRT or a bus always means waiting for a departure, while the route has already been decided for you. You can only move from one fixed point to another.

I could not really choose my own way home or suddenly decide to make a detour somewhere. It never felt very free.

And after becoming an office worker, even though I worked from home, whenever I did go out it was inevitably at the same time as everyone else. Public transportation was always packed.

Crowded MRT trains and buses were honestly pretty painful XD.

So I eventually fell in love with commuting by bike—and getting some exercise along the way.

What Makes Traveling Between Neihu and Downtown Difficult?

Crossing the river.

More precisely, crossing a bridge.

Buses entering or leaving Neihu usually cross bridges such as Dazhi Bridge, Minquan Bridge, Zhongshan Bridge, or the MacArthur bridges.

For a bicycle, however, a bridge can be a major obstacle. A bridge does not necessarily have an access ramp that lets you wheel a bike up to it.

Some bridges do not even have a place where pedestrians or bicycles can travel at all.

When I first started cycling around downtown Taipei, I would usually ride only as far as Zhongshan Junior High School MRT Station, then get off the bike and take the MRT.

If I was leaving Neihu for downtown, I would usually cycle to Dazhi Station and transfer to the MRT there.

In other words, most of my earliest bike trips simply avoided bridges.

First Attempts at Finding Bike Routes Across the Bridges

After more than two months of bike trips that always stopped at a bridge and continued by MRT, I finally became frustrated with these half-finished rides.

So I asked a teaching assistant at the cram school—someone who absolutely loved cycling—how I was actually supposed to cross the bridges.

She excitedly opened Google Maps, showed me how the route should wind around, and even pulled up Street View to point out exactly where to go.

Later, while passing Dazhi Bridge and Zhongshan Bridge on the bus several times, I watched the surroundings for myself.

Eventually I worked out roughly where to get onto both bridges and which side I should use.

From then on, whenever I was not in a hurry, I traveled almost everywhere by bike.

I did not go to the office very often, but when I did commute to IQVIA on Minsheng East Road, I later made those trips by bike as well.

I also received a file containing a citywide bicycle map. After that, whenever I had time, I would look for a way to cycle across the city.

The map records bicycle routes across Taipei and New Taipei. It shows, in considerable detail, which side of a road has a bike lane, what type of lane it is, and whether an access ramp is available.

The map dates from 2016, though, and seven years had already passed by the time I wrote this article. Some details were bound to be different, so anyone who needs it can treat checking the route in person as part of the fun.

Citywide bicycle map file

Zhongshan Bridge

Zhongshan Bridge was the first bridge I challenged myself to cross by bike.

Why did I choose this one first?

Because it was the bridge whose Street View images the teaching assistant had clearly shown me. I knew exactly where the entrance was supposed to be.

I only needed to rely on my memory of the images to find the bicycle access ramp. I felt very confident, and there was almost no exploration involved.

My first attempt came after finishing a Class A air-pollution course. I rode from National Taipei University of Education to the main gate of National Taiwan University, ate at Qiliting, followed Roosevelt Road to Zhongshan North Road, and continued toward Zhongshan Bridge.

It was a little after six in the evening when I started riding again after dinner, so the sky was already getting dark.

When I ride toward Zhongshan Bridge, I follow Zhongshan North Road all the way from downtown.

There are quite a few bike lanes along Zhongshan North Road. You can travel from Taipei Main Station toward the Fine Arts Museum without having to fight cars for space, which feels fairly safe.

When returning from downtown toward Neihu, there is a side road in front of the Fine Arts Museum, right beside Zhongshan Bridge. That is the direction you want.

As you can see, Zhongshan Bridge itself is on the left, while the road beside it is actually quite wide.

You can ride along the sidewalk by the Fine Arts Museum and continue smoothly onto this road.

Farther down, the route passes through a slightly narrow descending section. Cyclists and pedestrians use it often, so it was not a good place to stop for a photo, and I did not take one there.

Once you come down through that narrow section, you will see the bicycle access ramp on the left.

Cross the road carefully, then head up the ramp.

This ramp connects three directions. One comes from the city side of the levee—the route we used to enter from downtown.

Another descends into the riverside area inside the levee. After those two paths meet, the third ramp climbs toward the bridge.

Most bridges with sloped bicycle access ramps follow roughly this kind of layout.

Once you climb the ramp and see the view below, you have basically made it onto the bridge.

From there, ride carefully across the bridge and follow the signs to reach Beian Road.

The view from the bridge is quite nice. If the uphill section feels too demanding, you can also get off and walk your bike slowly; that is safer.

I would not recommend riding across the bridge when the weather is poor or the wind is strong.

I once rode onto Zhongshan Bridge the day before a typhoon. The wind resistance was no joke, and I absolutely do not recommend challenging a bridge in bad weather.

Afterward, I usually stay on the city-side road along Beian Road. The route is generally wide and quiet, so even outside the riverside path it still feels reasonably safe to me.

If you enter the riverside area, you can ride all the way to the floodway exit near Miramar in Dazhi and leave the riverside path there. That is another useful option after crossing the bridge.

As an aside, if you ride on the Beian Road sidewalk after rain, you will often see enormous snails crossing it. Please be very careful to avoid them.

You can follow Beian Road for quite a long way and pass the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine, but you cannot stay on it all the way into Neihu.

Around Dazhi, you should turn into the neighborhood instead of continuing along Beian Road, because the sidewalk eventually disappears and the route becomes very dangerous.

I usually cross the road and turn into Dazhi at the corner shown below.

Conclusion

Once I had unlocked my first bridge between Neihu and downtown, I began traveling by bike most of the time whenever I was not in a hurry.

My understanding of Taipei and New Taipei also expanded from isolated points into lines and, eventually, a broader map.

Cycling takes more travel time, but it lets me avoid the busiest periods on public transportation and choose my own route more freely.

I can suddenly decide to stop somewhere and simply go. Taipei has an almost unbelievable number of YouBike stations, after all.

Sometimes luck is not on my side and a station has no bikes. To reduce that risk, I check the YouBike app on my phone before heading over to see which stations are likely to have one available.

That makes it less likely that I will arrive and find nothing to ride.

That is all for this bicycle bridge crossing. In the next article, I will introduce routes onto several other bridges in more detail and share what it was like to explore them.