The Maokong Gondola is a 4.03 km cable car in Taipei's Wenshan District that climbs from Taipei Zoo, beside the MRT station of the same name, up to the tea-growing hillside of Maokong. Built by POMA of France and opened on 4 July 2007, it was Taipei's first gondola. Cabins run in a continuous anti-clockwise loop with no timetable, and a ride end to end takes about 20 to 30 minutes. This page covers the five ticket options on the bookable listing, the operator's gate fares, the four stations, hours and Monday closures, the crystal cabin upgrade, and how to plan a day at the top.
Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
The one-day pass covers unlimited rides on its activation day across all four stations, from Taipei Zoo to Maokong and back.
from $9.49 Tickets start at $9.49 per person, with options up to $17.40.
Check Price & Availability →The button opens the booking page with live dates and the full set of five options, where you book and pay; nothing is charged on this site.
$9.49 to $17.40 per person across the 5 ticket options
Option 1 The plain pass every other option starts from
Gondola pass only
One pass, unlimited rides all day between the four stations, nothing bundled. Hop off midway, rejoin, ride again as often as you like.
Equivalent to the operator's own NT$300 one-day pass.
$9.49 per person
Check availability →Option 2
Taipei Zoo entryZoo shuttle train
Taipei Zoo admission plus one ride on the zoo shuttle train, folded into the pass. Animals at the bottom, tea houses above, one booking.
$12.69 per person
Check availability →Option 3
One Maokong experienceMaokong discount booklet
The pass plus one Maokong experience and the discount booklet, for riders who want a set activity at the top rather than just the ride.
Within $9.49 to $17.40 per person
Check availability →Option 4
Taipei Zoo entryOne Maokong experience
Zoo admission paired with one Maokong experience, for visitors planning a full day: animals in the morning, tea houses in the afternoon.
Within $9.49 to $17.40 per person
Check availability →Option 5
2 Maokong experiencesMaokong discount booklet
Two Maokong experiences and the discount booklet on top of the pass. Built for a slow day up top, with tea, a walk, or both.
Within $9.49 to $17.40 per person
Check availability →The five choices above are all options of one listing, not separate products, and every one of them includes the same one-day gondola pass with unlimited rides on its activation day. The differences sit entirely in the extras: zoo admission in two of them, the shuttle train in one, and a Maokong experience in three. The listing shows a 4.7 rating across about 11,800 reviews, with over 400,000 booked, and instant confirmation is shown. Two options have stated prices, $9.49 and $12.69, and the other three sit inside the verified $9.49 to $17.40 range.
For most visitors the Gondola Pass Only option at $9.49 per person is the sensible pick. It matches the operator's own NT$300 one-day pass, which allows unlimited rides across all four stations for a full day, and nothing else in the listing is required to enjoy the hill.
Families building a zoo day into the trip should look at Gondola With Zoo And Train at $12.69. It folds the zoo's NT$100 gate admission and one NT$5 shuttle train ride into the booking.
People who want a booked activity up top, such as a sealed-tea DIY session, a Zhinan Temple prayer card or a sachet of Maokong Tieguanyin, should use the experience options. The verified range across all five options runs from $9.49 to $17.40 per person, and the experience combinations sit inside that range.
All five are options of a single listing, and every one of them includes the same thing at its core: the Maokong Gondola one-day pass. That pass allows unlimited rides on its activation day across Taipei Zoo Station, Taipei Zoo South Station, Zhinan Temple Station and Maokong Station. What changes from option to option is what gets layered on top.
The layers are specific. Taipei Zoo full admission, which costs NT$100 at the gate, appears in options 2 and 4. The zoo shuttle train, a one-way ride that costs NT$5 on site, appears only in option 2. A Maokong experience, meaning one of three choices (a small sealed-tea DIY session, a Zhinan Temple prayer card, or a sachet of Maokong Tieguanyin tea), appears in options 3, 4 and 5, with option 5 including two. The Maokong discount booklet comes with options 3 and 5. The glass-floor crystal cabin is in none of them; it is an on-site upgrade at NT$50 per person per trip whatever ticket you hold.
Timing rules differ too. The voucher itself is open-dated and valid 180 days from the confirmation date, expiring at 23:59 on the last day. On the bundled options 2 to 5, every item expires 14 days after the first one is used, counting the day of first use. So a zoo-plus-experience combo does not have to be squeezed into a single afternoon, but it does have to be finished inside that 14-day window once started.
Option 1, the pass only, at $9.49, equals the operator's own NT$300 one-day pass and suits people whose plan is the ride, the views and the tea houses. If the zoo is not on your itinerary, there is nothing in the other four options you strictly need.
Option 2, at $12.69, suits families with children doing the zoo on the same day. Full zoo admission and a shuttle train ride are already paid for, and Taipei Zoo South Station lets zoo visitors join or leave the gondola mid-route beside the zoo's inner grounds. Note the zoo's own closing time of 17:00 with last entry at 16:00, and its 2026 maintenance closure from 22 June to 1 July.
Option 3, the one-experience "Easy Travel" combination, suits visitors who want one booked activity up the hill, a tea DIY session or a prayer card for instance, plus the discount booklet, without paying for a zoo they may not enter. It has no stated price; it sits inside the $9.49 to $17.40 range like the others.
Option 4, the "Three Cats" combo of pass, full zoo admission and one experience, suits a fuller family day that combines animals and a tea or temple activity. It omits the zoo shuttle train, so that NT$5 ride is paid on site if wanted.
Option 5, the two-experience "In-depth Travel" combination, suits people giving the hill a full day who want both a hands-on session and a takeaway such as the Tieguanyin sachet, along with the discount booklet. The listing states no age limit and charges one price for every age across all five options, so family pricing is simple to work out in advance.
The table below lays out, item by item, which of the five options carry each inclusion. Rows without a price are there to show their inclusions: the verified range across the five options runs from $9.49 to $17.40 per person, with the pass-only option at $9.49 and the zoo-and-train option at $12.69 as the two stated prices. The three experience combinations fall inside that range.
| What You Get | Where It Is Included | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Maokong Gondola one-day pass | All five options | Unlimited rides on the day it is activated, all four stations |
| Taipei Zoo full admission | Options 2 and 4 | NT$100 at the gate |
| Zoo shuttle train | Option 2 | One one-way ride, NT$5 on site |
| One Maokong experience | Options 3 and 4 | Sealed-tea DIY session, Zhinan Temple prayer card or Tieguanyin sachet |
| Two Maokong experiences | Option 5 | Two of the same three choices |
| Maokong discount booklet | Options 3 and 5 | |
| Glass-floor crystal cabin | None | On-site upgrade, NT$50 per person per trip, whatever ticket you hold |
The voucher is open-dated and valid 180 days from the confirmation date, expiring at 23:59 on the last day. On the bundled options 2 to 5, every item expires 14 days after the first one is used, counting the day of first use.
Before comparing options, answer three questions: who is riding, how much of the day you can give the hill, and whether Taipei Zoo is in the plan. The planner below uses your answers to hand back a recommended option, the station where your day is most likely to end, and a rough duration.
All 5 ticket options are in the shortlist. Answer a question and it narrows; answer the same one twice and that answer is released again.
One Maokong experienceMaokong discount booklet
Included set varies
Check availability →Taipei Zoo entryOne Maokong experience
Included set varies
Check availability →2 Maokong experiencesMaokong discount booklet
Included set varies
Check availability →
Two of the five options carry stated prices. The pass-only option is $9.49 per person, and it is a direct match for the operator's own product: the NT$300 one-day pass sold at the stations. The zoo-and-train option is $12.69, which layers Taipei Zoo's NT$100 gate admission and one NT$5 shuttle train ride onto the same day pass. The three experience combinations carry no stated price here, but the verified range across all five options runs from $9.49 to $17.40 per person, and those three sit inside it.
Pricing inside the listing is flat: one price for every age, and the listing states no age limit. That makes it straightforward for families, because a child's ticket costs the same as an adult's at any option. The dollar figures are converted from Taiwan dollars, so the cents drift with the exchange rate.
Against the operator's own fares, the comparison is simple arithmetic. A single journey costs NT$180 at any distance, so two single rides already cost more than the NT$300 day pass. Anyone planning to ride up and come back down, let alone hop off at Zhinan Temple or Taipei Zoo South along the way, is better served by a day pass than by singles, whether bought at the gate or through the listing at $9.49.
What the $9.49 option buys, in practice, is convenience rather than a discount on the pass itself. The voucher is open-dated, valid 180 days from confirmation, and redeemed by scanning its QR code at the automatic ticket gate.
It is worth pausing on the bundled options too. Zoo admission at the gate is NT$100 general, with NT$60 for Taipei residents and NT$50 concession, so option 2 at $12.69 wraps the full general admission and the shuttle train into one booking. The zoo closes at 17:00 with last entry at 16:00, so the fold-in only helps if the zoo is genuinely part of your day. And remember that on options 2 to 5 every bundled item expires 14 days after the first use, counting that day.
Enter how many rides your plan involves and the checker below works out whether single journeys or the day pass costs less. Two singles already exceed the NT$300 pass, so the answer usually lands on the pass.
The one-day pass wins by NT$120.
On a Saturday the line runs 09:00 to 22:00. Public holidays keep the later closing time whatever the weekday.
Most Mondays the line shuts for maintenance, so no fare is quoted for that day. The operator publishes the exact dates a month at a time, so check the current calendar before you build a plan around a Monday.
The crystal cabin surcharge is added on top of whichever ticket you hold, so it never decides which of the two is cheaper. Children under 6 ride free, up to 2 per paying adult, and the concession fares in the table above are for local card holders with ID rather than overseas visitors.
On 3 March 2025 the operator abolished its old distance-based scale and moved to flat fares: NT$180 for a single journey at any distance, NT$300 for a one-day pass. The old scale charged NT$70, NT$100 or NT$120 depending on how far along the line you rode, and that is the figure you will still find quoted in many older blog posts. Anything citing those three prices predates the change.
The flat structure rewards one particular kind of rider. Under the old scale a short hop to Zhinan Temple was cheap and a full ride to Maokong cost NT$120 each way, so a round trip to the top ran NT$240. Now the single fare is NT$180 at any distance, which makes two rides in a day cost NT$360 against the day pass at NT$300. Anyone riding up and back, or getting off at an intermediate station and continuing, crosses the break-even at the second ride.
The change also touched the crystal cabin. The glass-floor cabin, free to ride before, became a paid upgrade for the first time on 3 March 2025, at NT$50 per person per trip on top of whatever ticket you hold. EasyCard, iPASS and iCASH are accepted at the same fare as a single ticket, with no price difference between them and a paper single.
Taipei City's own project paper puts the fares in context by cost per kilometre. After the 2025 rise, Maokong works out to about NT$45 per kilometre. The same comparison prices Singapore's Mount Faber line at about NT$230 per kilometre, Songdo in Korea at about NT$210, Taiwan's Sun Moon Lake Ropeway at about NT$100, and Japan's Hakone Ropeway at about NT$80. On that measure Maokong remains the cheapest of the set, by a wide margin at the top end.
The backdrop to that city paper is congestion. It describes Maokong's roads as narrow farm tracks with severely insufficient parking, and notes that holiday crowds used to cause serious congestion before the gondola existed. The line was built to relieve exactly that.
Concession fares are restricted to Taiwanese nationals with ID: NT$50 for a single journey and NT$100 for a concession day pass. Overseas visitors pay full fare regardless of age or student status. Children aged 0 to 5 ride free with a ticketed adult, limited to a maximum of two free children per adult, so a family with one adult and two infants pays nothing extra for the children.
Groups get a discount on one-day passes only, arranged at an information counter: 10% off for parties of 20 or more, and 20% off for 40 or more. There is also a chartered private cabin option at an additional NT$600 per cabin per trip for visitors who want a cabin to themselves. EasyCard, iPASS and iCASH all work at the gates at the same fare as a single ticket.
The crystal cabin costs NT$50 per person per trip as an on-site upgrade, and it is per trip in the literal sense: pay again each direction if you want the glass floor both ways. It is not part of any of the five bookable options, so budget for it separately if the transparent floor is the point of the visit. Crystal cabins run Tuesday to Sunday, every operating day, and use appointed time slots through the operator's online booking system.
The other extra costs nothing. The Maokong Tour Bus, the shuttle loop up top on both its Right and Left Lines, is free to gondola passengers on the same day, tapped with the same EasyCard. It stops at the Camphor Tree Trail entrances, Zhangshan Temple, the Apricot Grove and other points around the hill, running until 20:00 with only three departures, at 19:00, 19:30 and 20:00, after 19:00.
The route is 4.03 km long and roughly the shape of the numeral 7. The bending happens at two angle stations that handle power control and the change of direction along the cable. Those two angle stations, Angle Station 1 and Angle Station 2, are closed to the public, which is why a line with six stations serves passengers at only four of them.
The bends occur at the angle stations, before Zhinan Temple, not at it. A common assumption is that the sharp turn in the ride happens at the temple itself; physically, the second angle station comes first, and Zhinan Temple Station sits after it.
The four passenger stations, in order from the bottom, are Taipei Zoo Station, Taipei Zoo South Station, Zhinan Temple Station and Maokong Station. Taipei Zoo and Maokong are the two termini. The whole system runs anti-clockwise, and cabins travel one way only: you must get off at a terminus unless you hold a one-day pass, and pass holders exiting at Taipei Zoo Station hand the ticket to staff to be stamped for re-entry.
The four cards below break down each stop as its own kind of day: the zoo and transit links at the bottom, the mid-route zoo access at Taipei Zoo South, the temple and its 1,185 stone steps in the middle of the climb, and the tea houses, trails and Sky Green deck at the top.
Taipei Zoo Station is the bottom terminus, at No. 8, Section 2, Xinguang Road, Wenshan District, right beside the zoo. The MRT Wenhu Line ends at Taipei Zoo Station, code BR01, about 350 metres and a short walk away.
About 350 metres southwest of Taipei Zoo MRT station, the Brown Line terminus (BR01)
Taipei Zoo South Station is the second stop, sitting beside the zoo's inner grounds. It lets zoo visitors join or leave the gondola mid-route instead of returning to the bottom terminus.
Zhinan Temple Station is the third stop, the access point for Zhinan Temple and its stone approach of 23 flights totalling 1,185 steps, rebuilt in 1936. A Japanese-era stone archway stands at the trailhead on Lane 33, Section 3, Zhinan Road.
Maokong Station is the top terminus, where the tea houses and walking trails begin. The Sky Green observation deck, opened in January 2026, gives open views over the Greater Taipei basin by day and night.
The line is a monocable detachable gondola built by POMA of France, carried on 25 piers supporting 47 tower columns across its 4.03 km. Cabins travel at 3 to 5 m/s in normal operation against a design maximum of 6, giving the measured ride-time range of 17 to 37 minutes, usually felt as 20 to 30. Maximum one-way capacity is 2,400 passengers per hour.
The fleet numbers 147 cabins, including 3 spares, and 31 of them are crystal cabins with glass floors, roughly one in five. A regular cabin holds up to 8 passengers; a crystal cabin holds 5. Because the system is a continuous loop, there are no departure times and no timetable: cabins arrive constantly, and a crystal cabin passes roughly every 2 to 4 minutes at operating speed.
Safety systems accumulated over the years include lightning rods and a lightning detection network, emergency stops, backup motors, twin-circuit power, grip-force sensors on every cabin, and tower monitoring added after the 2008 failure. Onboard phone charging stations were added in 2012, and free audio guides have been available since January 2017. Every station has a lift, lockers run from 06:00 to 24:00, toilets are free, and breastfeeding rooms exist at Taipei Zoo Station and Maokong Station. Prams and wheelchairs are allowed if locked immobile and within 140 x 70 x 170 cm.
The gondola opened on 4 July 2007 as Taipei's first. In 2008 Typhoon Jangmi damaged the line and it closed, staying shut for about 18 months until it reopened on 30 March 2010. The reopening day also marked the first trial of a transparent-floor cabin, and the full crystal fleet followed on 2 November 2010.
Cumulative rides passed 40 million on 19 May 2026. The line's 20th anniversary falls on 4 July 2027. Today the operator is Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, running day-to-day operations through its recreation subsidiary TMRE, and the weekday maintenance rhythm of whole-day Monday closures continues through a dated published calendar.
The Wenhu Line, the brown line of the Taipei MRT, terminates at Taipei Zoo Station, code BR01. That is the closest rail stop to the gondola's own bottom station, which is a separate building about 350 metres away. Leave the MRT station and walk southwest along Xinguang Road Section 2. The walk takes about 4 to 6 minutes.
The gondola's Taipei Zoo Station address is No. 8, Section 2, Xinguang Road, Wenshan District, Taipei 116.
An MRT trip from Taipei Zoo Station back to Taipei Main Station costs NT$35 and takes about 40 minutes with one transfer. First and last MRT train times are not covered here, so check them with the MRT operator if you are planning a very early or very late return.
Coming from the Bannan Line, get off at Taipei City Hall Station instead. Three buses run from there toward the gondola: G1 (the Nanhuan Metro Bus), BR18 and BR21.
A long list of ordinary city buses also stops at the gondola's Taipei Zoo Station, so if you are staying anywhere along these routes you can skip the MRT entirely:
BR15, also written Brown 15, is worth remembering for another reason: it is one of the buses that runs up to Maokong when the gondola itself is shut for weather or maintenance.
The Taipei Zoo Station underground car park has 150 car spaces and 200 motorcycle spaces. Cars pay NT$10 per hour on weekdays, all day. At weekends and holidays the daytime rate jumps to NT$60 per hour from 06:00 to 22:00, then falls back to NT$10 per hour overnight from 22:00 to 06:00. The weekend daytime rate is six times the weekday rate, which makes parking an expensive part of a family day out unless you arrive late or leave late.
Motorcycles pay NT$20 per entry per day, a flat charge regardless of duration.
Two other car parks serve the area. The Taipei Zoo riverbank car park is one, and the Muzha Depot car park opens only on holidays.
Driving in, take National Freeway 1 or 3 to the Wanfang Interchange, then follow Muzha Road and Xinguang Road to the station.
Ticketed passengers scan a QR code at the automatic ticket gate. If you hold a booking voucher, that is the code you scan. EasyCard, iPASS and iCASH are also accepted at the gates at the same fare as a single paper ticket.
Every station on the line has a lift, so step-free travel is possible end to end. Toilets are free to use. Lockers operate from 06:00 to 24:00, longer than the gondola's own hours, so you can store bags before or after riding. Breastfeeding rooms exist at Taipei Zoo Station and at Maokong Station.
YouBike share bikes can be returned at the station by the MRT exit.
One detail that catches day-pass holders: if you exit at Taipei Zoo Station during the day and want to re-enter, hand your ticket to staff to be stamped. Without the stamp the pass does not readmit you there.
Arriving by high speed rail, take the THSR to Taipei or Nangang station and transfer to the MRT from there.
Almost nobody sleeps beside the gondola itself, and there is no reason to. The practical choice is a hotel on the Wenhu, or Brown, Line, because that line ends at Taipei Zoo Station and needs no transfer to reach the bottom of the gondola.
Daan District, Taipei (No. 201, Section 2, Dunhua South Road)
Technology Building (BR08) or Liuzhangli (BR07), brown Wenhu line, about an 11 minute walk
The easiest splurge for a gondola day: it sits between two brown Wenhu line stations, so you ride straight through to the Taipei Zoo terminus without ever changing trains.
Check ratesXinyi Road Section 4, on the Daan and Xinyi border, Taipei (No. 295, Section 4, Xinyi Road)
Xinyi Anhe (R05A on the red Tamsui-Xinyi line), about a 3 minute walk
Staying in Xinyi keeps the city's dining, shopping and night markets on your doorstep while leaving the cable car within easy reach. The MRT run to Taipei Zoo station, where the gondola begins, is a straightforward transfer, so you can be up among the tea houses in the morning and back downtown by evening.
Check ratesWenshan District, Taipei (3F, No. 6, Lane 30, Jingzhong Street)
Jingmei (G05) on the GREEN Songshan-Xindian line, about a 2 minute walk
This is the only listed hotel inside Wenshan itself, the district the cable car calls home. Jingmei station sits close by, and the zoo terminus where boarding starts is a quick ride away, which makes it the practical pick for anyone who wants an early start before the Crystal Cabin line builds on weekend afternoons.
Check rates
Regular hours run 09:00 to 21:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 22:00 on weekends and public holidays. Those are the published windows, but they can flex for festivals, events and weather, so an unusual day on the calendar can shift them in either direction.
One fixed exception stands out: the line closes every Lunar New Year's Eve. In 2026 that falls on 16 February.
The other thing to understand about "hours" here is that there is no timetable to read. The gondola is a continuous loop of 147 cabins moving anti-clockwise around the 4.03 km route. Cabins arrive constantly, one after another, at 3 to 5 m/s in normal operation. There are no departure times because there are no departures. You join the stream when you board and step off when you reach a station.
The operator publishes no real-time queue or wait indicator, so there is no live number to check before you leave your hotel.
Practical takeaway: plan around the closing time, not a last-service time, because none is published. Aim to arrive for a first ride comfortably inside the window, and if you want a sunset or evening ride down from Maokong, work back from the 21:00 or 22:00 close with real margin, not to the minute.
The six cards below condense the published hours into the situations that actually matter: weekday visits, weekends and holidays, Mondays, Lunar New Year's Eve, and the two longer shutdowns of 2026.
Monday to Friday the gondola runs 09:00 to 21:00. Hours can flex for festivals, events and weather, so treat these as the norm rather than a guarantee.
On weekends and public holidays the line runs 09:00 to 22:00, an extra hour of evening running. The same flex for events and weather applies.
The operator closes the whole line on the Mondays listed in its dated calendar, except national holidays. Not every Monday appears: 29 June and 31 August 2026 were both operating days.
The line closes every Lunar New Year's Eve, which falls on 16 February 2026. The operator's dated calendar places this closure between the ordinary Monday shutdowns on 9 and 23 February.
Cable-splicing works shut the whole line from 20 to 24 April 2026, a five-day break from normal service. This was separate from routine maintenance, and the Mondays of 13 and 27 April were ordinary Monday maintenance days.
The annual overhaul closed the line from 8 to 28 June 2026, and it reopened on Monday 29 June, an operating day. Work covered major POMA components including the main motor and drive shaft, plus testing and repainting of station track.
The operator treats MONDAYS as its maintenance day and closes the whole line, except when a Monday is a national holiday or covered by a special announcement. That is the rule in its plain form.
The catch is that it is not a blanket weekly shutdown. The exact closed dates are published in a dated calendar, and not every Monday is on it. Some Mondays are ordinary operating days. Trust the dated list, not a rule of thumb.
Two confirmed examples from 2026 show why: Monday 29 June and Monday 31 August were operating days. Anyone who assumed "closed Mondays" and stayed away on those dates missed a running line.
Every confirmed 2026 closure date follows, by month. Two longer special shutdowns sit outside the Monday pattern: cable-splicing works from 20 to 24 April, and the annual overhaul from 8 to 28 June, with the line reopening on 29 June.
16 is Lunar New Year's Eve
20 to 24: cable-splicing works
8 to 28: annual overhaul, reopened 29 June
10 and 11: Typhoon Bavi, reopened 12 July
Also note the weather closures, which are separate from this calendar. Typhoon Bavi shut the line on 10 and 11 July 2026, reopening on 12 July.
No closure calendar for 2027 has been published yet. When planning a trip beyond 2026, check the operator's current dated list rather than projecting the 2026 dates forward.
Three things the operator does not publish, and which you should not expect to find:
Planning follows from that. Work back from the published closing time and arrive well before it, especially at the upper end, because boarding at Maokong close to 21:00 or 22:00 leaves no margin for a queue, a brief weather hold, or a slow walk from a tea house. Visitor reports, which are reports rather than measurements, describe crystal-cabin waits over 30 minutes on weekend afternoons. Build that scale of buffer into an evening plan.
Four triggers suspend service, and all are defined numerically:
None of this is theoretical. In 2026, Typhoon Bavi closed the line on 10 and 11 July, reopening on 12 July. On 13 August the line shut from 14:00 for Taipei's civil-defence air-raid drill, a closure with nothing to do with weather at all.
Riders already in cabins are set down at the nearest safe station. Passengers stranded at the upper stations are taken down by free shuttle buses. You are not left to find your own way off the mountain.
If you arrive at the bottom and find the gondola already shut, three buses still climb to Maokong: BR15 (Brown 15), S10 (Small 10) and the Maokong Tour Bus Left Line. These are the routes the operator itself points riders to when the line is shut.
The suspension rules also explain why the hours "flex". A lightning hold of 30 minutes or more inside the operating window shortens the effective day without changing the posted times. On a day with storms forecast, treat the schedule as provisional and build slack into anything time-critical, such as an afternoon zoo visit that closes at 17:00 with last entry at 16:00.
Voucher window 180 days from confirmation, expires 23:59 on the last day
Bundled items, options 2 to 5 14 days from the first item used, counting that day as day one
One-day pass unlimited rides on the day it is activated
Book the ticket and you receive an open-dated mobile voucher. Open-dated means you choose your visit day after buying rather than fixing it at checkout, which suits travellers whose Taipei days are still loose.
The voucher is valid 180 days from the confirmation date and expires at 23:59 on the last day. That is a wide window: buy it months ahead or the week before, and the clock runs from confirmation either way.
There is nothing to collect or print. Redemption works by scanning the voucher's QR code at the automatic ticket gate at the station. Confirmation is instant, so the voucher is normally available as soon as the booking completes.
Every option in the booking, all five of them, includes the Maokong Gondola one-day pass. The pass covers unlimited rides on its activation day across all four passenger stations: Taipei Zoo, Taipei Zoo South, Zhinan Temple and Maokong.
The important consequence is that you can break the journey. Ride up to Taipei Zoo South and step off beside the zoo's inner grounds, or stop at Zhinan Temple for the stone stairway, or go straight to the top for tea, then board again later. A single ticket does not permit any of this.
The arithmetic also favours the pass. Gate fares are NT$180 for a single journey at any distance, and a day pass at the gate is NT$300. Two single rides, the minimum for a round trip, already cost more than the day pass. The Gondola Pass Only option at $9.49 equals that NT$300 day pass, converted to US dollars, so it matches what you would pay on site for the same riding rights.
Cabins run one way around the anti-clockwise loop. There is no reversing, so every rider must get off at a terminus, either Taipei Zoo or Maokong. You cannot ride halfway, sit tight, and come back down in the same cabin.
If you hold a single ticket and want to return, you need a new ticket for the direction you are missing. A one-day pass removes that problem entirely, because every subsequent boarding that day is covered.
One procedural detail at the bottom: day-pass holders who exit at Taipei Zoo Station during the day hand the ticket to staff to be stamped for re-entry.
Options 2 through 5 bundle more than the gondola, and the bundles run on their own clock. Every item in the bundle expires 14 days after the first one is used, counting the day of first use as day one.
In practice that means the zoo admission, the Maokong experiences and the discount booklet do not all have to be used on gondola day. You could ride the gondola on arrival weekend, then take the zoo portion later in the trip, as long as everything lands inside the 14-day window.
The Maokong experiences come as a choice of one, on the "Easy Travel" and "Three Cats" options, or two on the "In-depth Travel" option. The choices are the same three each time: a small sealed-tea DIY session, a Zhinan Temple prayer card, or a sachet of Maokong Tieguanyin tea. The "Easy Travel" and "In-depth Travel" options also include the Maokong discount booklet.
Option 2 handles the zoo differently from option 4. Option 2 includes Taipei Zoo full admission plus one one-way ride on the zoo shuttle train. Option 4, the "Three Cats" combo, includes the full zoo admission and one Maokong experience but no shuttle train ride.
One exclusion worth flagging early: the glass-floor crystal cabin is in none of the five options. It is an on-site upgrade, NT$50 per person per trip, added to whichever ticket you hold, and it is paid again for the return direction if you want glass both ways.
The glass-floor cabin is called the "Eyes of Maokong Gondola" by the operator. The floor is made of three layers of reinforced glass, about 48 mm thick in total, and the whole floor unit weighs about 213 kg. It is CE certified and was installed under technicians from SIGMA, POMA's cabin manufacturer.
The first trial transparent-floor cabin ran on reopening day, 30 March 2010, and the full crystal fleet entered service on 2 November 2010. Today 31 of the 147 cabins on the line are crystal cabins, roughly one in five. The remaining 116 are the standard cabins.
Since 3 March 2025 the crystal cabin has been a paid upgrade: NT$50 per person per trip, paid on site on top of whatever ticket you already hold. That per-trip wording matters. If you want the glass floor going up and coming back down, you pay the NT$50 twice.
It is also not part of any of the five ticket options. None of them includes the crystal cabin, not even the top bundles. Whatever you book, the glass floor is an add-on you arrange at the station. One more scheduling detail: crystal cabins run Tuesday to Sunday, on every operating day, so they are unavailable on the Monday maintenance closures.
Only 31 of the 147 cabins are crystal cabins, and each holds 5 passengers instead of the regular 8. At operating speed a crystal cabin passes roughly every 2 to 4 minutes, so the queue for one moves more slowly than the queue for a standard cabin. The operator's online booking system, which dates from December 2011, exists to cut queue time and is aimed specifically at crystal cabins, which use appointed time slots. Booking a slot is the practical way to avoid standing in line.
The operator publishes no real-time queue or wait indicator, so no measured wait figures exist. Visitor reports, which are accounts rather than measurements, describe crystal-cabin waits of over 30 minutes on weekend afternoons, with the regular-cabin queue much shorter at the same time.
The operator warns people with heart disease, high blood pressure or a fear of heights not to ride the crystal cabin. It also advises passengers wearing skirts to mind how they sit, because the glass floor is genuinely transparent and looks straight down at the hillside below.
Everyone else can weigh it as a straight cost decision. It is NT$50 per person each way for a different view of the same 4.03 km ride, in a cabin that holds fewer people and may involve a longer wait at busy times.
Sky Green, the observation deck at Maokong Station, opened in early January 2026 and gives open views over the Greater Taipei basin by day and by night. On the welcome wall nearby stands a "LOVE" sculpture built from decommissioned gondola haul rope, a piece of the line's own history turned into a photo spot. The deck sits right at the top station, so it costs no extra walking.
Muzha Tieguanyin and Wenshan Baozhong (pouchong) are the two teas grown here, and the story behind the first one is specific: tea master Chang Nai-miao brought twelve Tieguanyin seedlings from Fujian in 1895 and planted them in Muzha. The operator states that Muzha is the only place in Taiwan where Tieguanyin is cultivated. Harvests come twice a year, spring around April to May and autumn/winter around November to December, though these seasons come from secondary sources rather than the operator. The plantations sit at roughly 300 to 500 metres.
Two places cover the tea story in depth. The Chang Nai-miao Memorial Tea Museum, established in 1995 and run by his grandson, has a free ground-floor tea room and charges admission for the second floor. The Taipei Tea Promotion Center for Tie Guan Yin and Bao Zhong Tea opened in April 1985 and holds exhibition and teaching areas, an ecological pond, a weather observation platform and a working tea plantation. It is open daily 09:00 to 17:00 and closed Mondays. From Maokong Station it is about 15 minutes on foot: turn left out of the station and follow Lane 38 of Section 3, Zhinan Road, towards Tianen Temple.
The private tea houses, which are the main reason many visitors come up, keep no single official list of opening hours. They vary house by house, so confirm with the one you plan to visit. Tianen Temple, an I-Kuan Tao hall venerating Maitreya over three storeys, runs vegetarian courses and sells vegetarian cakes and tea snacks.
Eight trails are signposted around Maokong: Huxue, Xiao Tiankong, Houshanyue, Zhanghu, Zhinangong, Zhangshu, Feilong and Denggao. The gentlest is the Camphor Tree Trail, about 1.5 km and roughly 30 minutes one way, and it is Taipei's first fully level trail, suitable for older visitors and small children. Along it sit a restored charcoal kiln, pigsty, ox cart, granary, Caiyun Pavilion and Mingjing Pond. Those charcoal kilns once fired Maokong's tea roasting.
For short walks, Denggao Trail is 70 metres, the shortest in the area, climbing a wooden stair to the Wangyuan Pavilion lookout. Little Sky Trail runs about 250 m as an elevated boardwalk with a wide-angle view into the valley. Zhanghu Trail is a half-moon route through terraced tea gardens, and it links with the Camphor Tree Trail via Zhangshan Temple to form a loop. Zhangshan Temple was built in 1931 to Guanyin, and its forecourt is a free viewpoint over the Taipei basin. Silver Stream Cave is a waterfall grotto at about 220 m elevation with a small temple built into the cliff, reached by the Yinhedong Ridge Trail, which runs about 940 m, roughly 20 minutes, to a ridge junction.
The operator publishes a seasonal calendar for the hill. Apricot blossom runs January to February in a grove of about 2,000 trees that is free to enter and flowers to mid-March. Lupin blooms February to March generally, and late March to mid-April along the 1.5-hectare field on the Camphor Tree Trail, which the operator calls the only lupin field of its kind in Taiwan. Around Mid-Autumn the same slope turns to orange and pink cosmos. Tung blossom follows in April to May, bamboo shoots in May to June, and spring tea in May to June.
Gondola passengers can ride the Maokong Tour Bus for free on the same day, on both the Right and Left Lines, using the same EasyCard. The Right Line loops from Maokong Station to Tianliao Bridge, the Camphor Tree Trail north entrance, Zhangshan Temple, the Telescopic Deck, the Apricot Grove, the Camphor Tree Trail south entrance and the Zhanghu Walkway, then back to the station.
Hours are Monday to Friday 09:00 to 20:00 and weekends and holidays 08:30 to 20:00. Frequency is every 10 to 15 minutes on weekdays, stretching to 15 to 20 off-peak, and every 7 to 10 minutes on weekends and holidays, stretching to 10 to 15 off-peak. After 19:00 there are only three departures: 19:00, 19:30 and 20:00.
Zhinan Temple, also called Xiangong Temple, sits by the gondola's third stop, Zhinan Temple Station. Its principal deity is Lu Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals, and the temple blends Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian practice. Its Dream Interpretation Room is where believers stay overnight seeking answers in dreams. The founding date falls around 1890 to 1891, with sources differing, so treat any single year with caution. Lingxiao Hall, completed in 1966, appeared in the 1969 film "The Chairman" with Gregory Peck.
The stone approach from Lane 33, Section 3, Zhinan Road runs more than 900 metres with 23 flights totalling 1,185 stone steps, often rounded to about 1,200, rebuilt in 1936, with a Japanese-era stone archway at the trailhead. The temple's opening hours and any entrance fee are not verified, and no verified walking time from the station exists, so plan both yourself. One more thing worth knowing: the popular story that couples who visit will break up is disputed by the temple itself, whose cultural centre calls it a myth.
The name is not about cats, despite the characters. According to the operator, locals called the pothole-pitted stream bed "皺坑", roughly "liâu-khang" in Taiwanese Hokkien, and Japanese-era land surveyors wrote the sound using the similar characters 貓空, Maokong, which stuck. The potholes themselves are about 20 m wide and 100 to 200 m long, cut into igneous rock, and the overlapping hollows are said to resemble a row of face masks.
Gondola, weekdays 09:00 to 21:00
Gondola, weekends and holidays 09:00 to 22:00
Taipei Zoo 09:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:00
Free tour bus, weekdays 09:00 to 20:00
Free tour bus, weekends and holidays 08:30 to 20:00
Station lockers 06:00 to 24:00
The gondola's bottom station, Taipei Zoo Station, sits right beside the zoo's entrance. Taipei Zoo South Station is the gondola's second stop, located beside the zoo's inner grounds, so zoo visitors can join or leave the ride mid-route without going back to the bottom. That mid-route stop is what makes a combined zoo-and-gondola day practical rather than awkward.
General admission to Taipei Zoo is NT$100, with NT$60 for Taipei residents and NT$50 for concessions. Hours are 09:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:00, and animal exhibits run 09:00 to 16:30. The shuttle train inside the zoo costs NT$5 per ride. The zoo covers 165 hectares.
It closes on Lunar New Year's Eve, 16 February in 2026, for annual maintenance from 22 June to 1 July 2026, and on typhoon days declared by the city. Individual houses rotate Monday closures: the Giant Panda House closes the first Monday of the month, the Pangolin Dome and Penguin House the second, the Amphibian and Reptile House the third, the Insectarium the fourth, and the Eco-House and Education Center every Monday.
Two of the five options fold zoo entry into the booking. Option 2, at $12.69 per person, pairs the one-day gondola pass with full zoo admission plus one one-way ride on the zoo shuttle train. Option 4, the Three Cats combo, pairs the pass with full zoo admission plus one Maokong experience from the same three choices as the other bundles, though it does not include the shuttle train. Both let you avoid paying the NT$100 gate fee separately at the zoo entrance, and option 2 also covers the NT$5 train ride. The verified range across all five options runs from $9.49 to $17.40 per person, with options 3 to 5 sitting inside that range.
Order matters. The zoo closes at 17:00 with last entry at 16:00, while the gondola runs to 21:00 on weekdays and 22:00 on weekends, so a zoo-first day uses the morning well. You can leave the zoo through the grounds near Taipei Zoo South Station and continue up the line to Zhinan Temple and Maokong afterwards.
End to end, the ride takes about 20 to 30 minutes over the full 4.03 km route. The measured range runs from 17 to 37 minutes, because cabin speed varies between 3 and 5 m/s in operation against a design maximum of 6. Cabins run in a continuous loop with no timetable and no departure times, so there is nothing to book for a specific minute. The direction is anti-clockwise, cabins run one way, and everyone must get off at one of the two termini, Taipei Zoo or Maokong, unless they hold a one-day pass.
The fixed durations at the top are short. The Camphor Tree Trail takes roughly 30 minutes one way. The Tea Promotion Center is about 15 minutes' walk from Maokong Station and closes at 17:00, closed Mondays. Climbing Zhinan Temple's 1,185 steps has no official time, with secondary sources suggesting 30 to 40 minutes. The free Maokong Tour Bus runs to 20:00. Time in a tea house is entirely the rider's choice, and no figure can be given for it.
One day-planning fact fills in the rest: the one-day pass allows unlimited rides on its activation day, with stops at Zoo South, Zhinan Temple and Maokong. Note also that the operator publishes no crowd data, so while blogs point to weekend afternoons and sunset as busy, that is unverified.
Gondola and a trail. Ride to Maokong, walk the Camphor Tree Trail out and back, roughly an hour of walking, then return on the pass. Add the Tea Promotion Center before its 17:00 closing if you start in the morning, and you have a half-day built around two fixed numbers: the 30-minute trail each way and the 15-minute walk to the center.
Zoo morning, then the hill. Enter the zoo at its 09:00 opening, use the zoo through the morning, and leave near Taipei Zoo South Station to continue up the line. The zoo's last entry at 16:00 and 17:00 closing make the morning the natural window for it, and the gondola's later closing, 21:00 on weekdays and 22:00 on weekends, leaves the afternoon and evening for Maokong. The tour bus's final three departures, 19:00, 19:30 and 20:00, fit a last loop of the hill before you ride down.
Evening ride. Go up late with the aim of seeing the Greater Taipei basin from the Sky Green observation deck after dark. Keep the closing time firmly in mind, because the operator publishes no last-boarding time, so arrive well before the 21:00 or 22:00 close. If you are still at the top near the end of service, remember the tour bus stops after its 20:00 departure and the tea houses set their own hours.
Weekday service runs 09:00 to 21:00, and weekends and public holidays run until 22:00. The one weekday you cannot count on is Monday. The operator treats MONDAYS as its maintenance day and closes the whole line on the dates listed in its dated closure calendar, except national holidays or special announcements. Not every Monday appears on the calendar, so read it date by date: in late June 2026, for example, Monday 29 June was an operating day.
The operator publishes no crowd data and no queue indicator, so no hour can be called the quietest on the basis of measurement. Taipei City's own project paper notes that Maokong's roads are narrow farm tracks with severely insufficient parking and that holiday crowds used to cause serious congestion, which is the reason the gondola was built.
Apricot blossomJanuary to February, flowers to mid-March
LupinFebruary to March, late March to mid-April on the Camphor Tree Trail
Tung blossomApril to May
Bamboo shootsMay to June
Spring teaMay to June
Special shutdowns, 202620 to 24 April, 8 to 28 June
The operator's seasonal calendar starts with apricot blossom from January to February, in a grove of about 2,000 trees that is free to enter and flowers through mid-March. Lupin follows, February to March generally and late March to mid-April along the Camphor Tree Trail, a 1.5-hectare field the operator calls the only one of its kind in Taiwan. Tung blossom runs April to May, and bamboo shoots and spring tea arrive May to June.
Around Mid-Autumn, the slope along the Camphor Tree Trail turns to orange and pink cosmos. Tea on this hillside is harvested twice a year, spring around April to May and autumn/winter around November to December, though these harvest windows come from secondary sources rather than the operator.
Special shutdowns in 2026 ran 20 to 24 April for cable-splicing works and 8 to 28 June for the annual overhaul, with the line reopening 29 June. No closure calendar for 2027 has been published yet, so if your trip falls in April or June, check the operator's calendar before locking in a date.
Weather halts are rule-based. Service stops for wind gusts of 16 m/s, about Beaufort 7, holding more than 3 seconds, or for gusts above 18 m/s; for any lightning along the route, restarting 30 minutes after the warning zone clears once an inspection is done, with no forecast restart time given; for earthquake intensity 4 or above; and for typhoons once a land warning covers Taipei. Riders already in cabins are set down at the nearest safe station, and passengers stranded at the upper stations are taken down by free shuttle buses.
With closing at 21:00 on weekdays and 22:00 on weekends and holidays, evening rides are part of the normal schedule, and cabins keep running until the posted close. Note that the Maokong Tour Bus winds down earlier: after 19:00 the only departures are 19:00, 19:30 and 20:00. The Sky Green observation deck at Maokong Station, opened in early January 2026, offers open views over the Greater Taipei basin day and night.
This block gathers the current figures in one place: what the booking page shows for the ticket, and what the operator shows for fares, hours and closures. Everything below comes from the listing or the operator.
Dollar figures for the ticket are converted from Taiwan dollars, so the cents drift with the exchange rate. Gate fares in NT$ are set by the operator, not by the booking page, and no fare change has been announced for 2027.
The quotes below are taken from the booking page's own reviews, unedited apart from length. Together with the 4.7 rating across about 11,800 reviews, they give a sense of what riders mention most. Read them as individual accounts, not as measurements.
★★★★★
“Such a beautiful experience and definitely one of the memorable parts of our trip! The Maokong Gondola ride was really enjoyable, especially with the amazing views of Taipei and the surrounding mountains along the way. The ride was comfortable and gave us a completely different view of the city.”
Shiela, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“2nd time in Taipei and 2nd time trying the gondola. very good value for money considering the Taipei zoo entrance inclusion. we enjoyed exploring every gondola station and had a great time. an awesome experience indeed.”
Jessa, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“We bought the 3 cats combo ticket and chose the small sealed tea DIY experience. We didn't have time to get off at Zhinan Temple Station since we spent more time at the Zoo. We saw alot of active animals. Walking around the tea farm was peaceful and the ice cream was perfect for a hot day.”
D, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“We had an amazing experience in riding the Gondola one day pass. There’s no line on the way up since we arrived early morning. We also had a fun day in the zoo and we were able to see a lot of animals which can’t be seen in our country.”
operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“A Breathtaking Experience, Highly Recommend. We recently took the Maokong Gondola Tour and it was absolutely one of the highlights of our trip! From the moment we stepped into the gondola, we were treated to stunning panoramic views of Taipei’s lush green hillsides. The ride itself is smooth, scenic, and genuinely memorable.”
LadyDiane, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“amazing venture, a gift. you have 2 stops a temple then at the top spectacular views with a abundance of resturant and trails. unlimited all day. easy to access zoo beforehand as it closes by 4.30 throughly enjoyed”
Sarah, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“This was an excellent activity. We went to the gondola on the MRT from Central Station, which was very easy. The scenery from the gondola was excellent and the tea houses at the summit very relaxing.”
Michael, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“Very easy to access each of the activities, the zoo and cable car definitely worth it, the tea experience I could have done without but overall was a great day”
Karla, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“amazing tour easy to exchange the voucher for the ticket. beautiful place”
Martha, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★☆
“The ride itself was fabulous, great panoramic views of Taipei and surrounds What I didn’t like was the instruction on exchanging your emailed advise/voucher for an actual ticket. The information sent said there is a kiosk at Taipei Zoo station to exchange these but that’s incorrect no kiosk there.”
Warren, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★☆☆
“The cable car ride itself is pretty comfortable - no air conditioning, though, so be prepared. The views were good but not exceptional. Maokong itself is really charming.”
Alice, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
★★★★★
“Great views from the gondola! Navigating the zoo was a bit difficult as a foreigner but the employees there were always able to help!”
Oscar, operator-listing review of Maokong Gondola Ticket in Taipei
These are real traveler reviews published on the operator's own booking listing for this ticket. We copy them as written, we do not collect, select or edit them, and we earn nothing from a review either way.
Two of the five options do. Option 1 is the gondola pass only. Option 2 adds Taipei Zoo full admission plus one one-way ride on the zoo shuttle train for $12.69. Option 4, the Three Cats combo, adds full zoo admission plus one Maokong experience but not the shuttle train. Options 3 and 5 bundle experiences rather than the zoo. If you buy an option without the zoo, gate admission is NT$100 general, NT$60 for Taipei residents and NT$50 concession, paid at the zoo itself.
No. The glass-floor crystal cabin is in none of the five options, including the most bundled ones. It is an on-site upgrade at NT$50 per person per trip, added on top of whichever ticket you hold, and you pay again each direction if you want the glass floor both ways. Crystal cabins run Tuesday to Sunday, every operating day, and the operator's booking system is specifically recommended for them because they use appointed time slots. The operator advises people with heart disease, high blood pressure or fear of heights not to ride them.
The verified range across the five options runs from $9.49 to $17.40 per person. Option 1, the gondola pass only, is $9.49 and equals the operator's own NT$300 one-day pass. Option 2, with zoo admission and a shuttle train ride, is $12.69. Options 3, 4 and 5, which add one or two Maokong experiences or the Three Cats combo, sit inside the $9.49 to $17.40 range. One price applies to every age, and the listing states no age limit. Dollar figures are converted from Taiwan dollars, so the cents drift with the exchange rate.
On the Mondays listed in the operator's dated calendar, yes, the whole line is closed, because the operator treats Monday as its maintenance day, except national holidays or special announcements. Not every Monday is on the calendar. In 2026, for example, Monday 29 June and Monday 31 August were operating days. Confirmed November 2026 closures fall on 9, 23 and 30, and December closures on 14 and 28. Check the calendar for your specific date, and note the special 2026 shutdowns of 20 to 24 April and 8 to 28 June.
About 20 to 30 minutes end to end, with the measured range running from 17 to 37 minutes. The line is 4.03 km long, roughly the shape of the numeral 7, with 4 passenger stations and 2 angle stations closed to the public. Cabins run in a continuous loop at 3 to 5 m/s in operation, so there is no timetable and no departure times. Plan the same duration for the ride back. With a single ticket you cannot ride back, but a one-day pass allows unlimited rides on its activation day.
It is not published anywhere by the operator, so no cutoff can be stated as fact. The only fixed reference points are the closing times: 21:00 on weekdays and 22:00 on weekends and public holidays. Plan around the closing time and arrive well before it, especially if you are riding up in the evening, because the operator also publishes no real-time queue or wait indicator. Hours can flex for festivals, events and weather, so the posted close is a planning figure rather than a guarantee of a final boarding minute.
The simplest way is the MRT Wenhu, Brown, Line to Taipei Zoo Station, code BR01, the line's terminus, then about 350 metres southwest along Xinguang Road Section 2, roughly 4 to 6 minutes on foot. The address is No. 8, Section 2, Xinguang Road, Wenshan District, Taipei 116. From the Bannan Line, get off at Taipei City Hall Station and take bus G1, BR18 or BR21. Many city buses also stop at the gondola station, including 236 Shuttle, 237, 282, 294, 295, 611, 676, 679, 793, 933, Brown 3, 6, 11, 15, 18, 21, S12 and the Maokong Tour Bus Left Line.
The voucher is an open-dated mobile voucher valid 180 days from the confirmation date, expiring at 23:59 on the last day. You redeem it by scanning the voucher QR code at the automatic ticket gate. On the bundled options, options 2 to 5, every item expires 14 days after the first one is used, counting the day of first use. That 14-day clock matters if you plan to split the zoo and the gondola across separate days. Instant confirmation is shown on the listing at the time of booking.
Yes, with a one-day pass, which allows unlimited rides on its activation day with stops at Taipei Zoo South, Zhinan Temple and Maokong. Zhinan Temple Station is the third passenger stop. With a single-journey ticket you cannot hop off and on, and because cabins run one way in an anti-clockwise loop you must get off at a terminus, Taipei Zoo or Maokong. To ride back on a single ticket you would need a new one. One-day-pass holders exiting at Taipei Zoo Station hand the ticket to staff to be stamped for re-entry.
The operator's online booking system, running since December 2011, is aimed at saving queue time and is specifically recommended for crystal cabins, which use appointed time slots. Beyond that, the operator publishes no real-time queue or wait indicator, so there is no official data on the busiest hours. Visitor reports, which are secondary accounts rather than measurements, describe crystal-cabin waits over 30 minutes on weekend afternoons, with regular cabins much shorter. Blog claims about peak times are likewise unverified.
Service halts for wind gusts of 16 m/s, about Beaufort 7, holding more than 3 seconds, or gusts above 18 m/s; for any lightning along the route, restarting 30 minutes after the warning zone clears, inspected first, with no forecast restart time given; for earthquake intensity 4 or above; and for typhoons once a land warning covers Taipei. Riders in cabins are set down at the nearest safe station, and passengers stranded at the upper stations are taken down by free shuttle buses. When the line is shut, buses up to Maokong include BR15, S10 and the Maokong Tour Bus Left Line.
Children aged 0 to 5 ride free with a ticketed adult, with a maximum of 2 free children per adult. Concession fares, NT$50 for a single journey and NT$100 for a concession day pass, are for Taiwanese nationals only, with ID. Overseas visitors pay the full fare, so the concession rates do not apply to tourist tickets. At the gate, EasyCard, iPASS and iCASH are accepted at the same fare as a single ticket, with no price difference between them.
The shuttle loop up top is free to gondola passengers the same day, on both the Right and Left Lines, using the same EasyCard. The Right Line runs from Maokong Station to Tianliao Bridge, Camphor Tree Trail north entrance, Zhangshan Temple, Telescopic Deck, Apricot Grove, Camphor Tree Trail south entrance and Zhanghu Walkway, back to Maokong Station. Hours are Monday to Friday 09:00 to 20:00 and weekends and holidays 08:30 to 20:00, and after 19:00 the only departures are 19:00, 19:30 and 20:00.
A single journey is NT$180 at any distance, and the one-day pass is NT$300, flat since 3 March 2025. The old by-station scale of NT$70, 100 and 120 was abolished on that date, though older blogs still quote it. Two single rides already cost more than the day pass. EasyCard, iPASS and iCASH are accepted at the same fare as a single ticket. Group discounts of 10% for 20 or more and 20% for 40 or more apply to one-day passes only, arranged at an information counter, and a chartered private cabin adds NT$600 per cabin per trip.
The grid below holds short question-and-answer articles on the practical details of a Maokong trip, from fares and Monday closures to the crystal cabin upgrade and the walk down from Maokong Station. Each one answers a single question in plain terms, using the same verified figures as the rest of this guide. Pick the question you came with, or browse the set before choosing a ticket option.
Check Monday closure dates
Valid all day; one ride end to end takes about 20 to 30 minutes · Rated 4.7 across about 11,800 reviews, from $9.49 · Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation
A one-day pass for the cable car run by Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, valid all day once activated. It covers the full line, so you can step off at Taipei Zoo South, Zhinan Temple or Maokong and board a later cabin. One ride end to end takes about 20 to 30 minutes. The base option is the gondola only; Taipei Zoo entry and the glass-floored crystal cabin cost extra.
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