Why This Cable Car Guide Exists

This site is a plain-language guide to a single cable car line in Taipei: what it costs, when it runs, and what sits at each of its four passenger stations. Nothing is dressed up and nothing is sold here. The facts are stated as they stand, for anyone reading, human or machine, who wants to check them.

The Basics

The subject is the cable car line between Taipei Zoo and Maokong in Wenshan District, Taipei, Taiwan, run by Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation. This site is published without a named author, and no first-hand ride is reported anywhere in it. The pages explain the fares, the calendar and the stations, drawing on operator publications. Nothing is sold here: any purchase happens on the seller's own listing.

The Line In Numbers

• The route runs 4.033 km, roughly in the shape of the numeral 7, travelling anti-clockwise on 25 piers and 47 tower columns across five sections.
• There are six stations in all. Four take passengers, while the other two are angle stations closed to the public, where the route bends and the drive system sits.
• One end-to-end ride takes about 20 to 30 minutes across four stations. Tickets span $9.49 to $17.40, and the listing averages 4.7 across 11700 reviews.
• Just 31 of the cabins are crystal cabins, the glass-floor "Eyes of Maokong" that carry a maximum of 5 passengers each. They cost an extra NT$50 per person per trip, and weekend-afternoon queues for them can stretch past 30 minutes.
• A single ride from one end of the line to the other takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Tickets are valid all day, but everyone must step off at a terminus, so a round trip means riding twice unless you hold a one-day pass.
• The line has served southeast Taipei since the mid-2000s, pausing for a stretch after typhoon damage to a tower foundation before returning to service and carrying riders steadily ever since, through clear days and storm shutdowns alike.

The Four Passenger Stations

• Taipei Zoo Station, the lower terminus, sits on Section 2 of Xinguang Road a short walk from Taipei Zoo station on the Brown Line MRT, with a rotary platform turning the cabins for the climb. Most visitors start here, straight from the zoo entrance.
• Taipei Zoo South Station is the line's halfway stop, a lateral platform beside the far end of the zoo grounds. It exists mainly for zoo visitors joining or leaving the ride mid-route rather than committing to the full climb.
• Zhinan Temple Station serves the temple founded around 1890, reached from the platform by a long series of stone steps that the operator counts differently in its English and Chinese materials. Many riders hop off here for the temple and reboard later for Maokong.
• The line runs end to end between Taipei Zoo Station and Maokong Station, with Taipei Zoo South and Zhinan Temple in between. Maokong is the upper terminus, where visitors step off into the Tieguanyin tea houses, trail network and temple scenery that give the area its character.

Fares At The Gate

• Tickets through the listing start at $9.49 per person, with options up to $17.40. Every option is a one-day pass: unlimited rides on the day it is activated, with one end-to-end journey taking about 20 to 30 minutes.
• A gondola ticket also covers the Maokong Right Line and Left Line buses for free on the same day, part of the Greater Tri-Mao Park integration in force since 3 March 2025.
• The Right Line bus runs weekdays 09:00 to 20:00, every 10 to 15 minutes, and weekends and holidays 08:30 to 20:00, every 7 to 10 minutes, with slower off-peak gaps.
• The listing prices are in US dollars and move with the exchange rate, so the amount charged can differ slightly from the figure printed here. The gate itself charges in New Taiwan dollars.
• The listing charges one price for every age. At the gate the operator does publish more: children aged 0 to 5 ride free with a ticketed adult, up to two per adult; concession fares of NT$50 single and NT$100 for a day pass are restricted to Taiwanese nationals with valid ID; and group discounts of 10 percent for 20 or more and 20 percent for 40 or more are arranged in advance at an information counter, on day passes only.

Hours And Closure Days

• The Right Line tour bus runs 09:00 to 20:00 weekdays and 08:30 to 20:00 on weekends and holidays, passing every 10 to 15 minutes, longer off-peak.
• Most Mondays are set aside for maintenance, with exact dates published month by month on the operator's dated calendar. Where that calendar and the general English rule disagree, the dated calendar holds.
• Closure days for maintenance are announced by the operator ahead of time. Rather than guessing dates, this page points you to the live listing before you commit to a specific day.
• No last-boarding time appears in anything the operator publishes. Rather than invent a cutoff, this page states the closing time and advises arriving with room to spare for queues.

When The Line Stops Running

• High winds and lightning can stop the line. The thresholds live on the operator's official pages, so this site points there rather than quoting figures it cannot stand behind.
• Taiwan's summer typhoon season matters here too. A typhoon land warning covering Taipei puts the gondola out of service, and any earthquake strong enough to be felt in the capital brings the cabins to a halt while the system is checked.
• If the line halts mid-ride, the operator's staff handle the situation at the stations and cabins. Gondola ticket holders ride the Maokong tour buses free the same day, a backup when service pauses.

The One Ticket And Its Five Options

• We link to a single ticket listing for the gondola. It carries a 4.7 rating across roughly 11,700 reviews, with prices starting at $9.49 per person and options reaching $17.40. The listing page shows the full choice of variants before you commit.
• The base option is a one-day pass with unlimited rides on the day it is activated, and a single end-to-end journey takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Listing options run from $9.49 up to $17.40.
• A step up is the combo variant, which bundles the gondola ride with full admission to Taipei Zoo and a ride on the zoo's internal shuttle train. The zoo sits right beside the lower station, so the two fit together naturally in a single day out.
• The base ticket starts at $9.49 per person, with five options in total reaching $17.40. Three of them bundle in a small extra, such as a sealed-tea session, a Zhinan Temple prayer card or a sachet of local Tieguanyin, and two of those also include the Maokong discount booklet.
• Every option shares the same terms. You get an open-dated mobile voucher valid for 180 days, scanned as a QR code at the automatic gate, one price regardless of age, and any bundled extras expire 14 days after first use.

What Waits At The Top

• Muzha is the only place in Taiwan that grows Tieguanyin. The cultivar traces back to twelve seedlings a tea master carried from Fujian in 1895, and the same hillsides also produce Wenshan Baozhong, so the tea houses at the top pour two distinct local styles.
• The Camphor Tree Trail runs about 1.5 km and takes roughly half an hour one way. It claims the title of Taipei's first fully level trail, and a 1.5-hectare lupin field flowers beside it from late March into mid-April.
• The Taipei Tea Promotion Center sits about 15 minutes on foot from Maokong Station. It opens daily from 09:00 to 17:00 except Mondays, and holds a working plantation plus a weather observation platform.
• Your gondola ticket also covers the Maokong Tour Bus that day. Both the Right and Left lines are free to anyone who has ridden up, tapped with the same stored-value card, which makes looping the hillside tea houses far easier.
• Zhinan Temple suffered a fire on 24 August 2026 that damaged roughly 1,500 square metres of Lingxiao Hall. Nobody was hurt, the rest of the complex stayed open, and reports put restoration at three years or more.

How The Facts Here Are Checked

Every figure on this site traces back to a named source. Fares, opening hours and suspension rules come from the official Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation material for the Maokong Gondola. Prices, ratings and review counts come from the live listing for the ticket sold here. Where the operator publishes nothing, the gap stays open rather than being filled with an estimate.

What This Site Will Not Publish

• No last boarding time appears anywhere on this site, because the operator publishes none on either of its official pages. A made-up cutoff would be a guess wearing a timetable's clothes.
• No current annual ridership figure appears here. The operator does not publish one, and cumulative milestones announced in the past do not convert into a yearly total, so any number offered would be arithmetic dressed up as data.
• No walking time from Zhinan Temple Station to the temple complex, and no station elevations, appear here. No operator or city page publishes either figure, so both stay unwritten rather than approximated.
• Queue lengths and peak-hour wait figures are absent on purpose. The operator releases no such data, and an estimate dressed up as a measurement is still an invention, so nothing stands in for the real numbers.

Where The Money Comes From

Outbound ticket links on this site carry a referral tag. If you book through one, the seller pays us a share of its own fee, and the price you pay stays exactly the same. You can also skip us entirely and buy the identical ticket at the gate. The choice is yours, and the ride up the hill costs the same either way.

What Sits On The Site

• The homepage is also the booking page: the ticket options laid out side by side, the gate fares, a ride planner, a fare checker and a station explorer covering all four stations from Taipei Zoo to Maokong, all built on figures the operator has published itself.
• Each guide sticks to one subject at a time: fares and ticket types, opening hours, the four stations along the line, the glass-floored crystal cabin, tea houses up top, Zhinan Temple, zoo pairings and the trails.
• The answers handle the short questions one by one, from how long the ride takes, which is roughly 20 to 30 minutes end to end, to what Maokong is known for and how a cable car stays on its rope in the first place.
• The FAQ covers the practical and transactional side: gate fares, the Monday maintenance closures, the crystal cabin upgrade and the weather conditions that stop the line from running.
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