Ximending is a pedestrianised grid of streets just west of Taipei Main Station, and the closest thing the city has to Tokyo's Harajuku — a dense weave of small streetwear shops, K-pop merch stores, cosplay outfitters, tattoo parlours, cheap restaurants and old single-screen cinemas. It is the centre of Taipei's youth culture and the busiest pedestrian area in the city, particularly on weekends.
The district was the entertainment heart of Taipei during the Japanese colonial period (its name means "Western Gate", after a vanished city gate), and a few buildings from that era survive — most notably the 1908 Red House (Ximen Hong Lou), an octagonal brick market hall that is now a craft shop and LGBTQ+ social hub. Combine it with the surviving lanes of the Bopiliao historic block, just to the south.