Jellyfish's Adventure: Cycling in Taiwan - Local girl teach you: How to easily rent a bike for free?

Like most of the girls, I'm lazy.

I'm lazy taking exercises even I could list numbers of benefits from taking physical activities, but, I'm sure you understand that knowing is one thing, doing is another matter, ha!

I was born and grew up in Taipei, both buses and MRT are very convenient and are our major public transportation. For the visitors, I think taking MRT is the best option as it's quite simple, fast, straightforward, and with clear English instructions.

For a lazy girl like me...
I found a great exercise and I could take it everyday and never get tired of it - cycling.
Yes, and this exercise not only get you work out physically, it also quickly brings you to see any places you'd like to see in detail...
Frankly, this is probably the best way for you to travel around Taipei city.

Don't worry about how to get a bicycle or try to lend from the shops, just use your MRT card (or Credit card) to get one bike (it's called Youbike) right at the exit of each MRT station. It's super convenient and efficient for you to reach every places in Taipei, and the most import - it's cheap!

Now I almost ride the Youbike everyday,
I ride the Youbike to the restaurants to meet my friends,
I ride the Youbike to buy some groceries,
and sometimes, I get off earlier from the MRT and I ride the Youbike to go home;
I really enjoy day-dreaming when cycling, and I love to see the straits of Taipei, the people on the streets, and sometimes I find the historical buildings that I've never seen before, etc., I love this city more via cycling!

What about the safety?
I only fall down and hurt myself once when cycling (ha!!),
that's because I took heavy stuff on my basket and I couldn't keep myself balance and fall down. (yes, I know it's stupid!)

It's very safe to ride the bicycles in Taipei city!

For the prices, in the first 30 minutes, it charges TWD5,
and then additional TWD10 for every 30 minutes afterwards.

So even you ride for 2 hours, it costs you only TWD35, less than 1 EURO! It's like free!

Here's some tips for you to get a Youbike in Taipei:

How to get a MRT card:
Buy one in any MRT station (via the machine or the staff people in the counter).
How to get your MRT card registered:
So that you could rent an Youbike anywhere, you could:
(a) go register at the KIOSK of each station, or,
(b) go register it in advance from the website: https://ntpc.youbike.com.tw/en/f61.php
(it requires a local mobile number to associate your MRT card, so you need to have a local mobile number to register your MRT card)
Use your credit card to rent an Youbike:
If you have troubles to register your MRT card (without a local mobile number), you could either ask a local friend to register (from the KIOSK or from the link above) your MRT card for you, otherwise, you could use your credit card to rent (from the KIOSK at every station).
Youbike station map:
http://ntpc.youbike.com.tw/en/f11.php

** If you prefer reading in Japanese, you can refer this written by my good Japanese friend:
http://lifewalkerininspirationland.blogspot.tw/2016/03/blog-post_17.html

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