TaipeiHotel Royal BeitouGathering coffee cherries and embracing the mountain breeze in the morning light
As dawn was breaking, a light mist still hung over the foot of Beitou Mountain. Instead of taking the metro or hailing a taxi, I chose the city’s most old-fashioned and authentic local transport: a scooter courier. Starting from downtown, I followed the veteran motorcycle courier into the mountains, passing the city outskirts and winding along the meandering mountain road, soaking in Beitou’s morning amidst the hum of the engine and the calls of cicadas.
Upon arriving at Volcano 29, the proprietor greeted us in the morning mist. Pushing aside weeds and cutting through the volcanic rock slopes, he explained the symbiotic logic of natural farming and coffee. Among the bushes, we noticed the coffee trees, which, although untrimmed, were thriving and bearing fruit in abundance. Next, we visited the roasting room to grind beans, savor the aroma, and brew a cup of pour-over volcanic coffee. From the scent of the soil to the lingering aftertaste, each sip introduced us to Beitou’s unique terroir.
This is a coffee journey that needs no navigation, an experience of nature that resonates deeply within the body. For travelers, a morning in Beitou isn’t just about soaking in hot springs and taking a walk. It’s also about a journey into everyday life along a nostalgic route and the mellow flavors of a cup of java nurtured on a volcanic slope.
Stay, and see how the city begins its day
Dawn inside the room, streets awakening outside —
the journey starts here.
Gathering coffee cherries and embracing the mountain breeze in the morning light
Discover Taipei’s only volcanic coffee land, shaped by mountains and morning mist
Ride pillion with a veteran motorcycle courier from Beitou and head deep into the Datun Volcano — Taipei’s only volcanic coffee production zone. At Volcano 29, walk across rugged lava rock, learn about natural farming, and take part in hands-on steps: grinding beans, pouring, and finally tasting a cup shaped by the mountain’s soil.
From the ride through the hills to the aroma rising from your cup, this is a morning experience rooted in Beitou’s one-of-a-kind terroir.
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Old-School
Courier Ride Hop on the back of a veteran Beitou courier’s scooter and wind through city streets and mountain roads — tracing a route shaped by years of local life.
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Into Taipei’s Volcanic
Coffee Terrain Step into Taipei’s only volcanic coffee-growing region. Walk across lava rock slopes and explore a hillside plantation where coffee and nature grow in quiet harmony.
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Pour-Over, from the
Mountain Itself Grind the beans, breathe in the aroma, and pour your own cup — tasting the deep, low-acid richness born of volcanic soil and misty morning air.
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Exclusive Royal Experience
Local guides lead the way — limited tours to step into the city’s awakening moments.
- One-night stay for two with breakfast｜Guided tour, experience activities｜Specific departure date
- Hop on a Beitou motorcycle courier to experience authentic local movement through city streets and mountain roads.
- An immersive journey into Taipei’s only volcanic coffee production area — hands-on coffee bean grinding, pour-over brewing, and a guided workshop.
- Includes a Volcano × Royal limited-edition “Mountain & Flowers” drip coffee pack.
- Includes a hand-drawn postcard set featuring Beitou motorcycle couriers.
- Includes a Travel Café snack set: oatmeal cookie / coffee pound cake / mixed nuts / bottled water.
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Royal Explorer Accommodation Package
Choose the right day, and let the journey unfold from here.
- One-night stay for two with breakfast｜Flexible departure date
- Includes a Volcano × Royal limited-edition “Mountain & Flowers” drip coffee pack
- Includes a hand-drawn postcard set featuring Beitou motorcycle couriers
- Optional add-on: exclusive guided experience into Beitou’s volcanic coffee estate — discover the land, the beans, and the stories behind them
The first words of awakening are spoken by them
We walk the awakening route of the plan and witness the city’s true opening scene.
Beitou’s Motorcycle Courier Experience
No metro, no taxi — just the city’s most old-school ride: a motorcycle courier.
This Beitou tradition dates back to the Japanese colonial era. More than just a way to deliver goods or lunchboxes, it once carried countless people home.
Today, we follow a veteran courier from the city streets into the mountains, weaving through narrow paths until we reach Volcano 29 — tucked deep into the hillside.
As wind brushes across the ridgeline and cicadas call through the hum of the engine, the road upward becomes something more:
a moving memory, and the quiet rhythm of a Beitou morning.
Coffee Bean Experience at Volcano 29
At Volcano 29 Estate, we part the damp morning grass and step across volcanic slopes. Farmer Hou I-Wei walks with us, explaining his natural farming practice — no irrigation, no fertilizer — and pointing to the coffee trees, healthy and thriving, their leaves gently chewed by insects.
Inside the roasting room, we grind the beans by hand, breathe in their layered aroma, and try our hand at pour-over brewing.
Amid rising steam and the warmth of roasted fragrance, we taste our first cup of volcanic coffee.
From the soil to the sunlight, from bean to brew — this is the true flavor of a Beitou morning.
Step by step, you encounter the awakening landscapes
As you walk through the morning, these places emerge naturally — a dialogue extended by the city.
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Volcano 29
Coffee cherries, slowly ripened in volcanic ash and andesite soil
Just a 30-minute drive from Taipei’s concrete and traffic, the road turns quiet as you reach the Beitou hillside. At 300 meters above sea level, Volcano 29 is home to over a thousand coffee trees. Here, nothing is pruned, no weeds removed — cicadas call and spiderwebs shimmer, subtle signs of nature at ease.
Estate owner Hou I-Wei, once a city professional in a suit, now walks these volcanic slopes daily. He believes in minimal intervention: letting the trees root themselves in fertile ash and dense andesite, growing slowly, flowering in their own time, and bearing fruit as nature intended.
His beans are honey-processed and medium-roasted, preserving the mellow sweetness of the mucilage and the mineral notes from the soil. The resulting flavor carries hints of walnut, cream, chocolate, and ripe fruit — low in acidity, rich yet never heavy — a profile shaped entirely by this volcanic terrain.
In 2021, Volcano 29 became Taipei’s only coffee estate to earn the Green Conservation Mark. In 2022, it was awarded Champion of the Taipei Region in the Northern Taiwan Specialty Coffee Evaluation. Through the T22 Beitou Regional Revitalization project, Hou continues to link coffee with local culture, ecology, and community gatherings — keeping this land rooted not just in flavor, but in story.
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Beitou’s Motorcycle Couriers
The Original Delivery Platform
Long before modern apps took over, Beitou already had its own homegrown delivery system.
Since the 1960s, motorcycle couriers have been quietly weaving through this hot spring mountain town — buying groceries by day, picking up household goods, and riding through the softly lit streets by night.
With Beitou’s narrow, winding hillside roads too difficult for taxis, motorcycles became the most practical means of getting around.
And so, a local service was born — one shaped by terrain, speed, and familiarity.
In the heyday of nakashi culture, couriers transported hostesses, dinners, and guests as part of daily life.
As the red-light trade faded in the ’70s and ’80s, they shifted roles — becoming trusted errand-runners, riders-for-hire, and go-to neighborhood hands.
Even in the smartphone age, some still prefer to pick up the phone, relying on these seasoned riders who need no GPS to find their way — just muscle memory and a deep knowledge of the hill paths that lead straight to your door.
Today, Beitou’s motorcycle couriers are once again at a turning point — balancing tradition and change, searching for a new role in modern life.
Once symbols of Beitou’s speed and warmth, they may yet become a vital line connecting communities and the quiet rhythms of everyday life.
These scenes reveal how the morning city unfolds
From the moment light falls, the streets slowly awaken —
it is the moment of encountering the city’s awakening.
Choose a path, and set out from the city’s morning
These routes seek neither novelty nor distance —
only to bring you closer to the city’s true beginning.
