- Beitou Hot Springs
- Beitou vs Wulai vs Jiaoxi
Compared August 2026
Beitou vs Wulai vs Jiaoxi, honestly
Three hot spring towns within reach of Taipei, and they are not interchangeable. One is thirty minutes on a metro card. One has an eighty-metre waterfall and no public bathhouse. One has the softest water and the longest journey.
The short answer
Half a day and no car — Beitou. It is the only one of the three you reach entirely on the metro, and the only one with genuine public bathing rather than private rooms. Wulai for scenery and indigenous food on a full day. Jiaoxi for soft, odourless water if you don't mind an hour each way.
The comparison · 01 — the differences that decide it
Three towns, side by side
Sort by whatever matters to you. The column most people should sort by is travel time, because it is the one that quietly eats the day.
| Town | From Taipei | Getting there | The water | Public bathing | Cheapest soak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BeitouTaipei city, north end of the red line | 30 min | Metro only. Red line to Beitou, cross the platform, one stop to Xinbeitou. About NT$40 each way. | Sulfur. White, green and iron springs. Strongly mineral, and it smells — that is the point. | Yes, properly. Co-ed swimsuit pools and traditional nude bathhouses, both. | NT$150Longnice, at the door |
| WulaiNew Taipei, up a river gorge | 70 min | Metro to Xindian, then bus 849, about 40 minutes, every 15. EasyCard accepted. Taxi from Xindian around NT$600. | Clear and mild. Sodium bicarbonate, no sulfur smell. Locally called a beauty spring. | Barely. Private rooms and hotel day-use. The riverside pools were closed in 2021 — see below. | NT$400private room, typical |
| JiaoxiYilan, through the mountain tunnel | 60 min | Express bus from Taipei Bus Station or City Hall, just under an hour. Local train 1.5–2 hours. | Clear and soft. Bicarbonate again, odourless, the gentlest of the three on skin. | Some. Public pools, plus free foot baths in Tangweigou park. | NT$0Tangweigou foot baths |
Travel times are door-to-door from central Taipei on a normal weekday, not the optimistic version. Cheapest-soak figures are the realistic entry point for getting your body in water, not a foot bath — except for Jiaoxi, where the free foot bath genuinely is the cheapest thing on offer and we have said so.
The water · 02 — the difference you can smell
Sulfur or silk
This is the real split, and almost nobody frames it clearly. Beitou is a volcano's plumbing. Wulai and Jiaoxi are not.
Beitou sits under Yangmingshan, an active volcanic group, and the water comes up loaded with sulfur. Three distinct springs run here: milky white sulfur, the rarer green sulfur near Thermal Valley, and iron springs further uphill. It is strong water. It tarnishes silver, it stains pale fabric, and the smell stays on your skin for an hour. People who love Beitou love it precisely because it feels like something is happening.
Wulai and Jiaoxi are sodium bicarbonate springs — clear, odourless, faintly slippery. Taiwanese marketing calls them beauty springs, and the appeal is the opposite of Beitou's: you come out feeling smoothed rather than scoured, and nobody on the train home knows where you have been.
Which one you actually want
If you have never soaked in a mineral hot spring, go to Beitou first. The strong water is the experience, and the mild versions will feel like a warm bath by comparison.
If you have sensitive skin, eczema, or you simply dislike the smell of sulfur, that is a genuine reason to choose Wulai or Jiaoxi and not a matter of taste. Beitou's water is acidic and it does not suit everyone.
If you are travelling with someone who is unconvinced by the whole idea, the clear springs are the easier sell.
WHAT COMES OUT OF THE GROUND
Beitou · white sulfur — the milky one most hotels tap. Strong smell, strongly mineral.
Beitou · green sulfur — rarer, acidic, near Thermal Valley. The water that deposits hokutolite.
Beitou · iron — further uphill, rust-coloured, least common.
Wulai · bicarbonate — clear, mild, no smell.
Jiaoxi · bicarbonate — clear, soft, the gentlest of the lot.
Wulai · 03 — the one with the scenery
Wulai is a better day out and a worse hot spring town
Wulai sits up a river gorge in the mountains south of Taipei, in Atayal indigenous territory, and on scenery alone it beats Beitou comfortably. There is an eighty-metre waterfall a twenty-minute walk from the old street, a gondola up to the ridge above it, a narrow-gauge log cart along the river for about NT$50, and a free four-floor Atayal museum. The food is genuinely different — millet wine, roast boar, mountain vegetables — where Beitou's food is ordinary Taipei food near a bathhouse.
What it does not have is a public bath. The famous free riverside pools, where people dug hollows in the gravel next to the river, were closed in early 2021 and declared off-limits. Reports since suggest informal pools have reappeared near the old railway path, but that is not an official facility, it is not supervised, and we are not going to send you to a riverbank on the strength of a blog comment. Treat Wulai as private rooms and hotel day-use only.
So the trade is: better day, worse bathing, roughly double the travel time. Wulai is a full day. Beitou is comfortably a half.
A WULAI DAY
- 0 minXindianend of the green line
- +40Bus 849every 15 min
- +20Old streetfood, museum
- +20Waterfall80 m, on foot
- +90private room, then home
The verdict · 04 — pick by what you have, not by what sounds nicest
Which one, for your actual trip
Against our own interest — we are a Beitou site telling you when to go elsewhere
Three times Beitou is the wrong choice
We earn a commission on the Wulai tour and nothing at all on Jiaoxi, where we have no product to sell you. That is worth knowing when you read the paragraph recommending Jiaoxi for sensitive skin — we wrote it anyway, because it is true.
Questions · 06
Beitou, Wulai and Jiaoxi, answered
Which is better, Beitou or Wulai?
For bathing, Beitou — it is the only one of the two with real public baths, it is half the travel time, and the water is far more distinctive. For a day out, Wulai — an eighty-metre waterfall, a river gorge, a gondola and Atayal indigenous food beat a Taipei suburb on scenery. Most visitors with half a day should choose Beitou.
How do you get to Wulai from Taipei?
Metro to Xindian at the end of the green line, then bus 849, roughly 40 minutes, departing about every 15 minutes and accepting EasyCard. A taxi from Xindian is around NT$600 one way. Door to door from central Taipei, allow about 70 minutes.
Are there free hot springs in Wulai?
Not officially. The riverside pools people dug in the gravel were closed in early 2021 and declared off-limits. Informal pools are reported to have reappeared near the old railway path, but they are unsupervised and unofficial, and we do not recommend planning around them. Bathing in Wulai means a private room or hotel day-use.
What is the difference between Beitou and Jiaoxi water?
Beitou is volcanic sulfur — milky white, green sulfur and iron springs, strongly mineral and noticeably smelly. Jiaoxi is sodium bicarbonate — clear, odourless and soft. Beitou tarnishes silver jewellery; Jiaoxi does not.
Which hot spring town near Taipei is easiest to reach?
Beitou, by a wide margin. It is inside Taipei city on the metro network — red line to Beitou, cross the platform, one stop to Xinbeitou, about 30 minutes and NT$40 from Taipei Main Station. Wulai needs a metro plus a 40-minute bus; Jiaoxi needs an intercity bus or train.
Can you do Beitou and Wulai in one day?
Technically yes and it is a bad idea. They are on opposite sides of Taipei, roughly two hours apart, and you would spend the day in transit for two rushed soaks. Beitou pairs naturally with Yangmingshan instead — same volcanic system, one bus ride apart.
Is Jiaoxi worth the trip from Taipei?
As a day trip it is a long way for water that is gentler than Beitou's. It makes far more sense as an overnight, or as a stop on the way to Yilan. If your reason for going is that sulfur does not agree with you, then yes — that is a real reason and Jiaoxi solves it.
Next · 07
The rest of the survey
Verified August 2026 · We earn a commission on the Wulai tour and on Beitou bookings, and nothing on Jiaoxi. The metro fare to Beitou earns us nothing either.