Maokong Mountain

Take the MRT to Taipei Zoo Station and after you exit, take a 5 mins walk towards the gondola in the open. 

With EasyCard, the gondola costs NT$100 per trip. I took the longer queue to get the glass bottom cabins. There is about one glass cabins out of six cabins and most people wants to take the glass bottom ones. There is no queue for the normal ones. The long wait means you get views like this (picture below). Its the top of the trees by the way.

From the exit, I took off on the left road, walking past some shops that look like coffee shop. Along the road, there are many restaurants and teahouses. 

I stopped for a meal at the restaurant right before a temple and had a one person lunch for NT$450. My, it was yummy! It is a set with (from bottom right, clockwise) tea fried rice, bamboo shoots (supposed to be some other veggies but I changed for this), three pieces of rose chicken (one gone by the time all the food arrive), three pieces of tofu (very silky smooth), three pieces of prawns. They serves tea for free too. 

Maokong should be a good place to walk around and enjoy the "away from city". I find the stuff quite expensive too.