New Taipei Metropolitan park is a park on the outskirts of Taipei that you can reach with the yellow or blue subway line in a few minutes (Sanchong Stop, Exit 1, 15-20 from the city center) and it is a great plan if you have children.
The park runs along one of the branches of the river that surrounds Taipei. As always in Taipei there are basketball courts, baseball fields and even soccer fields, and of course a couple of playgrounds. But the most special thing about this park is that, taking advantage of the side of the wall that separates the river from the city, there is an endless collection of slides of all kinds for children. If you want to make the "record" of doing them all, it is easy to take you all day! In addition to the slides, there are swings, seesaws, trampolines, climbing areas and a good zip line circuit. Another attraction is jumping down the side of the wall with a sled. You can buy it there for 100-300 NTD (depending on the quality). But you can always bring a cardboard from home or look for one in the park, which works the same and is more ecological. On weekends there are quite a lot of people and you have to queue, but as there are so many slides and the park is so big, you won't have to wait more than 10 minutes. If it's sunny, take a hat and water, because there is little shade there and being sheltered by the wall it is quite hot.
To complement the day, we recommend you bring your bikes or rent them right there at the Funbike station (bring your mobile to download the application). Easy, bikes in very good condition and also cheap. You can simply go up and down the park, which has different little squares with decorations that children love. But we recommend that you continue a little further northeast along the bike paths, to Erchongshuhong Riverside Park and Shuhongzhuifeng Park. It will be about an hour on a bike, but it is very beautiful and you will go through some stables with goats that the children can feed. If the children are older and can handle the bike well, there is a circuit that goes around a kind of island that is formed in that part of the river. It is the Erchong Circular River Path and it stretches for about 20 km.
To eat in front of the slides on weekends there are always several food trucks. Nothing fancy but they can be used to get through the day. Chicken nuggets, aboriginal sausages, ice cream... The other alternative, especially if you don't go with children, is to go to the food court in the Chongxin Bridge Flea Market in the southern part of the park. We do not recommend the market because it has nothing of interest and the eating area, at the west end, is not very pleasant either because they are shared tables between the different stalls or food carts that surround them. But at least you can sit down and have a beer. The typical dish here is pork ribs, with a lot of bone that we do not recommend. The best option is the penultimate position on the right where you can eat prawns and clams, and a good draft beer.
