Can Tourists Use Easycard In Taiwan?

can tourists use easycard in taiwan? Yes, without any restriction: any visitor can buy an EasyCard at an MRT station machine or a convenience store, load money onto it, and tap it on Taipei's metro, buses, the Maokong Gondola and most convenience-store counters. The card's issuance fee is NT$100 and is not refundable. On the gondola itself the card charges exactly the same fare as a paper ticket, so it is a convenience, not a discount.

That last point deserves emphasis, because it is the single thing most travel content gets wrong. There is a persistent myth that tapping a stored-value card gets you a cheaper cable car ride. It does not. The operator charges NT$180 for a single journey and NT$300 for a one-day pass whether you tap a card or scan a QR-code ticket. What the card buys you is speed: no queue at a ticket machine, no fumbling with coins, and a free same-day transfer onto the Maokong Tour Bus that a paper gondola ticket does not give you in the same frictionless way.

This page walks through the whole picture for a visitor: what the card costs before you load it, how topping up works, the one-card-per-person rule that catches couples out, the concession fare trap, and the honest comparison against simply buying your gondola ticket online before you travel. The companion piece on gondola tickets and prices covers the fare structure itself in more depth.

Where Do You Buy An Easycard And What Does It Cost?

A tourist buys an EasyCard at any Taipei MRT station service counter or ticket machine, or at the major convenience-store chains, and the card itself costs NT$100 as a non-refundable issuance fee before a single dollar of travel value is loaded onto it. You then add stored value on top, so a card loaded with NT$300 of value has cost you NT$400 out of pocket.

The issuance fee is the number people trip over. It is not a deposit you claw back at the end of the trip, it is the price of the plastic, and it is explicitly non-refundable. For a visitor staying three days and riding the MRT, buses and the gondola, that NT$100 buys genuine convenience. For someone making one or two trips, it is money spent on nothing.

Topping up is straightforward. Station machines and convenience-store counters accept cash, and you load in increments, typically NT$100 at a time, though counters will often take larger amounts. The card is a contactless stored-value card: you tap it on the fare gate reader, the fare is deducted, and the remaining balance shows on the gate display as you walk through.

Two rival cards exist, iPASS and iCASH, and both are accepted at the gondola gate alongside EasyCard, per the operator's ticketing page. If you already hold one from a previous trip to southern Taiwan, it will tap at Maokong. One card per person per ride applies to all of them, which is the next trap.

Can Two People Share One Easycard At The Gondola?

No, and the rule is enforced by the gate hardware: one card per person per ride. A couple cannot tap the same card twice in a row through the turnstile, because the gate reads the card as already inside the paid area. Each rider needs their own card, or their own paper ticket, for every boarding.

The reason is mechanical rather than bureaucratic. A stored-value card registers an entry when you tap in, and the fare is settled on exit or, on the gondola, at the boarding gate. A second tap of the same card within moments of the first reads as a duplicate, and the gate rejects it. Families sometimes try to send one parent through with one card and everyone trailing behind: staff will stop this, and it slows the line for everybody.

Practically, this means a family of four needs four cards or four tickets. If you are buying EasyCards anyway, buy one per person. If you are only riding the gondola once, four paper QR-code tickets from the machine are simpler and cost exactly the same, NT$180 each for a single journey.

The same rule applies on the Maokong Tour Bus, which gondola passengers ride free on the same day. Each rider taps their own card, and the free transfer registers per person. Share one card between two people and the second person is simply not recorded as a passenger.

Does An Easycard Get The Discount Fare On The Gondola?

No. The NT$50 concession single-journey fare and NT$100 concession day pass are restricted to Taiwanese nationals who show supporting documents, and they are claimable only by tapping a concession-registered card at a dedicated gate. A tourist holding any EasyCard pays the full NT$180 fare, no matter what the card looks like.

This is worth spelling out because the concession list is broad on paper: Taipei citizens, children aged 6 to 12, seniors 65 and over, and disabled passengers plus one necessary companion all qualify on paper. But every category requires Taiwanese identification, checked before boarding, and the concession card must be tapped at a specific gate rather than any reader. A visitor with a generic EasyCard, even one bought at a convenience store that looks identical to a local's, is charged the general fare.

Children aged 0 to 5 are the one exception that does apply to visitors: they ride free with a ticketed adult, maximum two free children per adult. That rule needs no card and no ID, it is simply the operator's published policy.

There is also a points scheme that does not apply to tourists at all: Taipei senior cards carry 480 points per month, each worth NT$1 against the gondola fare, usable by eligible Taipei residents. The points do not roll over, and if they run short the fare falls back to the card's e-purse. Unless you are a registered Taipei senior, none of this touches your trip.

The table makes the honest comparison plain: for a visitor, card and ticket cost identical money. The card's advantages are elsewhere.

What Else Does An Easycard Cover In Taipei?

Beyond the metro and the gondola, an EasyCard pays for Taipei's city buses, the YouBike share scheme, purchases at convenience stores and many supermarkets, some attraction admissions, and the Maokong Tour Bus, which is free to gondola passengers on the same day when tapped with the same card.

The MRT is the anchor use. An adult single journey from Taipei Zoo Station to Taipei Main Station costs NT$35, and to Ximen also NT$35, and the card handles all of it without a ticket machine. Buses across the city take the same tap. YouBike docks, including the one by the MRT Taipei Zoo station exit, take it too.

The convenience-store function is the quiet winner for tourists. Late at night, the card in your pocket buys water, snacks and a train of small purchases without cash, and every 7-Eleven-style counter in the country reads it. The card also works at some museum and attraction gates around Taiwan, though coverage varies by venue and is worth checking per attraction rather than assuming.

The Maokong-specific perk is the tour bus link. Since the March 2025 fare reform stitched the zoo, the gondola and the Maokong hillside into one Greater Three-Cat Park, every gondola rider gets free same-day transfer onto the Maokong Tour Bus Right and Left Lines, tapped with the same EasyCard used at the gondola gate. The Right Line loops past the Camphor Tree Trail, Zhangshan Temple and the Apricot Grove, and runs weekdays 09:00-20:00 and weekends 08:30-20:00. After 19:00 there are only three departures, at 19:00, 19:30 and 20:00, which catches visitors out after sunset. The practicalities of reaching the lower station are covered in getting to the gondola from central Taipei.

Can You Get Your Easycard Money Back When You Leave?

The stored value on an EasyCard can generally be refunded at an MRT station service counter, but the NT$100 issuance fee cannot, it is non-refundable by policy. If you load NT$300 and use NT$200 of it, you can typically reclaim the unused balance at the counter before you fly out.

The key planning move is therefore to top up modestly near the end of your trip. A card loaded with NT$500 on your last morning, with only an NT$35 MRT ride left to take, strands value you then have to queue to recover. Load in NT$100 increments and you keep the refundable residue small.

Do not treat the card as a souvenir with value. Unused stored value sits on the plastic indefinitely, so a returning visitor can dig out the same card on a later trip and it should still tap, but the NT$100 fee is sunk the day you buy it. The Maokong Gondola site's own advice on ticketing is simpler: if you are only in Taipei for a day or two and riding the gondola once, a paper ticket or an online booking costs you nothing extra and leaves no loose ends.

Easycard Or An Online Gondola Ticket: Which Should A Tourist Choose?

For the gondola specifically, an online ticket bought in advance beats the card on one axis: the operator's own online booking system exists precisely to save queuing, live since 28 December 2011, and is specifically recommended for Crystal Cabins, where waits can exceed 30 minutes on weekend afternoons per visitor reports. The EasyCard saves no money and does not reserve you a slot.

Here is the honest framing. The card is a citywide tool: it wins if your day involves the MRT, buses, the tour bus loop and convenience stores, which most Taipei itineraries do. The online ticket is a gondola tool: it wins if you want a guaranteed entry slot, particularly for the glass-floor Crystal Cabin, which carries a separate NT$50 per person per trip surcharge at the gate on top of whatever ticket you hold. The two are not rivals; many visitors do both.

The Crystal Cabin arithmetic explains why booking matters. Only 31 of the 147 cabins are crystal, and each holds 5 passengers rather than 8, so roughly one cabin in five passes with barely 60 percent of the seats. A crystal cabin comes past every 2 to 4 minutes, and the operator publishes no live queue indicator anywhere, no app, no website widget. Visitor reports describe weekend-afternoon crystal waits past 30 minutes. The online booking system with an appointed time slot is the operator's own published answer to that line.

One more distinction that matters at the gate: a single-journey ticket means you must get off at a terminal station, Taipei Zoo or Maokong, and you need a new ticket to ride back. A one-day pass, whether on card or paper, covers unlimited rides on the day it is activated, and if you exit at Taipei Zoo Station mid-day you hand the ticket to staff for a stamp so you can re-enter. That difference, not the card-versus-paper question, is what actually changes what your day looks like. The full fare mechanics are on the operator's live listing and in our gondola ticket prices guide.

For a visitor weighing the simplest single purchase, the one-day pass covers all four passenger stations for unlimited same-day rides:

Whether you carry it on a freshly bought EasyCard or as a booked voucher, the ride up is the same cabin, the same view over the Taipei basin, and the same NT$180 flat fare if you were paying per journey instead.

Yes, tourists can use an EasyCard in Taiwan, and the short answers below cover the details that trip visitors up most: the NT$100 non-refundable card fee, the identical gondola fare whether you tap or use paper, the one-card-per-person rule at the gate, the concession fare that does not apply to overseas visitors, and how refunds work when you leave.

Common Questions About Easycard For Tourists

Can Tourists Use Easycard In Taiwan?

Yes. Any visitor can buy an EasyCard at an MRT station or convenience store for a NT$100 non-refundable issuance fee plus stored value, and tap it on the metro, buses, the Maokong Gondola and convenience-store counters.

Does An EasyCard Make The Maokong Gondola Cheaper?

No. The card charges exactly the same fare as a paper ticket: NT$180 single journey, NT$300 one-day pass. The card's value is convenience and the free same-day Maokong Tour Bus transfer, not a discount.

Can Two People Share One EasyCard Through The Gondola Gate?

No. The rule is one card per person per ride, enforced by the gate hardware, which reads a second quick tap of the same card as a duplicate. Each rider needs their own card or ticket.

Can A Tourist Claim The NT$50 Concession Gondola Fare?

No. The concession fare is restricted to Taiwanese nationals who show supporting documents, and it is claimable only by tapping a concession-registered card at a dedicated gate. Visitors pay the full fare regardless of the card they hold.

Can You Refund An EasyCard When You Leave Taiwan?

Unused stored value can generally be reclaimed at an MRT station service counter, but the NT$100 issuance fee is non-refundable. Top up in small increments near the end of your trip to keep the refundable residue small.

Is Buying The Gondola Ticket Online Better Than Using A Card?

For the gondola alone, yes: the operator's own online booking system exists specifically to save queuing and is recommended for Crystal Cabins, where weekend waits can exceed 30 minutes per visitor reports. It costs the same as paying at the gate.