All Kinds of Animals and Bugs at the Taiwan Insect Museum
Just when you thought Taipei’s museums couldn’t get any more random (here’s looking at you, Museum of Drinking Water and Museum of Pastry), the Taiwan Insect Museum enters the scene. A small, free museum next to Linguang MRT Station mostly geared towards children, this museum is by no means the most exciting in the city, so we won’t spend a huge amount of time trying to convince you to visit. However, when we found ourselves in the area on a rainy day, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn’t quite as weird or boring as we had imagined, and wasn’t the worst way to kill half an hour. Even if you aren’t super interested in bugs, they do have a few interesting animals to look at, and according to information online they even have programs where you get to interact with certain animals.
The museum itself is pretty small. First, go down the stairs and amble on it to a small area displaying plastic (we hope) models of grubs in the dirt. There is some information in Chinese, but for the most part, it’s relatively self-explanatory.
Venture past the grubs and displays of bugs and small animals for sale (more on that later), and head to the nocturnal animal section. Here you will see a massive Burmese python (watching the reaction of Taiwanese school kids can be just as rewarding as marvelling at just how huge this snake is) and several other cages that may or may not be empty.
Seriously: in person, this bad boy is colossal.
Continue through to the next section, past the gigantic anaconda, to a room with plenty of new animals to marvel at. If you’re anything like us, the ones you’re going to want to spend the most time at are these matamata turtles, which are so weird and wonderful that we didn’t even realize they were animals at first.
They. Are. Wild. If they hadn’t moved, we would have wondered what was in the tank forever. Little flaps of skin gently float in the water, resembling debris. Straw-like noses that look like twigs allow them to breathe while remaining underwater. Our minds were blown. In all honesty, our visit to this museum was worth it for the matamatas alone. We spent ages watching them and obsessing over their movements.
Other than the turtles, there are a few other animals interesting enough to look at, but nothing as cool as the matamatas. They do also have lots of animals for sale, including bugs, pygmy hedgehogs, and a reasonable assortment of amphibians and reptiles. You can also buy food for insects and some toys.
Overall, unless you’re already in the area, looking to buy a pet, or you’re just a massive fan of awesome turtles, this museum is probably best left for those with kids. The fact that they have hands-on activities and certain programs where you can meet the animals is pretty cool and we definitely enjoyed our time there (as have plenty of other adults on Google), but we wouldn’t strongly recommend visiting unless you’re interested in this free and offbeat activity or have little ones who would be. But hey, who knows? You may end up liking it more than you thought you would, like us!
What’s the vibe?
Small museum dedicated to learning about insects with a surprising number of animals on display. Expect mostly kids and their parents or teachers.
Worth it?
That totally depends on you and your interests. It’s free, so you won’t be out of pocket if you end up hating it. We wouldn’t recommend crossing the city just for this, but we enjoyed it as an additional activity in between our hike at Zhongpushan East Peak and our dinner at To Go NOMAD, which are both in the area.
Would you go back?
It’s not really a go-back-multiples-times kinda place, so probably not.
Last updated: September 2019
| Taiwan Insect Museum |
| Chinese Name: 台灣資源昆蟲協會 台灣昆蟲館 |
| Hours: Mon & Tues 6pm – 9pm Wed 12pm – 9pm Thurs & Fri 4pm – 9pm Sat & Sun 10am – 9pm |
| Phone: 02 7729 3709 |
| English Address: No. 8, Lane 406, Section 3, Heping East Road, Da’an District, Taipei City |
| Chinese Address: 台北市大安區和平東路三段406巷8號 |
