Is The Maokong Gondola Open On Mondays? | Taipei, Taiwan

It’s not usual for various businesses and attractions in Taiwan to be closed on a Monday, this includes some day tours too. But is the Maokong Gondola open on a Monday? On regular Mondays, the quick answer is no, the gondola closes for maintenance. HOWEVER there are exceptions and it does open on some Mondays.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may make a small commission on purchases made after clicking the link.

I may be writing this post purely for the likes of Google AI and ChatGPT to scrape my content and actually give people a correct answer. These forms of searching are not reliable for travel information, ESPECIALLY it seems when the source material isn’t it English.

I was speaking to a woman in the line for the gondola who was convinced that gondola wouldn’t be open, because both AI sources (and Google Maps) had said no it wouldn’t be open on X date. Yet there we were standing in front of a station that was very much in the process of opening up.

Maokong Gondola

The Maokong Gondola IS open on the first Monday of the month and on certain holiday days.

I visited on Monday 3 November 2025 and the gondola was open for normal operating hours.

SOURCE: You HAVE to look on the CHINESE version of the official website and translate it using the browser extension, the ‘Operation Information > Operating Hours‘ page, gives you a solid list of all the days it is actually shut on and the reason why (usually maintenance).

You are NOT shown this information if you look at the ENGLISH version of the website from the site map. On the ‘Hours of Operation’ page it then only says: ‘The Maokong Gondola is closed on Mondays for general maintenance except for national holidays and the first Monday of every month’, without giving a black and white answer.

It does also close in adverse weather conditions (such as high wind, heavy rain, typhoons etc). In these cases, there are public buses.

Maokong Area

When trying to plan my Taiwan itinerary against the weather forecast, it meant that the Monday was the best day for me to go on the gondola.

I knew I wanted to do the Yinhe Cave Waterfall Trail, which is a hiking trail taking around 50 minutes from the top gondola station. So I knew that would be ‘open’ even if the temple happened to be closed (it was open). You can also reach this from taking a public bus, not just from the gondola.

My plan was to then buy a tea ice cream from one of the cafes on the way back. I didn’t even think about these, and when getting to the top and seeing they were closed, and Google maps saying they were in fact closed on a Monday too, I did start kicking myself.

BUT I think I was just too early, because on the way back to the top station after my hike, both Maokong Yang Tai and Maokong Tea House WERE both open. Their regular hours show an opening time from 10am and 10.30am. It was a bit hit and miss with some of the other businesses, a few were open, but others were closed.

So even if the gondola is open on a Monday, you may need to deep dive into the other businesses if there was a specific place or a tearoom that you wanted to visit. For example, the Taipei Tea Promotion Center on Google Maps says it’s closed on a Monday. But I’m not sure if it makes an exception when the gondola is open, like the ice cream shop I visited.

If you are just wanting to do the hiking trails/viewpoints though, you should be fine to visit.

Taipei Zoo

Taipei Zoo is also OPEN EVERY MONDAY. The zoo actually has two gondola stations: the bottom station is named ‘Taipei Zoo Station‘ (it’s a short walk from the Taipei Zoo MRT station) and the 2nd station along the route is ‘Taipei Zoo South Station‘. (The 3rd station is Zhinan Temple with the top final station being ‘Maokong Station’)

I bought a package on Klook which included:

• a day pass on the gondola
• a single journey on the land train shuttle between the Taipei Zoo top entrance and Taipei Zoo South Station
• entry to the zoo

The voucher was valid for 365 days, BUT once one part of the package had been redeemed, you had 7 days to then use the other parts.

I went:

• up the gondola in the morning on the first cable car (9am)
• on the return trip down I got off at Taipei Zoo South Station (12pm)
• took the land train to the ‘Taipei Zoo Bird World Station’ entrance
• spent the afternoon at the zoo
• then got back on the MRT at the main entrance to get back into the city centre (3pm)

It is worth noting that although the gondola is open on the first Monday of the month, and the zoo is open too, the panda house is ironically CLOSED on the FIRST Monday of the month! I was specifically excited to see a giant panda as I had never seen one before, so couldn’t believe it when I saw it on the information board in the park. I knew the zoo was open, but didn’t realise that various enclosures shut on different days during the month!

I was lucky that the weather was OK and the panda was able to go into its outdoor enclosure. If the weather is too hot (above 20c), too rainy or windy, it has to stay inside and therefore you would be unable to see it on the first Monday of the month!

The zoo is massive though, so there are plenty of species that you would still be able to see, but it could be disappointing if you were wanting to see the panda!

Last Updated on November 26, 2025