Connecting flight at Taipei CKS airport
 

I will be making a connection at Taipei CKS airport, with 4 hours between the two flights.
I am wondering if I can go through arrival custom, walk around, then come back in through departure.
Is there any departure tax when you go through the custom for departure?

No more departure tax. It should have been included in your ticket price. You should definitely get out. TPE can get VERY boring.

hope you aren't holding a taiwanese passport as my wife and a EVA ground staff got a pasting from the police officer stationed at the immigration desk, this was all due to the fact that CSK was a transit point for us (SYD -> KHH) and transitting ppl aren't suppose to leave the airport, especially those holding taiwanese passports..

U.S. passport here.

CI has a superb lounge in T1 and EVA has a great one in T2, the transit hotel is really nice and cheap with gym and sauna which you can pay to use even if you dont have a room. I paid about $10 4 years ago.

You would need to pay departure tax of NTD300 (about $9) if you go through immigration. However, they may or may not notice it since most tickets have departure tax collected at ticketing. ;) Your ticket would not as it would have been issued as a transit.

Anyone I know who has done this ahs never paid the tax as its always built into the ticket

Maybe it is just me, I have done it a few times.

Sometimes nobody said anything, sometimes I was asked to pay the departure tax. :( It should not have been collected if your ticket was issued as a transit, i.e. with an X in front of TPE. I was told that it is payable if I use the immigration, not payable if I stay on airside. Obviously, the enforcement is uneven.

for sure as I would imagine the paperwork to admin this is too much hassle for these guys

Killing Time At Tpe
 

One of the great airport meals is available at TPE. There is a noodle shop that is a bit hard to find. It's on the mezzanine level (near the lounges). The place is very reminiscent of local places in Asia, with grandmas behind the counter and Taiwan tv in the corners. I've sampled most of the noodle dishes and can recommend them all.

which terminal ??? it has to be T1

When you come up the stairs to departures there is one over on the right and they are useless with food and if you you over to the left right to the end this is nothng like any street cafes I eat at and I do get to a few.

In T2 and T1 all the lounges are after security except the stinky ones in T1 which are all going beyond security soon.

In T2 there is an area where they do good noodle soup and as you look across that is the EVA lounges.

Cant think where you have a real type noodle pplace but would love to know.

Food in T2 generally sucks relative to T1. It's been a while (January) since I've been in T2, but I always thought T1 was better. Any changes lately?

I remembered that this specific Taiwanese noodle shop have been appulsed by a food critic from Hong Kong for the high quality of food ^

OK now I am intersted - where the hell is it

Where's The Beef (noodles)?
 

OK. You come out of the gate area, past duty free row, turn left and walk through a long tunnel. There is a small elevator at the end (on your left) and a set of stairs close by. Up the stairs (or elevator), straight ahead past the cardboard FA cut-outs is a cafeteria style noodle shop. The choices are interesting, the servers behind the counter are pleasant and the noodles are very good. Hope this helps.