what a great christmas surprise to find out novotel has opened a new hotel at TPE airport! i use to stay at HI Taoyuan and while its not that far (20 mins or so) it wasnt next to the airport...

OP: the 6am flight is actually great because its usually not too full... and gets you in HKG for a full days work!

on another note, last time I did a HKG-TPE-HKG run and this is how it turned out... in the past, I have always done the same plane turnaround thing so its usually around an hour wait... but after doing it for at least 8 times it gets a bit tedious so instead... last month I flew in at around 7:15pm a/c parked next to the 7:25pm departure... was in J so first to get off... literally ran out... and the gate agent asked me "are you in transit" I said "yes, to the 7:25pm flight" she said "you wont make it flight closing and we will not give you onward BP" I said "nevermind, I have printed my BP" (this is walking and talking) so I get to the gate it was B7 i think .. and they ripped my flimsy paper BP and give me a new one .. with a very nice seat change!!

So this experience tells me... assuming you have no luggage for same flight turnaround (why would you) Id say go for a tight connection, worst case scenario is that you get placed on the next flight (7:50 or 8:20pm in my case) however, having said that, if you have an onward HKG connection to elsewhere thats tight, I wouldnt risk it...

my 2 cents