I find it all to be a bit of an exaggeration, and I was just there for a 7 day stay as a tourist :-).
In my view both the location and the GH are perfectly fine. Most people want to visit the sites that are spread over the city, so travel is essential. And if you walk just 5 minutes towards the Sun Yat-sen park you will get a feel of the older Taipei. The Songshan culture/creative park and even the Raohe market are a fairly easy walk. As is that very nice Elephant mountain walking trail. And most tourists do that 101 visit as well....
And not to be an ignorant tourist.... but if you have seen one street market in Asia you have experienced what it's like. Taipei, even with its great food, doesn't add that much uniqueness.
My best advice would be to get out of the city for a day, or even more....
Last edited by RTW1; Jun 22, 2016 at 5:16 am