The Taiwanese City Where It Always Seems to Rain
- MK
- 20 hours ago
- 5 min read
It often begins with an umbrella, Take a train from Taipei to Keelung during the cooler months, step outside the station, and you may immediately notice something different, The sky is grey, The mountains disappear into mist, The pavement shines with rain.
Across the road, ships sit quietly in the harbor while people move beneath umbrellas and covered walkways, For generations, Keelung has carried a nickname that almost every Taiwanese person recognizes: “The Rainy Port”
But why does this small harbor city have such a strong relationship with rain? And more importantly, what happens when rainy weather becomes part of a city's identity?
Welcome to Keelung.
A City Between the Mountains and the Sea
Look at Keelung on a map and its geography immediately tells part of the story, The city sits on Taiwan's northeastern coast, facing the sea while surrounded by hills and mountains, This location gives Keelung its beautiful natural harbor.
But it also puts the city directly in the path of moisture carried by the northeast monsoon, particularly during autumn and winter, When moist air from the ocean encounters the mountainous terrain of northern Taiwan, it is forced upward, As the air rises, it cools, Moisture condenses, Clouds form, And very often it rains.
That's one reason Keelung and other parts of northeastern Taiwan can experience frequent cloudy, damp and rainy conditions when western Taiwan may be considerably drier.
But Does It Really Rain Every Day?
No, The nickname can make Keelung sound like a Taiwanese version of a city where the sun never appears, That's an exaggeration, Keelung has sunny days, beautiful blue skies and hot, humid summers just like many other parts of Taiwan.
But its combination of geography, seasonal monsoon winds and frequent rainfall—especially during the cooler part of the year—created a reputation that became deeply attached to the city.
For Taiwanese people, saying “Keelung” often immediately brings another word to mind: Rain. And after enough generations, weather becomes more than weather, It becomes culture.
The Rain Became Part of Everyday Life
Cities adapt to their environment, In hot places, buildings are designed around shade and ventilation, In snowy countries, life adapts to ice and freezing temperatures.
And in rainy northern Taiwan, one architectural feature becomes especially valuable: The Arcade.
Known locally as 騎樓 (qílóu), these covered walkways run beneath the upper floors of many traditional buildings, They provide shade during Taiwan's hot summers, But when the rain starts, they become something else entirely, A pedestrian can walk from shop to shop without being completely exposed to the weather, Umbrellas close, People squeeze beneath the shelter.
Scooters wait beside wet streets, Restaurants continue serving customers, The city doesn't stop because it's raining, It simply moves under cover.
Rain Makes the Harbor Look Different
Keelung is unusual because the harbor isn't somewhere outside the city, The harbor is the city, Walk out of Keelung Station and the waterfront is almost immediately in front of you.
Ships arrive surprisingly close to downtown buildings, Cruise ships can tower above the city, Cargo vessels move through the harbor while buses, scooters and pedestrians circulate along the waterfront.
On a bright day, it's a busy port, But when the rain arrives, Keelung becomes something else, Mountains fade behind clouds, Streetlights reflect on wet pavement, Ships become silhouettes in the mist.
The harbor turns grey, And suddenly, the city has an atmosphere that feels almost cinematic, Keelung's rain may sometimes be inconvenient, But visually, it's difficult to separate it from the city's personality.
Then Evening Arrives
And this is when rainy Keelung becomes especially interesting, A few minutes from the harbor is one of Taiwan's most famous food destinations: Keelung Miaokou Night Market.
Rows of yellow lanterns glow above the street, Steam rises from cooking pots, People gather beneath awnings, Umbrellas move through the crowd, The pavement reflects the lights from food stalls, And suddenly, the rain doesn't feel like something ruining your trip, It feels like part of the scene.
Rainy Weather Changes What You Want to Eat
There is something about cool, damp weather that makes hot food especially comforting, And Keelung has plenty of it.
One of the city's best-known dishes is: Ding Bian Cuo — 鼎邊趖
It's a traditional rice-based dish associated strongly with Keelung's Miaokou area, Rice batter is cooked along the side of a hot wok, creating soft pieces that are then served in a warm soup with various ingredients.
For international visitors, the name may be difficult to pronounce, But the idea is easy to understand, Warm soup on a rainy evening.
Keelung also has tempura-style dishes known locally as Tianbula (甜不辣), Mini sausage, Nutritious Sandwich and many other foods associated with its port-city identity.
Standing beneath the lights of Miaokou with steam rising from a bowl while rain falls beyond the awning feels very different from eating the same dish on a sunny afternoon, Sometimes weather changes the taste of a city.
A Port City Built Around the Sea
Of course, rain isn't the only thing that shaped Keelung, The sea did too, Keelung developed around one of northern Taiwan's most important harbors.
Its location made it strategically and economically significant through different periods of Taiwan's history, and large-scale harbor development transformed the city during the Japanese colonial era.
Railways connected the port with Taipei and other parts of Taiwan, Goods arrived, People arrived, Ships departed, Fishing communities grew around nearby harbors.
And the city became one of Taiwan's major gateways to the outside world, Even today, you don't have to search very hard for evidence of Keelung's maritime identity, Just look toward the water.
Beyond the Harbor
Keelung is much more than downtown and Miaokou, Travel a little farther and the city begins to reveal another personality, There is Zhengbin Fishing Harbor, now famous for its colorful waterfront buildings.
There is Heping Island, where dramatic coastal rock formations meet layers of history, There are old forts overlooking the sea.
Fishing ports hide between hills, Mountain roads climb above the harbor, And on rainy days, clouds can descend so low that the hills seem to disappear entirely, This combination of mountains and ocean is exactly what makes Keelung beautiful, And, of course, it's also part of the reason the city gets so much rain.
Don't Wait for Perfect Weather
Travel guides often teach us to hope for blue skies, Sunny day? Good travel day.
Rain? Bad luck, Keelung challenges that idea...
Of course, exploring the coast is easier when the weather is clear, and nobody enjoys being caught in a downpour without an umbrella.
But if you visit Keelung and the sky turns grey, don't immediately assume your day has been ruined.
Walk through the old streets, Watch the mist move across the harbor, Find somewhere warm to eat, Wait until the lanterns of Miaokou begin to glow, And experience Keelung the way generations of people who live here have experienced it, With a little rain.
The Rainy Port
Keelung could easily try to escape its rainy reputation, Instead, the nickname has become part of how Taiwan remembers the city.
The Rainy Port, It's a name created by geography, reinforced by generations of experience and eventually transformed into part of Keelung's identity.
Rain shaped how people move through its streets, The mountains shaped where the city could grow, The sea shaped its economy, And the harbor connected it to the rest of the world.
Together, they created a city that feels very different from Taipei—even though the two are only a short train ride apart.
So if you arrive in Keelung and feel the first drops of rain, open your umbrella.
Don't leave.
The weather isn't interrupting your visit, It's introducing you to the city.
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