Things to do in Taipei, Taiwan: Buying glasses in Taiwan

Taiwanese people have a remarkably high percentage of eyesight problems, particularly short-sightedness. The reasons aren't clear, although it could be because students usually spend too much time reading, studying or watching TV. Many young people start wearing glasses at an early age.

While this is obviously an unfortunate part of life if you're shortsighted, like me, it does have one benefit for the visitor: Taiwan is a great place to buy glasses.

A friend who lives in the Netherlands always buys her glasses when she is in Taiwan. She says she only pays 30 percent of the European price here. This is another fast and good service in Taiwan. Usually the glasses will be ready within a few hours.

The number of optical shops is amazing. In the city, you rarely have to walk more than a couple of minutes to find one, or more. You'll often see two or three close together on the same small street. So you have a wide selection of frames, and the competition keeps prices down. Although you pay for frames and lenses, most other services are free, including cleaning, adjustments and repairs.

Ordinary opticians are less likely to speak much English, so try to get your requirements written down in Chinese if they are out of the ordinary. More highly-qualified ophthalmologists or optometrists probably will be able to speak English, though.

Here's the address of an optical shop with some staff who can speak English reasonably well. It's about ten minutes walk south of Taipei 101 at 402 Zhuang Jing Rd. There are several other opticians on the same road.

舒視隱形眼鏡公司

台北市信義區莊敬路402號1樓 

Tel:02-2722-2834