Ximen (Chinese: 西門, formerly transliterated as Hsimen Station until 2003) is a metro station in Taipei, Taiwan served by Taipei Metro.[3] The station is named after the former west gate of the city, whose location is roughly where the current station is located.
It is situated under Zhonghua Rd, at the intersection of Chengdu Rd, Hengyang Rd, and Baoqing Rd. The station is also connected to the Ximen Intelligent Library (an unmanned branch of the Taipei Public Library).
Exit 6 is heavily used by those accessing the Ximending shopping area. The exit opening is set at the top of the pedestrian zone, although there is still vehicular traffic in that area. The station is often crowded on weekends, especially in the afternoon.
Station layout
Street Level
Ground Level
Entrance/Exit
B1
Concourse
Lobby, toilets, one-way ticket machine, information desk
During Japanese rule, a railway station at the current site was called Shinkichō Station (新起町乘降場) and opened on 5 November 1930. It was specifically for refueling and its location was roughly where the current MRT station is today.[citation needed]
After the war during post-war rebuilding, the station's name was changed to the current "Ximen". It was later closed due to illegal construction. An underground emergency station opened on 2 September 1987 as part of the Taipei Railway Underground Project.[citation needed]
Ximen railway station used to be a station on the TRAWestern Line. However, the underground area is nowadays only used as an emergency station and not open for revenue service.[citation needed]
Construction of Ximen MRT station started in 1995, and the station opened on 24 December 1999 for the Blue line. On 30 August 2000, a service to CKS Memorial Hall opened. Under that operation, only 3 platforms were used so platforms 2 and 4 would switch service every 6 months. After the Xinyi Line opened, the shuttle service was extended to Taipower Building until the Songshan–Xindian line opened on 15 November 2014.[citation needed]
