Costco – the Plan

Hike to Taipei Costco 3 (Shih Chih)

Last time I went to Taiwan, I was still unable to reach the 3rd Costco in Taipei (designated the Shih Chih Costco) due to a variety of technical problems.

None of the Costcos are conveniently accessible via subway, not that I would imagine being able to haul back a Costco-sized load of groceries on the subway anyway. Because of that, I’m unusually dependent on the kindness (and driving) of others to get to them.

We’ve been to one several times, and my father-in-law knows (more or less) where it is and takes us there to stock up.

The Second Costco I was able to locate on my Taipei city map, and with the assistance of a GPS and a subway map, I was able to track it down and walk to it from the Jin An station, about 1 mile.

But the third Costco has even more strikes against it, not only is it even further out, but my father-in-law is unfamiliar with the area. To complicate matters, it’s so far out that my Taipei city maps don’t reach it.

It was only by complete coincidence that, as we returned by freeway from Keelung at night, we spotted the illuminated Costco sign just off the freeway. Within moments it had passed behind the hills/trees, but I happened to have the GPS on and snapped a waypoint.

Google Earth recently upgraded the eastern Taipei satellite imagery making it possible to try to locate the Costco.

With a combination of Mapquest, Costco online, Google Earth and my GPS reading, I think I’ve determined where the last Costco is. It appears to be a 2.59 mile walk from Kunyang station.

I previously made a 1 mile hike to the Carrefour (also marked on the map) and I think this should be a fairly easy position to locate –assuming I’ve got the location right!

Anybody out there got a physical GPS fix on the Shih Chih Costco?

The estimate that I’ve made is:

25º 3′ 21.02″ N
121º 38′ 0.27″ E

Unfortunately, the Costco map doesn’t quite match the mapquest map, nor the satellite pictures – which is absolutely typical of Taiwan.

Look at the full-sized image to get a better picture of my estimates

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