[Travel tips] How can foreigners purchase Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR)?

Website: http://www5.thsrc.com.tw/en/

Tips (from my Taiwanese friend): It you want to travel during peak hours (i.e.weekends, 8-9am), it's better to book.
Tips (from the taiwanese taxi driver): if you go to buy the ticket on the spot within 4 hours of  departure, the tickets may be half price - not verified by us as we reserved our tickets.

Go to Ticketing information > online booking

Key in the details and click search (if you have more than 1 passenger, you can't state seat preference)

Choose the timing (and discount) that you want

An email will be sent to your email address, informing you that the tickets will only be reserved if you complete the payment by a specified time. You can choose to pay with your credit card online.

After you have paid, you will receive another email confirming your reservation.

You may choose to collect your tickets at the convenience store when you reached taiwan, or at the train station itself.

How to collect reserved train tickets (i.e. THSR, TRA) at convenience stores in Taiwan (i.e. 7-11)
- have your reservation number ready
- go to a self-service machine
- select train tickets section
- select reserved bookings
- key in reservation number
- key in requested personal particular (i.e. last 4 digits of passport)
- confirm if all details are correct (i.e. number of tickets, seat no.)
- click ok
- print out receipt and go to counter to pay the transaction fee (it was NT30 for us)
- check your tickets before leaving