Taiwan Striped Bag 茄芷袋  – Ga Ji Di, Taiwan’s Tote-ally Famous Bag

Sometimes referred to as a “Grandma Bag”, the iconic striped Taiwan tote bag 茄芷袋 has become something of fashion item these days and a top Taiwan souvenir.

Practical AND cool, these red, green and blue Taiwan striped tote bags started out as a simple way to carry groceries and food market items back home and are called GaJi (or Kaji) bags.

Locals also often jokingly call them the ‘Taiwan LV’ bag (like Louis Vuitton but much MUCH cheaper).

Once a common working class carry bag used by grandmas, housewives and even farmers (to carry seeds), these Taiwan tote / market bags are now used by the old and young alike.

You can even find an array of GaJi / Taiwan striped bag souvenirs from bubble tea carriers to glasses cases – there are several Taiwan shopping bag style EasyCards that always sell out.

From their history to Ga Ji merchandise, here is why you should ‘tote-ally’ buy a Taiwan’s striped market bag GaJi.

Dating back to the Japanese colonial era of Taiwan’s history, the origins of the striped Taiwan bag began in the early 20th century. As production techniques evolved, so did the materials, and the plant materials previously used to weave the bags changed to mass produced (and cheaper to make) nylon and plastics.

Although they fell out of favour and fashion in later decades and were primarily used by the older generation (hence why some jokingly called them ‘Grandma bags’), they are now becoming trendy again.

So cool and ironically called Taiwan’s LV Bag, you’ll see young and old now using these striped bags across Taiwan to carry shopping, school-books and day-to-day items.

They’ve even popped up at some international fashion shows, promoting Taiwan’s culture on a world stage.

We recently stayed at a nice Shilin Hotel in Taipei called Boutech Jiantan – when we checked in, one of the nice touches in the room was a Ga Ji bag inside that contained lots of Taiwan drinks and snacks inside.

Sadly it wasn’t free to take (BOOO) but it just reminded us how ‘cool’ these red, green and blue striped bags had become at the same time as highlighting Taiwanese tradition and culture.

HOWEVER, still the most common (and cheapest) Taiwan Ga Ji Dais are the mesh-like nylon / plastic materials.

You can usually buy the bags in small, medium and large sizes and they start from about NT$60 – we paid NT$90 for a large one at a bag shop near Dihua Street in Taipei but expect to pay a LOT more in Ximending.

We’ve also spotted them on sale in some Taiwan supermarkets like Carrefour and PX Mart (in the bigger branches).

We bought several as they are easy to carry home, lightweight and also very practical – they also make a great laundry bag whilst travelling in Taiwan!

And amazingly, it isn’t just bags anymore that you’ll see these famous Taiwan red, green and blue stripes on…

Best /  cheapest place to buy Taiwan bags

Whilst Taiwan bags in tourist hubs such as Ximending usually start from NT$80 upwards, the cheapest Taiwan striped gaji bags we’ve found in Taipei are along the Northern part of Dihua Street.

We spotted a few bag shops with a broad range of colours and designs and low bag prices: Gao Jian Tong 高建桶店 (map) had one of the biggest and best selections of these bags.

Premium Gaji bags at Hiyashi – and a Taiwan striped bag book!

We’ve also noticed a few new stylish Taiwan striped bag designs at Tainan’s historic Hayashi Department Store 台南林百貨.

Six stories in height and relatively compact (don’t expect a huge modern mall), Hayashi Department Store was opened in 1932 during the Japanese occupation and to this day still has its original lift / elevator in working order.

Many of the products we saw were exclusive to this particular store plus the upper floors had several pop up clothing and crafts stores.

This is where we spotted Hiyashi’s own range of premium Taiwan striped bags starting from NT$350.

Even better, you could also purchase a gaji striped notebook for NT$550 complete with a fish bookmark – take our money now!

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Jingliao Old Street 菁寮老街

On the outskirts of Tainan near Chiayi, we absolutely loved Jingliao Old Street 菁寮老街 – it is famous today as one of the main places to manufacturer the famous Taiwan striped bag

Jingliao is almost like a working museum, with lots of traditional Taiwanese shops and souvenir stalls including the 80 year old Ho Hsin Fruit and Ice Shop. The street has around 20 or 30 old and modern shops and is free to visit, plus closed to traffic at certain times of the day.

Here you can also visit several striped bag shops and factories, where you can buy various colours and striped patterns plus customize your own products – a tote-ally unique souvenir!

We bought a striped boba tea holder – and don’t forget to pose with Taiwan’s largest striped LV bag (we think).

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Seriously, you would not believe the amount of Taiwan striped bag souvenirs we found, particularly in Taipei shopping areas popular with tourists like Dihua Street and Ximending.

Some of the cool Ga Ji Di souvenirs we saw and wanted to ‘bag’ include:

One of our Taiwan Travel Tip (TTT) Facebook group members mentioned they had found a mini Taiwan striped bag Easycard so we had to go out and find one for ourselves.

We found ours in a 7-Eleven underneath Taiwan Main Station and paid NT$300 – a very cool souvenir that we can also use on public transport!

You might like our guide to cool and cute iCash, iPass and EasyCard designs >

We also saw several different grandma bag themed earrings in various gift shops around Taiwan.

Starbucks

Starbucks Taiwan has a wide range of exclusive merchandise and we aren’t just talking about the Starbucks Taiwan local mugs that you’ll find in cities and famous places like Sun Moon Lake and Taichung.

Cashing in on the Ga Ji boom, Starbucks Taiwan also have their own versions of the striped tote bag with a slightly different palette.

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Taiwan striped bag umbrella

Finally, ‘splash’ the cash on this red, green and blue striped umbrella..ella, ella…under my umbrella…sorry.

What did we miss? Did you spot any other stripey Taiwan souvenirs? If so, let us know in our Taiwan Travel Tips (TTT) Facebook group or in the comments below.

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