Taipei

Night markets, the Palace Museum and Taipei 101, plus the mountain town of Jiufen and the sunset at Tamsui. Taipei is the Chinese-speaking city that best combines food, culture and a sense of nostalgia.

Taipei lies in the Taipei Basin at the northern tip of Taiwan island. It is ringed by Yangmingshan, Guanyin Mountain and Sishou Mountain, and the Tamsui River and Keelung River flow through the city. The city proper has about 2.5 million people. Together with neighboring New Taipei City, it forms a metropolitan area of 7 million. The core areas are: Xinyi in the east, with Taipei 101, Elephant Mountain, Eslite and department stores; the city center around Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, 228 Peace Memorial Park and the area of the Presidential Office Building; the old districts in the west, including Bangka with Longshan Temple, Ximending and Dadaocheng's Dihua Street; and the north, with Shilin (the Palace Museum and Shilin Night Market) and Beitou's hot springs. Yangmingshan Park, Tamsui Old Street and Fisherman's Wharf are half-day to full-day trips in the suburbs. Jiufen, Jinguashi, Yehliu and the Pingxi Line form the classic one-day loop in the northeast corner.

Food is the soul of Taipei. Shilin, Raohe and Ningxia are its three great night markets. Din Tai Fung and mango shaved ice are on Yongkang Street. For breakfast, try beef noodle soup, braised pork rice, and soy milk with fried dough sticks.

Climate: Taipei has a subtropical monsoon climate. October to April is cool and comfortable, though winter (12–18°C) is damp and rainy. May and June are plum rain season. July to September is hot, above 33°C, with typhoons. New Year's Eve fireworks over Taipei 101 and the Lantern Festival in February are the year's big events.

For transport, Taoyuan Airport is about 40 minutes from Taipei Main Station by the Airport MRT. Songshan Airport is inside the city and has direct MRT access. The six MRT lines cover almost all the sights. An EasyCard works on the MRT, buses, YouBike shared bikes and convenience stores. To reach Jiufen, take Taiwan Railways from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang and transfer to a bus, or take bus 1062 directly. Recommended length: 3 days in the city, plus one day each for Yehliu and Jiufen and for Tamsui and Yangmingshan, for a total of 4–5 days.

Notes: Mainland Chinese visitors must obtain a Taiwan entry permit and a travel permit. Individual travel policies change from time to time, so confirm the latest rules before departure. Eating and drinking are not allowed on the MRT. Night markets mostly accept cash only. In summer, watch for typhoon warnings. Mountain trails become slippery after rain.

Top sights

• Taipei 101 – A 508-meter skyscraper with a bamboo-segment design that was once the world's tallest building. Its 89th-floor observatory and 660-tonne wi…
• Taipei Palace Museum – A world-class museum with nearly 700,000 pieces of fine Chinese cultural treasures. The Jadeite Cabbage, the Meat-Shaped Stone and the Mao…
• Shilin Night Market – Taipei's largest and most famous night market, offering da chang bao xiao chang (a sausage wrapped in sausage), giant fried chicken cutlets…
• Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall – A vast memorial hall with white walls and blue tiled roof, forming with Liberty Square and the twin National Theater and National Concert H…
• Elephant Mountain Trail – A small hill 183 meters high on the edge of Xinyi District. A 20-minute climb up stone steps leads to the Six Giant Rocks platform, the cla…
• Bangka Lungshan Temple – Taipei's oldest temple, founded in 1738 by immigrants from Quanzhou. Guanyin and the Old Man of the Moon are both worshipped here, and its…
• Tamsui Old Street – A century-old harbor-town street along the Tamsui River, where a-gei, fish crisps and iron eggs sit alongside colonial-era landmarks like F…
• Beitou Hot Springs – A century-old hot spring district easily reached by MRT, featuring the emerald sulfur waters of Thermal Valley, the Japanese-style Beitou H…
• Yehliu Geopark – A narrow headland jutting 1.7 km into the sea, covered with mushroom rocks, candlestick rocks and the 'Queen's Head', making it the most ex…
• Ximending – Taipei's trendy district for young people, with a pedestrian zone full of fashion shops, snacks and cinemas, and a century-old Red House ri…
• Dihua Street & Dadaocheng – Taipei's best-preserved old street, where Baroque-style street houses hold shops selling dried goods, Chinese herbs and fabrics, with the X…
• Presidential Office Building – The former Taiwan Governor-General's Office during the Japanese occupation period, its red-and-white Renaissance-style building and central…
• Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall – A palatial building commemorating Sun Yat-sen, where the guard changes hourly in the main hall, and the square in front is the classic spot…
• Songshan Cultural and Creative Park – A creative park converted from the 1937 Songshan Tobacco Factory, regularly hosting design exhibitions and markets, with the Eslite Life So…
• Huashan 1914 Creative Park – A creative park converted from a century-old brewery, where red-brick factory buildings house exhibitions, performances, shops and restaura…
• Raohe Street Night Market – One of Taipei's oldest night markets, with the Songshan Ciyou Temple at its entrance, where Fuzhou pepper buns and herbal braised pork ribs…
• Ningxia Night Market – A night market focused on traditional Taiwanese snacks, where long-standing stalls serving oyster omelette, braised pork rice and taro cake…
• Yangmingshan Park – A volcanic park on Taipei's northern outskirts, home to Mount Qixing, the Qingtiangang grasslands, the sulfur vents of Xiaoyoukeng and the…
• Maokong Gondola – A gondola that flies over the valley from the zoo to the Maokong tea plantations, with optional 'crystal cabins' that have glass floors and…
• Taipei Zoo – One of the largest urban zoos in Asia, with the giant panda house as its most popular exhibit, cheap admission and direct MRT access.
• Xingtian Temple – A famous temple dedicated to Lord Guan that does not accept incense or offerings; its distinctive feature is the volunteers in blue robes…
• Taiwan Museum – Taiwan's oldest museum, housed in a Greek temple-style building in 228 Peace Memorial Park, showcasing the island's natural and cultural hi…
• National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine – A palatial building modeled on Beijing's Hall of Supreme Harmony, where the hourly guard change involves a march from the gate to the main…
• Wulai – A hot spring town in the mountains south of Taipei, home to the Atayal people, where you can stroll the old street for wild boar sausage, r…
• Sanxia Old Street & Zushi Temple – A well-preserved old street with red-brick arcades and Baroque façades, and the nearby Zushi Temple, with its exquisite carvings, which has…
• Daxi Old Street – A Baroque-style archway street in Daxi, Taoyuan, famous for Daxi dried tofu and woodcraft, and a popular day-trip destination near Taipei.
• Yingge Ceramics Old Street – A pedestrian old street and ceramics museum in Taiwan's ceramics capital, where you can browse pottery shops, try hand-throwing and reach t…
• Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf – A fishing harbor on the north bank of the Tamsui River estuary, where the white Lover's Bridge and wooden boardwalks make it one of Taipei'…
• Fort San Domingo – A red-brick fortress first built by the Spanish in the 17th century and later used as the British consulate, one of the oldest surviving bu…

Where to eat

• Din Tai Fung Xinyi Branch – The original Din Tai Fung branch on Xinyi Road, famous for its 18-fold xiao long bao, and a must-visit dim sum spot for…
• Fu Hang Soy Milk – A legendary traditional breakfast spot on the second floor of Huashan Market, where freshly baked thick flatbreads and…
• Yong Kang Beef Noodle – A historic beef noodle institution in Yongkang Street dating back to 1963, famous for its rich, spicy Sichuan-style red…
• Wang's Broth – A Bib Gourmand food stall in Huaxi Street Night Market, famous for its "black gold" minced pork rice and clear melon an…
• Golden Formosa – A historic, one-Michelin-starred Taiwanese restaurant in Tianmu, where the third generation still uses 1950s banquet re…
• Mountain and Sea House – A Michelin-starred restaurant housed in a 1930s mansion on Ren'ai Road, recreating traditional Taiwanese banquet dishes…

Itineraries

• Classic Taiwan Rail Loop – Connect Taipei, Jiufen, Hualien, Taitung, Kaohsiung, Tainan, and Sun Moon Lake using TRA and THSR trains.
• In-Depth Taiwan Island Self-Drive Loop – Drive clockwise around the island, connecting the North Coast, Suhua, East Rift Valley, Hengchun Peninsula, and Alishan.