Taipei

Why Taipei works

Taipei rewards a slower read than its skyline suggests. Taipei 101, a bamboo-inspired tower that held the world's-tallest title until 2010, is best appreciated not from its own observation deck but from Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan), a 20-minute uphill hike that ends at a rock outcrop framing the tower against the city — a sunset ritual for locals and visitors alike. Night markets are Taipei's real social infrastructure: Raohe Street's narrow lane serves peppercorn pork buns from a queue that never shortens, while Shilin, the largest, layers food stalls above a warren of clothing and accessory shops. The city's temple life runs in parallel — Longshan Temple's incense-thick courtyards host a mix of Buddhist, Taoist and folk-religion worship, still active rather than curated for visitors. Beitou, a hot-spring district reached by MRT in 30 minutes, offers public and private onsen built around the same sulphur springs Japanese colonists developed a century ago, with a small thermal valley (Hell Valley) at its centre. The National Palace Museum holds one of the world's largest collections of Chinese imperial artefacts, moved from Beijing's Forbidden City in 1948 and still the subject of occasional diplomatic friction. Taipei's compact MRT system makes all of this — skyline, markets, temples, hot springs — reachable within a single unhurried day each.

Trip Snapshot

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