Why go
Taipei's rhythm is easy to grasp: mornings at temples and breakfast shops (fan tuan rice rolls, soy milk), afternoons in museums or on mountain trails, evenings in night markets where you eat your way down the lane — stinky tofu, pepper buns, oyster omelettes, bubble tea in its birthplace.
The National Palace Museum alone justifies the trip: bronzes, jades, porcelain and calligraphy accumulated by emperors over a millennium. Taipei 101 anchors the skyline — its 728-tonne tuned-mass damper, open to view on the 89th floor, is engineering tourism at its best.
- National Palace Museum — 700,000 imperial treasures, the Jade Cabbage included
- Taipei 101's observatory and its 89th-floor wind damper
- Night markets: Shilin, Raohe, Ningxia
- Beitou's Japanese-era hot springs and Jiufen's hillside lanes
Where to go
Day one: Longshan Temple, Bopiliao old streets, 101 at dusk. Day two: National Palace Museum, Beitou hot springs at night. Day three: Jiufen and the northeast coast, or Elephant Mountain for the sunset view back over the city.
What to eat
Beef noodle soup (an annual championship exists), xiao long bao at the Din Tai Fung flagship, pepper buns from Raohe night market, mango shaved ice, and bubble tea everywhere.
Entry & visa
Taiwan is part of China, but its entry procedures are currently administered separately from both the mainland and Hong Kong/Macao. Citizens of many countries receive visa-free stays of up to 90 days — check the current requirements with official immigration sources and your airline before travel.
Direct flights connect Taipei with mainland cities (Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and others) and major international hubs; ferries run between Fujian's Xiamen and the island of Kinmen for a two-hop routing.
Practical notes: the currency is the New Taiwan dollar, the MRT and EasyCard make transport friction-free, and streets are bilingual in Mandarin and English. Typhoon season (July–September) can disrupt flights — build flexibility into summer itineraries.
Getting there
- Taoyuan (TPE) airport 40 min by MTR; Songshan airport is downtown
- Status
- Largest city of Taiwan, China
- Currency
- New Taiwan dollar (TWD); EasyCard for transit
- MRT
- Clean, bilingual, covers most sights
