台北市

Why this place

Taipei sits in a basin ringed by mountains, with hot springs, hiking and old mining towns within an hour. It holds the National Palace Museum — the largest collection of Chinese imperial art anywhere — and it has the most convenient night-market eating culture in the Chinese-speaking world.

What to see

• The National Palace Museum — the imperial collection, with jade, bronzes, ceramics and painting
• Taipei 101 and the Xinyi district, and the view from the tower
• Longshan Temple and the older Wanhua district, the city's original settlement
• Beitou and Yangmingshan hot springs, reachable by metro
• Jiufen and Jinguashi — the old gold-mining town on the coast, and the mountain village above it

What to eat

• Night markets: Shilin, Ningxia and Raohe, for oyster omelettes, beef noodles and stinky tofu
• Beef noodle soup — the city's signature dish, taken seriously
• Din tai fung-style soup dumplings, and the local tea culture in Maokong's hillside teahouses

How to plan

Three days: the museum and the city, the night markets, plus a day for Beitou or Jiufen.

Best time

October–December and March–April; summers are hot and typhoon season is July–September

Practical tips

• The metro is cheap, clean and covers almost everything a visitor wants