Taipei City

Taipei is one of those cities that quietly wins you over. It lacks the dramatic skyline chaos of Tokyo or the colonial grandeur of Hong Kong, but what it offers instead is something harder to define — a city that's genuinely liveable, intensely curious, and almost effortlessly welcoming.

The pace shifts depending on where you are: Da'an feels leafy and residential, Zhongshan is polished and gallery-filled, while Ximending buzzes with teenage energy and neon until well past midnight.

Food is the most honest reason to come here. The night markets — Shilin, Raohe, Ningxia — are not tourist traps so much as functioning community kitchens. Work your way through scallion pancakes, oyster vermicelli, stinky tofu if you're brave enough, and tang yuan in winter. Breakfast culture is equally serious: a queue outside a fan tuan stall at seven in the morning is a perfectly normal sight.

Din Tai Fung may be famous, but the best meals tend to happen in places with plastic stools and no English menu.

Getting around is genuinely easy. The MRT is clean, punctual, and cheap, with signs and announcements in English. A day pass makes sense if you're moving between districts. Renting a Youbike from one of the docked stations is useful for flatter stretches, though traffic can be assertive. For day trips, the train to Jiufen takes about an hour and is worth the half-day.

Where you stay shapes the experience. Zhongzheng puts you near Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the main station, which is practical. Da'an offers quieter streets and better coffee shops within walking distance of Daan Forest Park.

Typhoon season runs from June to October, so shoulder months — March to May or November — tend to offer the most reliable weather. Bring a light rain jacket regardless.