If Seoul's love affair with the west makes it nearly Cyberpunk in aesthetic, Taipei is Asiapunk, the same huge billboards and alleys of shops, but without the same blatant western commercialism. Far fewer western tourists have impacted Taipei and how it sees itself. English is less commonly spoken, though not rare, even in tourist areas, and navigation requires a certain amount of preparation. But for all that, it's remarkable to be there and see the tiny country defying China with its ongoing success.
Sights & Culture
Taipei 101
The iconic skyscraper and symbol of Taipei. It was the world's tallest building until 2010 and has rapidly fallen to 11th. The observation deck is on the 89th floor (~TWD 600). The indoor observatory on the 91st floor gives 360° views on a clear day. The best option is to book a ticket to the Simple Kaffa cafe on the 88th floor, you can get cheap tickets away from the windows or more expensive ones closer, but you get to see the city from almost as high as the main viewing point for much less and get to try the coffee and cake which are both excellent. We had a 2-hour wait after signing up, but you do have to stay nearby as you get 5 minutes from the text message/email to losing your spot in the queue. The shopping mall in the Taipei 101 complex is plenty big enough to keep you busy.
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
A huge national monument in a formal plaza, flanked by the National Theatre and National Concert Hall, with a "Victory Gate"/Liberty Square main gate. The main hall itself is huge, up an imposing flight of stairs to see the massive CKS statue in front of you. You can also see the hourly guard-change "parade", which is worth a watch, though I'd recommend the bottom of the stairs rather than the top to see it.
The floors beneath the statue hold a large museum space and a restaurant as well as a post office of all things. We caught a sketch exhibition there, two artists, one doing fairly traditional ink work, the other a sudden shift into Western-style charcoal. The main permanent exhibition narrative reads as fairly blunt Cold War "communism bad" framing, which is not surprising, but could benefit from a little more nuance given Taiwan's tumultuous history.
Free entry.
Longshan Temple
One of Taipei's oldest and most active temples. Busy with worshippers day and night. It's an impressive place, and a prayer service was actually underway when we visited, which added to the sense of the place. Longshan is also the recipient of 'lost gods' statues of gods who have failed their families.
Free; respectful dress appropriate.
The Red House
Near the start of Ximending is the Red House, a famous building with shops inside. Worth a glance.
The Grand Hotel
On the north side of the river, the impressive Grand Hotel can be found. It's the location where visiting dignitaries stay, though it's wildly inconvenient for tourists as it's not close to anything. It does offer an underground escape tunnel for VIPs in case of emergency. No guarantees you'd be VIP enough to be allowed through though.
Dadaocheng Circular Air Raid Shelter
A small circular spot you pass en route to the north end of the city.
Thermal Valley
At the source of the Beitou Hot Spring is the steaming pool of the Thermal Valley, reaching about 70 degrees Celsius. The water makes the air around it humid and warm, and there's a pathway all around the pool; off to one side is a shrine, and after that the Witch's Rock Waterfall. A small gift-shop and cafe is on site.
Museums & Galleries
National Palace Museum
We had the plan to spend the time before our flight at the National Palace Museum. We turned up on a Monday, found it shut due to being closed on Mondays, and our taxi driver took us straight to the airport instead. Check what day it is before going. It holds one of the world's greatest collections of Chinese imperial art, over 700,000 artefacts, mostly brought from the mainland in 1949. Worth it by reputation. ~TWD 350 entry.
National Taiwan Museum
Set in a beautiful building, in the middle of the 228 Park. It's a well-presented museum but with a weird layout/spread with a narrative that blends together oddly. Floor 1 has a special exhibit on rhinoceroses and their history; it's good, but feels like it should be at the Natural History museum next door instead. The special exhibit also has a bunch of stuffed-toys as items and a butterfly/moth section that's rather good. Floor 2 leans more natural history/ecological, with much better taxidermy, lots of creature examples, a film about Taiwan's wildlife, and a section on Taiwanese spirits/abandoned gods and folk history. Floor 3 has cultural artefacts (some genuinely great pieces in an attic-style space) alongside oddly terrible taxidermy, plus an animated video of the museum's "Guardian" mascots singing and dancing while roughing up a flashy villain salamander who shoots fire and summons goblins before his wife shows up, tells him off, and drags him home. Clearly aimed at kids, but we went anyway.
Suho Paper Memorial Museum
Set inside a multi-floor building with a roof open to the wind. It's a nice enough space with their home made paper and linen to pass for an upmarket boutique. The floors tell the story of paper in history, but the real selling point of the museum is doing the papermaking workshop. Over half an hour to an hour you'll learn a bit more about the method of papermaking and then try your own hand at it, crafting a coloured and flower-infused sheet of roughly A4 paper. You'll need to pop back in 20 minutes or so later to collect it as it needs to dry.
Miniatures Museum of Taiwan
A tiny museum in the basement of a building. The vibe gives the impression that two very different creators were working on this setup: one doing painstakingly serious "18th-century home" style dioramas, the other going full "dinotown" or "dancing monkey princes" fun. Good contrast. Strange Museum.
Parks & Gardens
228 Peace Park
Pleasant park with a pagoda or two, right next to the National Taiwan Museum. Tsui Hang Pagoda, a three-tiered pavilion set on its own island in the park's pond, is the standout of the two.
Huashan 1914 Creative Park
Part park, part popup space, the Creative Park has a number of warehouse-style buildings full of random shops. A Snoopy store, a Star Wars collectables store, a store selling doll furniture. It's fun and odd and interesting.
Whilst we were there, a small crowd of polite paparazzi were waiting. I joined them as I had the camera for it (though only my 16mm lens so I did stand out as an oddity) and took a number of photos of people arriving off a bus. It was only after the fact I asked a photographer and found out they were part of the Taiwanese pop group TPE48. There seem to be a multitude of numbers in sub-groups so I cannot tell you who I have images of, only that they are part of TPE48.
Beitou Park
A smallish park between two roads where the hot-spring stream runs, starting at the Thermal Valley and ending at the Fountain. The Museum is in the park grounds as is the Library.
Restaurants & Bars
Liaoning Street Night Market
Smaller, less touristy than Shilin. We were there in the rain, and it gave the whole area a surreal vibe.
Sukiya Nanjing
A chain restaurant doing decent food.
Tonkatsu Taipei Nanjing
In the basement near Sukiya, is the canteen-style katsu restaurant. They don't take credit cards, so make sure you have cash. Good value and the katsu was good.
Jiaoxinyuan Spicy Hot Pot
A much more premium meal than the other places we ate, on our final evening we had hot pot. We were not entirely clear on how much we could have, what was included and what would be extra. We had two or three rounds of meat and veg delivered to the table, as well as a dessert and the free, unlimited ice cream. It wasn't until near the end we realised drinks were free and in the cooler. They don't take cards, so we had to go off on an ATM hunt whilst one stayed at the table as 'security'. Expensive, but well worth it.
"Come and get live goose meat and seafood" (來來鵝肉活海鮮)
Not the most catchy name, but this cramped three-storey restaurant in Liaoning Night Market served up excellent local food. We were waiting a while before realising they don't come to you to take an order. You have to find them with the laminated menu and pen you use to make your selection.
Simple Kaffa
A chain, including one at the airport, but the best by far is on floor 88 of Taipei 101. The coffee is superb as are the cakes. You have to spend a certain amount per person to get the ticket to the cafe, but it's not an unreasonable amount. The views are incredible.
Beppin Pasta
Ate here twice, it's a loosely Italian-themed restaurant (there's at least one display of Swedish Dalarna horses on the shelf), doing a pretty decent pizza and pasta options.
Shopping
Ximending
Taipei's youth culture district, a bit like Camden back in the day before it burned down and sold out. With street performers (caught an odd British-themed act that dragged on so long we left, but he insisted it was incredibly dangerous), independent shops and excellent food options. Cool street vibe but touristy, with a lot of repetition among the stock in the shops. Lively in evenings.
Taipei Main Station
Huge food court upstairs with both hawker-centre-style at one end (had a genuinely spicy beef noodle soup) and more dedicated restaurants and cafes all around. Underground there is a massive shopping mall. The 2nd basement level has a nerd/hobby shop specialising in second hand with a lot of Gundam and figurines as well as stocking a single box of Warhammer models.
Sports & Activities
Long Nice Hot Spring at Beitou
Thermal spring district accessible on the MRT. Public baths (cheap) and upscale ryokan-style hotels. Good for an afternoon.
Hop-on-hop-off tourist bus
Two routes, blue and red. Suffers the usual hop-on-hop-off problem, the gap between buses is too long to wander casually but too short to do a stop in real detail. Of the two, blue (north route) is the better one and lets you jump off at the National Palace Museum; red (inner city) covers ground that's easily done by metro anyway, so lower priority.
Practical
Transport
MRT is cheap, clean, and covers most of the city. You can just tap to pay with a contactless credit/debit card.
Money
New Taiwan Dollar (TWD). ~1 GBP = ~40 TWD. Very card-friendly, but some restaurants don't take international cards. Worth checking before ordering.
Language
Mandarin Chinese. English is less widely spoken than in Singapore but signage and MRT are bilingual.