"Taipei" a Taipei Travel Page by chewy3326

Though I've been to Taiwan a couple of times already, this was the first time I really explored Taipei. I was very pleasently surprised by the city and its people.

Taipei is the largest city (as well as the capital) of Taiwan. The city itself has over 2 million people, but when you add the population of its metropolitan area, which includes cities like Banqiao, there are about 5 million people living in the region. Taipei is set in a basin ringed by mountains; to the south is the Xueshan Range, to the north the Datun mountains (Yangmingshan), to the west Guanyin Shan, and to the east some lower hills between Taipei and Keelung.

I apologize in advance if any Chinese text on this page doesn't show up.

Taipei is rich in everything, from scenery to culture to good food. The city is filled with temples, parks, memorials, and buildings that can be endlessly explored. Also, transportation is very easy, since the city has a very convenient MRT. There are little other places with food quite as good as Taipei, which has restaurants serving everything from stinky tofu, shabu shabu, and mapo tofu to Peking Roast Duck and dim sum.

There are, of course, quite a few downsides to the city, from its intense summer heat, to earthquakes, typhoons, smog, traffic, and pollution. These are still outweighed by the other (positive) characteristics of the city.

I spent 5 days in Taipei, which as I later found out, wasn't enough time.

This page will not only cover Taipei Shih but also Taipei Xien, including Danshui.

Danshui (Tanshui) (Tamshui) (淡水) is a suburb of Taipei and a good day trip, with many historical sights and good places to view sunsets on the Strait of Taiwan.

In Taipei itself, I visited the most famous sights in the city (Longshan Temple, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei 101, National Palace Museum), all of which were interesting and sometimes enlightening.