1 destination · 10 things to do

Taiwan

Taipei is the friendliest big city in Asia to get to know: a green, mountain-ringed capital where a 508-metre skyscraper rises over incense-filled temples, night markets sizzle until midnight and a hot-spring valley sits at the end of a metro line. The MRT is clean, cheap and signposted in English, so a first-timer can ride from the National Palace Museum, with one of the greatest collections of Chinese art anywhere, to the observatory of Taipei 101, the stairs of Elephant Mountain and the lanes of Longshan Temple in a single day. Beyond the city, the lantern-hung hillside town of Jiufen and the railway village of Shifen, with its sky lanterns and waterfall, make the classic day trip, while a gondola climbs to the tea houses of Maokong and the volcanic peaks of Yangmingshan steam just north of town. This guide books the tickets worth booking, points you to the free sights that matter most, and matches you to the right hotel, from a Mandarin Oriental splurge to a good-value base by the main station.