Hotels in Taipei

Taipei is a city of night markets, mountain trails and one very tall building, packed into a basin ringed by green hills at the northern end of Taiwan. It manages to be a major Asian capital while remaining unusually easy to navigate — the MRT is spotless, signage is bilingual, and almost nowhere is more than half an hour away.

Food is the organising principle of a visit. Shilin and Raohe night markets serve everything from oyster omelettes to pepper buns, Din Tai Fung began here as a local dumpling shop, and beef noodle soup is close to a civic institution. Between meals there is the National Palace Museum's Chinese imperial collection, the Longshan and Bao'an temples, and the Taipei 101 observatory.

The hills start where the city ends. Elephant Mountain gives the classic skyline view after a 20-minute climb, Yangmingshan National Park has volcanic hot springs, and the old mining towns of Jiufen and Pingxi are an hour away by train.