Where to Stay in Taipei, Taiwan

What is Taipei known for?

Taipei is known as the capital of Taiwan and the island's financial, cultural, and political centre. The basin holds it all. In the north between the Yangming and Central Mountains, the city blends long Chinese heritage with Japanese and American influence, and its museums, memorials, and markets draw visitors from across Taiwan and beyond.

What are the main landmarks in Taipei?

Taipei keeps its landmarks close in the basin. The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall stands among the best known, near the modern quarter, while the Fubon Art Museum and the Museum of Jade Art hold the city's art. History shows too.

The Remains of Taipei Prison Wall and the Former Taipei Railway Workshop mark the older city, and the Holy Family Catholic Church rounds out a set that runs from memorial halls to museums across the capital of Taiwan.

What is the history of Taipei?

Taipei grew on the floor of an ancient lakebed, the Taipei Basin, where the Keelung and Xindian rivers wind down to join the Tamsui. Settlement here reaches back centuries. The city dates its founding to 1709, when the basin's farmland and river landings first drew a lasting community, and from those beginnings the town spread across the flat ground between the mountains.

The lakebed left it flat and low. Over the generations the city took on layers of influence. Change came in waves.

Chinese heritage settled first and runs deepest, later joined by Japanese and American marks left on the streets and institutions, and in time Taipei rose to become the capital of Taiwan, the political and financial centre gathered in the north of the island. The rivers that first fed it still frame its western edge.

Where is Taipei?

Taipei sits in the north of Taiwan, filling the Taipei Basin, an old lakebed rimmed by hills. Water shapes the ground. The Keelung and Xindian rivers cut their narrow valleys down to meet as the Tamsui along the western edge, while the Yangming Mountains rise to the north and the port of Keelung lies to the northeast beyond the ridge.

What is the climate of Taipei?

Taipei has a humid subtropical climate, its summers hot and wet in the enclosed Taipei Basin. The basin traps the heat. The Yangming Mountains and the hills around the basin hold the warm, moist air in place through much of the year, while winters stay mild and damp under the shelter of the surrounding ridges.

How do you get to Taipei?

Taipei is reached most easily by air into the north of Taiwan, the arrival point for the capital. Rail carries the rest. Trains and metro lines thread the Taipei Basin and run out to New Taipei City and the port of Keelung to the northeast, tying the capital into the network that crosses the northern end of the island.