Taiwan is one of those places that somehow gets treated like a layover while quietly sitting there with mountains, temples, night markets, hot springs, ridiculous food and enough weird shit to fill an entire trip.
Which seems like a marketing failure.
Taipei is the obvious starting point. Taipei 101 dominates the skyline, the metro actually works, convenience stores are everywhere, and night markets turn eating dinner into a competitive sport involving absolutely no coherent meal plan.
Just point at things.
You’ll probably be fine.
Then get out of Taipei, because Taiwan becomes considerably weirder.
Jiufen climbs a mountainside through narrow alleys packed with food, tea houses and approximately the entire population of Earth. Nearby, the abandoned Shuinandong refinery looks like civilization simply stopped paying the electricity bill and walked away. Keep exploring and you’ll find dramatic coastlines, waterfalls, mountain roads, temples, hot springs and geological landscapes that make the island feel much larger than it actually is.
Taiwan is also refreshingly easy to travel. Trains work. Public transportation is excellent. Food is affordable. People are generally helpful, even when the language barrier turns your interaction into an elaborate international game of charades.
The weather, however, occasionally chooses violence. Summers are aggressively humid, typhoons exist, and mountain weather can rewrite your itinerary without requesting permission.
But Taiwan is remarkably good at rewarding curiosity.
It’s modern, traditional, beautiful, strange, delicious and criminally underrated.
Come for Taipei.
Stay because you accidentally found an abandoned industrial complex in the mountains and suddenly that’s the best part of your fucking trip.
Map of Taiwan
Destinations to Explore in Taiwan
Latest Destinations in Taiwan
Jiufen Old Street: Apparently There’s No Exit
Jiufen Old Street sounded like a quick cultural stroll through Taiwan. Instead, I found an absurdly long maze of markets, teahouses, street food, lanterns and enough people to form their own country. This fucking street just keeps going.
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Shuinandong Refinery: The Gold Left. So Did Everyone Else.
Taiwan’s abandoned Shuinandong Refinery is a massive concrete relic of the island’s gold and copper mining days. I stopped for the history, stayed to photograph the industrial decay, and discovered nature has been doing a pretty badass job with the renovations.
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Taipei: A Surprisingly Functional Clusterfuck
Taipei is one of those cities that initially looks like somebody forgot to establish a coherent design philosophy. There are enormous glass towers next to old concrete apartment buildings. Tiny temples wedged between convenience stores. Scooters occupying every available molecule of pavement. Neon signs stacked vertically up buildings while Taipei 101 casually towers over the …
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