Discover Northern Taiwan

Northern Taiwan is the basin at the mouth of the Tamsui river and the hills around it, and it holds roughly a third of the island’s population. Taipei sits in the middle of the basin with New Taipei City wrapped entirely around it, so the boundary between them is administrative rather than visible.

The city has Taipei 101, briefly the tallest building in the world; the National Palace Museum, which holds the imperial collection brought from Beijing in 1949 and rotates it because there is far too much to show at once; and night markets that are genuinely where people eat rather than a performance for visitors. Yangmingshan, a dormant volcanic park with sulphur vents and hot springs, begins at the northern edge of the city, and Beitou’s bathhouses are inside it.

The hills east of the basin hold the old gold-mining town of Jiufen, stacked up a steep slope in lanes and red lanterns, and Shifen, where people release paper lanterns from a live railway track. The north coast runs out to the wind-carved rock formations at Yehliu and the port at Keelung. Wulai, to the south, is Atayal indigenous territory with hot springs and a waterfall. The winter here is grey, cool and persistently wet — the north-east monsoon — and autumn is the best season.