New Taipei City
Discover New Taipei City
A concise introduction to New Taipei City, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
New Taipei City is the most populous municipality in Taiwan and one of the strangest on a map: it is a ring wrapped completely around Taipei, so it has no single centre and a visitor crosses into it without noticing. Banqiao is the administrative seat, with the Lin Family Mansion and Garden — the finest surviving Qing-era private garden in Taiwan — at its heart.
Everything worth a day out of Taipei is in this municipality. Tamsui, at the river mouth, has a Spanish and then Dutch fort, a long waterfront and the sunset the whole city comes out for. Jiufen, in the hills above the north-east coast, is a former gold-mining town stacked up a slope in narrow lanes and red lanterns. Nearby Shifen sends paper lanterns up from a working railway line and has a broad waterfall a short walk away, and Houtong is a former coal village now run by cats.
On the coast, Yehliu’s wind-carved sandstone formations include the much-photographed Queen’s Head, and Bitou Cape has a clifftop walk out to the lighthouse. Inland, Wulai is Atayal indigenous territory with hot springs, a waterfall and a small railway. Sanxia has a temple carved over decades by hand, and Yingge next door has made ceramics for two hundred years. All of it is within an hour of central Taipei on public transport.