Taipei: Asia's Most Underrated Food City

The night markets are Taipei's greatest experience — not just the food, but the atmosphere of thousands of people eating, shopping, and socializing in dense lanes of stalls from 6pm to past midnight, every night, regardless of weather. Shilin Night Market is the largest (over 500 food and goods stalls, indoor and outdoor sections, 20 minutes from central Taipei by MRT) and most internationally famous. Raohe Night Market is more compact, more local-feeling, and has a Michelin-recommended pepper bun stall (Fu Chou Shih Zu Pepper Buns) at the temple end. Ningxia Night Market focuses entirely on traditional Taiwanese street food and also has Michelin-recognized stalls.

Taipei 101 is the 508-meter skyscraper that was the world's tallest building from 2004 to 2010, its bamboo-segment design rising above the Xinyi shopping district. The indoor observatory on the 89th floor (approximately NTD 600 entry) provides the finest 360-degree Taipei panorama. The building's outdoor observation deck on the 91st floor adds the specific pleasure of Taipei's tropical mountain air at altitude. The Taipei 101 mall at the base contains premium international brands and a respected food court. The Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan) hiking trail (40 minutes from Taipei 101 MRT station, 20-minute ascent) provides the most famous and most photographed viewpoint of Taipei 101 against the city skyline.

Jiufen is a former gold-mining town on the northeast coast of Taiwan, 50 kilometers from Taipei — a hillside of stone-stepped lanes, red lanterns, tea houses perched above the Pacific Ocean, and atmospheric cave tearooms that inspired the setting of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. The gold rush that made it prosperous in the late 19th century ended, and the town sat forgotten until rediscovered by filmmakers in the 1980s. It is most magical in the evening when the lanterns glow in the rain mist. The 1.5-hour journey from Taipei (bus or train plus bus) is one of the finest day trips in Taiwan.

Taroko National Park on Taiwan's east coast — 3 hours from Taipei by Taiwan High Speed Rail and local train to Hualien — contains the finest gorge landscape in East Asia: 19 kilometers of marble-walled canyon through which the Liwu River runs turquoise, with suspension bridges, cliff-face Swallow Grotto, and the Eternal Spring Shrine waterfall. The gorge was carved by the river through the marble of the Central Mountain Range — the walls in some sections are less than 10 meters apart and hundreds of meters high. The gorge road runs through the park with a series of short hiking trails accessible without technical skill.

Taiwanese food is a synthesis of Fujian Chinese, Japanese, indigenous aboriginal, and Hakka culinary traditions — a kitchen that has been quietly producing some of the finest food in Asia for decades while the world's attention was on Japan and Thailand. The combination of outstanding ingredients (fresh seafood from the surrounding Pacific, pork from well-managed farms, vegetables from the central mountain valleys), Japanese precision in preparation, and Chinese depth of flavor creates a food culture of extraordinary variety and quality.

Beef noodle soup is Taiwan's national dish — a braised beef and bone broth with handmade noodles, available in hundreds of variations from stall food to Michelin-starred restaurants. Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodle in Zhongshan is the most celebrated. Din Tai Fung (originated in Taipei, now global) is the most famous Taiwanese restaurant in the world — its xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) set the global standard. The original Taipei branches on Xinyi Road and at Taipei 101 maintain the quality that made the brand legendary. Night market staples — oyster omelette, stinky tofu, scallion pancakes, pineapple cake, bubble tea — each represent a depth of local culinary tradition that rewards specific attention.

Bubble tea (pearl milk tea, boba) was invented in Taichung in the early 1980s and remains the most specifically Taiwanese beverage in the world. The original Chun Shui Tang and Hanlin tea houses are still operating. In Taipei, the top-tier bubble tea shops (50 Lan, Tiger Sugar, Gong Cha) maintain standards that the global franchise versions never match. A proper bubble tea in Taipei, with the freshly made tapioca pearls and freshly brewed tea base, is one of the finest $1.50 drinks on earth.