Taiwan's capital — a safe, convenient city in a mountain-ringed basin, where a record-breaking tower, a palace of imperial art and old temple lanes sit side by side.
台灣的首都——一座位於群山環抱盆地中、安全便利的城市,破紀錄的高樓、典藏帝王藝術的殿堂與老廟巷弄並陳。
Taipei sits in the Taipei Basin at Taiwan's far north, ringed by mountains and drained by the Tamsui (Danshui) River. Long before the city, the basin was the homeland of the Ketagalan (凱達格蘭), a Plains Indigenous people who fished, farmed and traded along the rivers by dugout canoe. Their language survives in the city's place names — the old port quarter of Bangka (艋舺, today Wanhua) takes its name from the Ketagalan word for "canoe."
臺北位於台灣最北端的臺北盆地,四周群山環抱,由淡水河貫穿。在城市出現之前,盆地是凱達格蘭族的家園——這支平埔原住民沿河捕魚、耕作,並以獨木舟往來貿易。他們的語言保存在地名中:古老的港口聚落艋舺(今萬華)之名,即源自凱達格蘭語的「獨木舟」。
Han settlers from Fujian arrived in force in the 1700s. Bangka/Wanhua grew first, anchored by Longshan Temple (1738), but as its wharves silted up the river trade shifted north to Dadaocheng (大稻埕). There, tea transformed everything: the British merchant John Dodd imported oolong from Fujian and in 1869 shipped it to New York as "Formosa Oolong" — a global hit that made Dadaocheng, centered on Dihua Street, the richest district in northern Taiwan.
福建移民在 1700 年代大量湧入。艋舺(萬華)最早興起,以龍山寺(1738 年)為核心;但碼頭淤積後,河運北移至大稻埕。茶葉在此徹底改變了一切:英商陶德從福建引進烏龍茶,1869 年以「福爾摩沙烏龍」之名運往紐約,一炮而紅,使以迪化街為中心的大稻埕成為北台灣最富庶的商區。
As trade grew, the Qing built a walled city between Bangka and Dadaocheng, completed in 1884 with five gates, several of which still survive. Taiwan became a province in 1885 under modernizing governor Liu Mingchuan (劉銘傳); the capital was confirmed at Taipei in 1894. After Japan took Taiwan in 1895, Taipei became the colonial capital, gaining grand institutions like the Office of the Governor-General (1919) — today's Presidential Office. The ROC government made it its seat in 1949, it became a special municipality in 1967, and in 2004 it was crowned by Taipei 101. A riverside trading ground had become the heart of Taiwan.
隨著貿易成長,清廷在艋舺與大稻埕之間興建臺北府城,1884 年完工、設五座城門,部分至今猶存。1885 年臺灣建省,首任巡撫劉銘傳推動現代化,1894 年確立臺北為省會。1895 年日本治臺後,臺北成為殖民首府,興建了臺灣總督府(1919 年)——即今日的總統府。1949 年中華民國政府以此為所在地,1967 年升格直轄市,2004 年更以臺北 101 寫下高峰。一處河畔貿易之地,終成台灣的中心。
This 508-metre tower was the world's tallest building from its completion in 2004 until Dubai's Burj Khalifa surpassed it in 2010. To withstand typhoons and earthquakes it houses a massive 660-tonne golden tuned mass damper, and its New Year's Eve fireworks are world-famous.
Holding nearly 700,000 artifacts, this is widely regarded as the world's greatest collection of Chinese imperial art, inherited from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing courts. Its two most beloved treasures are the Jadeite Cabbage and the Meat-Shaped Stone.
Completed in 1980, this white-and-blue monument stands at the eastern end of vast Liberty Square (自由廣場), flanked by the National Theater and National Concert Hall — a favorite gathering place in the heart of the city.
Founded in 1738 by Fujianese settlers in historic Wanhua, this is one of Taipei's oldest and most revered temples. Its principal deity is Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, though it also enshrines Mazu and many folk gods.
Dihua Street is Taipei's oldest commercial street, the heart of the historic Dadaocheng tea district. Its handsome old shop-houses still sell tea, herbs, dried goods and fabric, and it hosts Taiwan's busiest Lunar New Year market.
Developed in the Japanese era as Taipei's first modern entertainment district (町 is Japanese for "district"), Ximending is now a buzzing youth shopping and pop-culture hub — often called "Taipei's Harajuku" — anchored by the 1908 octagonal Red House.
A district of Taipei City and Taiwan's most famous hot-spring resort, developed by the Japanese from the early 1900s. Highlights include the steamy turquoise Thermal Valley and the Hot Spring Museum, housed in a 1913 public bathhouse.
A volcanic park famous for the Datun Volcano Group, with fumaroles, sulfur vents and hot springs, plus spring cherry blossoms and azaleas. Its core lies in Taipei's Beitou and Shilin districts, extending into New Taipei City.
Opened in 2007, this 4.3-km cable car in Wenshan District glides from Taipei Zoo up to the hillside tea village of Maokong, famous for Tieguanyin oolong and teahouses with sweeping city views.
Widely regarded as Taipei's largest and most famous night market, with roots going back to 1909. It's a paradise of street food — oyster omelets, giant fried chicken cutlets and the "large pancake wrapping small pancake."
A short but steep trail in Xinyi District leading to Taipei's most iconic viewpoint for photographing Taipei 101 and the city skyline, especially at sunset. The famous "Six Giant Rocks" lookout is minutes from the trailhead.
As the capital, Taipei is the island's cultural heart — museums and movements, temples and tea, all knit together by one of the world's best metros.
Taipei holds Taiwan's great museums — above all the National Palace Museum, guardian of millennia of Chinese art — alongside a lively contemporary arts, music and publishing scene. Taiwan's celebrated New Cinema movement of the 1980s was centered here, and the city's temples — Longshan and Bao'an, with their incense and processions — keep its folk-religion soul alive.
Above all, Taipei is a city of night markets and street food, knit together by one of the world's cleanest and most convenient metro systems, the Taipei MRT (捷運). Famously safe, walkable and orderly, it's a capital where you can ride from a temple lane to a hot-spring valley in under an hour.
Born in Taipei's Beitou District, Ashin is the lead vocalist and songwriter of Mayday (五月天), one of the biggest Mandarin-language rock bands in the world. He is a genuinely Taipei-born star whose stadium anthems are sung across the Chinese-speaking world.
Taipei was the home of the Taiwan New Cinema movement, where directors such as Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang made their landmark "Taipei films." The capital's streets, alleys and apartments became one of Asian cinema's most quietly influential settings.
An annual spectacle since the tower opened in 2004 — the world's first skyscraper fireworks display, now an international New Year's Eve TV highlight watched around the globe.
Held around the Lunar New Year and Lantern Festival, with giant illuminated displays. Locations rotate over the years, including Ximending and the Dadaocheng and Yuanshan areas.
In the two weeks before Lunar New Year, historic Dihua Street fills with stalls selling dried goods, candied fruit, nuts and holiday treats — Taipei's largest and most atmospheric New Year market.
Held in Wanhua around the 10th lunar month, honoring the Qingshan King. Its famous "night patrols" (暗訪) parade the deity's palanquin through the old alleys — one of Taipei's "Three Great Temple Festivals."
From world-famous soup dumplings to a beef-noodle festival of its own, Taipei is one of the world's great eating cities.
Founded in Taipei in 1958, Din Tai Fung began making soup dumplings in 1972 and grew into a world-famous restaurant brand.
Xinyi Road 信義路Taipei is famous for beef noodle soup, and has hosted the International Beef Noodle Festival every year since 2005 to crown the best bowls.
Citywide 全市Signature bites include the "large pancake wrapping small pancake," oyster omelet, the giant fried chicken cutlet and the Shilin large sausage.
Shilin 士林Raohe Street Night Market is famous for Fuzhou-style pepper buns — pork, scallion and black pepper baked on the walls of a charcoal clay oven.
Raohe 饒河Yongkang Street, near Dongmen, is a beloved food street and a home of fluffy shaved ice piled with fresh mango and condensed milk.
Yongkang St 永康街One of Taipei's oldest night markets, beloved for braised pork rice, oyster omelet and taro balls — nicknamed "the Stomach of Taipei people."
Datong 大同The old shop-houses are the place to buy Taiwanese tea, dried mushrooms and seafood, herbs and holiday treats — a living legacy of the tea trade.
Dadaocheng 大稻埕Taipei is full of bubble tea shops — though the drink was actually invented in Taichung, the capital is one of the best places anywhere to enjoy a cup.
Citywide 全市Taiwan's political, economic and cultural center.
The record-breaking tower and New Year fireworks icon.
One of the world's greatest collections of Chinese imperial art.
A famously clean, convenient metro in a safe, walkable city.
Din Tai Fung, beef noodles and a city of street-food paradises.
Beitou hot springs and volcanic Yangmingshan at the city's edge.
Introduce Taipei to a visitor — tap 🔊 to hear each sentence. 用英文向訪客介紹臺北,點 🔊 聽聽看。
Sources · 資料來源:臺北市政府觀光傳播局、國立故宮博物院、交通部觀光署、維基百科等公開資料整理。