Things to do in Taipei, Taiwan

A 508-meter tower that held the world's-tallest title from 2004 to 2010, its 89th-floor observatory ringed by the 660-ton steel damper that keeps it steady in typhoons and earthquakes. The Xinyi district below is malls, rooftop bars, and the city's New Year's Eve fireworks launch point.

A Qing-dynasty temple built in 1738, worshipping over 100 deities across Buddhist, Taoist, and folk traditions under one roof. Incense smoke and the click of divination blocks fill the courtyard from before dawn.

A white marble hall under a blue-tiled octagonal roof, its 89 steps marking Chiang Kai-shek's age at death, with an honor-guard change every hour on the hour. The surrounding plaza is ringed by the National Theater and Concert Hall.

One of the world's largest collections of Chinese imperial art, moved out of Beijing's Forbidden City ahead of the 1949 civil war's end. The jadeite cabbage and the meat-shaped stone are the two pieces everyone lines up for.

Taipei's largest and most famous night market, a maze of food stalls and games spread across a street level and an underground food court. Giant fried chicken cutlets and oyster omelets are the signature stops.

A single straight street market anchored by a landmark gate at each end, calmer and more locally minded than Shilin. The pepper pork bun baked in a tandoor-style oven draws the longest line.

Taipei's pedestrian youth-culture district, dense with fashion shops, arcades, karaoke, and street performers around its main plaza. Often compared to Tokyo's Harajuku for its concentration of teen fashion and pop-culture shops.

The city's oldest surviving street, lined with 19th- and early-20th-century shophouses that still trade dried herbs, tea, and textiles. Busiest in the weeks before Lunar New Year, when it becomes a dense holiday-goods market.

A geothermal valley of milky sulfuric water hot enough to have earned the nickname 'Hell Valley,' feeding the public and private hot-spring baths that line the surrounding streets. The valley water itself, up to 100°C, is for viewing only — the soaking happens in bathhouses nearby.

A steep, roughly 20-minute stair climb to a viewing platform that frames Taipei 101 and the skyline behind it, most crowded at sunset. Six shaded pavilions along the way each offer their own view.

A cable car climbing to a hillside tea-growing district, with glass-bottomed cars available for the ride up. Terraced tea houses at the top serve pots of the local Tieguanyin and Baozhong grown on the surrounding slopes.

A Japanese-era wine and camphor factory converted into galleries, indie cinemas, and design shops, its red-brick warehouses left largely intact. Rotating exhibitions and pop-up markets keep the lineup changing week to week.

A former gold-mining town's steep hillside alley of red lanterns and teahouses overlooking the sea, popularly (if unofficially) linked to the visual style of Spirited Away. Narrow enough that its stone steps are foot traffic only.

Taiwan's widest waterfall, a 40-meter curtain reachable by a short trail from Shifen's old railway-station street. That same street is where visitors write wishes on paper sky lanterns and release them, sometimes with a train passing feet away.

A riverside old street of snack stalls at the mouth of the Tamsui River, connected by a waterfront boardwalk to Fisherman's Wharf and its Lover's Bridge. One of the most reliable sunset views in the greater Taipei area.

A narrow cape of wind- and wave-carved sandstone, its mushroom-shaped 'Queen's Head' rock the most photographed formation on a coastline of hundreds. Best visited near low tide, when more of the rock terrain is exposed.