Where to Eat, Sleep and Shop in Taipei, Taiwan

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Taipei, the capital of the island of Taiwan, is set in a river basin that was once a vast lake, with much of its former shoreline marked by a ring of steep hills and mountains — a verdant border made up of terraced tea farms and dense forests. It’s those precipitous hills that the fashion designer Jason Wu, 44, remembers his grandfather launching him down on a bicycle when he was a child living in the Neihu neighborhood. Back then, he says, “there were barely any cars [in Neihu]. Now it’s all art galleries and tech companies.”

Yet despite Taipei’s growth — largely thanks to its booming tech industry — nature never feels far off. In the city center, there’s the tropical foliage of the tranquil Daan Park, and an extensive network of well-maintained bike lanes reaches from the landmark Taipei 101 downtown building to the seaside Tamsui district at the mouth of its namesake river. On the city’s northern edge, Yangmingshan National Park contains dozens of hiking trails, many of which end in geothermal hot springs.

Taipei also has a robust food scene dominated by brightly lit night markets and traditional restaurants serving dishes like lu rou fan (braised pork rice) and beef noodle soup. Offerings have been bolstered in recent years by a host of young chefs focused on local ingredients. There’s now a willingness “to seriously think about Taiwan and about the flavors and memories of their childhood,” says the chef Masa Chung, 41, who pairs Taiwanese ingredients with a Japanese kappo approach, an interactive style of dining where the chef prepares and cooks a multicourse meal in front of counter-seated guests at his restaurant Yu Kapo. Such places are opening in up-and-coming areas like the Zhongshan district — a red-light zone in the 1950s and ’60s that’s now home to independent boutiques, cafes and galleries.

“Taipei feels like an accumulation of Japan, Hong Kong and China,” says Wu. “It’s had so many different influences throughout history.” (At various points, the island was ruled by the Qing dynasty and the Japanese.) And while conversations about Taiwan — both at home and abroad — often dwell on tensions with China, on the ground in Taipei, residents and visitors are more often than not going about their lives, enjoying the spoils of a thriving city.