I have always wanted to visit Taiwan since I worked with Taiwanese clients at Text 100 in the 90’s. They always appeared very westernised and friendly. I arrived in Taipei on 22nd January, got out of the airport in record time and headed straight for the Formosa 101 Hostel, next to the Taipei 101 tower. This was the world’s highest building until 2009 when it was beaten by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Despite being rather pink, the hostel was the best I have stayed in so far.

I wasn’t a big fan of the street food. It was all fried or boiled and I’m not sure what was in it.

However, they have some very nice bakeries.

And some interesting bars such as this one next to the hostel.

Taipei is not an architecturally beautiful city. There are several temples that date back to the beginning if the last century.

And Dihua Street which dates back to the 185os and has long been known for its Chinese medicine shops. It is now being taken over by coffee shops other small businesses.

Otherwise everything else is quite brutal, such as the main railway station. Much of the city was built during the 1960s when the economic boom started and there was little planning control – it is often referred to as the “ugly duckling of Asia”.

The current Mayor was elected on a promise to make the city beautiful again. They have a long way to go but initiatives such as the Huashan 1914 Creative Park are a start. This old wine factory has been converted in shops, restaurants and exhibition/performance spaces.

One of the exhibitions was marking Sony’s 90th anniversary and displayed a range of their products over that time, including some from my formative years.

Zhongshan Hall, built in 1936, is one of the few older buildings to survive. It has two large auditoriums that have hosted several key political events. It was built for the coronation of  Emperor Hirohito (Taiwan was under Japanese rule at the time) and also hosted the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945. It is now more commonly used for concerts. Unfortunately the well known Fortress café, with seating on the terrace over the entrance, was closed for renovation while I was there.

Another survivor is the Presidential Office Building which was built for the Japanese Governor in 1919. It now houses the offices of the Republic of China (ROC) President. This is the Taiwanese government as distinct from the government of the Peoples Republic of China. I tried to take a picture of the front but found that there are plain clothed security who politely ask you not to do so. They didn’t seem to mind me taking a picture of the back of the building.

Taipei 101 is the probably the most famous building in the city. It has a viewing observatory at the top which is reached by a lift that takes 40 seconds to climb 89 floors. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy when I went up. That, and the grim architecture, meant that I don’t have any photos worth publishing. Note to others – it is probably worth giving this a miss unless you are into super fast elevators. It does have a fancy shopping mall in the first 5 floors in case you feel the need for more Louis Vuitton.

Taipei does come alive at night with lots of night markets.

I was there the week before Chinese New Year and everybody was getting ready for the new year of the Rooster.

You can get out of the city easily on the super efficient underground system. Differentiated from other underground systems around the world by a musical feature – each station plays its own unique piece of music announcing the arrival of each train.

The city quickly gives way to green hills covered in tea plantations.

I didn’t come across much wildlife in Taipei but did note yet another breed of squirrel.