China CulturedProvince Book
China Cultured
Province Book
Taiwan
Palace treasures, mountain railways, lake mists and the island's night-market soul — small enough to cross, rich enough to stay.
Get this book · $6.99 →

Taiwan is small enough to cross in a day, yet it packs in high mountains, coastline, night markets and temples. From the imperial treasures of the National Palace Museum to the sunrise at Alishan, from the morning mist of Sun Moon Lake to the oyster omelettes of the night market, the island has simmered Chinese classics, Japanese traces and Southeast Asian flavours into a broth entirely its own.

What to See

The National Palace Museum in Taipei holds one of the finest collections of Chinese art in the world: the jade cabbage, the meat-shaped stone, and a systematic trove of Song and Yuan painting. Exhibits rotate constantly, so each visit shows you different masterpieces.

Alishan is famous for its mountain railway: take the dawn train to the viewing platform for sunrise over a sea of clouds, riding between thousand-year-old red cypresses. Sun Moon Lake is the classic lake view — the east side shaped like a sun, the west like a crescent moon — and renting a bicycle for the lakeside loop is the best way to see it.

Sun Moon Lake surrounded by green mountains
Sun Moon Lake — sun on one shore, moon on the other. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

What to Eat

Beef noodles are Taiwan's national comfort food: braised or clear broth, fall-apart beef shank, chewy noodles. Taipei even holds an annual beef-noodle festival to crown the champion. Oyster omelettes are the soul of the night market: plump oysters wrapped in sweet-potato starch, fried with an egg and drizzled with chilli-sweet sauce. Bubble tea was born here — hand-shaken tea with brown-sugar pearls, now a drink known around the world.

Folk Customs

Goddess on the roadThe Mazu pilgrimage is Taiwan's grandest religious event: every third lunar month, the goddess's palanquin leaves Dajia's Zhenlan Temple on an eight-day, seven-night walk through central Taiwan, with believers setting out incense tables and firecrackers along a procession stretching dozens of kilometres. Yanshui's beehive fireworks are the most electrifying Lantern Festival ritual: towers of fireworks erupt in a storm of sparks while participants in protective gear “charge the bees” to drive away misfortune. And Pingxi's sky lanterns are gentler — you write your wish, release the lantern, and watch it climb toward the stars.

Practical Tips

Before you goBest season: October to April, outside the typhoon months. Allow 5–7 days: three in Taipei and two for Alishan or Sun Moon Lake. The MRT makes Taipei easy; take the high-speed rail for long distances. Night markets are largely cash-only. Dress modestly in temples, and if you join the pilgrimage or the lantern festival, expect crowd control and traffic detours.
Want the full province atlas — all 34 provinces, what to see, what to eat, and the folk customs nobody tells you about? chinacultured.com/guide/province-atlas.html →
China CulturedTaiwan · 2026
← Previous: Xinjiang Next: Hong Kong →

Photos: National Palace Museum, Sun Moon Lake — via Wikimedia Commons, CC-licensed. Licenses and authors available on the original file pages.