Longshan Temple, Dadaocheng (Dihua Street) and Beitou Hot Springs

Before glass skyscrapers rose in Xinyi on the eastern side of the basin, Taipei grew up along the eastern bank of the Tamsui River in the historic port settlements of Mengjia (Wanhua) and Dadaocheng, while the volcanic foothills of Beitou and Shilin to the north sheltered imperial art treasures and steaming mineral springs.

Longshan Temple, Bopiliao, Dadaocheng (Dihua Street) and Bao'an Temple

Start in Wanhua directly outside Longshan Temple MRT Station. Founded in 1738 by settlers from Fujian, Mengjia Longshan Temple is a living masterpiece of southern Fujianese temple craft: step through the waterfall forecourt into the central courtyard to admire its bronze dragon pillars, wooden ceiling caissons constructed without nails, and colourful ceramic roof figures. Dedicated to the Buddhist Bodhisattva Guanyin in the main hall, the rear courtyard honours Taoist and folk deities including Mazu, Wenchang and Yuelao (the matchmaker god of love). Two blocks east, walk down Bopiliao Historic Block, a preserved lane of Qing-dynasty and Japanese-era red-brick shophouses.

Next, head north along the river to Dadaocheng and walk the length of Dihua Street (Dihua Jie), Taipei's best-preserved 19th-century merchant avenue. Established in the 1850s when steamships exported Taiwanese camphor and oolong tea down the Tamsui River, Dihua Street is lined with baroque stone facades and brick shophouses piled with dried scallops, mushrooms, Chinese herbal medicine, bamboo baskets and textiles around the Taipei Xia-Hai City God Temple, alongside independent coffee bars and tea houses. At sunset, walk five minutes west through the floodgate to Dadaocheng Wharf (Pier 5) on the Tamsui River. Further north near Yuanshan MRT Station stands Dalongdong Bao'an Temple (1804) beside the Taipei Confucius Temple.

The National Palace Museum and Beitou Hot Springs

North of downtown along the Red MRT Line, combine two half-day icons. From Shilin MRT Station, take a short bus up the valley to the National Palace Museum, housing nearly 700,000 imperial artefacts: examine Song landscape scrolls, Shang bronzes, Ru-ware celadon and the carved Jadeite Cabbage and Meat-Shaped Stone, then stroll Zhishan Garden. Afterwards, ride the Red Line to Beitou and switch to the branch train to Xinbeitou: follow the warm stream past the timber Beitou Public Library and the 1913 Beitou Hot Spring Museum up to Thermal Valley, a jade-green volcanic crater lake veiled in sulphuric mist, before heading back into town for Taipei's night markets and evening views.