You could visit Taiwan and just base yourself in Taipei for your exploring. The city is quite spread out in terms of sights, and there are lots of worthwhile day trips that can take you to other towns, the mountains, or the coast. But we decided to devote 6/15 nights in Taiwan to Taipei, at the start and finish of our trip as part of a fast-paced clockwise loop around the island.

Taipei is comfortable, pleasant, and not as flashy as we had pictured. The scenic, hilly outskirts reminded us quite a bit of the landscape in Hong Kong - not surprising given the close proximity. It has an awesome transportation system (of course), with a useful card you can purchase for about $4.00 CAD that can be loaded with money as necessary for use on local transport all over the country. Also, to notify you that the subway is arriving, some soothing, jazz-inspired Classical music begins to play, and Clare thought this was just the loveliest touch (she is easily fascinated and excited about cool public transportation systems throughout the world.)

Although we enjoyed the city centre, and in particular some sunset views of the creatively designed Taipei 101 tower from the top of Elephant Mountain, our highlights from this part of the country were our excursions to the neighbouring towns of Jiufen and Jinguashi, and Yangmingshan National Park. The Jiufen/Jinguashi area has some roots in gold mining, and up in the misty mountains, has a bit of an air of mystery to it. For those who are fans of the Mario Kart Wii game (and if you aren't, well, what's stopping you?!), it evoked some memories of the Wario Gold Mine circuit, while simultaneously bringing forth the song, "Heigh Ho" to our heads for the rest of the day. Fun combination! The town of Jiufen is so iconic for Taiwan that you might recognise a photo of it as it is often featured in travel advertisements for the country. And it is easy to see why, as this picturesque town sprawling across the hills is indeed extremely charming, especially when nighttime falls and the bright red lanterns start to illuminate the darkness. As the tradition of growing oolong tea is an important part of Taiwan, we visited the historic Jiufen tea house and learned all about the precise preparation of the tea before being left with our own tea leaves for unlimited brewing over a couple of hours. Complete. Bliss. And possibly the best tea Clare has ever tasted (and she is bringing some home for anyone who wants to share a cuppa!)

How many capital cities are lucky enough to have a National Park right on their doorsteps? We only got a taste of Yangmingshan National Park on our final afternoon in Taipei, but we made it worthwhile, battling the temperatures and humidity to complete a trail that cuts through the park and showcases the amazing geothermal activity of this area. Through more moody, misty mountains (possibly one of our favourite features of this island), we witnessed the bubbling mud and rising steam from the fumaroles as we climbed to the top of Mt. Qixing - the highest dormant volcano in Taiwan. A pretty challenging hike that neither of us really felt like doing, but felt like we needed to do to somehow prove something, and turned out to be a great, gruelling experience. How often do you get to share space with a volcano? Again, hard to believe that these fantastic experiences are within such easy proximity to the big city, and if you are short on time in Taiwan, rest assured that staying only in Taipei gives you no shortage of amazingly varied excursions.