Visit the National Palace Museum, home to one of the world’s largest collections of Chinese art, with more than 600,000 artifacts including ceramics, jade, paintings, calligraphy and documents. Much of the collection— including the famous carved jadeite cabbage—was secretly shipped in crates to Taiwan before the Nationalists fled mainland China in 1949 (www.npm.gov.tw).
Eat at Din Tai Fung, the Taipei institution famous for Shanghai-style dumplings. Try the xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and traditional chicken soup (www.dintaifung.com.tw).
See Taipei 101, currently the world’s tallest building. At 508 meters and 101 stories, it boasts the world’s fastest elevators, which travel from bottom to top in only 37 seconds (7 Xinyi Road; taipei101.com.tw).
Ride the new Maokong Gondola to Maokong, a valley located in the hills of the Muzha Tea Plantation. Stop for a cup of tie guanyin, an oolong tea, at one of the dozens of teahouses(gondola.trtc.com.tw).
