Taipei 101 tower dominates the Taipei skyline Sigh of the The city that’s become a byword for high-tech is embracing life in analogue, celebrated for butterfl y-fi lled forests, trekking trails, hot springs, short-break options, culture and cuisine. TIGER WORDS SALLY HOWARD 72 QANTAS JUNE 2015 JUNE 2015 QANTAS 73 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Shilin night market Culture youth CITY GUIDE TAIPEI S TIGERS GO, Taipei is endearingly tame. In recent years, this Asian boom town has broken away from fast-paced cousins Shanghai and Beijing to cultivate a laid-back lifestyle that’s all its own. Riverside cycle paths, tucked-away tea houses, a bookish take on hipsterdom and Acelebrations of all that’s slow-paced in culture and consumption have come to defi ne a city that, as the old Taiwanese adage goes, lives “for the aroma of books… the smell of tea”. This onus on quality of life is partly due to Taiwan’s booming, politically conscious middle class. Its rising expectations are refl ected in civic improvements that include a rapid expansion of the Taiwanese capital’s mass rapid transit system (MRT), a citywide cycle-sharing scheme, YouBike (youbike.com.tw), with daily rentals now exceeding 60,000, and projects aimed at reversing the erosion of Taipei’s natural environment. The latter include the Green Net, a citywide network of newly planted green spaces, and Tamsui waterfront, a regeneration project opening the riverside quarter’s post-war embankments and improving its pedestrian access to the city via a new “sky garden” overpass. Taipei’s greenness is a surprise to those who think of the city as an exhaust-fugged corridor of technology, sprawling west from Taipei to the city of Hsinchu. Taiwan ranked 145 out of 146 nations in the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index Report, but the East-Asian export powerhouse has come a long way in the intervening decade, improving its ranking to No.46 out of 178 in 2014. It has managed a 60 per cent reduction in river pollution (since 2001) and a drop in bad air-quality days from 17 per cent a year in 1987 to less than three per cent in 2014. Today, butterfl y-fi lled forests, well-maintained trekking trails (through the “four beast” mountains that are the backdrop to the city) and pristine hot springs are all within easy reach of downtown Taipei. Taiwan has also become a destination for Chinese “lung-cleaning vacations”. For all of its recent greening, Taipei’s man-made attractions, culture and cuisine, are its principal draw. While the “national” artefacts of China, rather than Taiwan, are on display in the city’s National Museum of History (49 Nan Hai Road, www.nmh.gov.tw), it’s worth battling the throngs of vacationing Chinese to see its ❯ Lungshan Temple Temple in Wanhua District Beef noodles PHOTOGRAPHY (ALSO PREVIOUS PAGE): GETTY IMAGES PREVIOUS PAGE): (ALSO PHOTOGRAPHY 74 QANTAS JUNE 2015 JUNE 2015 QANTAS 75 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall displays of Zhou Dynasty bronze instruments, man-sized Ming tiger” years of her youth. “We grew up surrounded by the cheap TV dynasty calligraphy scrolls and Qing dynasty miniatures (a tiny sets and CD players produced in Taiwanese factories,” she says. “The carving of a cabbage in jade being the one the Chinese fl ock here for). culture youth [hipsters] are a backlash against this. They read books, Make time, too, for the atmospheric folk Taoist-meets-Buddhist they write poems and they are giving up their jobs on the corporate Lungshan Temple (Guangzhou Street, Wanhua District, lungshan. ladder to open slow coff ee shops and vintage stores.” org.tw), abuzz in the early evening with the chatter of young people Whether it’s best understood as an analogue backlash or part of a praying for success in exams and luck in love; the 89th fl oor observatory broader global trend, slow Taipei has plenty to recommend it. Keep of Taipei 101 (7 Xinyi Road, www.taipei-101.com.tw), once the world’s your schedule light and remember, as Confucius once said of life, “it tallest building and still the place to get a sense of the city limits and does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.” towering mountains beyond; and the 8ha Botanical Garden (53 Nanhai Road, tpbg.tfri.gov.tw) with its arbors of rare plant and tree species (1500) and rare birds. SEE & DO an option. An excellent 30-minute When it comes to cuisine, the world is your oyster – or, rather, your Ivy’s Kitchen foot massage can be had for $10. fl uff y, fl ash-fried oyster omelette. Infl ected by the pork- and rice-rich Cookery School diet of the indigenous Hakka, by decades of Japanese imperial rule, 446 Section 6, Zhongshan North Party World and the long-running intercommunication with the Han Chinese, Road, Shilin District. kitchenivy.com Karaoke House Taiwan’s culinary culture is one of Asia’s most omnivorous, and its Ivy Chen’s half-day Taiwanese Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road, most underrated. There’s something delicious (and safe) to tuck into cookery taster course includes a Daan District. www.cashboxparty.com on every street corner and at every price-point, from the esteemed Din shopping trip to Si Dong food market The Japanese invented it, but it’s the Tai Fung (whose dumplings are folded by hand, see EAT) to delicious and lessons in cooking Taiwanese Taiwanese who took karaoke to their street eats such as deeply savoury tofu, steamed-beef sandwiches, and favourites such as beef noodle soup hearts. Taipei’s takes on the trend light and aromatic vermicelli broths. There are few Taipei experiences and handmade dumplings, followed range from bring-your-pet karaoke, that beat grazing on street food at one of the many night food markets, by a generous lunch. to couples’ erotic karaoke and singles’ the scents of grilling squid and beef broth fi lling the air. speed-dating karaoke. With fi ve In Taipei, there’s a benefi t in going with the fl ow. The Taiwanese Snake Alley fl oors of karaoke and a 24-hour concept of the simple life, or jiandan, takes in the joy of a hand-stitched Huaxi Street Night Market, buffet, Party World caters to all book as much as the pleasure of an ancient tea cerem ony, browsing Wanhua District. tastes. About $10 for three hours. for food and handicrafts at the Sunday Simple Market (54 Songqin Many come here for the writhing Street, Xinyi District) or lingering over a coff ee and winter-melon cages of snakes and the opportunity Elephant candy cake in a cafe-cum-art gallery converted from a Ming dynasty- to sample the snake blood and snake Mountain Trail era courtyard home, Arthouse Yard (see SEE & DO). semen said by Chinese medicine Songren Road, Xinyi District. Alex Lin, 36, recently returned to her home city after 10 years in New adherents to be an aphrodisiac. For The one-hour walk up the well- ❯ York. She sees in the Taipei’s trend for the slow a reaction to the “Asian the less brave, refl exology shops are marked Nangang District Hiking GETTY IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHY: 76 QANTAS JUNE 2015 CITY GUIDE TAIPEI B For airfares to Taipei call Qantas on 13 13 13 or visit qantas.com haute Han Chinese restaurant within 14th-century Japanese-style the National Palace Museum. The courtyard home and decorated with à la carte has some hits (prawns in retro typewriters and objets d’art, a punchy ginger sauce) and misses typifi es Taipei’s new laid-back vibe. (fallopian tubes of Asiatic grass frogs, Settle in for a couple of hours over a anyone?), but it’s the tasting menus pot of oolong, before browsing the Hot springs at Beitou Geothermal Valley inspired by the museum exhibits that retro ceramics, homewares, diners come for, including a jadeite bookshop and gallery downstairs. cabbage with bok choy and black sesame, and tender duck in honey STAY and spring onion, modelled on a Mandarin Zen master’s feast dish according Oriental Taipei to a 14th-century scroll. 158 Dunhua North Road. (2) 2715 6888. mandarinoriental.com Trail to the city and pavilion viewing Huashan 1914 Din Tai Fung This newly minted outpost of point on Elephant Mountain is a Creative Park 45 Shifu Road, Taipei 101 Mall. the Hong Kong luxury brand has favourite with romancing couples. 1 Bade Road Section 1, Zhong Zhen Xinyi District. (2) 8101 7799. everything you might expect – Set off early evening – it’s steep, so District. www.huashan1914.com dintaifung.com.tw marble-fi tted suites, a hushed, wear sensible shoes and carry water On the site of a late 20th-century It’s seen as indicative of Taipei state-of-the-art spa, and destination – for spectacular views of a darkening tobacco factory, Huashan 1914 being overlooked in the awarding restaurants and bars (thick with Taipei cityscape and plump pink sunset. Creative Park is now a warren of of international plaudits that this socialites) including the high-end independent restaurants, galleries classy steamed-dumpling and noodle Cantonese Ya Ge and the Jade Millennium Hot Spring and performance spaces – and a restaurant has achieved two Michelin Lounge, whose afternoon teas sell 6 Zhongshan Road, Beitou District. favourite with browsing Taipei culture stars in its Hong Kong incarnations, out six weeks in advance. From $450. An afternoon unwinding at a hot youth. Come during the week as yet none in its city of birth (where it spring is a Taipei must.