Taipei for first-time visitors

Must-see attractions

Taipei rewards the slow walker. The city's must-see list isn't a parade of trophy icons — it is a layered overlap of temples and theatres, civic memorials and quiet church doors, most of them within a few miles of each other. The 12 stops below trace that overlap. They include the political heavy hitters every guidebook lists alongside the stops a long-term resident would actually walk you past: a cathedral, a temple, a wall remnant, an off-axis theatre. The list is for travellers who want Taipei's civic and spiritual fabric, not its shopping malls. If you have three days, walk it in sections; if you have one, pick by district. The point is not to tick boxes — it is to read the city through the buildings it has chosen to keep.