What's happening in Taipei this week?

Taipei's week revolves around its night markets. Raohe Street Market in Songshan opens nightly at 5pm, but Tuesday through Thursday the crowd thins enough that you can stand still at the pepper bun stall near the Ciyou Temple entrance without getting pushed forward by the person behind you. The hu jiao bing cost 60 TWD, about $1.85, and the line moves in roughly 8 minutes on a Wednesday. Shilin Night Market is the one every guidebook names first. It is also the one where Saturday crowds compress the alleys to single-file shuffling by 8pm. Go on a Monday or Tuesday instead. Ningxia Night Market on Minsheng West Road is smaller, 20-odd stalls, and it skews toward local office workers ordering taro balls and oyster omelets after 6pm on weeknights. Grease and scallion smoke hang low under the awnings. Most vendors stay open until midnight.

Monday is museum-closed day across most of Taipei. The National Palace Museum in Shilin, founded in 1925 and home to over 696,000 Chinese imperial artifacts, shuts on Mondays. So does the National Taiwan Museum near 228 Peace Memorial Park, Taiwan's oldest since 1908. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Yuanshan follows the same pattern. Treat Monday as your temple and tea day. Longshan Temple in Wanhua holds its most active prayer sessions on the 1st and 15th of the lunar month, but any weekday morning before 9am you'll find worshippers burning incense in the courtyard. Sandalwood smoke curls through the carved stone columns. From Longshan, walk 10 minutes south to Bopiliao Historic Block for Qing-era shophouse facades without weekend photo crowds. Tuesday through Thursday the city feels residential. The MRT is less packed after 9:30am, and restaurants on Yongkang Street serve lunch without 40-minute weekend waits. Dinner at Din Tai Fung's original Xinyi Road location still needs 30 minutes of queuing on a Thursday. Weekend waits reach 90 minutes.

Friday and Saturday nights pull the city toward Xinyi District, where couples crowd the base of Taipei 101 on their way to the observation deck. Last entry is at 9pm, and tickets run 600 TWD per adult, about $18.55. The weekend hiking crowd heads to Elephant Mountain for the tower-and-skyline photo at golden hour, but the trail gets congested after 4:30pm on Saturdays. Go at 6am instead. Sunrise light hits the tower from the east, and you'll share the overlook with maybe 15 people rather than 200. Sunday mornings belong to Daan Forest Park, where tai chi circles form by 6:30am and the pond-side benches fill with newspaper readers. The Jianguo Weekend Flower and Jade Market runs Saturday and Sunday under the Jianguo Elevated Road overpass from 9am to 6pm. The jade side is more tourist-oriented. The flower side is where Taipei grandmothers buy orchids at 150 TWD per pot, about $4.65.

Taipei's hot-season weather follows a pattern you can set your day by. Mornings start warm and overcast, typically around 26°C with humidity near 90%. By 2pm, temperatures reach 34 to 36°C and afternoon thunderstorms build over the mountains east of the city. The storms roll through in 20 to 40 minutes, then the streets steam dry. Plan outdoor activities before noon or after 5pm. The MRT is air-conditioned to around 22°C, so going underground during the hottest hours is practical, not a compromise. Yangmingshan National Park sits at 500 to 1,120 meters elevation and runs 3 to 5°C cooler than the basin floor. It is a strong weekday escape when the afternoon heat builds. The sulfur vents at Xiaoyoukeng smell like rotten eggs. Bring a packable rain jacket. 7-Eleven sells folding umbrellas at most MRT station exits for around 100 TWD.