Taipei stacks four cultural layers in one basin: Qing merchant streets, Japanese colonial civic architecture, martial-law-era tea-house dissent, and a contemporary scene running through converted factories. Three days walking between them, mostly by MRT.
Taiwan's first modern art museum, opened 1983 in Kao Er-pan's stacked white cantilevers abstracting a Chinese tou-kung bracket. Floors rotate Taiwanese modernists and Venice Biennale returns. Tue–Sun 09:30–17:30, Sat to 20:30.
Contemporary art inside a 1921 red-brick Japanese colonial school that later served as Taipei City Hall. Programming leans to new media, sound art and Southeast Asian artists. Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:30.
A 1914 sake and camphor distillery turned gallery complex — exposed pipework, chimneys and vaulted brick halls now hold ticketed exhibitions, the indie cinema Spot Huashan, and Taiwanese design studios. Grounds open all day.
The 1937 tobacco factory is Taipei's finest Japanese industrial-modern ensemble: a baroque courtyard garden, cypress corridors around a central pond, the Taiwan Design Museum, and Not Just Library inside the restored workers' bathhouse.
Twin 1987 halls by Yang Cho-cheng in Ming palace style — yellow glazed roof tiles, red columns, 1,500 and 2,000 seats. The National Symphony Orchestra, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and touring opera all play here.
A 1920s Japanese wooden official's residence where dangwai dissidents, poets and New Wave film-makers argued over oolong through the 1970s and 80s. The wisteria still shades the veranda; tatami rooms take reservations.
Taiwan's oldest museum, founded 1908, housed in a 1915 Greek-revival hall with Doric columns and a stained-glass dome, set in 228 Peace Park. Indigenous Formosan collections, natural history, and the Land Bank annexe opposite.
A 200-seat theatre on Zhongshan North Road programming Beijing opera, Taiwanese glove puppetry, acrobatics and Indigenous dance in 90-minute mixed bills with English surtitles. Performances Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 20:00.
A 200-metre Qing-dynasty street of arcaded shophouses in Wanhua, restored with original brick, timber beams and Japanese-era shopfront lettering. The adjoining Heritage and Culture Education Centre covers old Monga. Tue–Sun 09:00–18:00.
Taipei's 1850s trading spine, lined with baroque, Minnan and Modernist facades still selling dried seafood, Chinese herbs and tea by the sack. Xiahai City God Temple draws crowds praying to the Old Man Under the Moon for a partner.
A hillside squatter settlement built by mainland veterans in the 1960s above the Xindian River, saved from demolition and reopened as an artist village — resident studios, alley installations and terraced vegetable plots. Tue–Sun 11:00–18:00.
A working neighbourhood market beside Taiwan's first modern public-housing estate, built 1964 with its distinctive spiral staircases. Queues form for sesame-oil chicken, Songqing pot stickers and taro balls; tour groups almost never come.