Things to Do in New Taipei City, Taiwan

Quick facts: Over 200 tea houses and food stalls pack into this narrow mountain lane, serving everything from taro balls to street-side stinky tofu. The street draws over 6 million visitors annually, making it one of the most visited spots in northern Taiwan.

Highlights: Legend says the old street's iconic red lanterns were inspired by a 1989 Japanese film, not local tradition, and the lanterns only went up after the movie crew asked shopkeepers to decorate for atmosphere. Today, the cascading red lanterns glow from 4 PM onward, transforming the stone stairways into something that feels straight out of a Studio Ghibli dream.

Quick facts: Plunging 40 meters down and stretching 20 meters wide, it's the broadest waterfall in Taiwan. The mist from the cascade creates rainbows on sunny afternoons, visible from the viewing platforms below.

Highlights: Unlike most waterfalls that crash into deep pools, this one drops over a massive cliff face with a unique curtain-like shape, earning it the nickname "Little Niagara of Taiwan." Visitors can feel the thunderous vibration through the wooden boardwalk and get misted by the spray from just meters away.

Quick facts: Over 4,000 years of wind and salt spray have carved Yehliu's sandstone into more than 180 distinct formations across a narrow 1.7-kilometer peninsula. The most photographed formation, the Queen's Head, naturally lost 7 centimeters of its neck width over the past decade and is expected to break completely within the next 10 to 15 years.

Highlights: The Queen's Head formation has been slowly decapitated by the elements at roughly half a centimeter per year, meaning visitors right now are seeing a version of it that will never exist again. Standing on the cape at sunset, the honeycomb weathering patterns on the rocks glow amber and gold, creating the illusion that the entire peninsula is breathing.

Quick facts: Every year during the Lantern Festival, over 100,000 sky lanterns float up from this single railway town. The old street still has an active coal railway running right through its center, so visitors have to step aside when trains pass.

Highlights: Unlike most night markets or old streets, this one has an active train track running straight down the middle, so you're shopping and eating just inches from where trains roll through. Hundreds of glowing paper lanterns rise simultaneously during festivals, turning the entire valley into a slow-motion fireworks display of floating fire.

Quick facts: Each year, visitors release over 100,000 sky lanterns from the railway tracks that run through the old street. The train tracks double as the main pedestrian walkway, with trains passing through every 30-60 minutes and everyone quickly stepping aside.

Highlights: You write your wishes on a large paper lantern, light the fuel cell inside, and release it into the night sky as it rises past the old buildings on both sides of the tracks. The tradition started as a way to signal that everything was safe after a long day of work, and now over 2,000 lanterns float up on a busy evening, creating a river of floating fire in the sky.

Quick facts: Over 700,000 ancient Chinese artifacts are housed here, with only about 1% on display at any given time. The collection spans 8,000 years of Chinese history, from Neolithic jades to Qing dynasty paintings.

Highlights: The centerpiece is a single cabbage carved from a piece of jadeite, complete with a crisp mantis perched on its leaves, so lifelike you can see the veins in the vegetable. Most visitors miss that this 19th-century Qing palace carving uses the natural color gradients in the jade to create shading from stem to tip.

Quick facts: Two thick steel cables anchor this 200-meter bridge into the mountainsides on either end, making it feel rock-solid even as you sway slightly 200 meters above the valley floor. On clear days, the views stretch all the way to the Pacific Ocean and Guishan Island, while clouds often roll in below your feet in the afternoon.

Highlights: Unlike most suspension bridges that rely on tall towers, this one uses a unique parabolic cable system anchored directly into the cliffs, giving it a sleek, low-profile silhouette against the forest. Step to the middle and the bridge vibrates with a low hum from the wind funnelling through the valley, a sensation you can feel in your chest.

Quick facts: Steaming fumaroles and sulfuric hot springs dot this volcanic landscape, with the highest peak, Qixing Mountain, rising 1,120 meters above sea level. Over 2 million annual visitors come to see the sea of cherry blossoms in spring and the breathtaking views of Taipei Basin from the mountain trails.

Highlights: On a clear winter morning, you can lie in a硫化氢-scented public hot spring pool staring up at steam mixing with mist over the caldera. The park has erupted at least 20 times in the last 2.5 million years, and the volcanic vents still hiss at over 90 degrees Celsius today.

Quick facts: On weekends, over 50,000 visitors flood these narrow lanes to sample snacks from 200-plus food stalls. The street sits right where Taiwan's longest river meets the sea, creating a waterfront promenade that's been a trading hub for over 130 years.

Highlights: A handful of old medicine shops here still sell "Tamsui sheng yao" or raw medicinal herbs, a fading tradition from the Japanese era when the street was a pharmacy row. Look for the 1920s-era two-story brick buildings with arched verandas, survivors of a typhoon that leveled most of the original wooden storefronts in 1911.

Quick facts: Plunging 40 meters down a series of steep rock terraces, this cascade creates a natural shower effect that's visible from a kilometer away. The water here carries a distinct yellowish tint from dissolved minerals, giving the falls their golden appearance against the dark green jungle backdrop.

Highlights: Unlike most waterfalls you can only view from a distance, you can actually stand directly underneath this one and let the mineral-rich water pound your shoulders like a natural pressure massage. The force is so strong that locals swear a 3-minute soak under the cascade leaves your skin feeling noticeably smoother, thanks to the high calcium and sulfur content filtering through layers of volcanic rock.