We were only passing through, en route to Okinawa. But it was nice to reacquaint ourselves with this very pleasant city, which we visited during our visa-waiting period in 2013.

Note that if you overnight at the airport Novotel (which is not at all a bad idea), you can catch one of their frequent shuttle buses from Bus-stop No 1 at Terminal 1.

But note, too, that you need to go DOWN a floor from arrivals. Otherwise you will find yourself waiting at another Bus-stop No 1 at Terminal 1, which fits the written description of its brother to a tee, but differs in that it is visited by no bus that has any intention of going anywhere near the Novotel. If you are aware of this ambiguity, you can be tucked up between your crisp white sheets an hour earlier than we were...

In the morning, after photographing the undeniably cute Santa pandas in the lobby, you can shuttle back to the airport, store your luggage in a locker, and catch the MRT into town. This service didn't exist when we were last here (in fact, it's only been running since March this year). The express service will get you into town in 35 minutes, and give you excellent views of those impressive Taiwanese mountains on the way.



Once at the Taipei Main Station, you can walk to the Huashan 1914 arts precinct. This is a great example of new-from-old. What was once an old factory complex has been converted into a maze of little galleries, performing arts spaces, and cafes, ideal for a wander on this warm and sunny winter's day. We got drinks at a friendly cafe just opening for its first day. (Mine was "almond tea", made from real "Chinese sweet almonds" aka "apricot kernels". Served with a cute little churro, it was really refreshing and tasty.)









We walked back to the station via the Shandao temple (and a rapidly ramping up police presence, apparently in anticipation of a demonstration about labour rights).



After a nice lunch at Hualien Dumplings, and a quick umbrella purchase (Nigel was finally replacing the one he bought in this same station mall in early 2013...), we headed back to the airport.

Peach don't open their check-in until two hours before the flight, so we could have spent an extra hour in town. But hey, it was a nice little Taipei refresh, and as Taiwan does three-month on-the-spot visas, I'm fairly confident we'll be back for more.