Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
Taipei (臺北市 or 台北市) in Taiwan is the capital of the Republic of China (ROC).
Taipei City is located in the Taipei Basin in northern Taiwan. It is bordered by the Xindian River on the south, and the Danshui (Tamsui) River on the west. The northern districts of Shilin and Beitou extend north of the Keelung River and are bordered by Yangmingshan National Park.
Taipei was founded in the early 18th century and became an important center for overseas trade in the 19th century. The Republic of China took over the island in 1945 after Japan's defeat in World War II. The city became the provisional capital of the Kuomintang (KMT) government in December 1949 after the Communist government was formally installed in mainland China.
Climate
The average annual temperature is 23.6 °C (74.5 °F), with a summer average of 29.4 °C (84.9 °F) and a winter average of 14.9 °C (58.8 °F). The pacific typhoon season has no official bounds but most typhoons tend to form between May and November.
History
The region known as the Taipei basin was home to Ketagalan tribes before the eighteenth century. Han Chinese began to settle in the Taipei Basin in 1709. In the late 19th century, the Taipei area, where the major Han Chinese settlements in northern Taiwan and one of the designated foreign trade port, Tamsui, were located, gained economic importance due to the boosting foreign trade, especially that of tea exportation.
As settlement for losing the First Sino-Japanese War, China ceded the island of Taiwan to the Empire of Japan in 1895. After the Japanese take-over, Taipei, called Taihoku in Japanese, emerged as the political center of the Japanese Colonial Government. Much of the architecture of Taipei dates from the period of Japanese rule, including the Presidential Building which was the Office of the Taiwan Governor-General.
Landmarks and Attractions
The MRT (Taipei's Metro Rapid Transit System) stops at most areas of interest or are easily accessible from the transit system. There are well-marked signs, in both English and Chinese, throughout the stations to get you to your destination quickly. They have above and below ground lines. The above ground lines are particularly good, and cheap, for sightseeing. An automated system tells you each stations name when approached, in English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, and Hakka.
* Taipei 101 is a 101-floor landmark skyscraper that claimed the title of world's tallest building when it opened in 2004. Designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and constructed by KTRT Joint Venture, Taipei 101 remains the tallest completed skyscraper in the world, measuring 449 m (1,474 ft) from ground to roof. (The tallest incomplete skyscraper is the Burj Dubai now under construction in Dubai, UAE).
* The Presidential Office Building is located in the Zhongzheng District of Taipei.The Presidential Office Building has been the seat of Taiwan's executive branch of government since 1950. The historical structure was the residence of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan, during Taiwan's Japanese rule.
* The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a monument that was erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China. It was the center of a renaming controversy on May 19, 2007, when the central government renamed the memorial to National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.
The monument, surrounded by a park and a large square incorporating the National Concert Hall and National Theater in Taipei's Zhongzheng District.
* The National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is a memorial to one of the most recognizable founding fathers of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen, and was completed on May 16, 1972. From the opening of the hall, majority of the exhibits displayed were revolutionary events of the national founding fathers at the end of the Qing Dynasty. However, recently its function moved toward a multi-purpose social, educational and cultural center for the Taiwan public. The Memorial Hall is within walking distance to Taipei 101.
* Night Markets and Shopping Districts: Taipei has many night markets, most famous of which is the Shilin Night Market in the Shilin District of the city. The surrounding streets by Shilin Market get extremely crowded during the evening. Most night markets in Taiwan open around 4 p.m. as students begin returning home from school, crowds reach their peak between 8 and 11 p.m. Businesses continue operating well past midnight and close around 1 to 2 a.m. Ximending became the famous theater street in Taipei from 1930s and the prosperity proceeded after the defeat of Japan. Other market areas of note include Taipei Underground Market (with multiple entrances to/from Taipei Railway Station, K-Mall, and Shin Kong Mitsukoshi), Zhongshan Metro Mall, Dihua Street, Guanghua Bazzar, and Core Pacific City.
Taipei in Films
* Edward Yang'sYi Yi: A One and a Two(drama)
* Tsai Ming-liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn (drama)
* Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times (drama)
* Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman (comedy)
* Yee Chin-yen's Blue Gate Crossing (romance)
* Jay Chou's Secret (romance)
* Turn Left, Turn Right (Hong-Kong studio, filmed on location in Taipei)
* About Love (Japanese studio, filmed in three cities in Asia: Taipei, Tokyo, Shanghai)
