Postcard from Taipei

Surrounded by green, mountainous countryside, Taipei is a place where old and new exist in close proximity. Traditional temples and low-rise buildings sit alongside concrete apartment blocks, glass office towers, and the unmistakable silhouette of Taipei 101, rising, like a piece of bamboo, over the city.

We arrived in June to a blast of intense tropical humidity and heat. Torrential downpours would give way to brilliant sunshine, only for another storm to gather a few hours later. We had some very good guides for a few days of trying to get to know this city. The Uncles, our favourite menswear shop in Taipei, had kindly offered to show us around their hometown.

Jeremy is wearing a green Casentino vest, black and grey check cotton work shirt and a Western belt. 

Our explorations took us through some of Taipei's older neighbourhoods, where the streets are lined with narrow buildings, traditional shopfronts, balconies and the familiar green of trees growing out over the pavement. We spent time walking around Zhongshan, a neighbourhood with plenty of old charm, where the architecture and the daily life of the streets offer glimpses of the city's past.

The city's architecture is a particularly interesting reflection of its history. There are the ornate temples, with their elaborate rooflines; the low-rise shophouses and arcaded streets; and the more formal buildings left over from the period of Japanese rule, which lasted until 1945. These sit alongside the post-war concrete architecture that has come to define much of the city, and the more recent glass-and-steel developments that have transformed its skyline. Taipei is a city that doesn't seem particularly concerned with making all these different periods fit together neatly, instead they all crowd around the same streets, jostling for prominence.

Emily is wearing a unicorn print bandana as belt, while Phebe wears an ecru quarter zip sweater and a paisley silk bandana. 

Shang wears a Corduroy trucker jacket, a denim Western shirt, and check cashmere scarf. 

One of the city's more imposing landmarks is the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall — dedicated to the country’s founder — a vast white marble structure topped with a bright blue octagonal roof. The hall sits within expansive grounds, complete with gardens and fish ponds, and despite its monumental scale, the surrounding park is very much part of everyday life, with locals gathering early in the morning to practise Tai Chi and take their exercise.

To get a different perspective on the city, Kuan and Phebe from The Uncles suggested a walk up Elephant Mountain. A steep climb through thick, tropical greenery, the trail eventually opens out onto a series of viewpoints overlooking the city. From here, Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world, rises above a dense expanse of buildings, with the surrounding mountains visible in the distance. It is probably the best way to appreciate the scale of the city, and certainly a good way to understand the intensity of the June weather. By the time we reached the top, we were thoroughly soaked by a mixture of humidity and rain.

Food, meanwhile, was never far away. In Taiwan, eating is not simply something to fit around the rest of the day; it is one of the principal ways of spending it. There are breakfast shops, noodle counters, family restaurants, market stalls and late-night places that, after a few drinks, lure you in. Taiwan’s cuisine reflects the island's layered history, drawing on Chinese traditions, Japanese influences and local ingredients.

One morning, we got up early to meet our new friend David at Fu Hang Soy Milk, the famed traditional breakfast shop he runs, and a third-generation family business, for a bowl of slightly unusual but delicious soup made with curdled soy milk, vinegar, dried shrimp, preserved vegetables, and flaky, sesame-covered flatbread. A pretty good way to start the day.

Phebe wears an ecru quarter zip sweater and a paisley silk bandana. 

We followed this up with Henry Hsieh for lunch at the Plum Blossom Room, inside the Brother Hotel, and headed to Dadaocheng, one of Taipei's historic trading districts. Once an important international port. The area has been known for its trade in tea, textiles and dried goods for centuries, and remains a good place to explore some of the city's older architecture, its streets are lined with traditional shophouses.

Much of the pleasure of being shown around by locals is that the itinerary quickly becomes less of an itinerary. One place leads to another; a quick stop turns into a longer lunch; a drink becomes several. The Uncles introduced us to friends, took us to their favourite places.

Claudiu wears our ecru moleskin Games suit, a denim Western shirt, Western belt, and a brown Kilim scarf. 

One evening, Kuan and Phebe took us to Ningxia Night Market, where they showed us some of their favourite stalls, moving from one to the next, pulling up a stool, ordering and moving on, and we made our way through all Taipei’s delights: from oyster omelettes, washed down with a cold beer, to stinky tofu, and some traditional mango desserts. It’s a great way to spend an evening, although it requires a certain amount of restraint when deciding what to order at each stop.

As evening wore on, we eventually found ourselves in a karaoke room. Alongside beef noodles and Taiwan Beer, the song selection was an international affair, taking in Taiwanese pop favourites and a rather eclectic mix of British and American classics. The singing was enthusiastic, if not always entirely tuneful, which is the best way for Karaoke to be approached, wherever you might be in the world.