Tainan, where Taiwan's history began

Tainan was the island's capital for two centuries and still behaves like it: low streets, banyan shade, and more temples per square kilometre than anywhere else in Taiwan. The Dutch built **Fort Zeelandia** at Anping in the 1620s and **Fort Provintia** — now Chihkan Tower — a few years later, and both are still standing among the noodle shops. A short walk away, the **Anping Treehouse** is the real emblem of the city: an abandoned salt warehouse whose walls and roof have been completely swallowed by banyan roots, with a boardwalk threaded through the middle of it. Worship and daily life sit on top of each other here. The **Confucius Temple**, founded in 1665 and Taiwan's first, keeps its red walls and old cypress; the Grand Matsu Temple and the Official God of War Temple draw a steady flow of incense and fortune blocks. Then there's *Shennong Street*, a lane of restored Qing shophouses now full of tiny bars, ceramic studios and lantern light after dark. Most people come for the food, and they are right to. Tainan invented **danzai noodles** — a small bowl of noodles under minced pork and a shrimp — and does milkfish soup for breakfast, beef soup with meat so fresh it cooks in the broth, shrimp rolls, and coffin bread, a hollowed slab of fried toast filled with chowder. Guohua Street and the Yongle market blocks are the concentrated version. West of town, the **Qigu salt flats** turn pink and white at sunset and the lagoons fill with migrating black-faced spoonbills in winter. Tainan is the deepest, tastiest stop on any Taiwan itinerary.