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 — in 1653, and remains of both still stand 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.