Sun Moon Lake, misty water in the mountains

High in the hills of Nantou, Sun Moon Lake is the largest lake in Taiwan and the country's favourite place to slow down. Mornings usually begin under mist: the far shore disappears, the ferries sound their horns, and the whole basin feels much older than the resorts along its edge. The name comes from its two halves — a rounder eastern lobe and a slimmer western one — divided by the small sacred island of Lalu, which belongs to the Thao, the indigenous people whose village at Ita Thao still anchors the eastern shore.

The easiest way to see it is by water. Ferries loop between the piers at Shuishe, Xuanguang and Ita Thao, and you can hop off for a bowl of noodles or a skewer of grilled boar sausage at the village market. Above Xuanguang, the Ci'en Pagoda climbs a wooded hill to a view over both lobes at once; on the northern shore the tiered Wenwu Temple looks straight down the water with its two enormous stone lions at the gate.

The other classic is the bike. The lakeside cycle path from Xiangshan is regularly named one of the world's prettiest, running on boardwalks just above the surface. Inland, the hills around Yuchi grow the Assam black tea the Japanese planted a century ago — the tea houses will brew you Ruby #18, with its faint cinnamon note, looking out over the terraces.

Stay a night rather than day-tripping: sunrise over the water is the thing people remember from central Taiwan.