Tainan is Taiwan’s oldest city and, by most accounts, its most rewarding one. Founded as a Dutch colonial outpost in 1624 and later the seat of the Ming loyalist kingdom that expelled them, it accumulated temples, fortifications, and a culinary tradition over four centuries that Taipei, for all its scale and energy, simply cannot match. It is a city best understood slowly, on foot, with no fixed itinerary.
Temples and Old Town
Tainan has more temples per capita than any other city in Taiwan — hundreds of them, ranging from elaborate national shrines to neighborhood altars tucked between shophouses. The Confucius Temple, established in 1665, is the oldest in Taiwan and remains a working place of ceremony rather than a museum piece. The Chihkan Towers, built by the Dutch in 1653 as Fort Provintia, were taken over by Koxinga after the Dutch were expelled and are now a handsome ruin in the middle of the city. The Anping district, site of the original Dutch fort, is a short taxi ride from the center and worth an afternoon — the Anping Tree House, a 19th-century warehouse swallowed by banyan roots over decades of neglect, is one of those places that is exactly as strange as the photographs suggest.
Food
The argument for Tainan as the food capital of Taiwan is not seriously contested. The city is the origin of many dishes that spread across the island: bowl of beef soup for breakfast, milkfish congee from a stall that has been there longer than anyone can remember, shrimp rolls from a vendor near the Confucius Temple, coffin bread — thick toast stuffed with a thick cream filling — from the market behind Chenghuang Temple. The cooking is sweeter here than in Taipei, the portions smaller, and the pace of eating slower. The best strategy is to eat every two hours and walk in between.
Hayashi Department Store
Built in 1932 during the Japanese colonial period and recently restored, the Hayashi Department Store is a time-warp worth an hour. The building is a Japanese Art Deco landmark with the original terrazzo floors, a rooftop shrine that survived intact, and a retail mix that leans heavily into local craft, food products, and design. It sits on the edge of the old West Market district, where the surrounding streets of restored shophouses make for good walking even if you have no particular destination.
Getting There and Around
The high-speed rail from Taipei to Tainan takes under two hours, making it viable as a day trip though it deserves at least one night. The HSR station is on the edge of the city; a local train or taxi brings you into the center in twenty minutes. Tainan is flat and manageable by bicycle — YouBike stations are widespread — and the distances between sights are short enough that walking between them reveals the city better than any faster option would.