Taipei

Taipei – Largest City of Taiwan 

Taipei is the largest city of Taiwan as well as its economic, political and cultural centre having a modern cosmopolitan metropolis with lively and diversified face and full of exuberance. It is the national capital city and is in the northern area of the island in a basin between the Yangming Mountains and the Central Mountains.

Being the fourth largest administrative area of Taiwan after New Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung, the Greater Taipei metropolitan area encompassing the central Taipei City with the surrounding New Taipei City and Keelung represents the largest urban group in Taiwan.

 Taipei was founded in the early 18th century during the Qing Dynasty rule and became an important place for overseas trade in the 19th century. Taipei was made the capital of Taiwan Province cicca 1886 by the Qing Dynasty when Taiwan was separated from Fujian Province.

 Taipei City is a home to around 2,695,007 inhabitants, with the metropolitan city having a population of around 7,028,583. The city proper population is on the decrease in recent years while population of the adjacent New Taipei is on the increase.

World’s Largest Foreign Exchange Reserves 

Being the centre of rapid economic development in the country it has now become one of the global cities in production of sophisticated technology and components which have been the part of the so-called Taiwan Miracle bringing about dramatic growth in the city with foreign direct investment in the 1960s.

Taiwan is presently a creditor economy having one of the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves as of December 2012 of more than US$403 billion. Taipei is a world of fascinating contrast from the world’s tallest building to the largest collection of Chinese art and is a mixture of the modern as well as traditional together with a generous amount of energy with friendly people.

Taiwan is endowed with mountains, with over 200 of its peaks, more than 3,000 metres high thus making Taiwan geographically very unique. Since mountains are seen all over, mountain climbing has become a popular leisure activity in Taiwan.

Rich Marine Ecology

Taiwan has rich marine ecology and one comes across groups of bottlenose dolphins, spinner dolphins, Risso’s dolphins as well as pan tropical spotted dolphins that tend to jump out of the Pacific Ocean along the east.

 In Kending towards the southern tip of Taiwan and on Green Island and the Penghu Archipelao one will find Azure seas and magnificent coral reefs and this place is an amazing discovery. The climate is warm and humid and a variety of terrain which include plains, basins, sandbars, hill, mountains and plateaus have made the country a home to various animals and plant life including many endemic species.

This can therefore be regarded as a big gigantic eco-park. Taiwan is also known for its hot springs and the warm waters of these springs are heated and charged by the earth’s own energy and considered to be soothing, revitalizing and reinvigorating.

Few of the spring have been diverted into bath-houses and health spas where it can be enjoyed in pools or private bathrooms with other traditional treatments also offered. Others are left completely natural in forests and along the river side which are ideal spots for relaxing and relieving the tired body on a long hike in the wilderness. Taipei is one of those exciting places with plenty to explore and cherish.