New Taipei

New Taipei (新北), known in Mandarin Chinese as Xinbei, surrounds Taipei on all sides. Technically it is the most populous city in Taiwan, but that’s only because it encompasses so much of Taipei’s urban sprawl and rural back-country. There isn’t any sort of unified identity to New Taipei; it’s merely an administrative contrivance, the successor to Taipei County.

That being said, New Taipei is home to a vast wealth of historic and natural sights within easy reach of the capital. The attractions are far too numerous to list and start with historic Tamsui, the hot springs of Wulai, the mountainside mining towns of Ruifang, Fulong Beach and the Old Caoling Railway Tunnel in Gongliao, Yeliu Geopark and the UFO village in Wanli, the old streets of Sanxia, Shenkeng, and even Xinzhuang, the tea plantations of Pinglin, the green algal reefs of Shimen, the brick kilns of Linkou, the pottery shops of Yingge, and the entire Pingxi railway corridor, among many others.