Taipei tourist information

The region known as the Taipei basin was home to Ketagalan tribes before the 18th century. Han Chinese began to settle in Taipei Basin in 1709.

In the late 19th century, the Taipei area, where the major Han settlements in northern Taiwan and one of the designated foreign trade port, Tamsui, were located, gained economic importance due to the boosting foreign trade, especially that of tea exportation. In 1875, the northern part of Taiwan was separated from Taiwan Prefecture and incorporated into the new Taipei Prefecture. Having been established adjoining the flourishing townships of Bangka and Dadaocheng, the new prefectural capital was known as Chengnei, "the inner city", and government buildings were erected there. From 1875 (during the Qing Dynasty) until the beginning of Japanese rule in 1895, Taipei was part of Danshui County of Taipei Prefecture and the prefectural capital. Taipei remained a temporary provincial capital before it officially became the capital of Taiwan in 1894.

As settlement for losing the Sino-Japanese War, China ceded the entire island of Taiwan to Japan in 1895. After the Japanese take-over, Taipei, called Taihoku in Japanese, emerged as the political center of the Japanese Colonial Government. Much of the architecture of Taipei dates from the period of Japanese rule, including the Presidential Building which was the Office of the Taiwan Governor-General.

During the Japanese rule, Taihoku was incorporated in 1920 as part of Taihoku Prefecture. It included Bangka, Dadaocheng, and Chengnei among other small settlements. The eastern village Matsuyama was annexed into Taipei City in 1938. Upon the Japanese defeat in the Pacific War and its consequent surrender in August 1945, Taiwan was taken over by Chinese troops. Subsequently, a temporary Office of the Taiwan Province Administrative Governor was established in Taipei City.

In 1949, the Communists forced the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek to flee mainland China and establish Taipei as the provisional capital of the ROC. Taipei was also the capital of Taiwan Province until the 1960s when the provincial administration was moved to Jhongsing Village in central Taiwan.

As approved on December 30, 1966 by Executive Yuan, Taipei became a centrally administered municipality on July 1, 1967. In the following year, Taipei City expanded again by annexing Shilin, Beitou, Neihu, Nangang, Jingmei, and Muzha. In 1990, 16 districts in Taipei City were consolidated into the current 12 districts.

All scheduled international flights are served by Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in nearby Taoyuan County. And Songshan Airport at the heart of the city serves mostly domestic flights, with the exception of some charter flights.

Taipei's public transport system MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), now also known as Metro Taipei, incorporates a light rail system based on VAL technology with its conventional metro. Both are currently undergoing significant expansion. Unlike most rail transport in Taiwan which follow the Japanese practice and have trains running on the left, the Taipei public transport system runs its trains on the right.

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Taipei Main Station is the largest Taiwanese railway station and also functions as the nexus for the MRT system.

An extensive city bus system runs throughout the city to serve areas not covered by the MRT system. Sometimes buses require payment upon boarding, sometimes upon exiting. Many routes, due to their length, could require payment upon both boarding and exiting. Riders of the city MRT system are able to use their MRT passes on buses, making the bus system effectively an extension of the MRT system. The pass, known as an Easy Card, contain credits that are deducted each time a ride is taken. The Easy Card, Taipei's equivalent to Hong Kong's Octopus Card, is extremely convenient since it is read via proximity sensory panels on buses and in MRT stations, thus eliminating the need for the passenger to remove the card from his or her wallet or purse.

A quintessential form of transportation in Taipei (and much of Taiwan) is the ubiquitous motor-scooter, somewhat analogous to the motorcycles found in other industrialized nations. However, motor-scooters are not subject to all conventional traffic laws, and generally thread between cars and occasionally through oncoming traffic. A loophole in Taipei's motor vehicle laws ensures that in any accident between a motor-scooter and another vehicle, the other vehicle is at fault. For these reasons, scooters are perhaps the most convenient way for locals to navigate through their city.

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