Taipei is a boisterous and expensive city, and it lets you know it. About 6 million people live in and around Taiwan's capital, lured by the excitement of a bustling city on the move. And for the most part, they're not disappointed. Real estate is virtually unobtainable - Taipei residents have long dispensed with the dream of home-ownership - and the government is encouraging businesses to set up elsewhere in Taiwan. Despite this, the notion still prevails that to make it big in Taiwan, you have to set up in the heart of the capital - even if the air is perpetually toxic. Taiwan's capital is packed full of people, cars and smog - a real hotbed of renao, or liveliness. It's not a relaxing stopover, but the food is excellent, the people are friendly and there are some top-notch sights.

At first glance, Taipei is an intimidating confusion of sprawls, but given time and patience the logic at the heart of the city's layout will slowly begin to dawn. Even so, unless you read Chinese characters, the system of romanised Chinese characters used in Taiwan (called the Wade-Giles system) will leave even those with impeccable senses of direction floundering. There are frequent calls for the replacement of this perverse, unintelligable system with the reasonably successful 'Pinyin' system used in China. But this plan has met with staunch opposition: if it works on mainland China, the thinking goes, it must be bad.

Tienhsiang
The highlight of Tienhsiang is the nearby Taroko Gorge, probably Taiwan's most beautiful scenic spot. The gorge is 19km (12mi) long, sheer cliffs dropping away to a rushing river of white water. The Eternal Spring Shrine, just above the entrance to the gorge, straddles a waterfall: it was built as a memorial to the 450 workers who died building the Taroko highway. The town itself is a lovely little resort at the top of the gorge, nestled between towering cliffs. Relaxing and tranquil, there's not much to do in the town itself, but there are plenty of walks nearby.

Exactly 1km (about half a mile) uphill from Tienhsiang, the tunnel hike is, as its name suggests, a walk which leads through a dripping tunnel, past outstanding scenery, to the Paiyang Waterfall and beyond. A little further out of Tienhsiang, Wenshan Hot Springs is a very pleasant, natural spring. Tienhsiang is popular with honeymooners, so visit during the week if you want a bit of quiet solitude. A third of the way down the east coast, Tienhsiang is serviced by buses and tours from Taipei.


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