The red fort
Spanish and Dutch.
lienyuan lee — CC BY 3.0 · yeowatzup — CC BY 2.0 · Ralff Nestor Nacor — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ralff Nestor Nacor — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ralff Nestor Nacor — CC BY-SA 4.0
A historic seaside town where the Tamsui River meets the sea, at the end of the red metro line, home to one of the oldest buildings in Taiwan: Fort San Domingo, first built of wood by the Spanish in 1628 and later rebuilt in stone by the Dutch, which is why locals call it the fort of the red-haired. The fort is a square red-brick block with thick walls that became a British consulate in the 19th century. Beside it stands the consul's residence, an elegant red-brick house with arched verandas, a wide lawn and old cannons looking over the river. The town is a lovely outing in itself: an old street packed with food stalls and a riverside promenade running to Fisherman's Wharf and its white Lover's Bridge, one of the best sunset spots around Taipei, as the sun sinks over the river and the mountain opposite. The ticket is about TWD 80 and covers other historic sites in town, per visitor guides. Taipei's metro reaches it easily, and an EasyCard works on the metro, buses and in shops.
Spanish and Dutch.
Arched verandas.
From the promenade.
Tamsui, at the mouth of the Tamsui River, about 40 minutes by metro from central Taipei
Take Taipei's red metro line to the end, about forty minutes from the centre; the fort is a twenty-minute walk.