One night in Taipei is not enough, but here is what to do with it

Layovers in Taipei are common and almost always wasted. If you land in the afternoon and leave the next morning, you have about twelve usable hours, which is enough for a genuinely good night if you do not try to do too much with it.

Drop your bag somewhere central and get on the metro immediately. It is clean, cheap and fast, and it will take you almost anywhere worth going in under thirty minutes. Do not rent a car, do not take taxis, and do not try to see anything north of the city.

Eat first. Not at a restaurant, at a market. Raohe is the manageable one: a single street, easy to walk end to end, and no risk of losing an hour deciding. Pepper buns, oyster omelette, a cold tea, and keep moving.

Then go up. Elephant Mountain at dusk is a twenty-minute climb and the best view of the city there is, with the tower lit up and the mountains behind it. Go before sunset so you can see the sky change; go on a weekday if you want space to stand.

After dark, pick a neighbourhood rather than a landmark. Da'an for bars and bookshops, Ximending if you want noise and neon. Both are within a short ride of anywhere you will be sleeping.

Finish with beef noodle soup. Anywhere with a queue of people in work clothes will do, and it will cost less than a coffee at the airport. Then sleep badly, get up early, and promise yourself a proper trip.

Taipei is a city that improves the longer you stay, which is a frustrating thing to write about a single night. Treat this as an argument for coming back.