Taipei

Taipei is the easiest major city in Asia to like: compact, extremely safe, and with a food culture that runs from street stalls to serious Michelin dining. The National Palace Museum holds the imperial collection carried out of Beijing in 1949 and is the single best reason to come. Beitou, twenty minutes by metro, is a hot spring suburb with ryokan style hotels. The mountains at Yangmingshan are inside the city boundary. Autumn and spring are comfortable; typhoon season runs July to October.