Tamsui (Danshui) Old Street & Fort San Domingo

Tamsui is the riverside town at the end of the MRT Red Line — a 40-minute ride from central Taipei that takes you to a former port town where Fort San Domingo (a 17th-century Spanish and later Dutch fort), a Japanese-era customs house, and the waterfront old street (lined with stalls selling iron eggs, fish crackers, and ā-gěi — a fried tofu pouch stuffed with glass noodles) provide a half-day excursion that covers 400 years of Taiwanese history.

Fort San Domingo, built by the Spanish in 1628 and occupied by the Dutch, Chinese, British, Japanese, and Americans at various points, is the most historically layered colonial building in Taiwan. The adjacent British Consul's Residence (a red-brick Victorian building) and the Tamsui Oxford College (the first Western-style college in Taiwan, founded by Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay in 1882) complete a heritage cluster that documents Taiwan's colonial encounters.

The Tamsui waterfront at sunset — looking across the river to the mountains of Guanyinshan with the sky turning orange — is one of the most popular evening destinations for Taipei residents, and the walk along the riverfront promenade, eating street food and watching the fishermen and the ferries, provides the most relaxed end-of-day experience accessible from the city.