Kaohsiung

In through the dragon's mouth and out through the tiger's, in that order. Reversed, it is said to undo the point. The spiral stair inside is one person wide, so once the queue moves there is no turning back. Other shrines line the same lake shore.

Eight pagodas line the avenue in front of the main hall, a seated Buddha at the far end, so the walk from gate to statue alone runs close to twenty minutes. Admission is free, with canteens and a teahouse inside.

Five minutes by ferry from Gushan, and scooters ride aboard with their riders still on them. The island is long and thin, so a rented bicycle covers it end to end in half a day. Rip-current warnings go up often at the beach; read the board first.

Dock warehouses put up in the 1970s, turned into galleries and shops. The old freight rails still lie between them and the light rail runs across the top. Outdoor pieces stay up after dark, but the indoor halls mostly close at six.

A stained-glass ceiling thirty metres across covers the concourse where the two metro lines meet. It hangs outside the gates, so standing under it costs nothing.

The consular residence of 1879 sits on the hilltop, joined by a brick stair to the office down at the water. Below it, Sizihwan is where people gather for the sunset, reached by crossing the campus of National Sun Yat-sen University.

It opened in 2018 on the grounds of a former army training camp. One roof carries a walk-through space with no walls beneath the building, so neighbours come and sit in it on afternoons with nothing programmed.

Come evening the main road shuts and two rows of stalls take the middle of it. Exit 11 at Formosa Boulevard station comes up in the thick of them. Most stalls post their prices, but the share of local customers here is low.

Grey mudstone ridges run for kilometres with next to nothing growing on them. Walking the whole path takes about half an hour, with no tree on it to stand under. After rain the mud turns slick and the ridge section is closed off.

Bananas were gathered and shipped out of this town, whose shophouses still front onto a run of stone arches you can walk the length of in the rain.

The river crosses the city into the harbour, with walkways and open-air cafes along both banks of its lower reach. After sunset small solar-powered boats loop under the bridges. Around Lunar New Year a lantern festival lines the banks.

A neighbourhood night market packed into one car park block in a tight grid, with more locals than tourists. The aisles are narrow, so everyone flows in one direction. It stays shut on Mondays and Wednesdays; walk over from Kaohsiung Arena MRT station.

The old Kaohsiung Port station, where the southern railway began in 1908. The station building is now a railway museum, and the wide freight yard in front became a lawn with its rails left in place. Light rail trams glide along one side of the park.

A Hakka town roughly sixty minutes' drive inland from Kaohsiung, its fields still dotted with old tobacco-curing barns. In the oil-paper umbrella workshops you can see the painting done by hand. The East Gate tower on the town's edge was first raised in 1755.

A limestone hill by the sea west of downtown, where troops of Formosan macaques turn up on every trail. Feeding them brings a fine, and a plastic bag in your hand gets snatched, so keep it inside your pack. From the summit you see the harbour and Cijin below.

A metro station designed by the office of British architect Richard Rogers. Under a huge white canopy, escalators descend into a sunken garden inside the park. Step out and you are in Central Park, with the Xinjuejiang shopping streets across the road.

Swarms of purple crow butterflies crowd the valley woods through the winter, from December to March. Rukai villages line the valley, with a suspension bridge and waterfalls on the walk. Reaching it means nearly two hours of mountain road from downtown.

White halls shaped after whales and coral on the waterfront where the Love River meets the harbour. Even with no concert on, the walkways and bridges between the buildings are open. Pier-2 is one light rail stop away, so people do both together.

Walls built of coral stone in 1826, the first stone city the Qing raised in Taiwan. The north gate still bears two painted guardian figures. Lotus Pond and the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas lie a short stroll away.