Tainan

The site of Fort Zeelandia, raised by the Dutch in 1624. One brick face is genuinely old; the white watchtower above it went up under Japanese rule. A board in front names the mortar holding those bricks: glutinous rice, sugar water and burnt oyster shell.

Nine stone tortoises stand in the forecourt with stelae on their backs. They came from the Qianlong emperor. A tenth is said to have gone into the water on the way here. Two Qing pavilions sit on what was the Dutch Fort Provintia.

There is no roof. Banyan roots swallowed the walls of an abandoned salt warehouse, and a steel walkway was laid over the top so you cross where the roof used to be. In high summer the shade of the tree keeps it cooler inside than out.

The plaque over the gate reads quan tai shou xue: the first school in Taiwan. Founded in 1665, it still holds the rite at dawn every 28 September. Only the main hall charges admission — the courtyards are open to anyone.

A western-style fort the Qing had a French engineer lay out in 1876. A moat rings it, so you cross a bridge to reach an interior that is bare lawn — the guns on the ramparts are replicas.

Come in daylight and you see shuttered timber shopfronts; this narrow lane, which once ran down to a Qing wharf, belongs to bars and workshops that open at night and hang their lanterns then.

A department store of 1932, with a small Shinto shrine still standing on the roof. The lift kept its old dial, a needle swinging round to show the floor. When it reopened in 2014 the floors were filled with shops selling only Taiwanese-made goods.

Thursday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, and no others. Arrive on a different day and you find a large empty lot. Hundreds of stalls line up in rows with numbered aisles, which makes naming a place to meet straightforward.

Steps climb a white hill of surplus sea salt, heaped up and hardened. The surface throws sunlight straight back and your eyes will not stay open without sunglasses; the kiosk at the bottom sells salt ice cream.

Mangroves meet overhead across a channel and a flat boat carries you through the tunnel they make. The circuit lasts thirty minutes or so and boats leave when they fill, so weekdays mean waiting. The hats handed out aboard get used; branches hang low.

A private museum of Western paintings, sculpture, instruments and arms collected by the founder of a chemicals firm. Its white palace-style home, opened in 2015, fronts an Apollo fountain popular for photos. The violin collection is among the largest anywhere.

The residence of Prince Ningjing, the last Ming royal on Taiwan, turned into a Mazu temple in 1684, the first the state founded on the island. Beams from the prince's rooms survive behind the main hall. It is one street away from Chihkan Tower.

A dam and reservoir built over 10 years from 1920 by the Japanese engineer Hatta Yoichi, feeding the canals that water the southern plain. From above, its arms branch like coral, hence the other name Coral Lake. His statue and grave stand beside the dam.

A hot spring that rises laced with grey mud, leaving the water cloudy and slick. A short climb up the road brings you to Water and Fire Cave, where water and flame come out of one rock cleft. The village sits in the hills about an hour north of Tainan.