Yilan

Sodium bicarbonate water, clear and without the sulphur smell a hot spring usually carries. A free foot bath sits in a park near the railway station, and a towel is all it asks of you. Stalls beside it sell eggs boiled in the spring.

The falls come in three tiers, of which the lower two are reached on a path paved enough for a pushchair. The top tier costs another twenty minutes of steps, though after rain the flow rises until spray reaches the lower platform.

A quarter built to look like a Qing street, with a puppet theatre and craft workshops inside it. Performances run to a daily timetable, so take the sheet at the gate and reckon on half a day for one circuit.

Part of the logging railway from the Japanese period has been put back into service for visitors. The Jianqing trail follows an old trackbed with the sleepers left where they were and moss allowed to take them. It fogs over often and stays cool in summer.

You lower a bamboo basket of eggs, corn and bamboo shoots into a hot spring pool and cook them in it. Baskets and ingredients are bought or hired on site. A chart gives the time each item needs. Busy weekends run on booking.

Mackerel and tuna land at this harbour and the auction runs before dawn. A lookout on the hill above shows the whole basin with the boats moving through it, while at the market by the quay fish is cut and eaten where you stand.

Landings run only from March to November, under a daily quota you apply for in advance. The climb to the 401-metre high point takes a separate permit. Boats out to the island build the return leg around looking for whales and dolphins.

A 1.7-kilometre loop along a stream, half boardwalk and half packed earth. The trailhead lies beyond a road that runs through a golf course, which catches out first-timers. After rain the boards turn slick.

It occupies the whole square block around a park, so walking one direction returns you to where you began. The soup this market is known for is mutton simmered with angelica root, sold at stalls that run close to midnight.

The water sits around twenty-two degrees and is carbonated, so it reads cold and then prickles as bubbles gather on your skin; a swimsuit and cap are required and both can be hired at the gate.

The timber yard where logs cut on Taipingshan were stored. Logs still float on the wide storage pond, and the old forest railway terminus and its carriages remain. Admission costs nothing, and you can stroll there from Luodong station.

A Toucheng building that seems driven into the ground at a slant, modelled on the tilted cuesta rocks of the north-east coast. Each floor covers one part of the Yilan plain: mountains, flatland and sea. Many photograph it mirrored in the marsh pond in front.

A long beach of darkish sand where steady waves keep a row of surf schools in business. Guishan Island floats straight ahead across the water. The beach starts right outside Wai'ao station, an easy train ride from Taipei.

A square that brings to life the drawings of Jimmy Liao, the picture-book artist from Yilan, right beside Yilan station. People pose with train carriages rising into the sky and giant suitcase sculptures. It never closes.