Taiwanrocks!

Northern Taiwan includes (my definition): Taipei County, Taipei City, Keelung City, Yilan County (pronounced E-lan), and Taoyuan county

Travel in Taipei County and Taipei City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_County 

Taoyuan Airport, an international Airport, is how you get to Taipei.  Actually, you need a Taxi to drive from the airport to Taipei (Since the airport is in Taoyuan).  After you get to Taipei, I recommend the Howard hotel or the Leader Hotel (assuming you're cheap like my family). Try to avoid using the expensive Taxis and use the MRT Subway (http://www.trtc.com.tw/e/).  When walking, keep in mind that Taipei is a 400-500 year old place and Taiwan is currently renovating the entire city.  So watch out for constuction.  More importantly, don't get near the constuction workers.  Most are immigrants from Southeast Asia, and they drink a lot of alcohol.  It rains a lot.  The occasional Typhoon will hit Taiwan, and monsoons regularly visit Taiwan.  There are resteraunts everywhere, all have good food.  If you care about the overall niceness of your restaurant then go eat in the foods courts in the numerous department stores.

 While in one of Taipei's famous landmarks, you may encounter a Chinese Tour.  Chinese tours are massive, and most Chinese tourists are smokers.  If you're really unlucky you'll encounter two Chinese tours, and when they meet, its pretty much a warzone.

A few years ago it was probably impossible to visit Taipei without knowledge of Mandarin or Taiwanese.  Now, kindergarden students in Taipei are forced to learn english.  Also, most road signs have english, and all MRT stations have english maps

Must see sites

Taipei 101 go up to the observatory.  You can also go to the top of Taipei 101, but I've been there and its just a whole bunch of metal bars.        http://taiwanrox8.webs.com/taipei101.htm

Xin Yi District 信義區  Supernice with the Taipei World Trade Center, City hall Taipei 101, And Sun Yat Sen memorial.  Lots of modern department stores.  This is where the rich guys go.

http://www.freewebs.com/taiwanrox88/xinyidistrict.htm

Sogo: These Departments stores are everywhere.  The food courts have good food and...FREE SAMPLES

誠品 Eslite, the best bookstore in Taiwan.  Its like Taiwanese Borders

京華城 Pacific Mall: again, the most awesome and modern place in Taiwan.  named biggest department store in Asia.

http://www.iexplore.com/cityguides/Taiwan/Taipei/Shopping 

 left to right: Pacific Mall, Xinyi, Sogos

中正紀念堂 Chiang kai Shek Memorial hall, a memorial honoring dictator Chiang Kai Shek.  Currently under construction since its 60 years old. http://www.cksmh.gov.tw/ 

228 park: Place where a whole bunch of Taiwanese people were killed by Chinese. http://228.culture.gov.tw/

Lungshan temple 龍山寺.  Last time I went there, i found out the monks there had built an electronic text scroller on the gates, and electric lights.  I'm pretty sure I saw a couple of monks using laptops there.  Modern, yet traditional, its a nice place to go.

中山堂 Honoring Sun Yat Sen.

http://www.taiwan.com.au/Envtra/Taipei/report09.html 

台灣大學 (Taiwan University) University with a nice garden.

http://www.ntu.edu.tw/engv4/ 

北投 Beitou hot springs (note: hotels offer hot spring rooms where you rent a room for a couple hours to bathe).  You have to go here

http://tourguide.sinotour.com/scenery184.html 

http://www.chiangdao.com/hotels4/asiahotels/taiwanhotels/beitouhotels/beitouhotels.htm 

http://wikitravel.org/en/Taipei/Beitou 

Left to right: yangmingshan, beitou, Taipei 101

陽明山 Yang Ming San, really good place to hike. http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/HTML/ENG/INDEX.ASP

內湖 Neihu: Awesome place.  Clean and tidy. neat.  http://163.29.36.51/neihu/index.jsp

士林 Shilin ..The grand hotel is big, but the Two person rooms are really small http://www.grand-hotel.org

                  故宮, national palace museum, is an awesome museum containing a whole bunch of Chinese                        artifacts.  You will not see the equivilent of these artifacts in China, because a lot of China's artifacts                were destroyed by the Cultural Revolution.  When Chiang Kai Shek moved to Taiwan he brought the                artifacts he saved with him. 

                  http://www.miramar.com.tw/main.php  The Miramar 美麗華 Ferris Wheel is huge..I think the largest in Asia

                  士林夜市 Shilin Night market...if you can keep awake ... Alot of good food.

                  http://tourguide.sinotour.com/scenery103004.html 

Left to right: Neihu, 故宮, Miramar

南港 nangang: Another clean place in Taipei

文山: Place with Maokong (Currently broken) and Taipei Zoo, with the famous Pandas.  

Tea up in Maokong is good, but since it's broken, you have to drive now.

Guanghua computer market: Huge computer store for nerds and gamers. Cheap prices 

 http://taipeigamer.blogspot.com/2006/05/guang-hua-computer-market.html

西門町 Shimending:  Must visit Sophisca store, and take a look at the candies. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ximending 

 Maokong, Taipei zoo pandas, Shimending

Nature Places 

  Quite near the cities are an array of rivers, mountains, and national parks.  These places are seriously the most beautiful places I've been to.

Places to go

Danshui (Tamsui) 淡水: Its still sorta like a city.  A lot of historical sites are here, and also a giant river.  Theres a lot of Dutch forts here, and a beautiful sunset. http://www.tshs.tpc.gov.tw/fore/taindex_en.asp

Jofen (Jiufen) 九份: Historic gold mining town with a lot of places to hike.  Also a night market http://www.jioufen.com.tw/ .   I suggest you visit the old gold mine or go hiking in the nearby mountains 

Taroko Park太魯閣: this is my favorite place in northern Taiwan, from climbing on marble rivers to going through caves.  Its a huge marble canyon with a lot of birds.  Theres the Swallow Holes, Nine Turn Tunnel, and a grand fromosa hotel (Expect to spend a lot of money if you sleep there). http://www.taroko.gov.tw/tarokoportaleng/0_0_0/Default.aspx You have to go here...if you don't then you miss out.

Taoyuan County 

To tell you the truth I know little about this place.  I've only been here for Tao Yuan airport.

http://www.taocity.gov.tw/en/au_1.html 

Stuff

Taimall:http://www.taimall.com.tw/

Taoyuan Airport: the gates have nice shops.  Even a sony store.  and lots of free samples.

http://www.taoyuanairport.gov.tw/english/index.jsp

Taimall, Taoyuan airport

Keelung City 

My Pictures of Keelung: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taiwanrox8/ 

http://tour.klcg.gov.tw/english/index2.asp 

Thankfully, I've been here.  Surprisingly, the port of Keelung is very clean, even cleaner than American ones.  Its the city thats the dirty one.  You can't blame Keelung though, it has existed since the 1600's.  Keelung is widely regarded in Taiwan as a KMT city, so you'll see a lot of Blue Party supporters there.  I advise you see the historical stuff first, it goes from Dutch and spanish relics to WW2 and Japan.  It rains a lot, like seriously a lot lot, so bring/buy an umbrella

Where to stay: EVERGREEN LAUREL HOTEL; nonsmoking.  Though from the outside, the hotel looks like a giant green block of shit, inside its 5 star.  I lived there, so trust me, and always trust the Evergreen group.  An additional plus: If you took EVA airs to Taiwan then you get a discount.

http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll/qscr=dspv/htid=2099504  

 Places

Miaokou Night Market 基隆廟口夜市: Really good Taiwanese food, and cheap prices.  Its located right outside a temple. http://hungryintaipei.blogspot.com/2006/11/chinese-i-recommend-keelung-night.html

Zhongzhen Park: Walk from the Evergreen Hotel to Zhongzhen Park.  There you'll find a huge KMT Emblem on a temple and a giant buddha.  Inside the giant budda will be a Buddhist inviting you to go up a flight of stairs into the statue's hollow head.  He will say it is free, but donate at least 100 NT$.  Watch your step; the stairs are steep.

Ershawan Fort: Really cool, its an old fort from Dutch rule, still intact. You can see cannons and stuff.

Miaokou, Zhongzhen, Ershawan

Keelung French Cemetery: A cemetary of dead French guys that died when they attacked Taiwan.  

Keelung Islet: You need to take a boat here:

Hoping Island: Beautiful island complete with strange rock formations (check out my pictures page).  They even have the Tofu rock formations.  Currently, they are remodeling.

Gongzi Liao Fort: another fort, this time from the Qing 

Dawulun Fort: Another fort, but warning: you have to climb a mountain to get there. 

Islet/Hoping/Gongzi/Dawulun

Baimiwong Fort:  the fort is cool, but whats really the tourist attaction is three concrete factory pillars behind it.  They are featured in many videos, one of them being Jay Chou's famous "Retreat" video

Lovers Lake: technically part of the Dawulun area, but nevertheless a beautiful little lake that leads you to the must see Dawulun fort. 

Waimu Shan seashore:  A stretch of cliff/ beach that curves in a U.  spectacular scenary, I took some pictures of it.  Note: Its REALLY windy here. 

 Bamiwong fort, Lover's lake, waimu Shan seashore

Yilan County

i came here several times, one for hot springs and one for hiking in Taipingshan (again, i took pictures, check my flickr account).  There is endless farmland here.. every once in a while you see a countryside mansion.

Stuff 

Toucheng: Place with coastline and dolphins.  

Suao:  Famous port and "cold springs" place.  Never really went to the cold springs, but the port is nice. Also: good seafood.

Luodong: apparently theres a huge sportspark here...Again, my experences are few in these areas.

Nanao: Lots of aboriginals here 

Toucheng,Suao,Luodong,Nanao

Gueishan Island: An island shaped like a turtle Gueishan= Turtle mountain. Very famous, drive by and take a look.  I've never set foot on the island, so not sure if you can go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kueishan_Island

Chiaohsi: Town near Gueishan, with a lot of tourists here.  Its a bit more city-like here.

Yilan City: capital city of Yilan county.  Has a department store thats huge.  You have to eat the green onion cakes there, they're really good.  And don't be afraid to try 卜肉 Po ba (pu meat) , its really good. 

  Guei shan, chiaohsi, yilan

Taipingshan: Its a lot like a mini-Alishan.  Check out my pictures of taipingshan.  I really suggest you go here.  You can live in the Taipingshan villa and go hiking.  also remember to take the bong bong train.

 http://www1.forest.gov.tw/RA_En_JP/0100001/RA_EN-01.htm