So, Taiwanese romanisation is confusing and for someone who has learnt mainland pinyin, rather confusing! I spent a good 10 minutes the other day trying to decipher what on earth ‘cyuen’ was (spoilers, it was ‘quan’) and so even trying to go to Tamshui was good fun as all the signs and some of the tourist information seemed to use entirely different spellings!

Its easy to get to, just a short 35 minutes on the metro from Taipei Railway Station by taking the red line, and for the last 20 mins or so you get to travel above ground which is always pleasant. It takes you right out to north west of Taipei, by the sea, to an old harbour town.

The weather was gorgeous, about 36C in the shade, and so I took a walk along Zhongzheng Road which has most of the older buildings on it. There are temples, street vendors, food, clothes shops, as well as a lot of historical architecture. I also noticed that a lot of places or roads here were named after someone called Mackay, and there was a statue of him and multiple museums dedicated to him. Turns out he was a Canadian missionary in the 1800s who set up medical surgeries, a girls’ school, and a university. He was also impressively beardy!

As it was an old port town, there were also a number of attractions dedicated to Japanese rule or Qing dynasty rule, such as the Japanese governor’s house, a foreigner graveyard of all the foreigners who died in the 1800s – there was a grave of a young sailor in his 20s from Newcastle upon Tyne – he died a long way from home.

I then wandered down to the harbourside, to the old Japanese customs house and port. There was also the former British consulate. The sun was just starting to set which made it less unpleasantly hot and more just magnificent to watch the world go by. Would recommend a visit to Tamshui if you are in Taipei for a few days!