Taiwan
Tainan
Taiwan's oldest city and its food capital - Dutch forts, temple lanes and breakfast beef soup.
Tainan is Taiwan's oldest city and its capital for more than two centuries, where the Dutch built Fort Zeelandia at Anping and Koxinga's court and the Qing governors followed. The result is the densest crop of temples on the island, Japanese-era civic buildings and a web of narrow lanes between them. Most Taiwanese will tell you it is also where the country eats best: a slower, sweeter kitchen built on breakfast beef soup, milkfish and small bowls of noodles eaten at street stalls.
Suggested stay
2–3 days
Language
Mandarin Chinese
Currency
TWD
Timezone
UTC+8
Why you'll love Tainan
Food Taiwan's snack capital, from milkfish congee and beef soup at breakfast to danzai noodles and shrimp rolls
Temples hundreds of them, many centuries old, still busy with incense and worshippers rather than tourists
Layers of history Dutch forts, Koxinga's shrine, Qing lanes and Japanese-era civic buildings within a short walk
Pace a low-rise, easy-going city best explored on foot or by bike, lane by lane
Best time to visit
Nov-Apr
22-27° days
22.991° N, 120.185° E
UTC+8 · Asia/Taipei
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Weather & when to go to Tainan
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Nov-Apr
Watch for Jul-Oct typhoons risk · Aug monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Tainan
Summer is long, hot and wet, with afternoon downpours, typhoon risk and August the hardest month for walking the old city. May and June bring the plum rains. The cooler, drier months from late autumn to spring are the ones to aim for.
Top things to do in Tainan
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Chihkan Tower - the old Fort Provintia
history 👍 PopularThe Dutch built Fort Provintia here in the 1650s; what stands now are Qing-era pavilions on its foundations, with stone stele turtles in the garden and a little of the original brickwork still visible.
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Anping Fort - Fort Zeelandia's surviving walls
history 👍 PopularThe Dutch East India Company's first stronghold on Taiwan, from 1624. A stretch of the original red-brick wall survives below a later lookout tower, with the Anping Old Street lanes right alongside.
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Anping Tree House - a warehouse swallowed by banyans
history scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedA former British trading house's warehouse, abandoned and taken over by banyan roots that now form its walls and roof, with walkways threaded through the canopy.
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Confucius Temple - Taiwan's first school
history culture arts 👍 PopularFounded in the 1660s as the island's first academy, a calm compound of red walls, courtyards and old trees in the middle of the city.
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Grand Matsu Temple and the Official God of War Temple - the temple quarter
culture arts historyTwo of the island's oldest and most important temples sit almost side by side near Chihkan Tower. Go early or in the evening to see them in use, with offerings, divination blocks and incense.
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Tainan street food - beef soup, danzai noodles and milkfish
food ⭐ Highly recommendedStart with fresh beef soup poured over raw slices at dawn, then work through danzai noodles, milkfish belly congee, shrimp rolls, coffin bread and eel noodles. Most of the best stalls sell one dish and close when it runs out.
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Shennong Street - the lantern-lit Qing lane
culture artsA short lane of narrow old shophouses near the former river docks, now small bars, studios and cafes, at its best after dark when the lanterns are lit.
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Garden Night Market - the city's big weekly night market
foodA huge open-air lot of food stalls and games on the city's northern edge that runs only on a few nights each week, so check the day before you go.
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Chimei Museum - western art in a palace
culture artsA grand neoclassical building across a lake in the southern suburbs, holding a large private collection of European painting, violins, arms and natural history.
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Sicao Green Tunnel - mangroves by boat
nature wildlife scenicSmall boats glide along a narrow canal under a closed canopy of mangroves on the city's northwest edge, among the wetlands and old fish farms.
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Hayashi Department Store - a 1930s shop with a rooftop shrine
shopping historyA restored Japanese-era department store with its original lift, local crafts and food on the floors, and a rooftop Shinto shrine that still bears wartime strafing marks.
Best areas to stay in Tainan
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
West Central District
First-time visitors $$Old-city lanes, temples and snack stalls
Explore hotels in West Central District →
Anping
Quiet & historic $$Harbourside forts and quiet old streets
Explore hotels in Anping →
East District
Budget & rail $Student quarter around the railway station
Explore hotels in East District →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Tainan
Getting to & around Tainan
Getting there
Most visitors fly into Taoyuan (TPE) and take the High Speed Rail south; Kaohsiung (KHH) is closer for flights from elsewhere in Asia
Flight
Taiwan Taoyuan International (TPE)
Take the Airport MRT to Taoyuan HSR station, then the High Speed Rail to Tainan HSR station, and the Shalun shuttle train into Tainan Station: roughly 3 hours in all. From Kaohsiung airport, the MRT and a conventional train take about an hour. Tainan's own small airport mainly serves domestic island hops.
Train
Tainan HSR station
The High Speed Rail links Taipei with Tainan in under two hours; the HSR station is well out of town, so connect on the Shalun shuttle train to Tainan Station.
Train
Tainan Station
Conventional TRA trains on the west coast line arrive right in the centre, slower than the HSR but with no transfer; Kaohsiung is under an hour away.
Coach
Intercity coaches run from Taipei and other west coast cities, slower than the train but frequent and comfortable.
Getting around
Walking
The old city around Chihkan Tower, the temples and the food streets is compact and best explored on foot, though pavements are patchy.
Free
T-Bike (bike share)
The city's bike share docks are spread through the centre and flat streets make it an easy way to link the old city with Anping.
TBC
City buses
Tourist-oriented routes connect the station, the old city and Anping, but buses run infrequently and there is no metro.
TBC
Taxi
Plentiful and the practical way to reach Anping, Chimei Museum or the night market in the heat.
TBC
Scooter
How locals get around; rentals are common but you need a licence valid in Taiwan.
TBC
Day trips from Tainan
Kaohsiung
Full dayHarbour city
Taiwan's big southern port: the Pier-2 art warehouses, the pagodas of Lotus Pond, and the short ferry across to Cijin island for seafood and a beach.
Getting there
train
Under 1 hr by TRA train, or a short hop on the HSR to Zuoying
Qigu Salt Mountain and lagoon
Half daySalt fields & wetlands
A white hill of salt from the old coastal saltworks, lagoon boat trips among oyster racks, and the Zengwen estuary wetlands where black-faced spoonbills winter.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
About 45 min by car, bus or tour northwest
Guanziling hot springs
Full dayMud hot springs
A hill resort famous for rare grey mud springs, with the Water and Fire Cave nearby, where natural gas burns on the surface of a spring.
Getting there
car | bus
About 1 hr by car or bus into the hills
Wushantou Reservoir
Half dayLake & engineering heritage
A branching reservoir built in the Japanese era by engineer Hatta Yoichi, whose irrigation scheme transformed the Chianan plain; his restored residence stands beside the lake.
Getting there
car
About 40 min by car north
A little history of Tainan
The coast around Tainan was Siraya land when the Dutch East India Company arrived in 1624 and built Fort Zeelandia on the sandbar at Anping, followed by Fort Provintia on the mainland. In 1662 the Ming loyalist Koxinga drove them out after a long siege and made the town the seat of his family's short-lived kingdom, founding the Confucius Temple and bringing Chinese settlement on a new scale.
Under the Qing, from 1683, the city was the capital of Taiwan for two centuries and filled with the temples and walled lanes that still define its centre. The capital moved north in the 1880s, and the city took the name Tainan. Japanese rule from 1895 added the civic buildings and a department store, and in 2010 the city merged with its surrounding county to form today's much larger municipality.
The Dutch East India Company builds Fort Zeelandia at Anping
Fort Provintia is built on the mainland, on the site of today's Chihkan Tower
Koxinga expels the Dutch after a nine-month siege and makes the city his capital
The Confucius Temple is founded as Taiwan's first school
The Qing take Taiwan and govern it from the city for two centuries
The capital moves north and the old prefectural city is renamed Tainan
Taiwan passes to Japan, which rebuilds the centre with new civic buildings
The Hayashi Department Store opens, the city's first with a lift
Tainan City and Tainan County merge into a single special municipality
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Limited
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type A / B
110 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+886
Typhoons risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Monsoon flooding risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
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FAQs about Tainan
▸ When is the best time to visit Tainan?
November to April is the time to go: warm, dry and comfortable for long days on foot. May and June bring the plum rains, and summer is hot, humid and stormy, with August the worst month and typhoons a risk into autumn.
▸ How many days do you need in Tainan?
Two full days covers the old city temples, Anping and a serious eating schedule. A third day adds Chimei Museum, the Sicao mangroves or a trip out to the salt fields at Qigu.
▸ Is Tainan food really that different?
Yes, in a way most Taiwanese will happily argue about. The cooking leans sweeter than in the north, breakfast is a serious meal of beef soup or milkfish congee, and many of the best places are single-dish stalls that sell out by midday.
▸ How do you get from Taipei to Tainan?
The High Speed Rail is the easy way, under two hours to Tainan HSR station, then the shuttle train into the centre. Conventional trains are slower but arrive right in town, and coaches are a cheaper alternative.
▸ Is Tainan easy to get around without a car?
The old centre is walkable and flat, and bike share covers the gaps. There is no metro and buses are sparse, so taxis are the usual answer for Anping, the museum and the night market, especially in the heat.
More in Taiwan
Kaohsiung
Taiwan's sunny southern port, where harbour ferries, warehouse art and night markets set an easier pace than Taipei.
✓ best Oct-MarTaipei
Night markets, the imperial Chinese art collection and volcanic hot springs, all inside one exceptionally easy and exceptionally safe capital.
✓ best Apr, Oct-Dec