What You Need To Know

Taipei officially known as Taipei City, is the capital city and a special municipality of Taiwan. Sitting at the northern tip of the state, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City. It is about 25 km (16 mi) southwest of the northern port city Keelung. Most of the city is located on the Taipei Basin, an ancient lakebed bounded by the two relatively narrow valleys of the Keelung and Xindian rivers, which join to form the Tamsui Riveralong the city’s western border. Since 1949, Taipei has been the capital of the ROC after losing the mainland to the Communists in the Chinese Civil War. The city proper is home to an estimated population of 2,693,672 in 2009, forming the core part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area which includes the nearby cities of New Taipei and Keelung with a population of 6,900,273, the 40th most-populous urban area in the world. The name “Taipei” can refer either to the whole metropolitan area or the city proper. Taipei is the political, economic, educational, and cultural center of Taiwan, and one of the major hubs of the Chinese-speaking world. Considered to be a global city,^[8] Taipei is part of a major high-tech industrial area.^[9] Railways, high-speed rail, highways, airports, and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island. The city is served by two airports – Taipei Songshan and Taiwan Taoyuan. Taipei is home to various world-famous architectural or cultural landmarks which include Taipei 101, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, Hsing Tian Kong, Mengjia Longshan Temple, National Palace Museum, Presidential Office Building, Taipei Guest House, Ximending, and several night marketsdispersing over the city. Its natural features such as Maokong, Yangmingshan, and hot springs are also well known to international visitors. As the capital city, “Taipei” is sometimes used as a synecdoche for Taiwan. Due to the ongoing controversy over the political status of Taiwan, the name Chinese Taipei is designated for official use when Taiwanese governmental representatives or national teams participate in some international organizations or international sporting events (which may require UN statehood) in order to avoid extensive political controversy by using other names.

Area: 271.8 km²

Population: Estimate 2.705 million

Currency

• The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar. Originally issued by the Bank of Taiwan, it has been issued by the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2000. The currency code is TWD, and its common abbreviation is NT$.
  of Philippines. Our currency rankings show that the most popular Philippines Peso exchange rate is the PHP to USD rate.

 Economy

As the center of Taiwan’s largest conurbation, Taipei has been at the center of rapid economic development in the country and has now become one of the global cities in the production of high technology and its components. This is part of the so-called Taiwan Miracle which has seen dramatic growth in the city following foreign direct investment in the 1960s. Taiwan is now a creditor economy, holding one of the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves of over US$403 billion as of December 2012. Despite the Asian financial crisis, the economy continues to expand at about 5{8949adbc621776a2aaeb811375d1d1d18a29c9acfb19cd5aaa39d52cb12ad232} per year, with virtually full employment and low inflation.As of 2013, the nominal GDP per capita in Taipei city is lower than that in Hong Kong by a narrow margin according to The Economist(Nominal GDP per capita in HK is US$38181 in 2013 from IMF). Furthermore,according to Financial times,GDP per capita based on Purchasing Power Parity(PPP) in Taipei in 2015 is 44173 USD,behind that in Singapore(US$84900 from IMF) and Hong Kong(US$56689 from IMF).

Festivals and events

Many yearly festivals are held in Taipei. In recent years some festivals, such as the Double Ten Day fireworks and concerts, are increasingly hosted on a rotating basis by a number of cities around Taiwan. When New Year’s Eve arrives on the solar calendar, thousands of people converge on Taipei’s Xinyi District for parades, outdoor concerts by popular artists, street shows, round-the clock nightlife. The high point is of course the countdown to midnight, when Taipei 101 assumes the role of the world’s largest fireworks platform. The Taipei Lantern Festival concludes the Lunar New Year holiday. The timing of the city’s lantern exhibit coincides with the national festival in Pingxi, when thousands of fire lanterns are released into the sky. The city’s lantern exhibit rotates among different downtown locales from year to year, including Liberty Square, Taipei 101, and Zhongshan Hall in Ximending. On Double Ten Day, patriotic celebrations are held in front of the Presidential Building. Other annual festivals include Ancestors Day (Tomb-Sweeping Day), the Dragon Boat Festival, the Ghost Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival). Taipei regularly hosts its share of international events. The city recently hosted the 2009 Summer Deaflympics. This event was followed by the Taipei International Flora Exposition, a garden festival hosted from November 2010 to April 2011. The Floral Expo was the first of its kind to take place in Taiwan and only the seventh hosted in Asia; the expo admitted 110,000 visitors on February 27, 2011.

Language

Health

• The current healthcare system in Taiwan, known as National Health Insurance(NHI), was instituted in 1995. It is a single-payer compulsory social insurance plan that provides equal access to healthcare for all citizens. … The NHI is paid through premium contributions and co-payments.

   

Transport

Public transport accounts for a substantial portion of different modes of transport in Taiwan, with Taipei residents having the highest utilization rate at 34.1{8949adbc621776a2aaeb811375d1d1d18a29c9acfb19cd5aaa39d52cb12ad232}. Private transport consists of motor scooters, private cars, and bicycles. Motor-scooters often weave between cars and occasionally through oncoming traffic. Respect for traffic laws, once scant, has improved with deployment of traffic cameras and increasing numbers of police roadblocks checking riders for alcohol consumption and other offenses. Taipei Station serves as the comprehensive hub for the subway, bus, conventional rail, and high-speed rail. A contactless smartcard, known as EasyCard, can be used for all modes of public transit as well as several retail outlets. It contains credits that are deducted each time a ride is taken. The EasyCard is read via proximity sensory panels on buses and in MRT stations, and it does not need to be removed from one’s wallet or purse.

Tourism
Tourism is a major part of Taipei’s economy. In 2013, over 6.3 million overseas visitors visited Taipei, making the city the 15th most visited globally. The influx of visitors contributed $10.8 billion USD to the city’s economy in 2013, the 9th highest in the world and the most of any city in the Chinese-speaking world.

Weather

Taipei has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate[Köppen: Cfa).Summers are long-lasting, hot and humid, accompanied by occasional heavy rainstorms and typhoons, while winters are short, generally warm and generally very foggy due to the northeasterly winds from the vast Siberian High being intensified by the pooling of this cooler air in the Taipei Basin. As of the rest of Northern Taiwan, daytime temperatures of Taipei can often peak above 26 degrees Celsius during a warm winter day, while it can dip below 26 degrees Celsius during a rainy summer’s afternoon. Occasional cold fronts during the winter months can drop the daily temperature by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius, though temperatures rarely drop below 10 degrees Celsius. Extreme temperatures ranged from ?0.2 °C (31.6 °F) on February 13, 1901 to 39.3 °C (102.7 °F) on August 8, 2013, while snow has never been recorded in the city besides on mountains located within the city limit such as Mount Yangmingshan. Due to Taiwan’s location in the Pacific Ocean, it is affected by the Pacific typhoon season, which occurs between June and October.