Travel in Taiwan: a fast west coast and a slow east

Who comes to Taiwan and from where

The National Immigration Agency counted 8.575 million visitor arrivals in 2025. Japan sent the most, 1.483 million, followed by Hong Kong with 1.204 million and South Korea with 1.017 million; the United States, mainland China, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia made up the rest of the top ten. The statistics office's indicators record 637,000 arrivals from mainland China in 2025, and 5.565 million arrivals of all kinds from January to August 2026, 2% more than in the same months of 2025.

The total has not yet regained its pre-pandemic level. The Wikipedia account of tourism in Taiwan gives 11.8 million international visitors in 2019 and fewer than 900,000 in 2022, when the borders were still restricted. The mainland share has moved with politics: Britannica records large numbers of mainland tourists after relations improved in 2008, and the Wikipedia account records that Beijing cut the number of travel permits it issued for Taiwan after 2016.

Tourism itself is younger than the industry it now supports. Britannica notes that the government discouraged it after the Second World War as a security risk and changed policy in the mid-1950s. Residents now travel out far more than visitors come in: the statistics office counts 18.94 million trips abroad by residents in 2025.

How the statistics count a visitor

The Tourism Administration's monthly figures divide arrivals into foreign visitors and Overseas Chinese, and the line follows the island's status. In April 2025, a month of 751,149 arrivals, 23.11% more than a year earlier, it counted 46,700 of the 47,606 arrivals from mainland China and 129,170 of the 134,407 from Hong Kong and Macao as Overseas Chinese, against 906 and 5,237 foreign visitors. South-East Asia supplied 31.07% of that month's arrivals, Hong Kong and Macao 17.89%, Japan 12.95%, South Korea 10.56%, the United States 8.75% and Europe 5.89%.

The Wikipedia account of tourism records an average stay of 6.63 nights and tourism revenue of US$14.39 billion, both in 2015, the latest year it gives. Farm stays, fruit picking in places such as Pingtung, and cafe hopping, which it dates to around 2024, have grown alongside the cities.

How the rail lines organise a route

The country is laid out along its western plain, and so are the routes. The high-speed line runs about 350 kilometres down the west coast and links Taipei and Kaohsiung in 94 minutes, according to the Foreign Ministry's handbook of 2023 to 2024. The conventional railway, about 1,100 kilometres of it, runs as a loop around the whole island and is the line that reaches the east coast. Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung have metro systems.

Most visitors arrive by air at Taoyuan International Airport, outside Taipei. Kaohsiung serves the south and Taichung the centre, and Taipei's Songshan Airport sits inside the city.

Drivers need an international driving permit of the 1949 convention, validated at a local motor vehicles office, the British government's advice states; the validated permit lasts up to 12 months.

What Taipei holds for a visitor

Taipei is where the state's own buildings are, and most of the national collections. The National Palace Museum on the outskirts of the city, opened in 1965, holds the artefacts, paintings and books moved from the mainland in 1949. The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall stands in a complex with an opera house and a concert hall, and the Presidential Office Building and the Taipei Guest House are on the same list of landmarks. Taipei 101, a tower of 101 floors measuring 509 metres from the ground to its top, opened in 2004, and its fireworks at New Year are broadcast abroad.

Temples are among the landmarks the Wikipedia account of Taipei lists: Lungshan Temple of Manka, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, Hsing Tian Kong and Zhinan Temple. The Shilin Night Market, north of the centre, is on the same list.

The districts of Shilin and Beitou extend north of the Keelung River to the edge of Yangmingshan National Park. Hot springs, which the Japanese introduced as a bathing culture, have been revived since 1999, with more than a hundred found and the largest concentration in the north of the island.

Where the mountains and the east coast lead

The Foreign Ministry's handbook lists nine national parks, among them Taroko, where a fast river has cut gorges through the eastern side of the Central Range, Yushan around the island's highest summit, Shei-Pa and Yangmingshan near Taipei, together with national scenic areas at Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, the East Rift Valley and the east coast.

In central Taiwan, Sun Moon Lake lies in the basin that separates the two groups of western ranges, and the Alishan Range rises west of Yushan, home to the Tsou. The East Rift Valley runs between the Central Range and the coastal range from Hualien to Taitung, in the eastern half of the island where most of the Indigenous peoples live. In winter, the handbook notes, snow falls on Hehuan Mountain in Nantou County, about 200 kilometres from the coral reefs at the southern tip in Pingtung County. Kenting National Park on that tip was the destination residents named most often for domestic holidays in a survey of 2015, when 87% of residents travelled within Taiwan for tourism.

Taiwan has no site on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is not a member of UNESCO, and the Wikipedia account records that the Bureau of Cultural Heritage has kept its own list of potential sites since 2002, with 18 entries.

What the festival year offers

The Foreign Ministry's handbook sets out a calendar of events that runs through the year. New Year's Eve brings fireworks at Taipei 101. The Taiwan Lantern Festival in February moves to a different city or county each year; it was held in Tainan in 2024. March has an international orchid show, and April the Taichung Mazu festival, a religious pilgrimage, together with a marine festival at Dapeng Bay. Penghu holds its fireworks festival in May. The east coast has a land arts festival and a moonlit concert by the sea in June, and the balloon festival follows in July. August brings a culinary exhibition, September a swimming carnival across Sun Moon Lake, October a cycling festival, November a cross-sea marathon on Penghu, and December a Christmas display in New Taipei.

The British travel advice adds that Taiwan's Pride parade is held every October. The holidays page gives the dates of the public holidays, when much of the island travels at once.

Business travel has its own circuit. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council runs trade shows across the year, in the Taipei World Trade Center exhibition hall, the Nangang Exhibition Hall and the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center.

Which islands lie offshore

The outlying islands are a separate kind of trip. Penghu, about 50 kilometres west in the strait, is known for columnar basalt, marine national park waters in its south and a fireworks festival in May. Kinmen, off the Fujian coast and the site of the battle of 1949 and the bombardment of 1958, has a national park, and Matsu is a national scenic area. Green Island and Orchid Island lie off the south-east coast; the Yami, or Tao, people live on Orchid Island (Lanyu), and Green Island has marine hot springs along its shore. Xiaoliuqiu is a small island off the south-west coast.

When the weather suits a visit

The handbook gives average temperatures of about 18°C in January and 29°C in July. Summer, from April or May to September or October in Britannica's description, is long, hot and humid. Typhoons can arrive from June to October; the British travel advice current on 2 October 2026 names July to September as the most active period and warns that flights, trains and buses may be cancelled. From October to March the north-east monsoon brings steady drizzle to Taipei and the north while the south stays dry, so a winter trip finds the two ends of the island in different weather. The south-west is the sunnier side all year: geographers at National Taiwan Normal University record about 2,649 hours of sunshine a year in Tainan, while rainy days keep Keelung and Taipei much greyer.

The same advice records a significant increase in dengue fever in the south, including Kaohsiung and Tainan, and recommends precautions against mosquito bites. The emergency number for an ambulance is 119.

What a visitor finds on the ground

Mandarin is the official language and almost universally understood, written in traditional characters, and English is taught in every school from the elementary level, the Wikipedia account of Taiwanese culture records. The government runs a 24-hour travel information line, 0800-011-765, in English, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin, and a separate line for foreign residents, 0800-024-111, according to the Foreign Ministry's handbook. The Tourism Administration publishes its visitor information in eleven languages.

Major credit cards are widely accepted. Convenience stores are on almost every street in the cities and handle bill payments and fines for the government as well as selling food at all hours. The messaging app most people use is Line. The Wikipedia account of tourism describes culinary tourism as a significant part of the industry, and the handbook's annual events include a culinary exhibition in August. For the cooking itself, Taiwan: culture describes what it is built on.

The British advice describes Taiwan's policies on LGBT+ rights as progressive and notes that discrimination on grounds of gender and gender identity is illegal. Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2019.

What the rules require of visitors

Entry rules are set by the government in Taipei, and they depend on the passport. The Foreign Ministry's handbook says citizens of more than 66 countries and territories may enter without a visa for 30 or 90 days. The British government's advice, current on 2 October 2026, says British citizens may visit without a visa for up to 90 days and extend once by a further 90 days after arrival, that passports must be valid for six months after arrival, and that every visitor must complete an online Taiwan Arrival Card within three days before arriving. The same advice states that the United Kingdom does not recognise Taiwan as a state and has no diplomatic relations with it, so consular help comes from the British Office in Taipei.

Visitors should carry identification; the British advice says the police usually accept a printed copy of the passport's photo page. Drug laws are strict, and conviction for smuggling, trafficking, possession or use can bring a severe prison sentence or, in some cases, the death penalty. The same advice describes crime rates as extremely low. Tipping is not customary, and the handbook notes that a 10% service charge is often added to hotel and restaurant bills.