Tainan: the oldest city in Taiwan

Taiwan's first capital under Dutch and Chinese rule, Tainan preserves centuries-old temples and the island's oldest colonial fortress.

Rental scooters or buses remain the most common way to get around.

The Zeelandia Fort, built by the Dutch in the seventeenth century as a base of the East India Company, remains the oldest colonial structure in Taiwan.

A few minutes away, the Confucius Temple, the first built in Taiwan, functioned for centuries as the island's main imperial academy.

Continuing, you visit the Chihkan Temple, a former Dutch administrative outpost transformed into a sanctuary after the Chinese reconquest of the seventeenth century.

As evening falls, the Huayuan Night Market, among Taiwan's largest, offers local specialties like stinky tofu and Tainan rice ice cream.

Tainan was Taiwan's capital for over two hundred years, first under brief Dutch rule in the 1600s and then as a Chinese administrative center, a role lost only when the capital was moved to Taipei in the 1800s.

Tainan's Confucius Temple, built in 1665, remains today a pilgrimage site for students who come to pray for success in their school exams.