Ximending shopping area in Taipei - photo by Rob McFarland

Taipei 20 years ago wasn’t a very appealing prospect. Dirty, smelly and often choked with traffic, it wasn’t the obvious choice of overseas holiday destination.

Taipei today is a very different proposition. In the space of two decades this adaptable Asian city has cleaned up its act and completely reinvented itself.

Where it was once home to some of the world’s largest manufacturers of cheap consumer goods (think “Made in Taiwan”), Taipei is now a leading technology powerhouse.

Taiwan is now the second biggest producer of semi-conductors in the world, which isn’t a bad effort for an island half the size of Tasmania.

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