Sights
Sights near the food in Tainan
Temples, forts, old streets and museums, each with the nearest places to eat. Use them to plan the gaps between meals.
安平開臺天后宮Anping Kaitai Tianhou Temple
A Mazu temple right by Anping Old Fort, rebuilt in the 1960s to bring back statues that had spent decades in other Anping temples.
安平古堡（熱蘭遮城）Anping Old Fort (Fort Zeelandia)
The site of Fort Zeelandia, the Dutch East India Company's headquarters on Taiwan. Come for the 17th-century brick wall wrapped in banyan roots and the small museum on the colony.
安平樹屋Anping Tree House
An old warehouse that banyan trees have taken over, roots running down the walls and the canopy forming a roof.
赤崁樓Chihkan Tower (Fort Provintia)
Two Qing-era pavilions sitting on the base of Fort Provintia, the Dutch fort on the mainland. It is the obvious starting point for the old town.
億載金城（二鯤鯓砲臺）Eternal Golden Castle
A square Qing artillery fort south of Anping, with brick walls, corner bastions and a moat.
原英商德記洋行Former Tait & Co. Merchant House
A 19th-century trading house from Anping's treaty-port years, now a small museum. The Anping Tree House is directly behind it.
臺南故事影像館（原鄭成功祖廟）Former Zheng Family Shrine (Tainan Story Image Museum)
A small Zheng family shrine to Koxinga beside Hayashi Department Store, now also a photo museum of the city.
祀典大天后宮Grand Matsu Temple
Next to the Official Martial Temple, this Mazu temple occupies the former residence of the Ming prince Zhu Shugui.
臺灣府城大南門Great South Gate
One of the few surviving gates of the old walled city, in a small park of banyans a short walk from the Confucius Temple.
林百貨Hayashi Department Store
A five-storey department store from 1932, Tainan's first building with a lift, topped by a rooftop shrine. It trades as a department store again, with cafés and exhibitions on local crafts.
開元寺Kaiyuan Temple
North of the old town, this large Buddhist temple stands on a Zheng-family villa and keeps relics from the Ming period.
延平郡王祠Koxinga Shrine
A shrine to Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga), with a museum on the Zheng period next door.
國立臺灣歷史博物館National Museum of Taiwan History
The national museum of Taiwan's history, out in Annan, with about 60,000 objects from Indigenous, Dutch, Spanish, Chinese, British and Japanese periods.
國立臺灣文學館（原臺南州廳）National Museum of Taiwan Literature
The former Tainan Prefecture Hall, a 1916 government building with a mansard roof, now a museum of Taiwanese writing.
祀典武廟Official Martial Temple
Stepped gable walls along Yongfu Road mark this temple to Guan Yu, a short walk from Chihkan Tower.
神農街Shennong Street
A narrow lane of old shophouses now filled with small arts and craft businesses, a few minutes' walk from the Guohua Street food stalls.
臺南孔子廟Tainan Confucius Temple
Taiwan's first Confucian temple and school, a set of courtyards laid out with the school on the left and the temple on the right.
Day trips
Towns outside Tainan worth a train or bus ride. Each one says how to get there; check the official timetable before you go.
井仔腳瓦盤鹽田Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields
Shallow tile-paved salt pans on the Beimen coast. Visitors can watch the salt being dried and raked.
南鯤鯓代天府Nankunshen Daitian Temple
A large Wang Ye temple on the Beimen coast, dedicated to five lords. It is known for its jiannian ceramic work, stone carving and paintings.
八角樓Octagonal Tower (Bajiaolou)
A Qing-era timber merchant's house in Yanshui's old centre, built on sugar money.
七股鹽山Qigu Salt Mountain
A white mound of salt about 20 metres high, left over from Taiwan's largest sun-dried salt field, with the Taiwan Salt Museum nearby.
新化老街Xinhua Old Street
A row of 1920s and 1930s shophouses with carved Baroque-style fronts along Zhongzheng Road.
學甲慈濟宮Xuejia Ciji Temple
Xuejia's main temple, dedicated to Baosheng Dadi, with a hall of koji pottery by the 19th-century master Ye Wang.
月津港親水公園Yuejin Port
The old crescent-shaped river harbour of Yanshui, now a waterside park that hosts a lantern festival around Lunar New Year.