Taipei for The Curious Wanderers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Three floors of cloth in every weight and print, plus tailors who will measure you on the spot; the old cotton bolts on the ground floor are where designers shop.

A tiny temple with 500 deity statues crammed around the Old Man Under the Moon, who is the god of marriage; bring a stick of incense for your future.

Eat the oyster omelette, the taro balls and the fish soup at the counters; an easy night market with plenty to try and one lane of wide pavement.

A bright modern museum of Taiwan's ceramics, from Qing stoneware to the factory teapots of the 1980s; the kiln garden and the child-friendly gallery on the ground floor are a surprise.

Pick one of the little workshops on the old pottery street and have a go at the wheel; they fire it and ship it home, or keep it for you to collect.

Giant fried chicken cutlets, oyster omelettes, sugar-coated tomatoes and bubble tea; the market is busiest at eight, so go early if you want a seat.

A steaming green hot spring pool at 80 degrees that smells of boiled eggs; it was the site of Japanese-era baths, and the mist is thickest in the morning.

A 1913 Japanese bathhouse with tatami rooms, the old Roman-style bath and a tiled pool; the staff offer free guided tours in English and all of it is cool and calm.

Start with a pepper bun at the temple gate, then herbal rib soup, stinky tofu and grilled squid; go before seven if you would rather see the cooking than queue.

Old counters with jars of dried seahorse, ginseng, mushrooms and goji berries, and shopkeepers who will say what each herb is good for if you ask nicely.

A 1960s mosque with a white dome and a quiet courtyard where Muslim families from Burma and Yunnan pray; visitors are welcome outside prayer times, dressed modestly.

Hand-pulled dumplings and beef noodle soup in a simple old room; a plain place, and a nice end to a weekend that wandered a lot.