Taipei Botanical Garden

The garden began as a government nursery in the late nineteenth century and was developed into a botanical collection under Japanese administration in the early twentieth, which is why so many of its trees are large and old for a city-centre site. It is laid out as a series of themed beds joined by shaded paths: a fern area, a bamboo collection, a section of plants named in classical Chinese poetry, and a greenhouse. The centrepiece is a rectangular lotus pond that fills completely with leaves and pink flowers through the summer and is photographed obsessively from dawn onwards. Herons and night herons fish along its edge, and squirrels are everywhere. It is one of the quieter pieces of open ground in the city.

What you actually see

• The lotus pond - a dense summer sheet of leaves and pink flowers, with herons working the margins.
• The old specimen trees - century-old figs, camphors and palms planted when the garden was laid out.
• The fern and bamboo collections - shaded beds that stay cool on the hottest afternoons.
• The poetry plant beds - species grouped by their appearances in classical Chinese verse.

When to go

The lotus flowers from around June to August and is at its best in early morning, before the heat and before the blooms close; photographers with long lenses arrive at first light. Outside the lotus season the garden is quiet on weekday mornings. It opens early and closes at dusk, so it works well before a museum visit.

Honest expectations

Outside lotus season it is a pleasant municipal garden rather than a destination, and it is small enough to walk in under an hour. Summer mornings around the pond are crowded with tripods and the boardwalk gets blocked. Mosquitoes are persistent in the shaded beds, labelling is patchy in English, and the greenhouse is modest.

Nearby

The National Museum of History adjoins the garden, and the Ximending district is a short walk north.