The southern city of Kaohsiung is Taiwan's largest port, its second-largest city and centre of the country's heavy and petrochemical industries. Despite this, today's Kaohsiung is a modern urban landscape of airy cafes, wide streets, waterside parks, public transport, bicycle lanes and cultural venues that have embraced and re-imagined the city's manufacturing past.
Mark Twain once wrote, 'Mauritius was made first and then heaven, heaven being copied after Mauritius'. He was right. Mauritius is rightly famed for its sapphire-blue waters, powder-white beaches and, yes, luxury resorts that provide a front-row seat onto some of the most beautiful views in the Indian Ocean.
This is a city that staged a revolution, was headquartered by Nazis, bombed to bits, divided in two and finally reunited – and that was just in the 20th century! Walk along remnants of the Berlin Wall, marvel at the splendour of a Prussian palace, visit Checkpoint Charlie or stand in the very room where the Holocaust was planned. Berlin is like an endlessly fascinating 3D textbook where the past is very much present wherever you go.
A trip to Rome is as much about lapping up the dolce vita lifestyle as gorging on art and culture. Idling around picturesque streets, whiling away hours at streetside cafes, people-watching on pretty piazzas – these are all an integral part of the Roman experience. The tempo rises as the heat of the day gives way to the evening cool and the fashionably dressed aperitivo (pre-dinner drinks) crowd descends on the city's bars and cafes.
Tokyo feels limitless in size and scope and often seems more like a collection of cities than one cohesive whole. At the centre is the Imperial Palace. To the east of the palace is the old city, the historic downtown that came to life during the feudal era (when a castle stood where the palace is today). Here, in neighbourhoods like Ueno and Asakusa, the attractions have a more traditional slant: there are museums, shrines and temples, historic restaurants and artisan workshops.