Yilan is little more than an hour from Taipei by train or bus. Many people treat it as a day trip, but Yilan City rewards a slower pace: a Japanese-era official residence, a century-old winery and an old bank all sit in the old town near the station. One stop north is Jiaoxi, where free hot spring foot baths line the streets.

ExploreStamp's "Yilan and Jiaoxi: Foot Baths and Jimmy Liao" route covers eight places in the area. This post covers what's worth seeing at each one and how to fit them into two days.

Taichung · 6 places Walk the shady greenway past the art museum and dinosaurs, shop the little stores of Shen Ji New Village and end on Yizhong Street.

Some cities are best seen from a car. This part of Taichung is best seen on foot.

The Calligraphy Greenway is a 3.6-kilometer ribbon of park, with the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts at one end and the National Museum of Natural Science at the other. Between the two museums are shade trees, lawns, a shopping mall and little shops in old dormitories.

This route follows the greenway. Six places and six stamps take you from an art museum to the dinosaurs in a single day.

Tainan is a city best explored on foot. A fort built by the Dutch four centuries ago, a station from the Japanese colonial era and a library that opened only a few years ago all sit on the same map, with one small food stall after another in between.

ExploreStamp's "A Walk Through Tainan: Forts, a Station and Tofu Pudding" route picks six of them: two historic sites, a station, a library, a museum and a bowl of tofu pudding. This post covers what's worth seeing at each one and how to fit them into two days.

Taichung · 10 places The lake pavilion in Taichung Park, an old winery, the prison's martial arts hall, and bubble tea where it is said to have begun.

Can a cup of bubble tea taste like a city?

In Taichung, perhaps it can. For many people, Chun Shui Tang, which opened on Siwei Street in 1983, is where bubble tea began. And the streets around it still hold a lake pavilion, an old winery, a Japanese martial arts hall and police dormitories, each one a piece of old Taichung.

This route starts at Taichung Park. Ten places and ten stamps let you take two slow days in old Taichung.

Many people who travel in Taiwan, Japan and all over the world collect commemorative stamps. Next to a station ticket window, at a museum exit, at the door of a shop on an old street, there's often a stamp and an ink pad waiting. What makes stamping fun is that you have to actually go there.

The habit is especially strong in Japan, where it goes back to the goshuin of Buddhist temples: monks offered copied sutras to a temple and received a vermilion seal as proof. Centuries later, train stations, post offices and tourist sights all make their own commemorative stamps, and stamping your way along has become part of traveling.

ExploreStamp brings this onto your phone and adds what a paper stamp book can't: photos, dates, a map, and beautiful postcards to share with yourself, your friends and family. It also shows you where your next city treasure hunt is, so every easygoing weekend outing becomes a route worth keeping.

Walk up to Chihkan Tower, tap "Check in", and a hexagonal heritage stamp drops into your stamp book, printed with today's date.