Nantou

The name of the city is a transliteration of the Hoanya word Ramtau with its first character (南; "south") chosen to complement that of Beitou's (北; "north"), a district in Taipei, even though there is no relation between the aboriginal names.

There is a bus station right by Carrefour that connects to most major cities around Taiwan. As of 2011, there are no direct routes from Tainan to Nantou.

Downtown Nantou (mostly the shopping district) is small enough to get around on foot.
The easiest alternative mode of transportation would probably be by taxi. Near the bus station and Carrefour there are always taxis standing by, but since these usually don't use meters, be careful and negotiate a good deal first.

Museums

• Nantou County Pottery Museum

  phone: +886-049-2202430
  address: No.65, Sec. 2, Jhangnan Rd

History and culture

• Jufang HallA historical building, built in a Western architectural style, which was completed in 1920.

Every Wednesday night, there is a night market on the streets around Carrefour.

• Carrefour (家樂福)
• Watsons
• Xin Nong Sheng Xian Supermarket (新農生鮮超市)
• Twilight Market (黃昏市場), a market that sells a variety of groceries, including many traditional Taiwanese dishes.
• He Jia Ren Bookstore, a bookstore that sells some English books.
• Tsang Kun, a large electronics store.

Nantou is famous for delicious Taiwanese dishes.

• Bucket Sticky Rice (桶子米糕)
• Yi Noodle (義麵)
• Shaved Ice (ㄘㄨㄚˋ冰)
• Fala Steak House (法拉象牛排館), a classy western style steak house that has very fair prices and excellent quality food. There are four rounds to a typical meal, starting with salad, soup, the main course, and a dessert. Drinks are refillable and include sodas and tea, and there are snacks available for taking.
• Elephant Steak House (大象牛排館), a large steak house opened by the owner of Fala Steak House. Elephant Steak House is much larger and the prices even lower, making it very popular (it gets crowded sometimes) with people in Nantou. There is a buffet area with all-you-can-eat noodles, salad, fruits, etc.
• Duofu Dohua (多福豆花), a sweets shop on Janguo Road which is just behind the County Gym Field. It's a franchised branch of a chain, but they make most of their products by themselves. Their Dohua (sweet soft beancurd) is made with much care and is very nice. They also provide many kinds of other desserts, kinds of shaved ice and drinks which are all cheap and worth the money you pay.

Refreshment shops can be found all over, most offering a variety of bubble teas, tea, and fruit juice.