Taipei residents head for the hills in search of country dining with a view

The small of Pingdengli is so unlike most of cramped and populous Taipei that some people at City Hall haven't actually heard of it.

But tiny Pingdengli, which looks down on the city from a 400-metre-high perch, hosts a cluster of country-style cafes that have sprung up over the past decade to serve as secret hideouts for people tired of urban life. These rustic restaurants are often discovered by drivers and cyclists on the back road to Yangmingshan National Park.

The small community has no landmarks, so it has staked its reputation on offering dining in an environment that flat, dense Taipei can never match.

Cafes along the village's main two-lane road, or on estates in the tiny lanes behind it, make meals from local ingredients that are hard to find in town, and then complement them with powerful espressos or iced tea.

"When the weather is good, we fill up easily," says Chen Chao-hsiou, owner of the French Farm, which, with its 200 seats, is Pingdengli's largest restaurant.

"The advantage of Pingdengli is that you can see Taipei at night - between sunset and sunrise. The air is clean and our restaurant has its own view."