My comment:
(a) Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are the only three tropical or subtropical economies that roar in modern times. A main reason for developed nations concentrating in temperate zone has been fewer infectious diseases (except perhaps plague in Medieval Europe).
(b) Taiwan is steaming hot in summer.
(c) You guys are familiar with Beijing. Here is topography of Taipei:
Physical Environment. Peri-urbanization and Global Environmental Change, National Taipei University, July 14, 2008. web.ntpu.edu.tw/~shuli/PUGEC_07Casestudy_1.htm
(maps of northern Taiwan, displaying boundaries with 新竹縣 in the left lower corner, and with 宜蘭縣 in the right lower corner)
* Taipei basin 台北盆地
* Datun volcano mountains 大屯火山 (latent)
* Linko terrace 林口台地
* Taoyuan terrace 桃園台地
* Tanshui River 淡水河
* Keelung River 基隆河
* Hsintien Creek 新店溪
* Tahan Creek 大漢溪
(d) I do not know whether City of Taipei would not be as hot if it were not in a basin. But I have wondered, since I went there to go to a college, whether carving out corridors would help, and how much it would cost. It seems that this has not been done before anywhere in the world.