Taipei isn’t bad in comparison with a lot of big cities. Cities are inherently ugly, but I can think of far worse places than Taipei.
I live in Danshui, and apart from the ironically-named golden river (it’s a sewage discharge into the Danshui river) it’s really quite a nice place to live. The cycleway/walkway through the mangroves is particularly well done (apart from the aforesaid golden river, which completely spoils the effect).