Food for Thought: The 2023 Taiwan Culinary Exhibition
May 4th, 2023
Great food is at the heart of any memorable travel experience, and a Life of Taiwan guided tour is no exception. Our regular guides and itinerary planners have a combined 200-plus years of eating out in Taiwan under their belts. We can bring you to places known for exceptional fine dining and hidden secret spots […]
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Small Town Portraits: Kezailiao near Kaohsiung
April 25th, 2023
Compared to the busy modern metropolis that lies a short distance to the south, the quaint coastal village of Kezailiao is a different world. Many of the fishermen’s cottages, built using rough chunks of coral stone or mud bricks more than 100 years ago, have fallen into the kind of picturesque decrepitude that delights photographers. […]
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24 Hours in Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s Maritime Metropolis
March 31st, 2023
You’ve spent several days revelling in the natural splendour of Taiwan’s unspoiled east or you’ve just finished exploring Tainan, the island’s historic former capital, and now you have a whole day in Kaohsiung before your fly out from this southern metropolis. Unlike Taroko Gorge and Taipei 101, Kaohsiung doesn’t have much of an international profile. […]
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Must-Try Taiwanese Breakfasts: Taipei
January 15th, 2023
When you’re in Taipei, why start the day with a generic hotel breakfast? Thanks to the winds and vagaries of history, Taiwan’s capital is home to more than its share of must-try Taiwanese breakfasts. More than a hundred years ago, breakfast for the inhabitants of the Taipei Basin would have looked very similar to their […]
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Taiwan in 100 Books
November 2nd, 2020
Hoping to visit Taiwan when the pandemic eventually ends, and thinking of reading up on the island in the meantime? There’s no shortage of English-language books about this East Asia country. In fact, there are so many you may not know where to start. Since moving to Taiwan from his native New Zealand in the […]
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Taiwan In Colours: Yellow
September 22nd, 2020
Here in Taiwan, the hottest part of the year is coming to an end and we can begin to look forward to autumn. Yellow is the colour traditionally associated with the end of summer, and also a prominent feature in temples and shrines, especially those on the Buddhist end of the religious spectrum. The reasons why […]
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Taiwan’s Delectable Dumplings
June 17th, 2020
Taiwan offers the adventurous gourmet a mouthwatering range of dumplings. They come boiled, fried and steamed. Some are filled with pork, others shrimp paste, vegetables or even soup. The surrounding carbohydrate is often a thin skin or dough — but it may be glutinous rice. Life of Taiwan clients often ask to try the renowned […]
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Dragon’s Whiskers, Empty Hearts and Goose Leaves: Taiwan’s Scrumptious Greens
April 8th, 2020
Official statistics don’t reflect the scale and variety of vegetable cultivation in Taiwan. Many farmers who focus on rice or fruit also grow seasonal greens which they share with relatives rather than sell. City-dwellers cultivate scallions or cilantro in balcony boxes. Few Taiwanese buy frozen or canned vegetables, preferring to shop in the traditional morning […]
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2020: The Year of Mountain Tourism
January 6th, 2020
For its size, Taiwan is one of the most mountainous countries in the world. Nearly one-third of the island is a kilometre or more above sea level, while a tenth is above 2,500 m (a statistic where Taiwan matches Alpine Switzerland). No fewer than 258 named peaks top 3,000 m — a stunning total, given […]
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Taiwan In Colours: Green
October 5th, 2019
As soon as you leave Taiwan’s cities, you’ll see plenty of green. The island straddles the Tropic of Cancer, and seldom lacks for sunshine or precipitation. Plots of land which are neither built on nor cultivated are soon taken over by grasses and weeds, then bushes and eventually fast-growing trees. Since the 1970s agriculture has […]
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Came for the Movies, Returned for the Cuisine: An Interview with Food Writer Matt Gross
May 30th, 2019
Acclaimed Taiwanese directors like Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang can take credit for more than award-winning movies like as The Puppetmaster and Yi Yi: A One and a Two. Back in the early 1990s, their films inspired in one American a profound curiosity about Taiwan which has turned into an ongoing love affair with the […]
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Embracing Obsessions: Foodie Journalist Clarissa Wei
December 13th, 2018
Clarissa Wei is a Taiwanese-American journalist who describes herself as ‘obsessed with traditional ecological knowledge, and trying to learn as much as I can about the plants and foods that indigenous Taiwanese people ate, and how they processed them’. Over the past ten years, Wei has written dozens of articles about the cuisines and culinary […]
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