Small Town Portraits: History-Packed Fengshan
September 27th, 2023
The first thing to point out about Fengshan is that it isn’t really a small town. With 357,000 inhabitants, it’s a settlement of importance. But because it’s located right next to sprawling Kaohsiung — the modern harbour metropolis that’s often described as Taiwan’s ‘maritime capital’ — historic Fengshan (sometimes spelled Fongshan) seems manageable and downright […]
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Taiwan’s Art Scene: Private Tours to Discover the Island’s Creative Soul
September 15th, 2023
History, human diversity, and government policy have combined to give 21st-century Taiwan an exceptional cultural richness. Most Taiwanese trace their ancestry to Fujian, the nearest Chinese province, but when they arrived the island was already populated by more than a dozen Austronesian indigenous tribes. Soon those early migrants were joined by Hakka pioneers who spoke […]
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Heritage Trails: Exploring Taiwan’s Rich Cultural Legacy
June 28th, 2023
Welcome to Taiwan, a land brimming with a rich cultural legacy that spans centuries. From 17th-century temples and historic sites to traditional villages and indigenous traditions, Taiwan offers a plethora of heritage trails, cycle routes, and cultural corridors that are waiting to be explored. In this blog post, we invite you on a journey to […]
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Small Town Portraits: Tamsui near Taipei
June 8th, 2023
For much of its history, Tamsui — sometimes spelled Danshui — was bigger and more important than Taipei. Like Anping in Tainan, in the second half of the 19th century it was a treaty port, meaning merchants from certain Western countries enjoyed a range of privileges. The town attracted tea traders, camphor dealers and other […]
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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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A Rising Destination: History of Taiwan Tourism
September 27th, 2021
Taiwan has long been a place familiar to business travelers, but only in the past decade or so have people in Europe and North America begun thinking of this dynamic East Asian island as a vacation spot. The first effort to attract foreign tourists to Taiwan was made more than a century ago. During the […]
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Taiwan in 100 Books
November 2nd, 2020
Hoping to visit Taiwan, 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 mid-1990s, John Grant Ross has […]
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Taiwan In Colours: Red
December 26th, 2019
In many Western countries, red is associated with Christmas because it dominates Santa’s outfit. In Taiwan, red is also the colour of festiveness. In societies which draw most of their traditions from China, it represents good fortune and happiness. Nowadays, most Taiwanese brides wear lacy white dresses, but in the past the traditional wedding garment […]
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Jason Cole Mager: An American Artist Inspired by Taiwan
August 29th, 2019
Back in 2012, when Jason Cole Mager began renting a spare bedroom in his home in New York to tourists, he had no idea the decision would eventually bring him to Taipei. ‘If you’re ever feeling apathetic about your surroundings, open your home to travellers. Their enthusiasm for what you’ve been ignoring will remind you […]
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Island of Trees: Taiwan’s Magnificent Woodlands
June 20th, 2019
Here’s a statistic that astounds many who’ve never visited Taiwan: About 58% of the main island is covered by trees or bamboo, with stands of hardwoods accounting for more than half of this area. That’s a higher percentage than in the US, Canada, or Brazil. The figure for the UK is a mere 12%. This […]
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Cats, Dogs, Deer and Salt: The Story of Place Names in Taiwan, Part 2
April 25th, 2019
As in north Taiwan, several places in south Taiwan bear names that are derived from the languages of the island’s Austronesian indigenous people. It used to be said that the ancient port town of Lukang (‘Deer Harbour’, image at the top of this blog post) got its name from the herds of sika deer that […]
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