 Facts at a Glance
Full country name: Republic of China
Area: 35,563 sq km (13,869 sq mi)
Population: 21,465,881
Capital city: Taipei (population 2,637,000)
People: Taiwanese (70%), Aboriginal (2%), Chinese
Language: Taiwanese, Mandarin Chinese
Religion: Buddhism, Taoism
Government: Democratic Republic
President: Lee Teng-hui
Premier: Vincent Siew
Shaped a little like a leaf, Taiwan is an island 160km (99mi) off the coast of China. The island's total area is 35,563 sq km (13,869 sq mi) - it's 394km (244mi) long and 144km (89mi) wide. Taiwan's spine is a ridge of steep mountains, falling away to a rocky coastline on the east and a narrow, fertile plain (where 90% of the population lives) on the west. Mount Yushan is, at 3952m (12,963ft), the highest peak in North-East Asia outside of Tibet. The small islands of Penghu, Lanyu, Green, Liuchiu, Kinmen, Matsu and Wuchiu are controlled by Taiwan.
The island's high mountain forests are predominantly cyprus, although camphor used to grow in abundance. Taiwan was once home to many endemic species, including the Formosan black bear, the Formosan Sika deer and the Formosan landlocked salmon. In its headlong scurry towards economic prosperity, Taiwan has managed to destroy most of the western coast's habitat and wipe out a species or two, although the inaccessibility of the rest of the island has made it a natural wildlife reserve. But in the last 20 years Taiwan has declared 67 reserves, including six national parks, and instituted some fairly hefty environmental legislation.
Although Taiwan is subtropical, the mountains can be chilly in summer (June to August) and snowy in winter (December to February). During winter it rains pretty much non-stop in the north-east, while the south-west is much warmer and drier. Summer is hot and sticky all over the low parts of the island, with drenching rains in the mountains. Daytime temperatures in Taipei are around 30°C (86°F) in summer and 20°C (68°F) in winter.
Little archaeological evidence remains from Taiwan's early history. People - probably Pacific Islanders at first - may have lived here for about 10,000 years, with migration from China beginning in the 15th century. In 1517 Portuguese sailors reached Taiwan and named it Ihla Formosa, or beautiful island. The Dutch invaded in 1624 and built a capital at Tainan - two years later they successfully defended the island against a Spanish invasion. During the 1660s the Ming and Manchu dynasties arrived on the scene, kicking out the Dutch and wrestling one another for control of the island. The Manchus eventually won, making Taiwan a county of Fujian Province and triggering a flood of Chinese immigration.
Japan took Taiwan from China in 1895 and held on to it until the end of WWII, when it was handed back to China. When Communist forces took control of China in 1949, the president, General Chiang Kaishek, and his nationalist party, the Kuomintang, fled to Taiwan to plan their reconquest of the mainland. They're still planning. One and a half million Chinese also left the mainland for Taiwan when Mao took control. The leaders of both Communist mainland China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) claim to be the voice of all China, but the international community has, almost without exception, chosen the mainland. In 1971 the Kuomintang lost the Chinese United Nations seat, and in 1979 the USA withdrew its recognition of the Republic.
 Memorial to Chiang Kaishek, Taipei (21K)
When Chiang Kaishek died in 1979 and was replaced by his son Chingkuo, Taiwanese started muttering the word 'dynasty', and criticism of the one-party system rose. In 1986, those opposed to Chiang formed the Democratic Progressive Party, and were granted seats in the legislature. Two years later Chiang died and was replaced by the first native-born president, Lee Tenghui.
Taiwanese politics is divided between those who want reunification with China (the Kuomintang line), and those who want Taiwanese independence (the DPP). In 1995 relations between the two Chinas, always chilly, plummetted to a new low. Lee Tenghui's high-profile visit to the United States brought mainland China out in a rash of nervous jealousy. Determined to isolate Taiwan and sway the minds of its voters, China held intense military exercises near the Taiwanese coast. In response, the United States donned its global cop hat and sent a couple of warships to monitor the situation. Despite the region's sudden high concentration of itchy trigger fingers, the first direct presidential election was held without incident, and Lee Tenghui was returned to office.
GDP: US$216 billion
GDP per head: US$10,404
Annual growth: 6.7%
Inflation: 4%
Major industries: Machinery, electrical equipment, textiles, clothing
Major trading partners: USA, Japan, Hong Kong
Taiwanese culture is very similar to that of China. Chinese opera, and its half-sibling Taiwanese opera, are an integral part of the culture: you probably won't understand a word, but the costumes, music, acting and atmosphere are beautiful nonetheless. Most Chinese music is made with string instruments or flutes, but you'll have to go out of your way to hear the delightful melodies these produce. You're far more likely to hear the strident noise of temple trumpets and gongs.
The Taiwanese take health and longevity very seriously. Many practise taijiquan - slow motion shadow boxing - for exercise and as an art form. If you're an early riser, you will often see groups of people gliding through the graceful motions of taijiquan as the sun rises. Chinese medicine, acupuncture and faith healing - quigong - provide an alternative to a growing western medical system. Superstitious about death, the Taiwanese avoid its symbols - white and the number four - and never talk about dying or accidents. Despite this, people do die, and when they do the tip-toeing attitude goes out the window. Taiwanese funerals are reminiscent of a Saoshing-soaked night in a karaoke bar: electric organs belt out funeral tunes, bikini-clad women sing songs (and sometimes strip) and everyone eats a great deal.
Taiwan can be a cultural minefield for the uninformed visitor. As in China, 'face' is vital, and destroying someone's face is surprisingly easy to do. In order to save others' face, the Taiwanese rarely express their emotions or speak frankly: smiles and politeness all-round are the norm. Gift-giving - especially when the gift is prestigious - flattery, self-deprecation and flowery rhetoric are an everyday part of Taiwanese interaction. As well as saving face, this rigmarole creates guanxi, a relationship of two-way obligations which allows participants to ask the most outrageous favours of one another.
Food on the run (27K)
The Taiwanese love to eat, and they love to feed guests. Food here is much the same as in China, with dishes from Beijing-Shandong, Sichuan-Hunan, Shanghaiese and Cantonese-Chaozhou cuisine. The Taiwanese have added a subtropical flavour with plenty of seafood and the liberal use of sugar. Eating out can be another excuse for a display of face-making, with everyone ordering exotic, high-priced dishes and competing with each other to pay the entire bill. Although the Taiwanese use many ingredients which seem implausible to westerners - dog, snake, bear organs - these are usually medicinal and expensive, and you'll be unlikely to encounter them in an everyday dish. Special foods to keep an eye out for include moon cakes (made during the Moon Festival in Autumn), spring rolls (sold in April), rice dumplings (made for the Dragon Boat Festival) and red turtle cakes (for birthdays and temple worship).
You'll need to get hold of a lunar calendar if you want to have any hope of attending Taiwan's big events - very few of them occur on the same date every year. If fireworks and crowds crank your engine, visit Yenshui, Luerhmen or Peikang for the Lantern Festival, on the 15th day of the first moon. Kuanyin's Birthday, on the 19th day of the second moon, is a good time to see temple festivities in full swing. During the Ghost Month, the seventh lunar month, ghosts from hell walk the earth. No one travels, swims, gets married or moves house, but everyone visits Taoist temples. National Day (10 October) is celebrated with gusto, fireworks and a light show in Taipei. Chinese New Year (first day of the first lunar month) should be avoided at all costs.
Visas: Some visitors from western Europe, Australiasia and the USA can stay in Taiwan for five days (not extendable) without a visa. Everyone else needs a visa, which allows a 60-day stay. Single entry visas are easy to get, but if you want a muliple entry visa get it before you leave home. Because the Republic of China (Taiwan) is not recognised by most countries, you'll have to get your visa from a Taiwanese 'pseudo embassy' - look for trade offices, travel services or friendship associations.
Getting the sweet juice on Taiwan (22K)
Health risks: No particular risks, but you should consider vaccinations for hepatitis.
Time: GMT/UTC plus eight hours
Electricity: 110V, 60 Hz
Weights & measures: Metric (see the conversion table.)
 Money & Costs
Currency: New Taiwan dollar (NT$)
Relative costs:
- Budget meal: $1-3
- Restaurant meal: $10-15
- Budget room: $5-8
- Mid-range hotel: $30-50 (double)
As Taiwan's standard of living has increased, so have prices. The cost of most goods and services has reached the level of many European countries, but Taiwan is still cheaper than Japan (which isn't saying much). If you stay in youth hostels, live on noodles and travel by bus you could get by on $15 to $20 a day. If you want a bathroom of your own, a few souvenirs, a couple of taxi trips and a decent feed or two a day, budget $35 to $50 a day. Staying in Taipei will cost you more than heading out into the country.
Travellers' cheques and cash can be changed at international airports and large banks, but you'll have trouble with travellers' cheques in rural areas. Stick to US dollars for cash and cheques if you can - other currencies will cause you problems. When changing cheques, shop around, as commission costs can vary widely. There are no legal private money changers in Taiwan, but some jewellery shops will change cash. Major international credit cards can be used at big hotels and flash restaurants or to get cash advances at your card's offices.
Tipping is not the done thing in Taiwan. The only people who really expect you to shell out are hotel bellhops and airport porters, who will expect about $1 a bag. Big hotels and restaurants will stick 10% service charge and 5% value added tax on your bill. Taiwan is not a third world country, so don't expect to haggle yourself a bargain - you may be able to get a slight discount (around 10%) in street markets and small shops.
Try to avoid major public holidays, especially Chinese New Year (usually early February), when transport will be full, shops and restaurants closed, and hotels unusually expensive. Summer weather can shorten tempers and increase the price of airfares. While October is climatically pleasant, it is also holiday-ridden - try November instead. In late August/early September it's Ghost Month, which means there will be no Chinese travellers on the road and temples will be at their most active.
Whether or not you like Taipei depends on how you feel about big, booming, expensive cities. About 6 million people live in and around Taiwan's capital, lured by the excitment of a bustling city on the move. And for the most part, they're not disappointed. Real estate is virtually unobtainable - Taipei residents have long dispensed with the dream of home-ownership - and the government is encouraging businesses to set up elsewhere in Taiwan. Despite this, the notion still prevails that to make it big in Taiwan, you have to set up in the heart of the capital - even if the air is perpetually toxic. Taiwan's capital is packed full of people, cars and smog - a real hotbed of renao, or liveliness. It's not a relaxing stopover, but the food is excellent, the people are friendly and there are some top-notch sights.
Cheap feast, Shihlin Market, Taipei (26K)
At first glance, Taipei is an intimidating confusion of sprawls. With a good map and compass (no kidding) the logic at the heart of the city's layout will slowly begin to dawn. Even so, unless you read Chinese characters, the system of romanising Chinese characters used in Taiwan (called the Wade-Giles system) will leave even those with impeccable senses of direction floundering. There is a push to replace this perverse, unintelligable system with the reasonably successful `Pinyin' system used in China. But this plan has met with staunch opposition: if it works on mainland China, the thinking goes, it must be bad.
Tealicious Taipei tea shop (24K)
The highlight of Tienhsiang is the nearby Taroko Gorge, probably Taiwan's most beautiful scenic spot. The gorge is 19km (12mi) long, sheer cliffs dropping away to a rushing river of white water. The Eternal Spring Shrine, just above the entrance to the gorge, straddles a waterfall: it was built as a memorial to the 450 workers who died building the Taroko highway. The town itself is a lovely little resort at the top of the gorge, nestled between towering cliffs. Relaxing and tranquil, there's not much to do in the town itself, but there are plenty of walks nearby.
Exactly 1km (about half a mile) uphill from Tienhsiang, the tunnel hike is, as its name suggests, a walk which leads through a dripping tunnel, past outstanding scenery, to the Paiyang Waterfall and beyond. A little further out of Tienhsiang, Wenshan Hot Springs is a very pleasant, natural spring. Tienhsiang is popular with honeymooners, so visit during the week if you want a bit of quiet solitude. A third of the way down the east coast, Tienhsiang is serviced by buses and tours from Taipei.
If you've spent a bit of time in Taipei, the mountain resort of Alishan will be a real breath of fresh air. A couple of lungfulls of the crisp, mountainy oxygen here will get the blood rushing and the heart leaping. The locals are so full of joie de vivre that they'll probably pull you out of bed at 4am to join them in the traditional dawn climb of Chushan. It's almost worth it for the 'sea of clouds' view. Once you've recovered from this exertion, take a soothing ride on the steam train which makes a 9km (5.5mi) run from Alishan to Monkey Rock. If Chushan has merely whetted your appetite, Yushan, Taiwan's highest mountain, is a heart-attack-inducing 3952m (12,963ft). You'll need to get a class A mountain permit if you want to make the climb.
Try to get to Alishan during the week - 5000 camera-clicking tourists can take the shine off a Chushan sunrise, and weekends here are known as 'people mountain people sea'. There are plenty of places to stay, but not much in the way of mid-range hotels: expect to bed down in a dormitory or pay big bucks. Alishan is smack-bang in the middle of the island and buses go from Taipei and other large cities, or you can get a train from Peimen.
Tainan, on the southern east coast, is Taiwan's temple town. Once the country's capital, Tainan is still a stronghold of Taiwanese culture. It's also one of the best places in the country to witness Buddhist parades and festivals. There are hundreds of temples in Tainan: some of the most interesting are East Mountain, a busy Taoist temple where people come to communicate with dead relatives or exorcise ghosts, Mito, with its magnificent statue of the 1000-armed goddess Kuanyin, Chuhsi, Tainan's largest and most beautiful temple, set in an athletic park, and Kaiyuan, a classical Buddhist temple with spacious grounds and plenty of pagodas.
To see temple building in action, visit the suburb of Luerhmen, where three temples are constantly trying to outdo one another for the title of 'biggest temple in Taiwan'. Choose your favourite and donate some cash to building expenses - your name will be engraved on a temple artefact in gratitude. If all this religious exertion becomes too much for you, get back to earthly things at the nearby Woozland waterslide park. Other non-temple sights include a museum and shrine to national hero Koxinga and the Great South Gate, the remains of Tainan's city walls. Tainan is also a great spot for night-life and Chinese food. You can get here by plane or train from Taipei, and by bus from just about anywhere.
About 62km (38mi) off the south-east coast of Taiwan, Lanyu is a rocky, volcanic island with a tropical climate. Lanyu is very different to the rest of Taiwan: most of the inhabitants are Yami aborigines, culturally closer to the Philippines than to China. Traditionally, the Yami speak their own dialect (which is nothing like Chinese), build houses underground to avoid typhoons, and live by cultivating taro and sweet potato and catching fish. Of course, Lanyu is not untouched by the modern world, and you'll see Levis about as often as loincloths. There are a few small Chinese business on the island, and fairly easy access to taxis, TV, beer and cigarettes, so don't expect an unspoilt tribal paradise.
Unspoilt or not, Lanyu is a beautiful place. The coastal scenery - jagged, black volcanic rock - can be breathtaking, if not exactly conducive to swimming. One of the best ways to occupy yourself on Lanyu is to walk the island's circumference, 37km (23mi) all up. There are a few places to stay and eat, and you can camp out if you ask nicely. Small prop-planes fly between Lanyu and Taitung or Kaohsiung, or you can take the not-too-pleasant boat trip from Taitung via Green Island.
Maolin is a gem - babbling brooks, mountains and hiking trails an hour's drive from Kaohsiung (Taiwan's second biggest city) and mercifully free from tacky developments. There are a couple of makeshift hotels in Maolin village, but most visitors camp out. The area around the village is a web of river walks and scenic hikes, punctuated by suspension bridges and waterfalls.
About 15km (9mi) from the entrance gate at Maolin is Tona, a small aboriginal village where the main industry is stonecraft. As well as producing large works, the residents make tables, chair seats and small decorative pieces to sell to tourists. There's a small hotel and some very simple restaurants in the village. Just past Tona is Tona Hot Springs, one of the few natural hot outdoor springs in Taiwan which hasn't been spoiled by commercial development. You'll really need a car to get around Maolin, although you can get to the Maolin village by public bus.
An archipelago of 64 islands halfway between Taiwan and the mainland, starkly beautiful Penghu looks nothing like Taiwan. Flat and covered in brush and grasslands, the Penghu Islands lure visitors with the promise of sandy beaches, quaint fishing villages, turquoise seas, delicious seafood and sunny skies. Gorgeous from May to September, the islands are windswept and cold for the rest of the year. Makung, on Penghu Island, is the archipelago's only city, with a population of 60,000. It's a picturesque place, with a fishing harbour, outdoor markets and temples, including Taiwan's oldest.
Two other large islands, Paisha and Hsiyu, are linked to Penghu by bridge. Paisha's most famous attraction is a 300-year-old banyan tree - walking underneath it is like entering a cave. Hsiyu is the archipelago's most beautiful island, with a coastline of hidden coves. At its southern tip is Hsitai Fort, built in 1883. On a clear day (should Taiwan ever have such a thing), you can see Taiwan and the mainland from the fort. Makung is the only place on the archipelago with hotels, but the best seafood restaurant is on Hsiyu. You can fly to Makung from every major city in Taiwan, or get a boat from Kaohsiung. If you want to visit any of the smaller islands you'll need to charter a boat.
Most of Taiwan is mountainous, and hiking here can be superb. Yushan and Hsuehshan provide a challenge for the keen mountaineer, while the less athletic should have a go at Alishan and Tungpu. The weather in Taiwan's mountains can be extremely changeable, so be prepared for cold, wet conditions, and in the rainy season watch out for landslides. Surfing spots are of variable quality, but the east coast, extreme north and extreme southern tips are definitely worth a try.
With so many mountains and so little snow, the inventive Taiwanese were bound to come up with grass skiing sooner or later. Several grass skiing resorts have sprung up around the island, and many also offer grass tobogganing and grass sledding. There are some good whitewater rafting runs on the Hsiukuluan River and the Laonung River.
Taiwan has international airports at Taoyuan, near Taipei, and Kaohsiung. You can fly to Taiwan from just about anywhere in the world except mainland China. Ferries run between Okinawa in Japan and Keelung and Kaohsiung in Taiwan. There are also weekly boats between Kaohsiung and Macau. You'll need to pay about $10 to leave the country.
 Getting Around
Flights go between all the major cities. With buses you can choose between government or private (cheaper, faster but more dangerous). A train line circumnavigates the island and the service is good. There are four classes - the first three are more expensive than buses, the fourth is cheap but slow. Long-distance share taxis are expensive and will probably try to rip you off.
 Recommended Reading
- The Island of Formosa, Past and Present, is a monumental work by James W Davidson, first published in 1903. For something more recent try Arts & Culture in Taiwan by B Kaulbach & B Proksch.
- Taiwan with a View, by the Independence Evening Post, is a very beautiful coffee table book.
- Taipei, a Times Edition, gives a good historical background and has some excellent photos.
- The one book you can't do without is The 100 Best Bars in Taipei by Jim Ehrhart and Anthony Watts.
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