Taiwan’s cities are by their nature often overwhelming – sprawling, crowded, streets dense with neon signs, street vendors, noise and bustle. The work of British artist Tom Rook — a long-time resident of Taiwan – offers a different perspective on the...
Tainan, this island’s first urban center, provides the most powerful introduction to “yesteryear” Taiwan for a visiting traveler. It is filled to bursting with historic sites of national importance, and famed especially for its thick cluster of centuries-old temples. Now, the...
In Tainan, the small cultural-creative hotels, inns, hostels, and homestays found snuggled away within its close-knit community grids of side lanes and alleys do double-duty as time-travel devices. Located in old architecture lovingly restored, each has a highly individual backstory and...
They’re everywhere, another one popping into view almost every time you turn a corner, whether on wandering exploratory perambulations along the city’s age-old high streets or on wonderful serendipity discovery dip-ins into its neighborhood webs of slim-width lanes and alleys. Energetic...
If you travel along Taiwan’s northern and northeastern coast you will come across many small fishing villages where you can watch fishermen at work and eat the fresh catch of the day in seafood restaurants. Whichever is true, archaeological excavations of...
Once a year, a small town in southern Taiwan “explodes.” Or so it might seem to those fearless onlookers who subject themselves to the attack of thousands of mini rockets fired at random into the skies and into the crowds from...
Let’s head out on a virtual sample tour of two of Taiwan’s most popular and easily accessible national forest recreation areas, visited back to back. For this trip, which covered such large and far-flung destinations, we decided to set up a...
Alishan and Kenting are two of the top-tourist draws in Taiwan. One is known for high mountains with coniferous forests, bamboo groves, tea plantations, indigenous villages, and a narrow-gauge alpine railway line, the other is the island’s most popular tropical beach...
All visitors, none excepted, are struck by the dramatic first images they are presented when arriving in this small port city on Taiwan’s north coast. In recent years more and more cruise operators have made the city a port of call,...
Here’s a collection of all lighthouses we have been to over the years and some we have yet to visit. We love lighthouses, because they are usually in scenic locations with sea view and you can always learn a thing or...
Note: The order of appearance of the following festivals and events is according to the time of the year when they usually occur. Dates can change however over time. We try to update the info frequently, but some of it might...
Taiwan’s indigenous tribes landed on the island’s shores long, long ago, crossing the open and often hostile sea on small craft the people of today might not consider “oceangoing.” These hardy and intrepid folk were the ancestors of today’s 16 officially...
After more than four hundred years on the island, Taiwan’s Hakka people still exist as a solid and unified community. Their famous work ethic, love of education, and cultural, political, and other contributions have been central in the creation of the...
Taiwan, sitting on the Rim of Fire, is very young and immature in geological terms. It is being hurled up from the sea at a rapid rate as two tectonic plates, the Eurasian Plate and Philippine Sea Plate, jostle for position....
These celebrations are held all over Taiwan, but the largest and one of the most colorful takes place in Keelung, the Keelung Ghost Festival. It culminates at the small fishing port of Badouzi, where floating lanterns are launched onto the sea. Curiously,...
Here is an overview of things to do and places to visit in Chiayi County in southwest Taiwan with links to articles we have published in the past. The two main areas of interest are Chiayi City and the Alishan National...
