Impressions of Taiwan

Our time in Taiwan — a layover on our way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which we stretched into one week — wrapped up on Sunday when we flew from Taipei to Kuala Lampur, however our time there has left an indelible impression on us both. The Tawian tourism logo/slogan reads “Touch Your Heart,” and although we initially balked at it from a linguistic perspective (so much in Taiwan written in English is grammatically and linguistically a hoot), we left Taiwan feeling touched by this island country, so much so we hope we can return and encourage many of our friends and family to make the trip to visit this fascinating and far flung place.

Our week in Taiwan was jam packed, not entirely by design, but because once we got there and discovered things, we wanted to see more and more.

Our photos at Flickr document what we saw (all our photos will take a while to get posted as the Internet cafe connections have been slow). Here I randomly detail the impressions Taiwan left on me.

Driving from the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, about 50 km outside of Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, I turned to j. and said,”This looks like Chinatown.” Indeed every Chinatown I have ever been to, including the roofed and compartmentalized Pacific Mall in Markham, Ontario, look like any of the towns and cities we visited in Taiwan. Mind you this is only a superficial similarity. Once I began to unearth what all the sites, roads, shops and vendors have to offer, I certainly knew I was not in any Chinatown in the western world.

Take for example the brightly lit shops with large plate glass windows, where a sprite Taiwanese girl in a miny skirt, legs sexily crossed, sits propped up on a high stool by a bar flipping aimlessly through a magazine. My first thought was “Is this Taiwan’s version of legalized prostitution?” The people who hosted us as couchsurfers in Taipei exlained these girls were simply selling betel nut, the large green seed-nut that many chew with fervor across Asia. I had previously heard something in the nut is addictive, hence its popularity, but regardless of why people chew it, it is popular. I am sure the Taiwanese girls framed by the large picture windows only add to the appeal of chewing betel nut in Taiwan.

Chewing the nut stains your teeth and mouth red, and many elderly Chinese show mouths coloured by years of chewing betel nut. Reddish stains and what look like lumps of red chewing tobacco litter the streets and sidewalks all over Taiwan; signs on the Taipei MRT (metro/subway) and national rail lines advise against chewing and spitting out betel nut on trains. We haven’t tried any betel nut yet, but I am sure we will have many opportunities to give it a whirl.

I should point out, that after experiencing the sexy girls in stores, we quickly learned that the Taiwanese are modest, restrained people. They do express individuality through high end fashion (see any store at Pacific Mall for what I mean) and amazing shoes. Everyone, even plainly dressed street vendors and elderly folk have interesting and fashionable shoes. I heard from our couchsurfing hosts though that shoe sizes above a woman’s size 7 are more expensive and hard to find. To j.’s relief I didn’t indulge in my shoe addiction while in Taipei, although I am tempted to advise all my friends and family who wear size 7 and smaller to travel to Taipei with empty suitcases to fill with shoes. After all, you can carry back 70 pounds of stuff per bag when you travel that far across the Pacific.

Although people did come across as reserved in Taiwan, a smile and a bow of my head did wonders to break the ice or simply let someone going through their daily routine of chopping off fish heads and fileting a fish that I was glad to make their aquaintance, even if I couldn’t speak the language to tell them so.

And despite this reservedness, it was not difficult at all to approach someone for help in finding our way, whether it was the right train or finding a bookstore. Even more amazing and delightful were how many people stopped what they were doing and led us themselves to places we had trouble finding. In Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store (think Neiman Marcus or Holt Renfrew) near the tall and beautiful Taipei 101 tower, a young fellow working in the esquisite food court was scolded by an older woman who insisted he take us directly to the store section we were looking (an area for Taiwanese tea tasting and purchasing).

People who speak and understand English were few in Taiwan, the fewest I’ve experienced in any foreign country I’ve visted where English is not the national language. Put despite this barrier, we managed to communicate with people and find our way. We learned how to say hello (hi-hao)and thank you (xie-xie — “sh” followed by a short “e”) in Mandarin, the type of Chinese spoken in Taiwan. Our guide book had a small language section, which we used to try to pronounce the Mandarin Chinese version, however since Chinese is tonal and you need to get sounds right to be understood, we often just pointed to the Chinese symbols next to the transliterations to express things like “I am vegetarian.” Most often through a combination of gesturing, pointing, writing down numbers (they use the same number system as we do) and drawing rough sketches we were able to accomplish a great deal, even hold a whole conversation in the Ghia-i train station where we battered for a hotel room in a place we hadn’t even arrived at yet. The woman who haggled us about the hotel room was really the only aggressive person we encountered. Although she wrote down the price we agreed to on some official looking receipt, we didn’t end up staying at the hotel she was working for — and she found out because she asked when we ran into her as we were buying onward tickets from Ghia-i.

Ghia-i is one of two towns we visited outside of Taipei. Ghia-i is several hours south of Taipei,and although we explored it leisurely one early morning, we used it as a jumping off point for a trip to Alishan, a mountain famous for its oolong tea grown at high elevations and its stunning view of sunrise.

Amazing sunrises, sunsets, mountains and other natural wonders are in no short supply in Taiwan. The island is divided into east and west by a range of mountains that create a stunning backdrop as well as colourful destinations. Our photos document our time on a mountain railway climbing from 30 to more than 2000 metres up the famous Mount Ali, in Mandarin, Alishan (pronounced “ali – san”). We went from tropical, palm-tree landscape to alpine forest in just over three hours. Stunning doesn’t even begin to explain this ride on a narrow-gauge train. I still can’t comprehend how they even built the railway. It is apparently even more stunning in spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. We were happy though to go in low season when the train and hotels weren’t crowded with tourists. j. was particularly thrilled to taste and purchase copious amounts of his favourite “high mountain tea” ( gau san cha, in Mandarin) from the top of Alishan. Although the sunrise in wee hours was worth the trip, the trip up the mountain and seeing the tea plantations from the train, the mountain air and our time with two girls from Malaysia who translated so much from Mandarin to English for us were the highlights for me.

After Alishan, we headed to Hualien, our second stop outside of Taipei, the jumping off point to visit the most famous tourist destination in Taiwan: Taroko Gorge. Littered with marble outcroppings and a river winding through it, the gorge is 20 km of jaw-dropping views. Even more impressive is how the Japanese occupiers of more than 50 years ago and the Taiwanese after they left, built roads, paths and trails to access the very edges of this gorge. Although the Grand Canyon is bigger in every sense, being right down in the Taroko Gorge, and traveling it by mini bus and then walking it first in sun, and then a fine cool mist, really impressed upon me its size and beauty, something I didn’t get to feeling as strongly with the Grand Canyon because I didn’t get right down into its depths. I hope some of our photos give you even a small feeling of what we saw.

Amazing natural wonders and the cityscape of Taipei kept our eyes on high alert, but Taiwanese and Chinese speacialities kept our tongues titilated and on high alert for the best of every authentic Chinese food we love back in North America. We sampled dumplings, all handmade some from small vendors and some from the most famous dumpling makers in Asia, Din Tai Fung. One of my food goals was to sample the variety available at popular markets. We went to the most highly recommended in Taipei Shi-lin district, and marveled at the easygoing crowds and the array of foods to try, being prepared right in front of us. The skill of some of these cooks good rival a well-trained chef, and the foods we sampled were glorious. I will never forget the taste of the deep fried squid, covered in garlicy and spicy powders and accented with some lightly fried basil. Grilled squid basted with a sweet sauce, sesame seeds and hot chili powder also proved tasty. A whole roasted yam was filling and tasted perfect. There was plenty more we savored in Shi-lin and from other street vendors both at night and during our days. I will at some point need to make the time to describe each bit in detail. Suffice to say we took photos of nearly everything we ate, including a morning stroll through the food stalls of Ghia-i, where vendors plucked fresh chickens, sliced meat of every kind (and every part from hoof to organs), fileted fish and arranged beautiful fruits and vegetables. We really couldn’t help but eat local in Taiwan, even in season Taiwanese strawberries.

From the Taiwanese people to the island’s natural beauty to the best Chinese food I have ever had, Taiwan touched my heart. Things like the efficient and easy to navigate MRT (subway) in Taipei and the country’s rail service, shoes galore and hearing the language spoken at every turn simply added to my delight and interest. Perhaps arriving with no expectations in Taiwan just made every turn and encounter that much more interesting and inspiring. I will look to write more about my time Taiwan when it strikes me. For now, I hope I have piqued your interest about this island caught between the Republic of China’s forceful hand and independence. It captured my heart and I already long to return.