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Published: October 22nd 2023
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Tropical Taiwan hits us with heat and humidity. We've flown three hours south and the difference is remarkable. The vegetation is tropical and the country immediately feels less affluent, less well developed. Gone are Korea's phonetic symbols, here it is all Chinese characters. This island, only twice the size of Wales, is one of the most politically sensitive in the world.
We land in the industrial city of Kaohsiung and immediately head an hour north to Tainan. The train is comfortable, fast and cheap and, of course, on time. Tainan is a city with an ancient past. The Dutch were here in the early 1600s, trading with Han Chinese and encouraging them to grow rice, sugar and tobacco which the Dutch wanted to export to Europe. Tainan is Taiwan's oldest city and was the capital of Taiwan for more than 200 years.
One day we take a bus to the old port suburb of Anping where we visit an ancient fort, once Dutch but rebuilt by the Japanese; from the top we can see the South China Sea. We also visit a restored importer's house and warehouse that once belonged to Tait & Co., British
traders in sugar, tea, tobacco and opium (Tait Tea still exists in Taiwan). The house has survived remarkably well but the large single-storey warehouse is now a crumbling ruin, held up by banyan trees; there is something of Angkor Wat about it.
There are old Buddhist temples everywhere, both in Anping and Tainan, all still in use and well cared for. Most are brightly coloured and smell of incense and joss sticks; a few are dark and mysterious, with smoky interiors and ugly statues of temple guardians to scare us at every turn. Some of the Taiwanese visitors to the temples seek to get an answer to a question that is troubling them. Having left an offering, they take two Jjaobei blocks and allow them to fall onto the floor; how they land indicates the answer. It may be yes, it may be no or the gods may give no answer and just laugh.
Many temples and shrines have played their part in the city's past. They are associated with tales of political intrigue and military battles; suicides of concubines and their faithful eunuchs; of men becoming held up as heros only to be
later denounced as villains but finally being declared gods.
The temples are calm, quiet places, often surrounded by ornate gardens with clipped, shaped trees, stone bridges and water features. It is a huge contrast to the noisy streets that are jammed with motor scooters; they outnumber cars at least 10 to 1. Crossing the road requires a steely nerve and a steady pace so that the scooters can weave around you. The streets are lined with small shops that sell everything (except we can't find wine!). Some are little cafés with kitchens and tables set out under the overhang of the upper storey. Between the shops and the street, most of the pavement is taken by parked motor scooters, we've not worked out where all their riders have gone.
Some of the city's old buildings date from the time of Japanese rule, including one old department store. Today, one can take tea in a pavilion on the roof; the list of teas is endless and all are served in glass tea pots and tiny cups.
Another train takes us north to Taipei, a city of skyscrapers and little shops and workshops
lining the streets. Again, nearly all the buildings' second floors extend over the pavement, creating an arcade that provides shelter from the sun and the rain - we have a few light showers that last only minutes, quite nice when the temperature is in the high 20s.
Our hotel is just a few minutes from a night market - lots of barbecued meats, deep fried sweet potato balls, noodles, mountain pig sausages, fresh fruit and vegetable juices and, easily the most visually pleasing, squid teriyaki which looks like it has been runover before being battered and fried.
There are lots of temples, again, and we are starting to understand more about Buddhism and Taoism. There are also some nice parks including an impressive botanical garden with a lotus pond, butterflies and even a kingfisher; it is a real sanctuary in a hectic city. We're getting around on the Metro which is excellent except we do sometime seem to walk a long way after descending from the street before we actually reach a platform. We also notice that about two-third of the passengers wear face masks on the Metro, indeed there are also people wearing
them as they walk around the streets.
As well as the night food markets, there are plenty of daytime markets, many specialised, although the 'herb market' not only sells herbs but also every kind of dried fruit and vegetable that you can imagine. We also find a jade market, jewellery and sculptures spread across countless tables and housed under a very long flyover. But we find our favourite market a little further along, under the next flyover. It is the flower market where the array of cut flowers and plants is huge and the quality uniformly impressive. There are hundreds of succulents and many different types of orchid; there are ornamental trees over 2m high and cuttings the size of a fingernail, ready to be grown on. The temptation to take something home is almost overwhelming but we do resist.
We're now starting our travels home. It has been an interesting trip to two countries we knew little about and we've enjoyed learning about their history and culture, both influenced by China and Japan but, today, having very distinct identities. We've not heard a lot of local music but, perhaps we've been drinking in
the wrong bars.
Independent travel has been easy and reliable, people have been keen to help rare visitors from Europe. In both countries, the towns were bigger and busier than we had anticipated and in Taiwan we did feel a few days extra to explore the wilder east coast would have been a good idea. There's been little written English and relying on Google Translate to read menus has, we discovered, a lot of limitations!
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