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Published: December 9th 2009
After spending a few days in Hong Kong, we organised to fly with China Airlines to Taiwan. My uncle Michael and his wife Silvia live in Tainan city with their two children Conor and Daragh. We planned to spend the weekend in Taipei and then head down south to see them. I have Taiwan and Timbuktu on my goal list of places to visit since I was about five! - And here I am now about to visit the first one! Who hasn’t seen some trinket or manufactured good with the familiar logo of
“Made in Taiwan” on the back of it.
A little bit of history…
In 1895, military defeat forced China to cede Taiwan to Japan. Taiwan reverted to Chinese control after World War II. In 1949 following Mao's communist victory in mainland China, two million Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek, who was the military dictator, fled to Taiwan and established a government there. Initally he moved to realign the population, and restricted the speaking of Taiwanese in favour of the preferred mandarin, while also crushing political dissent. Over the next five decades, the ruling authorities gradually democratized and incorporated the native population within the governing structure. In
2000, Taiwan underwent its first peaceful transfer of power from the Nationalist to the Democratic Progressive Party. Throughout this period, the island prospered and became one of East Asia's economic "Tigers". The dominant political issues continue to be the relationship between Taiwan and China - specifically the question of eventual unification - as well as domestic, political and economic reform.
So here’s where it gets confusing for most people including me; but I think I have figured it out, so here it goes… Taiwan is a country (yes a country) under Chinese rule. Taiwan is politically recognised by only about 22 or so countries worldwide, with the rest of the world preferring to hold diplomatic relations with China. China views Taiwan as - the one that got away - whom it couldn’t get formal control over, like it did with Tibet. Taiwan has its own currency, legal system, its own flag, and its own culture. But did I say "Taiwan"? Should I have said "Republic of China" to be politically correct, or perhaps “Chinese Taipei", or perhaps the more desirable name “Ilha Formosa" as the Portuguese called it when they colonised Taiwan a few centuries earlier.
The official
name is "Republic of China", which the Chinese seem to hate, as it is seen to undermine "The People’s Republic of China”. In previous soccer events between Taiwan and China, Taiwan has had to call itself "Chinese Taipei" (& was not allowed to wave their flag). And finally there is "Taiwan", which is pretty much the name everyone uses these days. Most Taiwanese deeply resent any bullying by its bigger neighbour, "The People's Republic of China", and the political atmosphere is rather tense with much saber-rattling and scaremongering over the years. It seems to be improving slowly these days, and most recently the Tibetan Dali Lama was allowed to visit here to sympathise with the people with regards to the damage done by hurricane Morekot.
The real hot potato in Taiwanese politics is that you're either pro Chinese reunification or you’re against it; this is what influences peoples thoughts locally. In the past there have been NO direct flights allowed between Taiwan and China; one had to change planes (typically in Hong Kong) to travel between Taiwan and China. However this seems to be changing at the moment, and relations have thawed of late. However, Chinese citizens are still
not allowed to go on holiday in Taiwan as individuals; instead, they have to join organised tour groups. This situation is similar to the one we encountered when we spent time in Tibet; we were not allowed to travel alone either. Additionally, China does have a number of missiles aimed at Taiwan, which might well be used if Taiwan was ever to declare itself independent from China. China has a number of special provinces and autonomous regions, and calls for independence in one province, could easily have a contagion effect in another. To this end, China cracks down on any demonstrations quickly and ruthlessly in any of its territories.
All these issues though were pretty much invisible to backpackers like ourselves, here just for a week to see the country. After managing to get a local bus in from the airport, about 40 minutes from the city; we then succeeded in getting off at the right stop and making a connection with the underground. This is surely one of the most efficient and easy to use subway systems I have seen to-date, and 20 minutes later we had found our hostel - “Eight Elephants”. The name seemed a bit
quirky but we pressed on, and the hostel was pleasant, clean, and informal; just what we were looking for! Overall
Taipei presented itself as a modern and rather trendy and vibrant capital, where the young girls seem to have imported their dress style from Japan. Home to over seven million people, though surprisingly many of the young people we spoke to (i.e. asking for directions) spoke very broken English - must have been my Kerry accent! In general though, Taiwanese people are very friendly and will stop you in the street if you look lost and offer to help you.
That evening we headed straight for ‘Taipei 101’ which towers over the city; just a short while ago it was credited as the highest building in the world, at 509 meters - Dubai now holds the record… Doah!!. We spent some time there viewing the surrounds and shopping in the ‘New York, New York’ shopping complex. That evening we got some local food and headed back to our hostel early.
The following day we went to see Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall where the former dictator is treated like a national hero. Mao, his nemesis, is also treated as
a national hero in China, and his picture is firmly planted in Tiananmen Square for all to pay homage to. Why these guys make it to the hall of fame is beyond me; the hall of shame would be more like it. You only have to have to review some of Mao’s masterpieces such as “The Great Leap Forward” and “The Cultural Revolution” to see this guy was a mass murderer, and not the iconic leader the Chinese people seem to think he was. Across the water Chiang Kai-shek ruled Taiwan with an iron fist; a period which became know as the "White Terror" in the 1950's; ruthlessly oppressing any opponents, bringing terror and death to countless Taiwanese during his reign that lasted several decades. Yet when you control how history is remembered by re-writing the history books and limiting the sources children can learn from, it’s no wonder such monuments are built. Nevertheless we were here and the monument and surrounding buildings are quite impressive and worth a visit.
We spent the rest of the day trying to navigate the superb tourist maps available, and went to one of the most uniquely designed malls I have seen in
all of Asia - a spherical dome shaped complex called ‘Living Mall’ - see picture insert. That evening we took in one of the famous Taipei night markets. Night markets are like massive bizarres with food, drink, and bargains all rolled into one. We sat with the locals and got dinner. Everyone basically sits along the outside of a grill oven and eats off it with chops sticks. We ordered from a menu with broken English, not sure what surprises were going to be served up! The culinary experience was a bit daunting at first with all the locals staring and nudging one another at our presence, as this was a locals market and there weren’t that many tourists about. Little did they know that I had rightfully earned my stripes with chop sticks, and ate my food faster than I would have done using a knife and fork, washing it all down with a ‘Taiwan Beer’ - highly recommended.
The next day we headed for
Tainan to the south of the Island, on the intrepid 300km per hour high speed train. Probably the easiest tickets we ever booked for any train. No human intervention and all translated into
Me & Daragh
(Transformers' #1 fan!) English on the ticketing machine, and voilà out popped two tickets. This might not sound like much but trust me it’s a God-send compared to some of the places we’ve visited. The train was fantastic and well worth the €40 each return just for the privilege of being on the train itself. Only us and the Taiwanese - and what a pleasant journey. Service - excellent, train design - excellent, communication on train regarding stops etc… excellent, Overall just excellent! The Minster for Transport in Ireland should really come out and take a look at how somewhere like Taiwan runs its trains! One hour fifty three minutes later (as promised) we had arrived. My uncle picked us up from the train station (which seemed more like an airport arrivals hall when we disembarked, as the station was so unbelievably advanced!).
We spent the next three days staying with his family, learning about local culture, playing “noughts and crosses” (Conor - I’ve been practicing!), having discussions on the greatness of “Transformers” the movie, re-learning how to build paper airplanes, as well as playing “Who’s the strongest” (Daragh - my fingers are still sore!). Silvia took us to loads of interesting
Me and Conor
(the "noughts & crosses" champion!) heritage sites around Tainan (which is famous for its temples) including Fort Zeelandia and Chihkan Tower. We had some fantastic local food in many different restaurants, as well as taking in some fabulous scenery up in the hills - a part of Taiwan many tourists never get to see. After three days and four nights we were sad to leave (Daragh we wanted to say goodbye, but you were sleeping), but we had to catch the high speed train back to the airport, as we were heading back to Hong Kong and onwards with our travels.
Overall we both loved Taiwan, and in the airport the ever present grammatical error-ed signs and weird translations made us laugh: “TAIWAN GO, GO, GO” and “TAIWAN REALLY GOOD”. If I could put up my own billboard it would be… “TAIWAN STARS FOUR” !!!! 😊
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