Travel book on Taiwan - what to do?

Old Jan 15th, 2003, 01:22 AM
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Sam
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Travel book on Taiwan - what to do?

Hi everyone:
My wife and I have an upcoming trip to Asia in late april/early may to Japan (mostly tokyo), taiwan, HK, and possibly thailand. Little background info., we are in our late 30's and lived in tokyo from 1999-2001 and I can read and speak Japanese ok. Kids are staying home for this trip. My question, though, is specifically on Taiwan. First trip over there (for about 4-5 days) for us. Now, there seems to be very little good travel books on this country (comparing to HK, thailand). We bought a Lonely Planet and are hoping any other suggetions. Also I heard many people in Taiwan speak Japanese, is it true? It'd be nice since neither of us speak any Chinese. Any suggestion re: places to see, hotels, or anything on Taiwan/Taipei is aprreciated.
 
Old Jan 15th, 2003, 02:09 AM
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Nancy
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I lived in Asia fro 10 years and travelled to Taiwan quite often on business. It is not a place I would highly recommend for a tourist, especially if your other choices are Hong Kong and Thailand. In my opinion, there is simply not very much to do or see in Taipei other than a very good museum of artefacts basically stolen by the Kuomtang as they departed the PRC. I compare Taipei to Cleveland: a perfectly nice city with a good orchestra, but would you recommend that people make a special trip there if their other choices were New York, San Francisco, the American west, etc?

There are a few resort areas like Hualian, but they are not really developed for tourism and frankly the natural beauty is nothing compared to Guilin, other parts of mainland China, or other parts of Asia, especially Thailand.

I have not found that people there speak Japanese, but I have only been dealing in the business context which is done in English and Mandarin. My guess is that is it’s the older people who may speak it. If you want to practice your Japanese, you should probably go to Guam where lots of Japanese tourists go!

I would recommend Thailand and Hong Kong over Taiwan. You can do a mix of city (Bangkok) and beach or mountain areas in Thailand. I think your family would enjoy this much more than Taiwan.
 
Old Jan 15th, 2003, 09:16 AM
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Peter N-H
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It's only amongst older people that you'll find many Japanese speakers--those who were educated during the period of Japanese rule in the first half of the last century, although many others use Japanese terms amongst their Chinese--passport comes out as "pasuporuto" (sp?) instead of "huzhao" for passport, for instance. There are still strong economic links with Japan, and Taiwan is a very popular holiday destination with Japanese, so there are also people in the hospitality industry who speak it, and others who study it for business reasons. But in general English will be of more use. Plenty of signs, subway announcements, etc. are in English. There's no difficulty getting around.

Taipei's principal attraction is the National Palace Museum, quite simply the finest collection of Chinese artefacts in the world, and of such political importance that the Director of the museum has a seat in the cabinet. Given how much time the mainland has dedicated to the systematic smashing up of its treasures since 1949, it's rather fortunate the collection ended up here. The Guomin Dang (or KMT) opened the National Palace Museum in the Forbidden City's Wu Men in the 1920s, then moved the treasures out in the face of Japanese invasion. What you see in Beijing today is what leftovers survived subsequent destruction, many simply copies, and a motley collection of other items gathered from elsewhere, mostly very poorly lit and displayed. If you like Chinese art, the Taipei museum would reward a couple of days. The earliest bronzes, the finest ceramics, the most subtle Tang calligraphy, imperial documents signed by the emperor himself with his "vermilion brush"--all here. Incidentally, the nationalists never paid the emperor for his treasures the price agreed under the treaty of abdication, so perhaps they still belong to his descendants.

The LP Taiwan is dreadful, but the only other guide I know of is an Insight Guide. It has lots of photography and essays on the country, but little practical information.

One very unusual side trip from Taipei worth considering is to Jinmen Dao (island). This is a mere 1.8km from the Chinese mainland, although an hour's flight from Taipei, and remains Taiwanese territory, despite two major military asaults from mainland territory surrounding it on three sides. Small, backward, and mostly agricultural, the island is riddled with tunnels, secret underground docks, bunkers etc., many of which can now be visited. Just as mainlanders visit Xiamen to peer wistfully at Taiwanese territory, and to take boat trips to see it (but they can't land), so, after walking along winding underground passages you can emerge at slits in the cliffside to scan the mainland. Museums tell the stories of various battles (with an emphasis on the brilliance of KMT generalship that's a little surprising given that they'd lost the whole of the rest of China), and of the propaganda war, once carried on with shells full of pamphlets, and giant loudspeakers yelling at each other across the narrow straight. One craftsman has a successful business (to which any tour will take you) making very good kitchen knives from the steel of spent shell cases. Sword into ploughshares anyone?

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html
 
Old Feb 1st, 2003, 12:33 AM
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Hi Sam,

I'm a local Taiwanese, living in Taipei for many years. Actually, only seniors about 60s or up here speak Japanese, but these days many teenagers are crazy about Japanese singers and soap operas, if you're lucky enough maybe you can ask directions in Japanese. Don't worry about language. Many people can speak English and would like to help foreigners. School teaches English from the 3 grade in elementary school in Taipei.
Here's a very informative site. You can get a lot of info including almost everything about Taiwan; of course it's in English. I suggest you can get into "A Glance at Taiwan," and you'll get plenty of answers to your questions. If you have any other questions, pls feel free to ask me. Have a nice trip!

http://202.39.225.132/jsp/Eng/html/travel_tour/popular_search_list.jsp
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Old Feb 16th, 2003, 09:17 PM
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The highlight of our trip to Taiwan was visiting the east coast--Toroko Gorge and the mountains west of Taitung. Toroko Gorge is to the west of Hualian--a pleasant train ride or air flight from Taipei. It has been declared one of the seven wonders of Asia (rightly so).Sharp, steep volcanic, marble mountains with trails and a nice hotel. The hotel will pick you up at the airport or train station. There are aboriginal villages, a monastery, and guided or independent hikes which are well-marked trails. I would caution you not to hike alone. West of Taitung we went to a hot spring resort, Chipen, which was wonderful and beautiful. Again the hotel will meet your train. We spent three nights at both and would like to return. Taipei is also interesting and has a great subway. I have been told that the beach area in the southeast is fair. Kaoshuing doesn't have much to offer tourist except the tallest building in the country and a few temples.
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Old Mar 4th, 2003, 04:30 PM
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I found a good book today (after a lot of searching). Insight Guide's Taiwan. I got it for $24 bucks. I think it's also available online at Amazon or Barnes/Noble.
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Old Jan 28th, 2004, 06:11 PM
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Insight is a good one.

Chipen is great, I loved it there!
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Old Jan 28th, 2004, 07:57 PM
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I agree with nancy taipei seemed more like a provincial capital..

I liked it. as a chill out city. but nothing much going for it....

didn't they just build the tallest building in the world there. or was I dreamimg.
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Old Jan 28th, 2004, 08:58 PM
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Quote "Message: I agree with nancy taipei seemed more like a provincial capital..

I liked it. as a chill out city. but nothing much going for it....

didn't they just build the tallest building in the world there. or was I dreamimg. "

Gee I happen to love Taiwan because I know where to go and what I'm doing. Of course I've travelled to all Asia and Taiwan is still my 'must stop' when I do a Asian business trip. There's a reason almost all Hong Kong stars, actors and singers love Taiwan so much. And yes they just finished building the tallest building in the world
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Old Jan 29th, 2004, 11:25 AM
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The Taipei 101 is very close to the new convention center. We went by and saw it but it's not finished to the point that you can go up in it. (not sure what building in Kaohsiung is supposed to be the tallest in Taiwan that klam is referring to, he must have meant Taipei.)

I guess NYC is about to build a taller one though, where the twin towers were.
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Old Jun 6th, 2004, 07:15 PM
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This book suggestion is too late for Sam of course, but in planning for my own upcoming trip to Taiwan I just came across a new book, the "National Geographic Traveler: Taiwan" by Phil Macdonald, published in April 2004.
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