Virtual Visit to the Republic of China
Virtual Visit to the Republic of China
China is a popular and fascinating country to visit. But it’s not the easiest place for a vacation. The mainland is vast, the air is polluted, and the roads are hazardous.
But there’s another China that is completely First World, an island nation that offers a variety of cultural and natural experiences for twosomes. We’re talking about the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan.
If you are considering visiting China but are put off by the logistics of this demanding trip, Taiwan is a brilliant alternative to the China syndrome.
Unlike mainland China, no $130 visa is required to enter this green island set 200 miles off the coast.
Taiwan is a feast for the eyes. Picture mist-shrouded emerald mountains dotted by pagodas. The country was once called Formosa, which meant “beautiful” to the Portuguese sailors who named it.
Couples can easily tour all of Taiwan, which is about the size of Maryland. Roads are safe, public transportation fast and clean, and the water drinkable. An adventurous itinerary could take in Taiwan’s exciting capital Taipei, the island's lovely Sun Moon Lake resort, its natural hot springs, and its spectacular parks, waterfalls, and gorges.
And if you were going for the Chinese food…gun your chopsticks. On these pages, you’ll encounter Taiwan’s top attractions for two.
Picture Taipei, the Capital >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei
After the long flight to Taiwan, most visitors want to spend at least a few days in Taipei, the country’s modern capital. The ideal hotel would be comfortable, centrally located, and hospitable to Westerners.
The Grand Hyatt Taipei is all this and more. With 856 rooms, Grand Hyatt Taipei is no boutique operation, but more of a grand hotel with a marble-everywhere lobby and many in-house amenities.
This hotel is visually striking, but its most attractive attribute is its commited service.
All staffers, even the chambermaids, speak English. And Grand Hyatt Taipei is like “Cheers”—a place where everybody knows your name.
Furthermore, Grant Hyatt Taipei boasts a dead-center location right across the street from the Taipei 101 tower. This hotel is a sensible and welcoming home base in a sprawling city that can bewilder foreigners.
Grand Hyatt Taipei rooms are modern and very comfortable, with inviting beds, ample storage, huge tubs, and prompt housekeeping. There are a dozen restaurants and bars in the hotel, both occidental and oriental. A large outdoor pool is usable for most the year in Taiwan’s subtropical climate, and the gym is terrific.
Grand Hyatt Taipei does its share of weddings, and it welcomes honeymoon couples with getaway deals. Make no mistake: this hotel is not a secluded shack under a palm tree, but a sophisticated urban perch for cosmopolitan lovebirds.
A stay here is greatly enhanced by securing a room with access to the Grand Club lounge, with privileges ranging from a delicious buffet breakfast to nightly cocktails and personal concierge service.
Picture Taiwan's Tallest Building >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Taipei 101 is Asia's Tallest Building
All over Taiwan, but especially in Taipei, citizens are fiercely proud of their architectural landmark, the Taipei 101 skyscraper.
After its dedication in 2004, this eye-catching tower was for a brief moment the world’s tallest building. It measures 1,474 feet not including its spire, and Taiwanese insist it still ranks as the globe’s loftiest, as Dubai’s Burj Al Arab tower owes its dominant height to its sail-like crown.
Composed of 101 stories above ground and five below, Taipei 101 embodies the King Kong-luring Art Deco glamour of a New York skyscraper. But Taipei 101’s silver-screen looks are further reinforced by an ingenious spherical safety device called a tuned mass damper that corrects for any swaying caused by earthquakes or typhoons.
A half-day spent in Taipei 101 represents time well used. Come with an appetite. The tower’s below-ground floors contain not only the gourmet emporium Jason’s Market Place but two floors — B1 and 4F — proferring excellent, inexpensive international fare ranging from Lebanese falafels to Taiwanese shrimp rolls. Elegant umbrella-topped tables allow patrons to dine in an outdoor garden atmosphere.
Visitors to Taipei 101 can do some boutique shopping. Many Western brands are in evidence, from everyday labels such as Club Monaco to pricey designers like Gucci and Louis Vuitton to jewelers such as Tiffany and Van Cleef & Arpels, should you still be ring-shopping.
The tower’s summit flaunts a spacious 360º observatory reached by a vertiginous elevator that is in itself like an amusement-park ride.
The panorama of bustling Taipei is perhaps at its best at sunset, when rosy clouds dramatically silhouette distant mountains and neon-hued light shows dance across other building facades.
Picture Taiwan's Tasty Night Markets >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Taiwan Cuisine and Night Markets
In Taiwan, dining out is an everyday habit. The way Americans socialize in Starbucks, Taiwanese gather around restaurant tables. The Taiwanese movie Eat, Drink, Man, Woman takes place almost entirely at meals in the capital, Taipei.
You can find restaurants serving every type of international cuisine in Taipei. But the thing to eat here, and anywhere in Taiwan, is Chinese food. (After all, Taiwan was settled by newcomers from mainland China after the Communist revolution in 1949.)
Taiwan has its own cuisine, too, which fuses various Chinese traditions with homegrown Taiwanese recipes, fresh produce, and seafood.
Visitors can get the big picture of Taiwanese cuisine in a foray to an after-dark night market. Every Taiwanese city has at least one, and there are several in Taipei. Some are open every night, others once or twice a week. (Your hotel concierge will know.)
Some night markets are outdoors, stretching over several blocks gaily strung with red lanterns. These outdoor markets sell gifts and clothing as well as food, and tend to grow in size and variety in nice weather. But they rarely get too crowded for Westerners’ comfort.
Other markets, like the busy Shi-Lin Market, are set in railroad station-like indoor spaces. Enclosed markets have plenty of tables and counters and are popular with couples who prefer sitting and sharing a meal to chowing down while strolling.
In any indoor or outdoor market, you can simply point to whatever catches your eye, including various Taiwanese dishes.
Some good ones are oyster pancakes, crepe-size omelets folded around ocean-fresh oysters; “little roll in big roll” (a beef and sesame combo); noodle soup with beef slices; and just-steamed pork-filled dumplings. Be hungry!
Picture Taiwan's Spa Town >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Wulai Natural Springs near Taipei, Taiwan
The island of Taiwan is blessed with numerous natural wonders including natural hot springs. There are a few spa towns within an hour’s train, bus, or car ride from Taipei.
Of these spa villages, Wulai is possibly the most appealing. Some local couples, as well as those visiting Taiwan, see Wulai as a weekend getaway, booking one or two nights in one of the spa hotels built atop a spring outlet.
But Wulai presents an ideal full-day, or half-day, trip from Taipei.
Its charming main street, which prohibits cars, is lined with bathhouses that pipe in healing waters from the town’s subterranean network of thermal springs, which are renowned throughout Taiwan for feeling like silk on your skin.
These bathhouses typically have a lobby on the street level and steps leading down to the waterworks on the river level below. Proprietors are used to customers wandering in and requesting a price list and either photos of the spa rooms or a quick tour.
Most bathhouses offer both single-sex baths and rooms for couples. In some bathhouses, gender-segregated baths offer the best variety of water temperature and pressure. So it pays to ask what the private rooms feature, and make sure you’re not getting a single bathtub with only one type of water.
One of Wulai’s pleasures is a promenade down its main pedestrian street, lined with shops and stalls selling snacks and souvenirs. Venders are competitive, and happily ply browsers with samples of homemade peanut brittle and alcoholic spirits, which are deliciously flavored with coconut or plum.
They are higher proof than they taste, so don’t be surprised if you feel light-headed after a few free sips.
And no, you’re not seeing a drunken vision: those wooden sculptures sold in many Wulai stands really are of phalluses.
Picture Taiwan's Historic Port City >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Danshui Near Taipei, Taiwan
What’s more romantic than a sunset stroll hand-in-hand down a boardwalk? A promenade two-by-two in Taiwan’s historic port village of Danshui.
Taipei’s efficient and spotless MRT subway whooshes locals and visitors to Danshui in under an hour. Much of the ride is above ground, so riders get an eyeful of Taiwan’s lively capital city as a bonus.
The end of the line is Danshui, and it is a promising place to explore.
The old red brick structure on the highest promontory is a fort built by the Portuguese. It contains a museum of limited interest, but the fort’s gardens and steps are fun and there’s no charge to walk around.
Danshui’s prime draw is its waterfront promenade, with scenic views of small fishing boats and pleasure crafts. (Taiwan has its industrial ports, but Danshui is not one of them.)
From the top of the promenade, near the fort, down to the MRT station, it’s almost a mile, and a lovely hour’s walk. The promenade has a carnival atmosphere, with souvenir vendors, stack stalls, kiddie rides, and street musicians adding to its flavor.
The promenade is particularly popular with teenage groups and young couples who seem jubilant to have escaped the demands of homework and parents. But Danshui’s atmosphere never feels rowdy.
The main street that parallels the promenade is lined with temples and shops. These retailers are good places to buy appealingly packaged peanut candy and sesame chips for souvenirs, or for wolfing down on the MRT ride back to Taipei.
Here and there in Danshui, you will be aware of an acrid food smell emanating from “stinky tofu” carts. This is an emblematic, and enigmatic, Taiwanese dish of fermented tofu that announces itself from afar. Let’s just say that stinky tofu is an acquired taste.
Picture the Mountain Village of Jiufen >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
JiufenNear Taipei, Taiwan
Another easy expedition from Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei takes adventurers to the mountain village of Jiufen. Bring your camera along with plenty of memory and battery power, because Jiufen presents magnificent vistas at every turn.
Jiufen may be a tourist magnet today, but it claims a long and colorful history. Its name translates to “nine portions;” the locals say that Jiufen’s land was once divided up amongst its nine founding families.
Later on, all of Taiwan was under Japanese rule, and gold was discovered deep in the mountains. The Japanese dug several gold mines, which produced the precious metal until recently. On the site of one mine stands a museum devoted to gold as well as the Japanese administrator’s classical all-wood Japanese home, with sliding doors and low furniture.
Many visitors to Jiufen go straight to the retail area of town, built on a network of streets winding around a mountain. The steep lanes, perhaps a dozen feet wide, are for pedestrians only, and require a bit of climbing.
Jiufen’s side-by-side shops hawk snacks and souvenirs, with more of an emphasis on antique and handmade items than in Taipei’s night markets. You will find silk-screened anime T-shirts and vintage Taiwanese postcards as well as fringed leather bracelets and hand-set jeweled barrettes.
Jiufen’s main pedestrian street branches out onto other, even narrower, lanes featuring tea parlors and restaurants. A restaurant called Kunohe has dining rooms that seem cantilevered over the mountain, affording an enchanting setting for tasting vegetarian sushi, soups, and stir-fries.
Picture Taroko National Park >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Taroko National Park and Gorge in Hualien, Taiwan
Set within driving distance of Taipei, Taroko National Park and Gorge is the most renowned of Taiwan’s pristine national parks. A visit to this dazzling natural patch is a Taiwan must.
Visitors may hike or drive through Taroko, marveling at its nearly vertical mountains, marble cliffs and canyons, waterfalls, and the famed Taroko Gorge. Entrance is free, and no permit is needed. Taroko is open year-round.
In its higher elevations, temperatures dip into the twenties from December through February.
The park is large, and many visitors focus on the stretch between Taroko Monument and Tienhsiang. Taroko has about a dozen hiking trails of varying difficulty and duration.
Baiyang Trail features waterfalls and several tunnels; a flashlight is suggested. Yanzihkou (Swallow Grotto) dramatically overlooks the Liwu River below, and Jiucyudong (Nine Turns) Trail contains a wind tunnel created by the surrounding gorge.
The park’s tourist center at its main entrance furnishes information, maps, and appointments for trail guides.
Picture Sun Moon Lake >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Sun Moon Lake furnishes an ideal stop on the way from Taipei to Taiwan's southern cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung.
Visitors hear various explanations of Sun Moon Lake's name. Some say that the lake's two sections are shaped like the sun and the moon. More poetic accounts posit that both the sun and moon rise here.
Two facts are indisputable. Taiwanese are exceedingly proud of Sun Moon Lake. And visitors relish its storybook appearance, still unmarred by commercial development.
Expect magnificent sunrises and sunsets and a mirror-like expanse of water that reflects a frame of green mountains, pagodas, and misty clouds.
The largest natural lake in Taiwan, Sun Moon's scenic shoreline is a favorite path of bicyclists. Many rent their wheels in cycling shops on the lake's ring road.
Swimming is not permitted on Sun Moon Lake, but hotel pools overlook the water. Two lodgings stand out. The Lalu , a member of Design Hotels, is acclaimed as Taiwan's most fashionable inn. It is done in Zen-luxe style, with angular wood and slate, bamboo and jade accents, and rare orchids for decoration. The Lalu's spa, tea room and restaurants are open to guests staying in more modest places.
Savor a memorable Taiwanese meal at Pu-Le Restaurant, a short detour from Sun Moon Lake. It is perpetually and justifiably thronged.
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
The cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung near the southern tip of compact Taiwan are well worth visiting. They are most memorably reached via bullet train, or Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR), which whooshes passengers at speeds of up to 186 mph, going from Taipei to Tainan in about 90 minutes.
Tainan is so historic that its former name, Tayoan, was assumed by the whole country upon independence. Tainan still flaunts large portions of the red-brick great wall that once protected its center.
Whole streets of 19th-century wood-frame houses continue to stand in Tainan’s modern downtown, delighting visitors who stumble upon them.
Tainan’s many beautiful places of worship, such as Koxinga Shrine and Confucius Temple, are elaborately decorated with enameled dragons and stone “lion-dog” guardians. Koxinga has a following of students, who leave pleas for high grades on a prayer wall.
The gracious Tayih Landis Hotel in Tainan is used to hosting international guests. Many take advantage of the hotel's gym and spa-like locker room’s steam rooms and hot tubs.
At Tainan’s most famous restaurant Chou’s, everyone orders shrimp rolls, which are deep-fried but miraculously un-greasy.
Less than an hour south of Tainan lies Kaohsiung, renowned for its busy but scenic harbor and its year-round mild clime. The transport of choice is bikes and scooters, which can be cheaply rented, along with bicycles built for two. It’s a pleasure to pedal through the harbor district’s maze of narrow lanes, stopping to admire the sunset on Kaohsiung’s long beach.
Kaohsiung’s prime tourist attraction is a boat ride down the many-bridged river that bisects this thriving city. Be sure to pause for a kiss, because this waterway is called the Love River.
Return to Page One
China is a popular and fascinating country to visit. But it’s not the easiest place for a vacation. The mainland is vast, the air is polluted, and the roads are hazardous.
But there’s another China that is completely First World, an island nation that offers a variety of cultural and natural experiences for twosomes. We’re talking about the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan.
If you are considering visiting China but are put off by the logistics of this demanding trip, Taiwan is a brilliant alternative to the China syndrome.
Unlike mainland China, no $130 visa is required to enter this green island set 200 miles off the coast.
Taiwan is a feast for the eyes. Picture mist-shrouded emerald mountains dotted by pagodas. The country was once called Formosa, which meant “beautiful” to the Portuguese sailors who named it.
Couples can easily tour all of Taiwan, which is about the size of Maryland. Roads are safe, public transportation fast and clean, and the water drinkable. An adventurous itinerary could take in Taiwan’s exciting capital Taipei, the island's lovely Sun Moon Lake resort, its natural hot springs, and its spectacular parks, waterfalls, and gorges.
And if you were going for the Chinese food…gun your chopsticks. On these pages, you’ll encounter Taiwan’s top attractions for two.
Picture Taipei, the Capital >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei
After the long flight to Taiwan, most visitors want to spend at least a few days in Taipei, the country’s modern capital. The ideal hotel would be comfortable, centrally located, and hospitable to Westerners.
The Grand Hyatt Taipei is all this and more. With 856 rooms, Grand Hyatt Taipei is no boutique operation, but more of a grand hotel with a marble-everywhere lobby and many in-house amenities.
This hotel is visually striking, but its most attractive attribute is its commited service.
All staffers, even the chambermaids, speak English. And Grand Hyatt Taipei is like “Cheers”—a place where everybody knows your name.
Furthermore, Grant Hyatt Taipei boasts a dead-center location right across the street from the Taipei 101 tower. This hotel is a sensible and welcoming home base in a sprawling city that can bewilder foreigners.
Grand Hyatt Taipei rooms are modern and very comfortable, with inviting beds, ample storage, huge tubs, and prompt housekeeping. There are a dozen restaurants and bars in the hotel, both occidental and oriental. A large outdoor pool is usable for most the year in Taiwan’s subtropical climate, and the gym is terrific.
Grand Hyatt Taipei does its share of weddings, and it welcomes honeymoon couples with getaway deals. Make no mistake: this hotel is not a secluded shack under a palm tree, but a sophisticated urban perch for cosmopolitan lovebirds.
A stay here is greatly enhanced by securing a room with access to the Grand Club lounge, with privileges ranging from a delicious buffet breakfast to nightly cocktails and personal concierge service.
Picture Taiwan's Tallest Building >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Taipei 101 is Asia's Tallest Building
All over Taiwan, but especially in Taipei, citizens are fiercely proud of their architectural landmark, the Taipei 101 skyscraper.
After its dedication in 2004, this eye-catching tower was for a brief moment the world’s tallest building. It measures 1,474 feet not including its spire, and Taiwanese insist it still ranks as the globe’s loftiest, as Dubai’s Burj Al Arab tower owes its dominant height to its sail-like crown.
Composed of 101 stories above ground and five below, Taipei 101 embodies the King Kong-luring Art Deco glamour of a New York skyscraper. But Taipei 101’s silver-screen looks are further reinforced by an ingenious spherical safety device called a tuned mass damper that corrects for any swaying caused by earthquakes or typhoons.
A half-day spent in Taipei 101 represents time well used. Come with an appetite. The tower’s below-ground floors contain not only the gourmet emporium Jason’s Market Place but two floors — B1 and 4F — proferring excellent, inexpensive international fare ranging from Lebanese falafels to Taiwanese shrimp rolls. Elegant umbrella-topped tables allow patrons to dine in an outdoor garden atmosphere.
Visitors to Taipei 101 can do some boutique shopping. Many Western brands are in evidence, from everyday labels such as Club Monaco to pricey designers like Gucci and Louis Vuitton to jewelers such as Tiffany and Van Cleef & Arpels, should you still be ring-shopping.
The tower’s summit flaunts a spacious 360º observatory reached by a vertiginous elevator that is in itself like an amusement-park ride.
The panorama of bustling Taipei is perhaps at its best at sunset, when rosy clouds dramatically silhouette distant mountains and neon-hued light shows dance across other building facades.
Picture Taiwan's Tasty Night Markets >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Taiwan Cuisine and Night Markets
In Taiwan, dining out is an everyday habit. The way Americans socialize in Starbucks, Taiwanese gather around restaurant tables. The Taiwanese movie Eat, Drink, Man, Woman takes place almost entirely at meals in the capital, Taipei.
You can find restaurants serving every type of international cuisine in Taipei. But the thing to eat here, and anywhere in Taiwan, is Chinese food. (After all, Taiwan was settled by newcomers from mainland China after the Communist revolution in 1949.)
Taiwan has its own cuisine, too, which fuses various Chinese traditions with homegrown Taiwanese recipes, fresh produce, and seafood.
Visitors can get the big picture of Taiwanese cuisine in a foray to an after-dark night market. Every Taiwanese city has at least one, and there are several in Taipei. Some are open every night, others once or twice a week. (Your hotel concierge will know.)
Some night markets are outdoors, stretching over several blocks gaily strung with red lanterns. These outdoor markets sell gifts and clothing as well as food, and tend to grow in size and variety in nice weather. But they rarely get too crowded for Westerners’ comfort.
Other markets, like the busy Shi-Lin Market, are set in railroad station-like indoor spaces. Enclosed markets have plenty of tables and counters and are popular with couples who prefer sitting and sharing a meal to chowing down while strolling.
In any indoor or outdoor market, you can simply point to whatever catches your eye, including various Taiwanese dishes.
Some good ones are oyster pancakes, crepe-size omelets folded around ocean-fresh oysters; “little roll in big roll” (a beef and sesame combo); noodle soup with beef slices; and just-steamed pork-filled dumplings. Be hungry!
Picture Taiwan's Spa Town >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Wulai Natural Springs near Taipei, Taiwan
The island of Taiwan is blessed with numerous natural wonders including natural hot springs. There are a few spa towns within an hour’s train, bus, or car ride from Taipei.
Of these spa villages, Wulai is possibly the most appealing. Some local couples, as well as those visiting Taiwan, see Wulai as a weekend getaway, booking one or two nights in one of the spa hotels built atop a spring outlet.
But Wulai presents an ideal full-day, or half-day, trip from Taipei.
Its charming main street, which prohibits cars, is lined with bathhouses that pipe in healing waters from the town’s subterranean network of thermal springs, which are renowned throughout Taiwan for feeling like silk on your skin.
These bathhouses typically have a lobby on the street level and steps leading down to the waterworks on the river level below. Proprietors are used to customers wandering in and requesting a price list and either photos of the spa rooms or a quick tour.
Most bathhouses offer both single-sex baths and rooms for couples. In some bathhouses, gender-segregated baths offer the best variety of water temperature and pressure. So it pays to ask what the private rooms feature, and make sure you’re not getting a single bathtub with only one type of water.
One of Wulai’s pleasures is a promenade down its main pedestrian street, lined with shops and stalls selling snacks and souvenirs. Venders are competitive, and happily ply browsers with samples of homemade peanut brittle and alcoholic spirits, which are deliciously flavored with coconut or plum.
They are higher proof than they taste, so don’t be surprised if you feel light-headed after a few free sips.
And no, you’re not seeing a drunken vision: those wooden sculptures sold in many Wulai stands really are of phalluses.
Picture Taiwan's Historic Port City >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Danshui Near Taipei, Taiwan
What’s more romantic than a sunset stroll hand-in-hand down a boardwalk? A promenade two-by-two in Taiwan’s historic port village of Danshui.
Taipei’s efficient and spotless MRT subway whooshes locals and visitors to Danshui in under an hour. Much of the ride is above ground, so riders get an eyeful of Taiwan’s lively capital city as a bonus.
The end of the line is Danshui, and it is a promising place to explore.
The old red brick structure on the highest promontory is a fort built by the Portuguese. It contains a museum of limited interest, but the fort’s gardens and steps are fun and there’s no charge to walk around.
Danshui’s prime draw is its waterfront promenade, with scenic views of small fishing boats and pleasure crafts. (Taiwan has its industrial ports, but Danshui is not one of them.)
From the top of the promenade, near the fort, down to the MRT station, it’s almost a mile, and a lovely hour’s walk. The promenade has a carnival atmosphere, with souvenir vendors, stack stalls, kiddie rides, and street musicians adding to its flavor.
The promenade is particularly popular with teenage groups and young couples who seem jubilant to have escaped the demands of homework and parents. But Danshui’s atmosphere never feels rowdy.
The main street that parallels the promenade is lined with temples and shops. These retailers are good places to buy appealingly packaged peanut candy and sesame chips for souvenirs, or for wolfing down on the MRT ride back to Taipei.
Here and there in Danshui, you will be aware of an acrid food smell emanating from “stinky tofu” carts. This is an emblematic, and enigmatic, Taiwanese dish of fermented tofu that announces itself from afar. Let’s just say that stinky tofu is an acquired taste.
Picture the Mountain Village of Jiufen >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
JiufenNear Taipei, Taiwan
Another easy expedition from Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei takes adventurers to the mountain village of Jiufen. Bring your camera along with plenty of memory and battery power, because Jiufen presents magnificent vistas at every turn.
Jiufen may be a tourist magnet today, but it claims a long and colorful history. Its name translates to “nine portions;” the locals say that Jiufen’s land was once divided up amongst its nine founding families.
Later on, all of Taiwan was under Japanese rule, and gold was discovered deep in the mountains. The Japanese dug several gold mines, which produced the precious metal until recently. On the site of one mine stands a museum devoted to gold as well as the Japanese administrator’s classical all-wood Japanese home, with sliding doors and low furniture.
Many visitors to Jiufen go straight to the retail area of town, built on a network of streets winding around a mountain. The steep lanes, perhaps a dozen feet wide, are for pedestrians only, and require a bit of climbing.
Jiufen’s side-by-side shops hawk snacks and souvenirs, with more of an emphasis on antique and handmade items than in Taipei’s night markets. You will find silk-screened anime T-shirts and vintage Taiwanese postcards as well as fringed leather bracelets and hand-set jeweled barrettes.
Jiufen’s main pedestrian street branches out onto other, even narrower, lanes featuring tea parlors and restaurants. A restaurant called Kunohe has dining rooms that seem cantilevered over the mountain, affording an enchanting setting for tasting vegetarian sushi, soups, and stir-fries.
Picture Taroko National Park >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Taroko National Park and Gorge in Hualien, Taiwan
Set within driving distance of Taipei, Taroko National Park and Gorge is the most renowned of Taiwan’s pristine national parks. A visit to this dazzling natural patch is a Taiwan must.
Visitors may hike or drive through Taroko, marveling at its nearly vertical mountains, marble cliffs and canyons, waterfalls, and the famed Taroko Gorge. Entrance is free, and no permit is needed. Taroko is open year-round.
In its higher elevations, temperatures dip into the twenties from December through February.
The park is large, and many visitors focus on the stretch between Taroko Monument and Tienhsiang. Taroko has about a dozen hiking trails of varying difficulty and duration.
Baiyang Trail features waterfalls and several tunnels; a flashlight is suggested. Yanzihkou (Swallow Grotto) dramatically overlooks the Liwu River below, and Jiucyudong (Nine Turns) Trail contains a wind tunnel created by the surrounding gorge.
The park’s tourist center at its main entrance furnishes information, maps, and appointments for trail guides.
Picture Sun Moon Lake >
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
Sun Moon Lake furnishes an ideal stop on the way from Taipei to Taiwan's southern cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung.
Visitors hear various explanations of Sun Moon Lake's name. Some say that the lake's two sections are shaped like the sun and the moon. More poetic accounts posit that both the sun and moon rise here.
Two facts are indisputable. Taiwanese are exceedingly proud of Sun Moon Lake. And visitors relish its storybook appearance, still unmarred by commercial development.
Expect magnificent sunrises and sunsets and a mirror-like expanse of water that reflects a frame of green mountains, pagodas, and misty clouds.
The largest natural lake in Taiwan, Sun Moon's scenic shoreline is a favorite path of bicyclists. Many rent their wheels in cycling shops on the lake's ring road.
Swimming is not permitted on Sun Moon Lake, but hotel pools overlook the water. Two lodgings stand out. The Lalu , a member of Design Hotels, is acclaimed as Taiwan's most fashionable inn. It is done in Zen-luxe style, with angular wood and slate, bamboo and jade accents, and rare orchids for decoration. The Lalu's spa, tea room and restaurants are open to guests staying in more modest places.
Savor a memorable Taiwanese meal at Pu-Le Restaurant, a short detour from Sun Moon Lake. It is perpetually and justifiably thronged.
Picture Love River in Southern Taiwan >
The cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung near the southern tip of compact Taiwan are well worth visiting. They are most memorably reached via bullet train, or Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR), which whooshes passengers at speeds of up to 186 mph, going from Taipei to Tainan in about 90 minutes.
Tainan is so historic that its former name, Tayoan, was assumed by the whole country upon independence. Tainan still flaunts large portions of the red-brick great wall that once protected its center.
Whole streets of 19th-century wood-frame houses continue to stand in Tainan’s modern downtown, delighting visitors who stumble upon them.
Tainan’s many beautiful places of worship, such as Koxinga Shrine and Confucius Temple, are elaborately decorated with enameled dragons and stone “lion-dog” guardians. Koxinga has a following of students, who leave pleas for high grades on a prayer wall.
The gracious Tayih Landis Hotel in Tainan is used to hosting international guests. Many take advantage of the hotel's gym and spa-like locker room’s steam rooms and hot tubs.
At Tainan’s most famous restaurant Chou’s, everyone orders shrimp rolls, which are deep-fried but miraculously un-greasy.
Less than an hour south of Tainan lies Kaohsiung, renowned for its busy but scenic harbor and its year-round mild clime. The transport of choice is bikes and scooters, which can be cheaply rented, along with bicycles built for two. It’s a pleasure to pedal through the harbor district’s maze of narrow lanes, stopping to admire the sunset on Kaohsiung’s long beach.
Kaohsiung’s prime tourist attraction is a boat ride down the many-bridged river that bisects this thriving city. Be sure to pause for a kiss, because this waterway is called the Love River.
Return to Page One
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