Enjoy a quirky holiday in this historic series of islands
8 February 2008
I never knew what to expect when I holidayed in Taiwan. What I discovered was one of the quirkiest islands in the world.
Twenty-two million people live on the island of Taiwan, a stone's throw from mainland China. At 8 on a March morning, it feels like most of them are with me on the Taipei subway train between YuanShan and Taipei City Hall. Despite this, the Taiwanese bow courteously, help complete strangers on and off with bags, and young and old look very much at peace with their lives, demure and sprightly with marble-white skin and the ladies carrying pink or white umbrellas to protect against the sun. I can't imagine encountering these bon vivants on the London Underground or Paris Metro.
The rapid subway train system is fast, clean and inexpensive and means you can see a lot of Taipei in a short time. There are many art galleries, parks, English bookstores, and of course, fantastic restaurants serving every regional cuisine of Taiwan and China.
Taipei, capital of Taiwan, is home to the world's tallest building (509 metres), the Taipei 101 (entrance: NT$350), served by the world's fastest elevator – travelling at an ear-popping 35 mph, taking only 48 seconds to reach the top. The view is of high-rises, the chocolate-coloured Keelung River, the palatial Grand Hotel and misty jungles.
XiMen district is full of designer clothing shops and swanky shopping malls thronged with youths with dyed black and purple hair and pierced lips. One minute away is an alley packed with meats, root vegetables, herbs that look like human hair, tiny white edible golf balls sweets, a greasy pharmacy window selling remedies such as 'stomach cleanser' and 'purple throat scourer', and battered mopeds, with whole families riding one Vespa, the child at the back holding a cage of chickens, the rider dodging the racks on wheels stacked with pink candy.
In a park, amazingly supple octogenarians are practising yoga and t'ai chi. A dustcart, passing by, plays classical music.
I step inside a massage/reflexology centre, where I am confronted by male and female doctors in ominous white coats. I am asked to lay down but not remove my clothes, and a towel is placed over my body. The masseuse, Cindy, had arms like hams, and she slapped, pounded, and every time she dug her fingers into the back of my head, below my ears, around my temples, I squealed in pain.
“Is it hurting?” she smirked, and every time I said yes, she'd give out a hearty laugh and just go harder. The reflexology had me wincing too. The cost was equivalent to £7, these massage/reflexology clinics are all over Taiwan. Despite the pain, I felt euphoric afterwards, my head felt separate from my shoulders and it was like walking on air.
I stay at the Grand Hotel (www.grand-hotel.org), looking like a huge, Chinese temple full of objet d'art, carvings, illuminated dragons and Chinese lanterns.
Next morning, I am bound for Chiayi departing from Taipei Central Rail station. Opposite the station is an underground village, Taiwan Storyland, full of memorabilia, cars, a 1950s diner and hotel.
The orange-nosed, high-speed train to Chiayi costs the equivalent of £15 and travels at over 285km per hour. From the window I see suburbia, interspersed with flooded fields edged with a road leading to a lone farm, utterly grey and treeless, or glimpse a cemetery, its graves looking like Hobbit holes.
Chiayi, 2 hours from Taipei, annually hosts the Taiwan Lantern Festival, which involves the lighting of thousands of lanterns.
At the town of Puzih, the grey-stoned Peitian Temple is fascinating for its interior. Built in 1687, a disciple was carrying a stone effigy of a God called Mazu, but it became too heavy and was dropped at the current site of the temple. Beneath the cherry blossom, locals throw ritual money into a furnace and there are prayer tiles. The temple interior is an acrid, topsy-turvydom of walls with motifs of snakes and mythical creatures, vermillion and gold, lit by bare red bulbs, with locals chanting before an altar, figurines and flowers and fat buddhas, Chinese lanterns donated by the Qing emperor, huge dolls with streamers in their hair and a room with three bowls of marshmallows in water and gold tortoises. There is a Healing Tree, where you rub a diseased part of your body and will be cured, and I find 20 glass pillars with 300 small triangular glass drawers and inside each drawer, a yellow bulb and a piece of card with someone's name on it.
An hour away, at the small town of Yanshuei, I witness more bonkers fun: the Beehive Rockets Festival. This eccentric annual festival is an audience-participation fireworks event beginning on the 15th day of the first lunar month and attracts 50,000 visitors.
A procession carrying religious effigies makes its way through the streets followed by a number of “beehives” – cages housing dozens of racks of firecrackers, facing outwards – and visitors, protected by motorcycle helmets, scarves, gloves and anything else they can find to cover every inch of skin - then crowd around as the firecrackers are lit.
What follows is the worst 30 seconds of my life, but I thank God for the crash helmet and the drunken-like dance I do to shake any trapped firecracker out of my clothing.
Unscathed, the next day I visit the Cigu Salt Mountains, four storey high salt pyramids, with pools where you can swim.
Kaohsiung is Taiwan's second city, in the south, and a 2-day tour reveals a Confucian temple, replete with urinals-with-a-view. The most interesting spot is the Tiger and Dragon Pagoda: the dragon's throat is the entrance and the lion's mouth is the exit. Entering a dragon's throat and coming out a lion's mouth symbolises turning bad luck to good fortune. Inside, paintings depict China's 24 most obedient sons as well as scenes of heaven and hell to inspire people to do good deeds during their lifetime, and to provide threatening examples of retribution for wrongdoing. In the guts of the dragon, there is a sacred shrine with a statue of a princess and water gushes from the wall. People pray here, burn incense, fill a cup of water, wave it above the incense, drink it, and take a laminated card from the shrine with a picture of a God.
I visit the National Science and Technology Museum where I go moon-walking and stand inside a house which simulates an earthquake of 7.3 on the richter scale (Taiwan's last earthquake). I learn that Taiwan only came into existence in 1949, but has one of the world's most successful economies (producing more than a quarter of the world's desktop computers).
That evening, I'm tempted by one of Kaohsiung's alternative restaurants, The Herb Teacher (at No 3 Minchung Road, tel 07963 9576). Very rustic with lime-green sofas and lamps made of glass beads, the menu starts with a hotpot which I cook, containing sweet potato and ice cream, and I throw in pungent herbs, mushrooms, meats, vegetables and fruits. A raw egg, with a purple yolk is placed on the table.
I want to walk in the woods and feel fresh air in my lungs, so a day later, a minibus drives me inland to the Sun Moon Lake. En route, we pass betel nut businesses – glass boxes with flashing lights, occupied by girls wearing mini-skirts, nurse uniforms, leather basques or just a pair of knickers. Truckers stop to buy hallucinogenic betel nuts, which relieve tiredness.
We're soon in countryside still green and unspoilt. The Lalu (www.thelalu.com.tw) is a boutique resort, its grey slate and wood blending in with nature.
My room, 1612, is petite, cube-shaped and done out in toffee-coloured wood, with a doorbell that plays birdsong instead of the ubiquitous ding-dong. A panel slides open to the view of Sun Moon Lake, its water is bottle-green and eerie, fringed by uninterrupted forests, and nearer, the resort's 60-metre infinity pool. It's a tranquil scene with butterfly-filled nature trails and temples and villages to visit.
At Lalu's spa, Nicole, with her tiny fingers, gives me the best massage I've ever had in my life: the Green Tea Rejuvenation Treatment is 2 hours of rubbing salt into my skin, then slapping on yoghurt, culminating in a soak in a bath green tea. Unlike my first massage in Taipei, it's more about pleasure than pain.
'Lalu' means 'highest respect' in the aboriginal Thao language, and this is the sentiment I have for Taiwan as I sail across the lake to Huangsueng temple where a lady gives me two boiled eggs cooked in mushrooms and tea.
Taiwan might not be everyone's idea of a holiday, but the bustling cities contrast perfectly with the ethereal beauty of Sun Moon Lake.
I was told that the best beaches – and hot weather year round - were in the Kenting National Park, or on the virginal eastern coast, but I didn't have the time to go.
But I've already booked my air ticket in August and will head down to the glorious beaches of Kenting, for sun, sea, sand and a dose of quirkiness.
FACT FILE
Full Name: Republic of China
Location: The island of Taiwan is found 100 miles across the Taiwan straits from mainland China and is, practically speaking, an independent island which China regards as part of its territory that must be re-united with the mainland.
Getting there: EVA Air www.evaair.com flies to Taipei via Bangkok
Major languages: Mandarin Chinese (official), Min Nan Chinese (Taiwanese)
Capital city: Taipei
More Information: www.taiwan.net.tw; www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw
Time Zone: GMT/UTC +8
Religion: Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christian
Currency: New Taiwan Dollar (NT$)
Electricity: 110V 60HzHz
Country Dialing Code: +886
Best time to go: Autumn months (October/November) when the weather is mild and cool 19°C (66°F). In the South January/February are great as it is still warm enough 24°C (75°F to get a tan. Summer months are hot 33°C (91°F), sticky and prone to rain.
Visa: Citizens from some western European countries, the UK, Australasia, Canada and the USA can stay in Taiwan for 30 days without a visa. Everyone else needs a visa. Single entry visas are easy to get, but if you want a multiple entry visa, get it before you go. Because the Republic of China (Taiwan) is not recognised by most countries, you'll have to get your visa from a Taiwanese 'pseudo embassy'. Many countries do not allow even the word 'Taiwan' in the name of Taiwan's overseas legations.
Find out if you need a visa: www.thevisacompany.com
The Visa Company are offering The Travel Magazine readers 10% discount on the arrangement fee.