Taiwan, The Forgotten China

By John | Monday, February 5, 2007 | 6 Comments

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This article in The Wall Street Journal about Taiwan as “The Forgotten China” is a very positive piece highlighting all the great things about Taiwan, otherwise known as the Republic of China. To most Americans, I am sure they’re not exactly sure what is going on with mainland China and Taiwan.

“Unlike China, Taiwan doesn’t suppress religion, and Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism have long flourished. The result is a richness and depth of Chinese culture unmatched on the mainland… Despite the opening two years ago of Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building, Taiwan isn’t on the map for most tourists. Last year, for instance, a relative trickle of American tourists visited Taiwan — 86,000. Thirteen times as many Americans, more than one million, went to Hong Kong alone. “We’re the best-kept secret in Asia,” a tourism official says ruefully.”

To be honest, I think visiting Hong Kong is boring… it’s basically one big shopping mall! There’s a lot of interesting skyscraper architecture, but as a tourist destination, there really isn’t that much history or even all that much interesting to see.

“The sparse visitor statistics belie the variety of attractions that Taiwan offers. The countryside is breathtaking, with spectacular mountains, gorges and fast-flowing rivers. A high-speed train inaugurated just last month reduces travel time to the second city, Kaohsiung, from four hours to 90 minutes, making the entire west coast an easy day trip from Taipei. At the end of last year, the National Palace Museum also reopened after an extensive interior renovation. What is one of the world’s best collections of Chinese art can now be viewed in a much more pleasant environment.”

It’s true – the National Palace Museum is one of the greatest museums in the world! I’m proud to be a Taiwanese-American!

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aep

I was having a good laugh with some of my taiwanese friends yesterday in Taipei - "who comes to Taiwan to be a tourist? Japanese!"

Everyone else seems to be an english teacher or businessman, we concluded.

The tourist infrastructure is developing and they did have a youth travel year, including the "you are not alone" ads (search for them on youtube). Without using Chinese, buying a train ticket is likely impossible. Buying an airplane ticket is hilarious. High Speed Rail ticket machines are only in Chinese - and they're brand new. But this is a fun place to explore :-)

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aep

I was having a good laugh with some of my taiwanese friends yesterday in Taipei - "who comes to Taiwan to be a tourist? Japanese!"

Everyone else seems to be an english teacher or businessman, we concluded.

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poagao

Taiwan not only lacks a tourism infrastructure, its basic infrastructure is one that is not easily navigable by tourists. Taipei has made great progress over the last few years in this respect, but outside Taipei, things haven't really changed in decades in this respect. Ironically, the ruling DPP seems to think disassociating Taiwan from China will solve these problems rather than more concrete measures.

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