Taipei, Taiwan: Overview

The second leg of the Asian adventures continues! Next destination: Taipei, Taiwan.

Taiwan has always been a place of mystery, a place that I only know through the opinions of others. Actually, I’ve never known anything about Taiwan except that 1. It’s in a political independence brawl with China, similar to that of Quebec – Canada, 2. People have a cute accent over there, 3. Food is amazing, 4. It’s Jay Chou’s place of origin.

So in others words, I didn’t know anything about the place and know that I’ve seen Taiwan, I take back all the misconceptions and political opinions I’ve previously held about the place.

First of all, Taiwan is beautiful. Mountains. Ranges upon ranges of mountains as far as the eye can see, especially in the less urban areas. About 70% of the terrain in Taiwan is mountainous, and the vegetation on the mountains is lush and bountiful, nothing like the giant conifers we have back at home. I thought Hong Kong had amazing scenery. Taiwan beats Hong Kong (in terms of scenery) by a mile. Even in Taipei, the capital, the terrain is mountainous, and the roads small and cramped, making each car ride an adventure. Back in Quebec, major cities are usually situated on flat terrain and any sort of forest or dense vegetation is usually cut down. In Taiwan, cities big and small are built in between mountains and there is green as far as the eye can see. In fact, the mountain ranges are so impressive that one often forgets that Taiwan is an island.

The temperature in Taiwan during this time of the year (early February) is very mild and nice; it’s the nicest time of the year to visit the country. Temperatures were on the high side when we visited (going up to the high 20s!!), and apparently this is the hottest Taiwan has been in the past 50 years in the month of February. I can’t imagine what it must feel like traveling to Taiwan in the summer with temperatures as high as 35 degree Celsius.

Second of all, Taiwanese people are some of the friendliest and most heartwarming people I’ve met. This goes not only for employees at tourist attractions, but also locals, from waitresses, to street vendors, to random elderly people on the streets. It’s a totally different mentality from Mainland China, in a good way!

Third of all, amazing food is an understatement. As one of my good friends would say back in Montreal, this food proves the existence of God.

Fun fact about Taiwan:

·      Taiwan has an enormous amount of Bin Lang (槟榔) trees. And by enormous amount, I mean that they are everywhere. Locals owning land would cut down the regular trees on their properties and plant a whole field of these trees. These trees resemble palm trees, except they are incredibly thin and only have a few small leaves. The reason for this Taiwanese obsession is that BinLang trees are extremely easy to plant (they grow relatively fast) and locals love to chew their leaves. It’s sort of like marijuana, because it’s a stimulant and people get easily addicted to it. The only difference is that it’s legalized and Taiwan even regularly imports BinLang leaves to satisfy national demand.
(The girls who sell the binlang are also quite a tourist attraction because they’ll be selling the stuff while wearing bikinis [they’re called 槟榔妹妹])