Riding a bullet from tall towers to rugged coastline in Taiwan

Separated from Mainland China by the narrow Taiwan Strait, Taiwan is a constant surprise of unheralded scenic delights and diverse cultures.

Divided into fifteen ‘New Territories’ and spit almost fifty-fifty by the Tropic of Cancer, the Taiwanese refer to their island home as ‘Tropical’ and ‘Sub-tropical’, as cities and territories below the dividing line do have a temperature drop of several degrees all year round.

The capital, Taipei, is a bustling yet orderly city, where one can experience a diverse range of dining, shopping and architecture.

Gastronomic delights from ‘street food’ to 5-star restaurants await the ‘foodies’ among us, encompassing everything from Lobster Thermidor and Chateau Briand to Seaweed Soup and steamed pork buns. Deep fried chicken combe, steamed chickens’ feet and stuffed large and small intestine of pig are other local delicacies that are certainly not for the fainthearted!

Shopping runs the gamut from busy, crowded markets, through up market-department stores all the way to Bulgari, Chopard, Armani, Dior, YSL and Chanel. These latter ‘houses’ and ‘salons’ are to be found in the now second-highest building in the world: Taipei 101.

Eclipsed only recently by the Burj tower in Dubai for actual height, 101 is still the tallest, single-building, freestanding structure on the face of the Earth. The views from the open-air observation deck on the 91st floor are breathtaking and one can almost see all the way to China – something the military does here 24/7 for fear of the resumption of hostilities.

The night-time views from up here are nothing short of spectacular and the clean air affords one a great over-view of the city, with its brightly lit freeways, boulevards and backstreets and a kaleidoscope of flashing neon lights.

While not a lot of English is spoken here, all seem to know someone who does, and will go out of their way to bring an English-speaker to you to satisfy your needs and queries.

Foreign tourism appears to be in its infancy here, but is definitely on the rise. Tour operators range from the highly professional Taiwan Tour Bus founded in 1961, to the quirky yet delightful Edison Tours, where your tour guide s appear to be office staff driving their own personal vehicles.

Regardless of which outfit you choose to travel with, the care and attention to your well-being is paramount to them. The tours run with a German preciseness to timing and the scenery is the same – and what scenery it is!

The North Coast area is renowned for its ruggedness, featuring myriad other-worldly rock formations, carved from the sandstone and basalt over aeons of relentless pounding from the Pacific Ocean.

Enclosed within the Yangmingshan National Park, the coast is just 13km from the heart of Taipei and accessed via a veritable ‘spaghetti bowl’ of elevated freeways.

To the South, in the ‘sub-Tropic’ zone, is the picturesque seaside town of Zuo Ying. Reached in just an hour and a half by the high-speed Bullet Train (travelling at speeds up to 320kph) it is the ‘jumping off’ point for some of Taiwan’s more interesting natural attractions.

Right at the Southern-most tip of the island is Kenting National Marine Park, and the scenery here is as beautiful as one could expect to see anywhere in the world. Gazing seaward, the intense blue of the sea melds with the cloudless, azure sky on the horizon, while looking inland the blue of the sea is replaced by the deep green of the Ba Da Forest.

Temples and lakes abound in this area are greatly favoured by the ‘Northerners’, who seek to escape the heat and humidity of ‘Tropical Taipei’. The magnificent Lotus Pond at Tsoying in the Kaohsiung area is home to no fewer than 17 temples, each with its own unique architecture, bright colours and deity.

At one of the temples, one enters through the yawning mouth of a large dragon to accept any good luck. The exit is through the open mouth of a fearsome tiger, to rid oneself of all bad luck. To traverse the temple in reverse would only bring calamity and catastrophe.

North East of Zuo Ying is the curiously named ‘Moonscape World’ – curious, that is, until you enter the eeriness of a vast gravel plane, pock-marked by empty holes, where flames of natural gas once roared, similar to the dozens of others still burning, day and night.

This natural phenomenon exists all through the Kaohsiung forest area, the flames stopping and starting randomly, within the confines of the park. My guide was unable to tell me how many ‘fire-holes’ there were, or where the spark came from to set the gas ablaze. He did, however, take great delight in pointing out to me the sign which read, ‘No barbecuing over the flames’!

All too soon, it was time to leave this beautiful area, say ‘good-bye’ to my guide ‘Billy’, and return once more to Taipei on the aircraft-like Bullet Train.

For such a small country, Taiwan and its people have had a big impact on me. I hope one day I might return to this island country, once called Formosa, for I know it has much more to offer.