Taiwan Hotels

Taiwan is an island that is situated off of the south-eastern coast of mainland China. It lies on the Western Pacific Ocean. The island has rugged mountain to the east side that run in five ranges from the north to the southern most tip where as on the western side of the island it is much flatter with the ‘Chianan Plains’. History The island has been inhabited by humans for around 30,000 years. Taiwanese Aborigines settled there around 4,000 years ago.

Then in the 1200’s ‘Han Chinese’ began to settle there. Later in 1540 the ‘Kingdom of Middag’ became Taiwan’s main settlement. A few years on in 1544 a Portuguese ship came across the island and named it ‘Ilha Formosa’ -‘Beautiful Island’.

The Dutch set up a commercial base in 1624 and imported Fujian and Penghu workers. They also set up a colony on the island and made ‘Tayoan City’ a Colonial Capital. Later the Spanish landed on the island in 1626, they took over the northern part of the Taiwan and also brought commercial trading which lasted until 1642.

In 1662 the Dutch rulers were defeated by Chinese naval troops and Southern Fujian forces, they got rid of the Dutch rulers from the island. The new ‘Kingdom of Tungning’ was established in the same year by ‘Koxinga’ and his heirs who ruled until 1682. Later in 1683 one of ‘Koxinga’s’ heirs was defeated by a Southern Fujian armada led by ‘Shu Lang’ and the ‘Qing Dynasty’ were defeated in 1895 and therefore Taiwan and Penghu became part of the ‘Empire of Japan’, During this period Japan industrialised the island.

The rulers built sanitation systems and also added to already established railroads and other transport links. They also increased production of rice and sugarcane and therefore by 1939 Taiwan became one of the top ten sugar producers in the world. The Japanese rule ended in 1945 after it lost World War II.

The ‘Republic of China’ took over leadership of the island. During the 1960s/70s the island became prosperous as it developed industrially. The next few decades saw Taiwan in the democratic reform.

Climate Taiwan has a marine tropical type of climate and in the north there is a rainy season that lasts from January to the end of March. However, the island as a whole has a hot and humid climate from June to September. Typhoons and earthquakes are common within this area.

Cuisine The Taiwanese use mostly pork, seafood, rice and soy as their main ingredients. They also eat sub-tropical fruits such as papayas, starfruit, melon and citrus fruits. Taiwan has many delicacies through out its regions including pork balls from Hsinchu, turkey rice bowls from Chiayi, Dasi dried Tofu from Dasi Taoyuan, Suncakes from Taichung, Ba-wan which means meat circle, from Changhua, Yimin, soft noodle soup from Nantou, Ah gei which is deep fried Tofu, Danshui fish balls and Iron eggs which are eggs that have been stewed in spices and air-dried from Danshui.

Places of Interest While visiting Taiwan there are several places of interest including ‘North Coast and Guanyinshan National Scenic Area’ which features coastal geography, the ‘Eastern Tapeng Bay Coast National Scenic Area’ with its tropical sunshine, the ‘Maoling National Scenic Area’ where Aborigines live,’ Alishan National Scenic Area’ which is great for relaxing and taking in the sunrise and ‘Cloud Sea’ and ‘Sun Moon Lake’. At the ‘Bagua Mountains’ there is a chance to spot eagles and see the Buddhist Sanctuary at ‘Lion Mountain’. The ‘Penghu National Scenic Area’ provides some of the best views in Taiwan.

‘Lanyu’ and ‘Green Island’ are great for whale spotting and scuba diving. ‘Yaminshan National Park’ is renowned for its volcanic landscape. ‘Shei-Pa National Park’ is well known for certain species of fish, ‘Taroko National Park’ is famous for its canyon landscape, ‘Yushan National Park’ is known for sunshine and also ‘Kenting National Park’, ‘Kinmen National Park’ and ‘National Palace Museum’ near Taipei city.

Summary Taiwan is an amazing island to visit, with its full and varied history, favourable climate and abundance of features and attractions.