Things I did not know about Taiwan

Things I did not know about Taiwan

I am writing from Dongue Village in Southern Taiwan. Our little home for the next week is a typical Taiwanese house, snuggled close to the main road, wedged between other houses, townhouse style. We are on the third floor and have a view of the Philippine Sea/Pacific Ocean.

It is simple and clean and has everything we need, including a downstairs area to cook.

We arrived in persistent rain. I was preparing myself for relentless rain for the duration, but as we drove South of Taipei, the skies cleared.

It feels very easy here. I do not feel like a person in the wrong place, even though there are very few Europeans. The language chasm is significant, but there are also translation apps that make it easier. Food for a vegetarian is challenging, but workable. Like Japan, my partner is eating his way through everything, and I am hungry all the time.

Things I did not know about Taiwan.

Its indigenous people go back to 3000 BC.

They have endured the colonisation of the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese and Japanese, to the extent that they are now only 3% of the population. Their genetic group is Austronesians, from Southeast Asia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

Like many indigenous cultures, they are struggling to reclaim their identity, language, land and culture before it is completely exterminated.

The claim by China is hard to fathom, given that China’s major influence has only been after WW11. However, the Han Chinese are the majority of the population now, many of whom crossed the seas illegally since the 17th century. Those pesky illegal immigrants, which pretty much includes every human on the planet when you go back a few generations.

Taiwan is the most mountainous country in Asia. As we drove South, we went through fifty or more tunnels, one of them nearly 13 kilometres long. The road infrastructure defies the overall sense of the economy, which seems to be just making it.

All along the East Coast, the mountains drop into the ocean, with a thin patch of land hugging the coast. It feels like Kauai in Hawaii. Coconut palms everywhere. It is quite stunning. Little villages, few urban areas. Houses all right by the sea.

The Taiwanese put sugar in everything they can. It is a shock to eat or drink something and be hit by the sweetness, even savoury dishes.

Taiwan’s fame is in the silicon chip field. In this area, it leads the way in the world.

Tomorrow I will write about how this became so. The story itself is very Syntropic.

Photo Taken October 23rd 2025, Article published October 23rd, 2025

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