One Year in Taiwan Photos

 

Kristi, Cata, and I are coming up on the completion of our first year in our most recent country - Taiwan! Here are some photos and comments on our experience with a new city, culture, cuisine, and landscape.

We had assumed Taipei might be quite similar to Singapore; a beautiful modern city that felt generally clean, organized, and new. Taipei, however feels a bit more organic. Taipei neighborhoods are soulful; they show their age. They are less dominated by skyrise buildings and often consist of shophouses with businesses on the bottom and living space above. 

Taiwan, as it turns out, is a great place to get out of the city and into the outdoors. Going to the beach or hiking in the mountains are great weekend activities (Cata prefers going to the beach).  We enjoyed the much cooler Winter months and took advantage of them to get outside as much as we could.  We purchased a car early on and have spent many weekends exploring the areas around Northern Taiwan.

Taiwan is also a great place to be a passionate eater. Like Singapore, Chinese food is prevalent. Taiwan has its own unique dishes; stinky tofu and bubble tea originate here. We've tried both and for Kristi, once was enough.  We eat a lot of soups and dumplings, as well as simple dishes of braised meats or veggies and rice. Elements of Korean and Japanese food are also part of the food scene.

Garbage cans in Taipei are few and far between. Instead, the trash trucks cruise the neighborhood and play music to alert everyone to their presence, then everyone pours out of their houses to line up and dump their trash. The one in our neighborhood plays Fleur De Lis. Taipei used to have a significant trash (and rat) problem until it came up with this system, but now it is rare to see litter and even more rare to see trashed piled up.

Taiwan is known as the most LGBTQ+ positive country in Asia, as it was the first to legalize same sex marriage and hosts the biggest Pride parade in S. Asia.

The interior of Taiwan is steep and mountainous. Some is preserved as forested national park area, but tea plantations are common. Terraces carved into the hillsides allow for agriculture homes in rural areas.

Taipei veggie market

One of Cata's favorite spots in Taipei - the science museum. 

Suspension bridges are a common way to cross river gorges in rural areas. 

Trains are a traditional mode of transport in Taiwan, with the railways mostly built by the Japanese during occupation. This one in Alishan National Park originated during the Japanese colonial period for logging purposes and is maintained as a tourist activity. 

Conifer forest scene in Alishan National Park

Taiwan is geothermically active, and hot springs are a popular activity across the country. This is a thermal valley in Taipei; it is a historical sulfur mining area and the spring water is pumped into a number of hot spring hotels.  We're lucky enough to live close to an area of major activity. 

We adopted a shelter kitten. Cata named her Ginger. She just turned a year old. 

Kristi enjoying a solitary moment by the river in Taroko National Park. We visited the East coast and this incredible National Park during our Lunar New Year break.  Unfortunately, a large earthquake followed by flooding has kept some of the best parts closed for the foreseeable future, but we got to see some beautiful scenery anyway.

East coast beach scene

Fog lifting off the mausoleums in a rural area outside of Taipei.