Here we go...

What does Taiwan have?

-people:

• Aboriginals and their rich cultures (Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Puyuma, Tsou, Rukai, Saisiyat, Yami and Others)
• Han people before 1949 (aka 本省人 Native Taiwanese, people whose ancestor came to Taiwan during Qing Dynasty 1644-1912)
• Han people after 1949 (aka 外省人Outsiders, people whose parents/grandparents that came to Taiwan when the revolution broke out in China)
• Japanese
• International scholars/ Language Teachers/ Business people
• Southeast Asians (workers, house keepers, brides (and yes, I said BRIDE),etc.)
• Mainland Chinese (including people from Hong Kong, Macao)

-Food:
Taiwanese ("小吃"little eat= Snack food):BOBA tea, Xiao long bao, beef noodle soup, etc; Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Shang-hai, Cantonese, Beijing, Mongolian, Burmian, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, American, French, German, Spanish, Mexican, etc........

-Nature:
Mountains (Jade mountain, Alishan...etc)and yes, it snows in the mountains, Cliff, beaches, rivers, lake, islands, ...

Others:
Night markets,
Cheap knock-off goods (dvd, bags,..),
quality, large selection, cheap stationaries, art supplies
UFO houses (Sanzhi, Taipei)
Former home of Barbies (yes, those dollies)
KTV (Karaoke) with private rooms that decorated like hotel rooms
interesting fashion scense
tie-dye fabrics and other traditional patterned fabrics
FRUIT (dragon fruits, Lychee, Wax Apple, Guava, apples...etc)
VEGGIES (also a great selection)
SCOOTERS (they are EVERYWHERE... an average family of 4 would have at least 3 scooters)
MRT,
High speed train,
seafood,
hard liquor (Gao-lian, aboriginal millet liquor)
electronic products (acers, asus, etc)
bicycle (Giant)
stupid politic
famous president (money laundry, anyone?)
MBAs (i bet most people in the US know a taiwanese or two, who studied MBA there)
Jimmy Liao(author and illustrator) works including: "the Sound of Colors," "The Blue Stone"...


The list can go on and on...
On this tiny island, you can probably find something extremely familiar to your own background, or something completely strange. You can find someone who can speak your language fluently, or someone who doesn't even know how to say "Hello." You can live here without knowing a word of Chinese, or eating a day of Chinese food... Let me slowly introduce you to this interesting place :D

Ni-Hao!!!

i m determined!

Since my friend, Sammee left the US to teach English in Taiwan, I started to notice that there're rarely any book on my "home country" (it's funny to call it "my home country," because... is it really a country yet?).

Browsing the Internet bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Borders, even specialty bookstores that sells traveling books, how many guidebooks can you find that's specifically on Taipei? or Taiwan?
It's not that i love this place so much, so I wanted the whole world to know, because I don't (especially when it comes to the politic). Though, there are so many cute things about Taiwanese people, and its unique culture (it's a melting pot of chinese, japanese, southeast asian, and many other asia pacific cultures).

"it'd be nice to have my friends understand where i m coming from. it's also an opportunity to learn more about my own culture while doing the research," i thought to myself.

i really hope that one day when people say they are traveling to Asia, 'Taipei' can be on their list of "cities to visit".

Xieˋ－xie˙[thank you]　:)