After the excitement of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year, many residents of Western countries find the first month or two of each year a little sluggish. In Taiwan, however, this is an extremely buoyant period. The Lunar New Year kicks off sometime between late January and mid-February (in 2015, it began on February 18), and…
Taiwan’s diverse society fuses ancient traditions with cutting-edge modernity, and nothing underscores this duality better than the calendars seen in homes and offices. Like their counterparts in the West, Taiwan’s workers, civil servants, and students generally refer to the Gregorian calendar when making appointments and meeting deadlines. The Chinese lunar calendar, however, is used to…
Taiwan’s stunning landscape is the result of constant geological activity over millions of years. Because of the continuing collision between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Asian Continental Plate, the island’s already impressive mountains are rising approximately four centimeters per year. Like other places located where tectonic plates push against one another, Taiwan occasionally suffers…
