When you go, eat like the locals. Tuck into big portions, don’t waste time standing in line, and enjoy the freshest beef soup in Taiwan. Soft-shell turtle, freshly slaughtered beef scalded in broth, hearty portions, and sugar, sugar, sugar. That’s some of what you’ll encounter when dining in the southern city of Tainan, a prime…
Taiwan’s ubiquitous night markets are cleaning up their act, becoming more environmentally friendly, providing better entertainment options, and exploring new markets to accommodate the island’s changing demographics. It’s twilight and drizzling, and the backlit signs in the Tonghua Night Market flicker as they come to life. Vendors set up their stalls as a motorbike with…
When winter weather arrives, a soak at one of Taiwan’s many hot springs is an attractive way to ward off the chill. Certain foods are also said to help achieve the same purpose. “Cold” is, of course, a relative term. For those coming from overseas locations with harsh winter climates, Taiwan’s cold season might seem…
The Michelin Guide Taiwan ventured outside of Taipei for the first time in 2020 and explored Taichung. Four restaurants earned Michelin stars – JL Studio, Fleur de Sel, Forchetta, and Oretachi No Nikuya – and the choices revealed the stark differences between the Taipei and Taichung culinary scenes. By Sunny Wu, CommonWealth Magazine Founded in…
In the nearly year-long absence of international travelers, Taipei’s hotels have begun shifting some of their focus to their food and beverage business, offering attractive package deals and coming up with new, delicious ways to draw in the island’s domestic travelers. As international travel to Taiwan ground to a complete halt last spring following the…
By Steven Crook and Katy Hui-wen Hung Families across Taiwan continue to engage in an ancient tradition of offering up ritual feasts to their ancestors. One clan has been performing these rites in the northern city of Taoyuan for over two centuries. Ancestor worship is an ancient and persistent custom among Han Chinese. Traditionally, deceased…
If you have never been to a hot spring, the time is surely right for you to take a stress-busting hot-spring vacation in “the Heart of Asia.” Thanks to encouraging news from scientists working on coronavirus vaccines, people are once again daring to hope that international leisure travel can resume within months. When the door…
Taichung is an excellent launchpad for anyone wishing to explore the stunning mountains that crowd Taiwan’s interior. The city encompasses intensively farmed coastal lowlands, mid-elevation landscapes, and expanses of high-altitude wilderness within Shei-Pa National Park. At the same time, Taichung’s thoroughly modern core area, home to over half its 2.8 million residents, has more than…
For centuries, the Central Mountain Range that stretches nearly the length of Taiwan blocked the eastward progress of Han Chinese pioneers settling the western lowlands. As a result, the traditional cultures and lifestyles of the Austronesian indigenous people in the east remained largely intact until the 1895-1945 period of Japanese colonial rule. Some of the…
The story is one that people working in Taiwan’s tourism industry hear again and again. A visitor had stopped to look at a map, take photos, or adjust a bicycle chain when passers-by came over to offer assistance. The end of the story is always: “The people here are incredibly kind and friendly.” You don’t…
