1406st travel talk

CITY LIVING

TRAVEL TALK

Driftwood art sculptures at Pisiliang Village

A Cultural Journey Around Taiwan Nyima Pratten

Snack stand at Ningxia Road Night Market

Taiwan, only a brief two-hour, direct flight from Shanghai, yet a world away from Mainland China. This compact island offers something for everyone. Within an hour’s journey by car, rail or flight from Taipei, you can leave the city and be walking along a pristine beach, hiking in the mountains, cycling through rice paddy fields or experiencing the life of indigenous tribes. This is a country rich in unspoilt land, natural beauty and most importantly, history. Talk travelled to Taipei and the East Coast of Taiwan, to experience cultural tourism at its best.

W

e did not have long to spend in Taipei, and we needed to make sure that we did it right. First we visited Zhongshan District, an area comprised of small lanes and alleyways, dotted with speciality cafes, fashionable boutiques from Taiwanese artisans and fledgling designers to more beautiful, young and energetic people than you could shake a stick at. The buzz in this arty district is electric and you can feel the excitement

radiate from the storefronts. We called in on The Lovely Taiwan Shop. Part of The Lovely Taiwan Foundation, their mission is to keep the native culture of Taiwan alive by providing a long term, stable sales platform for tribal workers to sell their wares. Profits from the sales go directly to help the indigenous communities. It is an ideal place to pick up trinkets and souvenirs whilst doing something good for the indigenous, less economically well off workers. It is great to see the country proudly championing its View from the Luanshan Forest Museum

Ancient white banyan tree in Luanshan Forest

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ethnic minorities and understanding the importance of their patchwork population of unique cultural identities.

and art space. Take in an independent art house movie or simply go for a coffee in the gardens of the majestic house.

The Zhongshan area is full of old historical buildings, which within the last decade have been repurposed to meet the needs of the local area. Thus, you can now find a stately building that was formally the residence of the US Ambassador to the Republic of China (before relations were cut) repurposed as SPOT Taipei Film House, a dedicated film

No visit to Taipei is complete without checking out the infamous night markets.

We headed over to the Ningxia Road Night Market, chock-a-block with snack stands offering every type of sweet dish, savoury dish or internal organ under the sun.

Crowds of people slowly amble down the narrow pathway between two long lines of food carts on either side. The bright lights and activity on the road is exhilarating and you will come away with snacks galore, even if you have already had dinner. We suggest the classic Taiwanese oyster omelette to ease you gently into the nose to tail eating philosophy of the country.

From Taipei, we took a 50-minute flight to Taitung. The East Coast of Taiwan is in stark contrast to the industrialised West Coast and offers a beautiful backdrop for ecotourism.

Hualien and Taitung counties (also know as the Huadong region) offer an abundance of indigenous-cultural experiences. This is because members of seven of Taiwan’s 14 officially recognised tribes (the true number is always up for discussion and is believed to be a lot larger) can be found in the two counties. These are the Amis (Ami),

View of the beach from an East Coast guesthouse

Traditional Bunun food at Luanshan Forest Museum

Bunun, Puyuma, Kavalan (Kamalan), Truku (Taroko), Paiwan and Rukai. The Yami also inhabit Taitung County, but are concentrated offshore on Orchid Island (Lanyu).

Sustainable tourism is advocated here with a heavy importance being placed on guesthouse hopping in the area rather than letting larger hotel brands, which do not help the local community or environment, move in. Local government and tourism associations encourage residents to turn large neglected buildings, which have become redundant due to the declining countryside population, into guesthouses.

This move has created a wealth of cute, artsy and homely boutique guesthouses cropping up along the East Coast. This is one of the many benefits of the focus being put on cultural and sustainable tourism in the area.

A busy street in Taipei

Upon arrival, we headed straight for Luanshan Forest Museum, situated in the mountains of Yanping Township. Contrary to how it may sound (a stuffy, backwater, out-dated museum), Luanshan Forest Museum is a nature park that aims to recreate the traditional living quarters of the indigenous Bunun tribe, complete with thatched cottages and bamboo beds. There are no buildings made of modern concrete or steel. Bunun tribal elder, one-time local news reporter and larger than life character, Aliman, saved this indigenous land from developers by borrowing NT$ 10,000,000 from the bank to buy the land on behalf of

the Bunun people. A large sum of money for the indigenous people, but he believed that he had to save the land in order to save their tribal identity for future generations. The project has never relied on subsidies from the government. Instead Aliman insists on doing it himself, with the help of the local community, thereby directly helping the Bunun people. As the money starts to come in from the project, Aliman believes that the Bunun people will be able to stand on their own two feet.

The visit to the museum begins with a ceremony to ask the mountain spirits for their blessing. There are no directional signs, concrete walkways or any indication of an exit from or entrance to the forest; the Bunun tour guides want to take their guests around personally. You will also not find any promotional materials or website for the museum as the Bunun tribe do not go out of their way to advertise; they want to stay a sustainable tourism destination and rely mainly on word of mouth to get prearranged bookings.

The hike around the forest is an experience in itself. Make sure you bring proper walking shoes as you climb over the twisted roots of ancient trees, scale rock faces and crawl through caves. If you make it back in one piece to the campsite, there is a traditional Bunun spread of food laid out on the long communal table consisting

of vegetables grown in the local area and wild boar. Luckily, in this tribe, men do the serving whilst the women sit back and look pretty. No really… That’s a thing. This visit costs NT$ 600 per person (NT$ 400p/p without food).

Next on our travel agenda was a trip to Chishang Township, located in the East Rift Valley, which is best known for producing high quality rice. Unfortunately, during our visit, heavy clouds hung over the mountains in the distance before making a surprise attack on the lush green plains of rice shoots that stretched out as far as the eye could see. It is possible to rent a bike here and take in the wonderful environment. Or why not hook yourself onto an ingenious contraption, which consists of a golf buggy pulling along 20 other “cyclist” like little ducks in a row behind it (see photo). The Taiwanese people are creative and extremely resourceful, that’s for sure. The rice from this area of Taiwan is said to be some of the tastiest due to an independent water source from Wanan village and the hot springs from the nearby mountain filtering down minerals into the soil. The high elevation of the region also means that there are less pests, therefore less pesticides are needed during the farming process. In this countryside town, there had been a gradual brain drain, with young people heading for the city to look for work opportunities.

However, recently there has been a bit of

"Cycling" in Chishang Township Rice paddy field in Chishang

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