Taiwan Today

Asian tourism really didn't begin until the air age dawned at the end of World War II. Before that distances were too great, travel too slow, and costs too high. Accommodations were primitive. Politics was also a barrier. Asia was a region of colonies. Some of the colonizers didn't relish visitors poking their noses into areas where oppression and aggrandizement were in progress. Thus the Japanese discouraged Korean and Taiwan tourism in the first part of the 20th century.

Lumbering Boeing Clippers began to fly the Pacific in the late 1940s. Regional air services soon linked Tokyo to Taipei, Hongkong, and the cities of Southeast Asia. At first the seasonal rule was simple: See Japan and Korea in the spring and autumn, go southward only in the winter, and stay home in the summer. By the 1960s, tourism had reduced the seasons to a common denominator of "go when you can". Many people with school-age children now are traveling during the summer, which also is the principal season for adult vacations. Travelers are jetting all over Asia in every month of the year. Fears of Taiwan's subtropical heat, the summer humidity of Hongkong, and the scorching summer sun of Manila and Bangkok are ignored or dismissed with the observation that "it couldn't be worse than Washington in August". The prevailing attitude can be summed up as "it's better to have traveled and suffered a little than to have stayed comfortably at home and seen nothing."

Nevertheless, the summer traveler who is bothered by the heat will be wise to take precautions. Air-conditioned hotels are a must. In Taiwan they are to be found even in the smaller scenic communities of the hot and humid central and southern parts of the island. Lightweight clothing is essential. Synthetics should be shunned unless the cotton content is high. The traveler wearing apparel through which the air can't move will be toasted to a turn in the Taiwan of June through September. For those with sensitive skins a lotion or ointment to combat prickly heat and the like should be carried in every cosmetic bag and shaving kit. One of the first souvenirs acquired should be a small folding fan. Men use them in Asia, too, and they are lifesavers in an airport or a broiling bus or car. The old saw that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun contains more than a germ of sound counsel. Long walks are inadvisable during the hottest hours. Hats are recommended for short excursions. Attractive straws are so cheap they can be thrown away when the plane takes off for home.

Some places are better seen in summer, others in winter. On Taiwan, for example, the East-West Highway may be closed by snow in January or February. That happened this year. The northern part of the island is not specially suited to winter tourism. Taipei averages 16 days of rain in February. Two hundred miles south in the Tainan-Kaohsiung area, the average is only 5 days and the average daily temperature is a comfortable 74 degrees.

Cool Evenings

Summer tourism in Taiwan is not as uncomfortable as might be supposed. For one thing, Taipei and the rest of northern Taiwan are neither so hot nor so humid as many places in the United States. The afternoon temperature usually peaks at 93 to 95. Sometimes the mercury creeps up to 97 or 98 but almost never to 100. Convectional rainfall frequently breaks the heat in the afternoon. The downpour may be heavy, sometimes several inches in an hour, but few of these storms last long. Even if there is no rain, evenings are relatively cool — high 70s, at the worst, low 80s. Taipei cools off at night, unlike Hongkong, Manila, Bangkok, Singapore, and other cities to the south. Outdoor activities may be comfortably pursued in the morning and the evening. Afternoons can be spent in air-conditioned shopping or perhaps in a visit to the National Palace Museum, which has air-conditioning not only for comfort but also to protect the world's greatest collection of Chinese art treasures. Getting to the museum takes only 20 minutes.

Another afternoon possibility is a visit to Yangmingshan (Grass Mountain). This is really a hill, not a mountain, but the elevation is sufficient to reduce the temperature by five degrees or more. Shade can be found under the trees of an attractive park. For sea breezes, Yehliu and its fantastic sandstone formations is ideal and less than an hour from Taipei by bus or taxi. Beaches may be found in the same area, although they are not Taiwan's best.

Morning Excursions

Morning excursions may be reserved for Taipei's temples, historical and natural science museums, and for a visit to the aborigine community of Wulai, where a new cable-car ride eliminates the hike to see a waterfall. Evening is the time for many things — a look-see around the city, a visit to the hot springs of suburban Peitou, a walk through the several shopping centers, and most popular of all, for dining out. Leading restaurants are air-conditioned; even the spicy dishes of Szechwan and Hunan may be eaten without breaking into a sweat. It is also possible to mix succulent Chinese food and exotic entertainment at three theater restaurants and several hotel night clubs, all of them air-conditioned. Bars have mushroomed since American forces started coming from Vietnam for rest and relaxation. Several dance halls are air-conditioned.

One of Taiwan's most interesting and cooling summer tourist experiences is a trip up 7,500-foot Alishan in the Central Mountain Range. The island's mountains are the highest in the Far East, rising to 13,000 feet, and too rugged to be easily accessible. However, Alishan is easily reached by air-conditioned train to Chiayi in south-central Taiwan, and then by narrow-gauge diesel train into the heart of the mountains. The route of this mountain railroad unveils a fascinating panorama of flora ranging from the tropical through the subtropical and temperate and into the subarctic. The banana gives way to the bamboo and then to the fir and pine. Low temperatures are not the only attraction at the end of the line. A new lodge assures comfortable accommodations and good food and drink at modest prices. Of sight-seeing interest is the railroad itself. It was built for lumbering and not for tourism and is plied by old coal-burning steam locomotives as well as the diesels. Also to be seen are the unforgettable sunrise over Yushan (Mt. Morrison), highest peak in the Far East; a three-generation tree, a 3,000-year-old "sacred tree", and a museum. For an overnight stay and a look at down-island Taiwan, Alishan is a delightful destination.

Not so high nor so cool but closer to Taipei is 2,100-foot Sun-Moon Lake, three hours by bus from the north-central city of Taichung, itself worth visiting as Taiwan's third largest and possibly its cleanest and most charming city. Taichung is only three hours from Taipei by air-conditioned express train. Sun-Moon Lake has several excellent air-conditioned hotels, good food, and enough to see. Of interest to tourists are boat rides on the lake, an aborigine village with "King", "Queen", and "Princesses", and a secluded Buddhist temple high on a nearby hilltop. Sun-Moon Lake is a good place for romance, too. Among the Chinese, it is known as the Niagara Falls of Taiwan.

Scenic Taroko

The spectacular East-West Cross-Island Highway is ideally a fall or spring attraction rather than a specialty of summer. Part of it runs through the middle elevations of the Central Range where it is cool. But some parts of the trip will be hot. Cars and buses are not air-conditioned. Stopovers may be made at Lishan, the halfway point. At the least, the summer traveler can take a plane trip to picturesque Hualien on the east coast and spend half a day at Taroko Gorge, the eastern terminus of the East-West Highway. This is the most scenic part of the cross-island road. Sheer walls of granite and marble rise thousands of feet from the tumbling stream at the bottom of the canyon. The road itself tunnels through the rock or clings precariously to the edge of nothing. Taroko is not to be missed in any season. Hualien is the smallest of Taiwan's international ports and has the orchid-hibiscus flavor of the South Seas. Hotel air-conditioning permits an overnight stay or an hour or so to cool off after the ride back from Taroko.

For cooling sea breezes, one of the best places is Makung in the Penghu islands, better known outside China as the Pescadores. These are low-lying islets just off the south-central coast and squarely on the air route between Taipei and Hongkong. Daily air service now reaches Makung, which has a fine beach and new lodge. The Penghu are famous for wind and fish. There is even a windmill generator. A Makung trip can be combined with a stopover at Kaohsiung, the island's second largest city and biggest port, and a sidetrip to Tainan, the old capital and site of some of Taiwan's most interesting temples. Tainan was the seat of Dutch power during the 17th century and has two forts dating to that time. Although Kaohsiung and Tainan are both in the south, the air-conditioning of tourist facilities is so complete that only those who are highly allergic to heat need hesitate. It is possible to go out in the morning or the evening and save the afternoon for siesta. This part of Taiwan is really not hotter nor more humid than Hongkong. Latitude and geographical position are similar. Like Hongkong, Kaohsiung is on the water and summer nights can get pretty sticky.

Ice Skating, Too

Summer also brings typhoons. Some years Taiwan has none. In other seasons it may have half a dozen. These howlers from the South China Sea affect the traveler occasionally in delayed plane schedules but otherwise need not cause concern. Hotels are typhoon-proof. The only inconvenience is staying inside a few hours while the storm blows its way toward Japan or the China mainland. In recent years, the Philippines and Hongkong seem to have been afflicted by typhoons more often than Taiwan. These fickle "hurricanes of Asia" are rightly given feminine names; you never know where they are going.

For the 1967 tourist season, Taiwan has one other place to keep cool. Just outside Taipei, an ice skating rink has just opened in conjunction with a bowling establishment. Now the island can offer winter sports (ski funs are open in the high mountains in January and February) in summer as well as winter. The island that the Portuguese called Formosa — or "beautiful" — is worth seeing in any season. The long hot summers are fast being made bearable by air-conditioning and a variety of attractions that do not take the traveler out in the noonday sun. No one who visits Asia in the summer of 1967 should overlook Taiwan, the subtropical island that knows how to keep its cool.