A United Airlines flight turned back to San Francisco International Airport because a passenger was said to be disruptive.
21.07.2023 - 07:59 / roughguides.com
Taiwan, the place the Portuguese once called the “beautiful island”, has long been Asia’s forgotten country. And yet it is home to a trove of national parks, historic cities and far-flung islands. Mike MacEacheran travels cross-country to find out what we’re missing out on.
In the great Buddhist monastery of Fo Guang Shan in the tropical hills outside Kaohsiung, where Dutch colonisers once mixed with Chinese immigrants, I meet one of Taiwan’s great masters of calligraphy.
She wears the light brown robes of her faith and sits in contemplation at an aged desk. I have to call her The Venerable Yijih Shih and amid the forbidding temples and pagodas, the magic kingdom of gold statues, the silent retreats and teahouses, she is a quiet, committed presence.
“A drop of ink has a lifespan and understanding this is key to calligraphy,” she says, offering a few sage words of advice. She repositions her metal-rimmed, circular spectacles before pressing pen to paper.
“Relax, breathe in and feel at one with each stroke and the paper. Calligraphy is connected to mindfulness: it’s part of a larger commitment to the Buddhist faith. You know, people once wrote using their own blood.”
Taipei
My first introduction to lesser-known Taiwan, in the country’s southwest, some 360km from the more familiar Taipei, is an eye-opener. An antidote to the uber high-tech capital, life in the Fo Guang Shan monastery is pure, slow-paced and more considered.
The sprawling complex – one of the largest on Earth – is an elaborate temple to things that are not there; empty, yet richer in so many ways. Few places offer such a stark contradiction to all that we think we know about Taiwan.
A relatively uncovered destination for British travellers, Taiwan, or the Republic of China as it’s officially known, is on the up. Tourists from the UK have been steadily increasing year on year since 2013, and last year the number peaked at 60,000.
Taiwan is knitted together by a spine of one hundred jungle-tangled peaks.
Most are interested in a Taipei transit before heading elsewhere, but there’s now a strengthening argument they should loiter in the country for longer.
There are nine national parks (more than in either England or Ireland), and the country is knitted together by a spine of one hundred jungle-tangled peaks.
More surprises – and further evidence of Taiwan’s understated appeal – can be found down the coast in Kenting National Park. Located at the extreme southern tip of the country, the Hengchun Peninsula is made up of clifftop rises, sieved-sand beaches and geologically anomalous mountains, all a habitat for endemic butterflies, birds, macaques and reptiles.
To the east is the Pacific Ocean, to the south is the Bashi Channel, and to the west is the
A United Airlines flight turned back to San Francisco International Airport because a passenger was said to be disruptive.
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