A taste of Taiwan

Let me just start with a disclaimer. By no means do I intend to insult or patronize any geography or history buffs out there. I make no claim to be an expert on this stuff either. But based on the questions we get asked quite regularly, I thought it might be interesting to share a little about Taiwan with our friends and family so that whoever is curious can get a feel for where we're going in 16 days (wow-- it feels weird to write that!!).


Where in the World is this Place?

Taiwan is located off the southeastern coast of China. It's a small collection of islands about the size of Maryland (around 32,000- 36,000 sq. km). We will be traveling to the capital city, Taipei, which is located at the northern tip of the main island. I couldn't get the actual image to post so instead, here's a link to a map that you can zoom in and out on to get a good perspective of where Taiwan is and how big it isn't:

map

Is Taiwan the same thing as China? Or is it Thailand?

Well, yes, sort of on the first account and no on the second account. Taiwan bears no relation to Thailand at all. But the China thing is a little different. The way I think of it is that Taiwan is the rebellious teenager wanting to break free from mama China :) Taiwan is sort of like a province or state of China in a way. Officially, the People's Republic of China (R.O.C.) has declared that there is "one China" and Taiwan is part of it. Taiwan, on the other hand, has so much as told China to take a hike, they don't need or want to be ruled by the communists and would prefer to be their own country, thank you very much. Taiwan has a democratically-elected president and is a highly developed country (ok, well at least the capital, Taipei is-- don't know a whole lot about the rest of it). On a side note, I remember reading somewhere that Taipei is the most densely populated city on earth! That ought to be fun to navigate with a new baby in the middle of a holiday season! So anyway, there's a lot of political strife and bad blood between the two countries and has been for many years. Luckily, Taiwan is not in any kind of civil unrest or wartime situation at all. Actually, from everything I've read and heard, there's no reason to worry too much about the politics because in spite of all the tensions boiling beneath the surface of the two countries, it appears that Taiwan is a pretty safe place right now. There are no travel advisements against going there so we're not worried at all about our trip. Anyway, Taiwan is sort of its own country but sort of not. How will this affect us? Probably not much-- I'm not really sure. It's just kind of interesting to learn about. For more accurate and thorough history lesson, visit one of these websites or "Google" Taiwan and you should find some good information:

History of Taiwan

CIA World Fact Book

Taiwan Info