Taiwan? Where?

Taiwan a beautiful Asian island situated on the Pacific Ocean - east of China, north of the Philippines, and south of Japan. During the late16th century, people named her Formosa - meaning beautiful. Though there are no written records, we often accredited the Portuguese for the name. Nonetheless, she really deserves this name.

photo taken by Gonçalo Cruz
Pic: Gonçalo Cruz

Taiwan was nominated for the friendliest country in the world. As someone who grew up on the island I might be biased, but from my own experience, most people are genuinely kind and loving. We are just ordinary people. We are no different from anybody else. We act just like most people. We do have flaws. Therefore, you may still see some people that might not fall into the category of friendly.

Mandarin is our common language. Our native languages are rather diverse. I, myself, speak both Mandarin and Taiwanese. English is taught in schools. We might not be fluent in English, but a lot of people understand English. If you can't speak Mandarin and have to use English, speaking slowly or writing it down would help a lot. We may try to summon all the English vocabulary we know to help you. Complete sentences or not it's the best that we can do.

I hope to share my version of Taiwan with you. From street food to scenery, history to language, I will try my best to conjure it. Hopefully, this will help when you come visit.

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