Where are we?!?

The island of Taiwan

By Perrin

         People have sent emails and letters to us saying, “How is China?” “Are you having fun in Japan?” “ Thailand must be great!” so I am going to tell you where we really are. We are in Taiwan. Taiwan is an island off the southeastern coast of China. It is a little bit bigger than the state of Maryland but, unlike Maryland, Taiwan has lots of mountains. In fact, 70% of Taiwan is covered by mountains. If you were looking at if from above, Taiwan looks similar to a very fat banana, except wider, with its tips pointing north and south.  Taipei, the capital and the city we are living in, is in the north, in a geographic basin, long ago a lake. Mountains surround Taipei and continue down the middle of Taiwan and the east coast. The highest mountain in Taiwan is called Jade Mountain. At a height of 12,966 feet, it is famous for being the 4^th tallest mountain on an island anywhere in the world.

The west coast of Taiwan is where most of the farming takes place because it is relatively flat and has fertile soil, but you’d be surprised at how many people cultivate tiny parcels of land on the steep mountainsides as well. The southwest of Taiwan is where the swimming beaches are, including the southern most beach town of Kending.

The Pacific Ocean is on the east coast, whose beaches are not safe to swim in due to the immediate drop off of the ocean floor which causes huge waves and a big undertow. The west coast is home to the Taiwan straight. The west coast’s beaches are so beautiful it almost seems like you could be in Mexico,

Taiwan’s climate is slit into two parts by the tropic of cancer. In the north it is a subtropical monsoon climate and the south is a tropical monsoon climate. The tropic of cancer goes through Taiwan a little south of its center, so it never snows in Taiwan except for in the high mountains. The forests, with vines and roots hanging everywhere, have the feeling of a jungle. Also, hot springs are abundant in Taiwan because Taiwan is located in the intersection of two tectonic plates. Some examples are the Beitou hot springs north of Taipei, and the Lisong hot springs deep in the mountain forests of the southeast, near Taidong. The road and trails to this extremely remote hot spring were originally made by the Japanese when they were in control of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945. The Japanese played a big role in Taiwanese history by modernizing Taiwan as a whole. They added lots of mountain roads and trails to the most remote places in Taiwan and made transportation easier. Although the original reason for the roads being built was to allow the Japanese to control the aboriginal tribes, it ended up benefiting Taiwan’s development.

After the Japanese had been here for 50 years, they were forced to give it to China at the end of WWII.  Later, after Chiang Kai Shek and his Nationalist party had lost a civil war to Mao and the communists, the nationalists fled from China to Taiwan along with lots of precious ancient Chinese art that would have been destroyed by Mao and the communist party if it had not been brought to Taiwan.

Taiwan has had a long bloody history and has fascinating geography, so if you are interested I recommend reading more about it! Taiwan was also called Formosa by the Dutch which means beautiful island, and I agree with that name, because Taiwan is truly a beautiful and wonderful island.