Insight Guides Taiwan (Travel Guide eBook)

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786717474
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Taiwan is a fascinating country to visit, with ruggedly beautiful scenery and a vibrant culture that preserves the best of ancient traditions, while passionately embracing the newest in high-tech modernity. This new edition of Insight Guide Taiwan is a comprehensive full-colour travel guide to "the beautiful island", where landscapes vary from dramatic mountains to white-sand beaches.

Inside Insight Guide Taiwan:
Lively features by a local writer cover a whole range of subjects: mountain trails and railways, soaking in hot springs, traditional markets, folk arts, tea culture and tribal peoples.
Stunning photography brings this intriguing country and its people to life.
Highlights of the country's top attractions, including Taipei 101 - formerly the world's tallest building, trying local snacks at a legendary night market and the fine collection of classical Chinese architecture
Descriptive region-by-region accounts cover the whole country from the vibrant capital Taipei to the wilds of Kenting National Park, dramatic Taroko Gorge and the remote Matsu Islands
Detailed, high-quality maps throughout will help you get around and travel tips give you all the essential information for planning a memorable trip.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

'Insight Guides has spawned many imitators but is still the best of its type.' - Wanderlust Magazine

A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information

A

Accommodations

Hotels

Luxury hotels in Taiwan are renowned for their attentive, gracious service rendered with a spirit of pride and a genuine desire to please. Visitors are treated as personal guests rather than anonymous patrons, and hospitality is approached more as an art than as an industry.

However, Western travelers will occasionally encounter frustrations. One reason is the language barrier. Although trained in English, many local hotel staff understand little, and may avoid losing face by pretending to understand.

Another reason is cultural: Taiwanese priorities often differ from Westerners’, and what seems of vital importance to you, such as punctuality, may seem trivial to the locals.

Tourist hotels in Taiwan are generally ranked into two categories: International Tourist and Regular Tourist hotels. The former will offer greater luxury and more varied facilities, while the latter provide more basic accommodations. Ranked below these are budget hotels, homestays, and guesthouses/hostels.

Hotels in Taipei are quite expensive. Singles or twin rooms will cost, in international tourist hotels, anything between NT$6,500 and $10,000. In Kaohsiung, the cost per room drops to between NT$4,500 and $6,500. Other quality places with some business, recreational, and dining facilities are considerably cheaper and you can expect to pay between NT$2,500 and $4,000 per night. Taiwan’s hotels accept all major credit cards.

Almost all International Tourist and Regular Tourist hotels offer significant room-rate reductions and other deals by booking via their websites. Room rates are reduced even further if an online reservation service is used:

Hotel chains

The country’s two largest chains are Howard Hotels (tel: [phone]; www.howard-hotels.com.tw) and Chinatrust Hotels (tel: [phone]; www.chinatrusthotel.com). These are not cookie-cutter chains – each high-quality facility has its own distinctive look and personality.

Homestays

Almost unheard of two decades ago, there has been a homestay explosion in the past decade. The term homestay is used rather than B & B because many do not provide breakfast, and if they do, it may not be a full hot meal, instead something simple and hearty like a pot of tea and simple local breakfast foods, such as steamed buns with meat fillings, etc. The category is wide open: you may be staying in rooms in someone’s house, or may be staying in a custom-built residence that might better be described as a small inn. There are few homestays in the cities; most are in the countryside in scenic locations. Official oversight is still not comprehensive; to assure quality, it is best to choose from among recommendations provided by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, which has published a guidebook listing 115 of the best options entitled Taiwan Homestay Accommodation for International Youth Travelers, and also has information online (www.welcome2taiwan.net). Prices run from NT$500 to $2,000 per person per night.

Youth hostels and guesthouses

The China Youth Corps (CYC) operates a series of youth activity centers and youth hostels. Reservations may be arranged online or by writing or calling CYC headquarters at 219 Songjiang Road, Taipei, tel: [phone]; limited English beyond website. Facilities may also be contacted directly. For an address list, go to the CYC website or contact tourism bureau offices overseas or in Taiwan.

Due to their popularity, groups and individuals from overseas should make reservations at CYC and other facilities well in advance. They are usually fully booked from July to September, and from January to February (holiday time for local students). If you haven’t booked, call ahead to make sure there is room. Rates vary, but on average three meals a day can be had for about NT$500. The average price is NT$1,000 to NT$1,500 per person a night. Most places have private rooms at higher rates, and some have large bungalows.

Other non-CYC guesthouses and hostels provide inexpensive accommodations, clean rooms with basic furnishings, shared shower facilities, and simple cooking facilities. Many are members of Hosteling International (www.yh.org.tw), and accommodate people of all ages.

Addresses

Taipei’s address system may at first appear a bit complicated, but once you get the knack of it you’ll find it is quite logical, and it negates the need to memorize countless names in this densely populated metropolis.

All addresses have a building number, alley or lane number, street name, and section. Here is an example: No. 15, Lane 25, Zhongxiao East Road, Section 3. The city is broken down into a grid, north-south Zhongshan Road and east-west Zhongxiao Road serving as axes. All city-stretching arteries are broken down into sections; for Zhongxiao East Road, Section 1 is that closest to Zhongshan Road, Section 2 further away, and so on. The pattern is repeated, headed west, for Zhongxiao West Road.

On each section building numbers start counting at ‘1’ closest to the grid axis. Thus, there can be a No. 1 Zhongxiao E. Rd, Sec. 1, a No. 1 Zhongxiao E. Rd, Sec. 2, and so on. Referring to our sample address again, the ‘lane’ in the address means you go to Sec. 3 of Zhongxiao East Road and find building No. 25; right beside that building will be a lane – Lane 25. Go down that lane and find building No. 15.

If you see something like ‘No. 15, Alley 6, Lane 25,’ go to Lane 25 and find building No. 6. Alley 6 will be beside that building. Then go down the alley to building No. 15. The key is that ‘lanes’ are bigger, leading off major arteries, and alleys lead off lanes. Once you get the hang of it you can quickly guess what area any address is in – much different from facing such addresses as No. 12896 Interminable Boulevard in other places.

This same system is used throughout the island. But since Taipei is the only place divided into a grid, you won’t see the ‘north/south/east/west’ designations used elsewhere.

Admission charges

Temples and shrines are free, and welcome visitors. Public museums are often free or have a nominal entrance fee, though larger facilities like the National Palace Museum will have fees over NT$100. More and more public museums are offering extended evening hours with free entry, almost always on Saturday, a few on Friday as well.

Privately run museums will usually have entrance fees of a few hundred NT$. National parks and scenic areas are either free or have a nominal entry fee, usually per vehicle, but may have entry fees for special designated areas; these will be nominal.

The Taipei EasyCard can now be used at the Taipei Zoo and a limited number of museums. This brings a discount of 10 percent. The range of such uses for the card is expanding, though extremely slowly.

The arts

The three English-language papers each carry weekend culture and entertainment supplements, which come out on Friday or Saturday. The bimonthly Travel in Taiwan and monthly This Month in Taiwan magazines have sections on the upcoming month’s cultural activities, arts and entertainment events. For the most part, tickets must be purchased from the venue staging an event; this can often be frustrating because of language problems, so it is always best to have a local friend handle the purchase, either by phone or by accompanying you in advance to the ticket office. Tickets to events at many major venues are available via ERA Ticket (www.ticket.com.tw), though again it is best to have a Chinese speaker help you navigate the system.

Classical music and dance

Taiwan has produced numerous world-class musicians. The National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra regularly perform western music at various venues in Taipei. The favorite venue for most Taipei-based expats is the National Concert Hall (www.ntch.edu.tw), on...