David on Formosa

On 25 December this year Taipei County will be upgraded to a special municipality. The Chinese-language name of the new municipality will be Xīnběi Shì (新北市). About a month ago I sent an e-mail to Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei enquiring about the official English name of the new municipality but received no reply. A story [...]

On Saturday the Amis community of Sanying (三鶯部落) in Sanxia held its end of year celebration. The event attracted a crowd of about 500 people which was more than last year’s event. The community had also undergone a lot rebuilding after its demolition in February 2008. The afternoon began with dancing by members of Sanying [...]

The streets of Taipei came alive this afternoon with the vibrant, noisy and colorful Hope Parade (世界夢想嘉年華). The parade is an annual event organised by the Dream Community (夢想社區) in Xizhi (汐止), Taipei County. The parade began at Freedom Square before a short march through the streets to Ketagalan Boulevard. After arriving on the boulevard [...]

When I got off the train in Fulong (福隆) yesterday afternoon there was a bit of cloud cover and a sea breeze making the temperature a little more bearable than in Taipei. While many people come to Fulong to cool off at the beach I headed to the area in front of the Dongxing Temple [...]

The Taiwan Free Burma Network held a concert in Zhonghe last night to mark the birthday of Burmese democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The concert called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma. A Free Burma CD featuring music by Taiwanese artists was also released at [...]

Lonely Planet author Robert Kelly has written a great article about Taiwan’s tourism potential in the latest Taiwan Journal. He notes the increasing number of tourists to Taiwan, mainly from Asia. He also points out that niche tourism such as hiking and bird watching is attracting more visitors. Another interesting article, from Reuters correspondent Ralph [...]

Wuliao Jian (五尞尖) in Sanxia (三峽) has been on my list of hikes to do for quite a while now. Beautiful weather made today the day I finally did it. The hike goes along a spectacular ridge and it is not for the faint hearted. There are many sections that need to be climbed with [...]