David on Formosa

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 [...]

The Bitan Music Festival was a series of free concerts held on the bank of the Xindian River in Bitan. The festival began on 10 January with performances every weekend. I only attended a few days of musical performances, but I saw some fantastic performances. Yerboli Ahmethan (葉爾波利) is a Kazakh musician from Xinjiang, China. [...]

Sanying Community (三鶯部落) held an “end of year protest party” at their village in Sanxia (三峽), Taipei County yesterday. The community located by the Dahan River is made up of Amis aborigines who settled there after coming to Taipei to seek work in the 1970s. In February 2008 the Sanying village was demolished after protestors [...]

Today ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) arrived in Taiwan via a flight from Beijing. Around 11 o’clock this morning I went to Zhongshan North Road near the Grand Hotel to observe and record some of the happenings. Police lined the road and prevented people from accessing the hotel grounds. Media and a handful of protestors [...]