In Taiwan, Finding Chinese Culture without China's Hassles

TAIPEI, Taiwan — For most travelers looking for Chinese culture, Taiwan is literally off the map.

Because of political bickering between Taipei and Beijing, which has claimed control of the independent island since the end of China's civil war in 1949, getting there from the mainland requires flying to another country.

But with China's rich cultural traditions and a vibrant democracy, free press and safe, clean and easy-to-use infrastructure, the island-state of 23 million shouldn't be relegated as a footnote to the much bigger (and harder to navigate) mainland.

For Americans heading to Southeast Asia, Taiwan is a worthwhile destination on its own: Direct flights arrive daily from San Francisco and Los Angeles and leave for most popular Asian tourist destinations including Bali, Singapore and Thailand.

I was continually reminded of Taiwan's charms as I toured Taipei, Taiwan's capital city, over a recent weekend.

Mostly, I could not believe I hadn't visited earlier. As a former Peace Corps volunteer and now as a journalist, I have lived in China for seven years, but a business trip in May was my first visit to Taiwan. I set aside three days to explore Taipei and to take the island's new bullet train to cities on its southern coast.

Partly, I wanted to explore the "other" China. China and Taiwan split when Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist government and army fled the mainland ahead of Mao Zedong's Communist army. During the Cold War, the United States helped the Nationalist government modernize, and by the mid-1980s, Taiwan was known as one of East Asia's tigers because of its surging economy.

Today, Taipei boasts the world's tallest building (the 1,666-foot-tall Taipei 101), largest museum collection of Chinese antiquities, and a bustling street life that for travelers familiar with the mainland is both immediately familiar and invigoratingly different.

For the first part of my tour, I was guided by Yuh-Ren Lin-Liu, a Taiwanese-American physicist who has spent the last few years teaching at a university near Taipei. (He is also my girlfriend's father.) On a cloudy Saturday morning we started our tour at the World Soymilk King, one of his favorite restaurants.

Nestled between convenience stores and coffee shops on a busy downtown street, the eatery at first appeared mundane — kids tottered around plastic tables and chairs, people read newspapers, couples talked quietly.

But like much of my experience in Taiwan, the restaurant had elements unique to the island: As the dishes arrived, Lin-Liu explained that because Chinese gathered in Taiwan from every Chinese province, the island's food is an assimilation of Chinese culinary traditions. While most restaurants in China serve a single region's cooking, in Taiwan many serve a selection of China's best dishes.

We began by dipping long sticks of fried bread (a popular dish in western China) into bowls of steaming sweet soy milk.

Later we gorged on Shanghai steamed dumplings as good as any I've had in their namesake city, and topped them off with delicious fried radish cakes popular in southern China.

Taiwan's tourist sites are a similar mix of tradition and modernity. After breakfast, we began a whirlwind tour of Taipei's top attractions.

First was a trip to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, an imposing purple-and-white monument reminiscent of Beijing's imperial architecture.

But on the day we arrived, the government — now controlled by the Democratic Progressive Party, the Nationalist Party's most powerful rival — planned to rename the monument the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, a clear swipe at the Nationalists' founding father. Dozens of political activists had gathered at the square to shout slogans.

Some travelers might have been bothered by the delay, but having lived under mainland China's tight social controls, the shouting matches were refreshing. Later, we wandered through the nearby 2/28 Peace Park, where a small museum memorializes victims of a 1947 crackdown by Nationalist soldiers, the kind of historical reckoning so far prohibited by Beijing.

By mid-afternoon, I wanted to see China's older cultural legacy and we caught a taxi (unlike in most Chinese cities, traffic flows smoothly in Taipei) to the National Palace Museum, the world's largest and arguably best collection of Chinese antiquities. When the Nationalist government fled Beijing and then China, curators shipped 720,000 items to Taiwan. The museum houses an intoxicating display of pottery, sculpture and jewelry unmatched in mainland China.

For me, the intricacy of the work was most impressive, and I spent several minutes entranced by a 600-year-old ink stone carved into an image of a courtyard home. In today's world of mass production, the careful details —individual leaves on a tree, fish in a tiny pond — reminds visitors of a time when individual craftsmanship was highly valued.

Tired after the museum, we visited Lungshan Temple, a colorful Buddhist shrine that offered a perfect counterbalance to the cloistered quiet of the National Palace Museum: Huge crowds burned incense and left fruit and cookies to placate the deities and win their blessings.

Most of the devout seemed to be in their late teens and I wondered what religious revival was sweeping the island until Lin-Liu explained that droves of high-school students visit each spring to seek luck on their college entrance exams.

The next day we explored more of Taiwan's unique intersection of modernity and tradition. After a quick visit to Taipei 101 (a viewing deck on the 91st floor offers a dizzying perspective), we stopped at the upscale Canton Palace restaurant for an excellent lunch of dim sum — literally, "small snacks" — outstanding even by Hong Kong standards and a bargain at $13 for an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Later, we toured the Danshui section of the city, a Coney Island-esque strip of shops and food stalls and with several interesting forts built by Dutch and British colonialists.

The tour had given me a good sense of Taipei, but I wanted to see more of the island and to try a new high-speed train service along the length of the west coast. I booked a return ticket from Taipei with one night in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second-largest city.

As the train pulled out of the station, it picked up speed and soon was zipping through rice paddies scattered with towering stands of bamboo. The train — which was opened in January and cost $15 billion, or $650 for every Taiwanese citizen — is capable of traveling at 185 miles per hour and can make the 215-mile trip to Kaohsiung in a 90-minute blur of countryside, villages and small cities.

I hopped off the train at Tainan, just north of Kaohsiung. The city was Taiwan's capital from 1663 to 1885.

I took my guidebook's advice and simply wandered through the city. As I walked, I came across dozens of shrines and temples (one guidebook counts more than 200 of them) and stopped to snack at ubiquitous food stalls.

On Yanping Tourist Street, marked on maps available at tourist sites, I feasted on local specialties including Chou's shrimp rolls — large, spicy breaded shrimp selling for about 50 cents each — at the Anping Guiji Restaurant.

As I ate, I talked with a Taiwanese-American woman also visiting the city.

"The best thing about Taiwanese food is that it's very humble," she said. "It's just good, honest food, cooked simply."

Later that day, I took a taxi for the 40-minute ride to Kaohsiung. I wandered through a night market and along streets at once comfortably familiar and unique. How unique? Beware the stands selling stinky tofu, a local delicacy that smells like unwashed athletic socks but tastes, I was told, like a blue-cheese version of tofu.

I thought about the woman's words about humble food.

As the oft-neglected cousin to mainland China, Taiwan may be overshadowed, but it remains a great place to visit: accessible, friendly, clean and full of China's rich cultural heritage.

IF YOU GO

Taipei

Two days is enough time to see most of Taipei's main attractions, but visitors can easily spend several more days. Hualien and the Taroko Gorge, two hours from the city by car or train, offer a relaxing excursion.

For a simple but excellent breakfast, try the World Soymilk King (284 Yonghe Road, Second Section, +886-2-8927-0000) or the dim sum buffet at Canton Palace in the Sunworld Dynasty Hotel (100 Dun Hua North Road, +886-2-2715-2277).

The central, five-star Sherwood Hotel (www.sherwood.com.tw, +886-2-2718-1188) offers excellent rooms, including breakfast and fastidious service, starting at $225 a night for double occupancy. Discounts may be available for longer stays.

Most hotels can book high-speed train tickets. Tickets can also be purchased at the Taipei Train Station or by calling +886-2-6626-8000 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily. (Taiwan is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time).

Tainan and Kaohsiung

In Tainan, wandering is the best option. Several small food stands outside the gate of Chikan Tower, an interesting fort built by Dutch and Chinese colonialists, offer good, cheap meals.

Taxis between Tainan and Kaohsiung charge about $30 for the 45-minute ride.

The Grand Hi-Lai Hotel, one of the best hotels in Kaohsiung, offers spacious doubles for about $150. In the evening, visit the Liu He Night Market for a sampling of local foods and culture.