A few years ago I found myself eating faeces-shaped ice cream from the u-bend of a miniature loo. A trip to Modern Toilet restaurant, one of five such culinary paeans to the bathroom in Taiwan, was the surreal highlight of a trip that covered all of the East Asian bases.
I ate featherlight dumplings at atmospheric night markets; I poked about gilded Buddhist temples that were thick with the aroma of sandalwood incense; I enjoyed oolong ceremonies in 16th century teahouses where I could almost hear the bustle of Ming dynasty merchants; and I trekked through the eye wateringly sublime Taiwanese interior. Here, marble gorges plunge into blue-green rivers, and fissures in the earth’s crust bubble with the waters that supply Taiwan’s 130 hot springs (ideal for soothing trekkers’ muscles, once you get a grip on hot-spring etiquette).
Taiwan was the rising star of Asian travel as the pandemic struck, with inbound passengers doubling to 46 million
On that first trip, I came to see Taiwan as a more accessible alternative to China, with all of the Han cultural treasures (literally, as the Chinese palace jewels have been housed in Taipei since the retreat of the then government from Mao’s revolutionary forces in 1949), and lower levels of air and water pollution than its dominating near-neighbour. Taiwan also has an impressive track record on safety and crime, making it one of the world’s safest destinations for lone female travellers.
For these reasons, and thanks to a rapid increase in flight connectedness in the late 2000s, Taiwan was the rising star of Asian travel as the pandemic struck, with inbound passengers doubling to 46 million in the decade to 2018. Cruise companies also had this island nation in the South China Sea in their sights, with the 2019 launch of a new mega category cruise ship port at Kaohsiung, to the island’s southeast. Princess, Celebrity, Azamara and Royal Caribbean cruise lines all added Taiwan stop-offs on popular Tokyo to Hong Kong itineraries.
During these long pandemic years, however, Taiwan has been one of the more cautious nations when it comes to the easing of border rules. At the time of writing, Taiwan remains closed to foreigners except for emergency or humanitarian reasons, with these arrivals being required to undertake a 14-day quarantine and capped at 4,000 people per week.
A beach in Taiwan’s Penghu islands
(Getty Images/iStockphoto)
While I understand the trepidation, selfishly, I’ve been pining for a return…
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