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Taiwan certainly has plenty to offer, from truly unique scenery to exciting sporting activities and colourful festivals, not to mention the most varied Chinese food on earth; Taipei is a gourmet’s paradise, boasting cuisine from every region of China. Boutique hotels and trendy bars have sprung up in a flurry of construction,
which culminated in the opening of the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101.
Think of Taiwan and the first thing that will spring to mind is probably the ‘Made in Taiwan’ labels attached to so many clothes
purchased in the Western world, which will have no doubt contributed to the perception of Taiwan as some industrial landscape
defined by hundreds of factories and warehouses, and precious little else to offer visitors. Taiwan might have been known
as one of the ‘tiger’ economies of Asia, but few people, until recently at least, thought of this small island off the southeast
coast of China as a tourist destination.
Taiwan is relatively small (only a little over half of Sri Lanka’s size), but its population numbers almost 23 million, making
its population density second only to Bangladesh. A gateway to the massive Chinese market, it has a strong relationship with
the West and is keen to increase links with Europe.
Formerly called Formosa (Portuguese for beautiful), Taiwan was originally inhabited by mainland Chinese until the 17th century, before being occupied by the Dutch and Spanish
for a while. It then fell under Chinese rule again for a couple of centuries, before being occupied by the Japanese from 1895
until the end of WWII.
The Chinese Civil War, which had already been in progress for some years, came to a head in 1948. The nationalist forces of
Chiang Kai-Shek were defeated by Mao’s Communists, and the nationalist leadership, along with thousands of supporters, fled
to Taiwan. Here, their political vehicle, the Kuo Min-Tang (KMT) rapidly came to dominate Taiwanese politics. The KMT was spectacularly successful at developing the economy and, in less
than a century, Taiwan made a successful transition from an agricultural-based economy to an industrial one. In March 2000,
however, the main opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), gained control of the presidency through its candidate
Chen Shui-Bian, and for the first time, the KMT was completely excluded from political power.
For all practical purposes, Taiwan has been independent for half a century, but the fledgling democracy is still regarded
by China as a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland. The political issue of its relationship with China
remains a sticking point in international relations, with both sides prone to exchanging rhetoric and political point-scoring
on a regular basis. More than 700 Chinese missiles are aimed at the island but the military threat is partly offset by the
pivotal relationship between Taipei and Washington (the US, which has no diplomatic ties with Taiwan, is nevertheless the
main provider of arms to the island - one of the world’s big arms purchasers).
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Overview 
