Just before landing at Kaohsiung International Airport

An island of intrigue a little way off the coast of China. It is part of China yet it is not! America says they support Taiwan but then don't recognise it as a country although they do sell them a rather large number of expensive and high tech weapons! America and most of the rest of the world recognise China leaving only a handful of countries that like the monetary gifts given to them by the Taiwanese Government (some call it donation) to support the cause!

With her ideal seasons, mild winters and hot summers, the place is ideal for tourism, a mountainous island filled with history from Dutch to Japanese influence! But somehow the hotels that resemble brothels, the lack of English street signs and taxi drivers who chew betel nut turn away the masses and so Taiwanese life remains an unknown entity to the outside world.

Foreigners are welcome though, many of these teach English to harassed children during evening times. Incongruously, if South African teachers carry on pouring into the country as fast as they are at present the nation will resemble a superb of Cape Town, with the majority of Taiwanese speaking an accent that is as far removed from the Queens English as an Englishman to a Scot!

Taiwan has so much to offer the outside world, not the cheap toys and easily broken tools that she was so infamous for but a culture that is deep rooted and open! The food, the drinks the night life and the friendliness all lost to the tourist as nobody knows it exists!