Visitor Finds Taiwan Steeped in Natural Beauty

Send a letter to Taiwan these days, and half the time it gets delivered to Thailand by mistake. Some Americans seem to have forgotten the island Taiwan, Republic of China--at least since discovering the large mainland, the People’s Republic of China.

Yet travelers would do well to remember this island, not just because it impresses us as a noble and spunky bastion of hardy spirit and free enterprise, but because it also happens to be quite beautiful. The Dutch, after all, did name the place “Ilha Formosa,” which means “beautiful island.”

(Also, in a time when Americans are not exactly received with enthusiasm in many popular ports of the world, the people of Taiwan greet visitors with warmth--or at worst, benign curiosity.)

There is indeed an abundance of lovely spectacles to see in this place roughly half the size of California.

Three stops on the island are of particular charm: Cheng Ching Lake in the south, Kenting Tropical Forest Park at the southernmost tip and the newly opened Sun-Link-Sea, high in the verdant and lush mountains of central Taiwan.

The lyrical beauty of Cheng Ching Lake is, remarkably enough, in Taiwan’s second largest city (and largest port), Kaoshiung. With its busy harbor crawling with old junks, Kaoshiung (say gow-shyung ) is well worth a visit if, for no other reason, to see Department Store Row.

Shopping Paradise

There, right in the downtown of this usually sunny place is a series of remarkable edifices. Perhaps the most remarkable among them is the President Co. Department Store, nine floors of shopping paradise.

Each floor is like one large Fedco or May Co. on a busy day, except for the ninth, which is reserved for a chaotic landscape of international food stands. Not to leave any space unused, the owners also planted an amusement park on the roof.

Just a few miles away from that frenzy is one of the more pastoral settings on the island, Cheng Ching Lake Park. Meaning clear, bright lake, the park surrounds a reservoir used for the industrial needs of Kaoshiung.

Adjoined by an 18-hole golf course and splendid hotel (that looks more like a palace), the lake and park cover about 500 acres of carefully plotted landscaping that is an artistic achievement.

Pavilions dot the grounds, each named for a different muse. There are lovers’ bridges, avenues of orchids, the proud (and recently restored) Chung Hsiung Pagoda, the nine-corners zigzag bridge, picnic grounds, campsites, bungalow retreats, a freshwater aquarium. Once inside, it is hard to imagine this little swath of retreat is so city-close.

Off Beaten Path

Kenting Tropical Forest Park, about 80 miles south, presents a much greater dose of retreat, perhaps the most available in all Taiwan. It is, for one thing, off the beaten path, away from the line of commerce linking the principal cities to the north. It comprises the southernmost peninsula of the island nation. From the five-story observation tower in the middle of the park one can look upon the tip, the Pacific to the east, Taiwan Strait to the west.

Resting on a bed of coral rock, Kenting is a thick, lush subtropical forest (Taiwan is split by the Tropic of Cancer) bordered on the west by compact white-sand beaches and on the east by a rocky coast often beset by dramatic breakers.

Near the tip is scenic Oluanpi lighthouse and the overgrown, broken battlements of wartime observation bunkers.

Reached in a three-hour bus ride from Kaoshiung (Golden Horse Lines) through sweeping farms of mango, coconut and sugar cane, Kenting (roughly pronounced kuhn-ding ) offers miles of tranquil walks through rich, vine-laden forests of innumerable flowers, trees and fruits (most identified by both Chinese and Latin names).

It is a natural arboretum, a feast for botanist, lepidopterist, ornithologist and philosopher.

Private Strolling

Dropping in during the off-season (winter, and yes, the sun is shining) will afford privacy bordering on loneliness. If you seek solitude in a not-so-well visited locale, with plenty of time to wander forest paths, over rock coastlines of empty beaches, inside once-underwater coral caves fit to have inspired many a fable, this is a good stop to make.

(Try, however, to avoid the New Year’s season, else you are apt to find the place choked with students on holiday walking safaris.)

If, however, you are not in a hiking frame of mind, if you have brought some of the pace of Kaoshiung with you, slip a cab driver about $15 and enjoy a three-hour tour with stops at all major points of interest (including a seaside tourist trap where you will be invited to inspect a fossilized rock that “grows hair on it.”)

Stops include the lighthouse, Monkey Head Rock Beach and the rocky Pacific coastline, where you might want to buy a couple of tea-eggs or dried fish for lunch, and a sea snail shell for a souvenir.

(A warning: The only drawback to this driving tour is the probability of putting up with the cabbie’s taste in corny, Westernized Chinese pop-rock, usually at healthy volume, but even that can be an absurd sort of diversion, depending on the mood.)

Rustic Rooms

Several fine, unassuming inns and motels are scattered about Kenting, not including the somewhat lavish Pintung Hsieh Hotel near Taiwan Strait, but Kenting House is the place to land. With its rustic wood-paneled rooms and quiet sunset-view balconies (plus enormous dining room and quiet bars), it bears the high-priced tag (by Taiwan standards) of about $25 a night.

Embraced by jungle, Kenting House sits up about a mile from the ocean, offering a vista of blue-green Taiwan Strait, emerald green vegetations and a decaying old volcanic peak or two. Clear nights are magic, the sky as detailed as a planetarium’s. Wet nights are equally magic, the rain turning the jungle to subtle music. The entrance to the park is just a 15-minute walk away.

Quite the opposite geographical environment is amply available at Sun-Link-Sea, a new mountain resort in central Taiwan whose name has nothing to do with the sun setting in the ocean, despite the park’s insignia. It approximates the sound of the Chinese name for the area.

Three hours by train north of Kaoshiung, it is about one hour past the delicate and rather ethereal bamboo forests of popular Chi-tou, an absolutely magnificent national forest preserve (and notorious butterfly hangout), about a two-hour bus ride from the delicate and rather ethereal bakeries of Taichung.

Peace, Quiet, Beauty

There, assuming your wits survive a high-speed bus trip along narrow, curving mountain roads (sheer drop to one side) you can find peace. About as pure as it gets. Quiet. About as pure as it gets. And beauty. Defined.

Park yourself in one of the small knotty-wood cabins (about $25 a night) next to the river or in more modern lodgings nearby, and breathe deeply. Breathing deeply is officially recommended at this oxygen-rich resort.

Hiking? For days. And plenty of camping. One can get placidly “lost” on well-marked trails that wind the wayfarer through eerie Hansel and Gretel forests, under the sturdy architecture of several spectacular rocky waterfalls, and over the crests of some of Taiwan’s highest peaks, literally above the clouds.

Again, lovers of birds, butterflies and simple musing will delight at the array of brightly colored flying creatures.

House Specialty

More pensive pursuits? Row a little boat leisurely upriver, if you choose, or sip Shaoshiung rice wine in the cheery lodge restaurant (famous for fresh steamed chicken and wonderful mountain greens).

Too formal? Wander off into the darkness for a mile or so to an overgrown lean-to and ask “mom” for the house specialty. In the dark, surrounded by the night woods, the old lady will whip up fresh-plucked vegetables and pleasing soups, and you may munch in solitude.

With luck you might reach Sun-Link-Sea during a student outing. You might have the good fortune to witness a spirited watercolor competition, where kids of all ages paint excellent portraits of the gentle woods and arching mountains of Taiwan (painting, like math or literature, is a required educational discipline).

And with a little more luck, you might not want to leave.