Taiwan

Taiwan's original inhabitants are Austronesian peoples, and the island is thought to be the homeland from which Austronesian languages spread across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Large-scale Han Chinese settlement began in the seventeenth century, when the Dutch ran a trading colony in the south and were then expelled by the Ming loyalist Koxinga; the Qing dynasty annexed the island in 1683 and governed its western plains while Indigenous peoples held the mountains.

In 1895 Qing China ceded Taiwan to Japan, which ruled it for fifty years, building railways, schools, and industry while suppressing dissent. Japan's defeat in 1945 handed Taiwan to the Republic of China. Resentment of the incoming Nationalist (Kuomintang) administration exploded in the 228 Incident of 1947, violently crushed, and in 1949 the Nationalist government and around two million supporters retreated to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War to the Communists, who founded the People's Republic on the mainland.

Chiang Kai-shek's government ruled Taiwan under martial law until 1987 — the long "White Terror" — while the "Taiwan Miracle" turned the island into an export economy. Democratisation followed rapidly: the first direct presidential election was in 1996, and power has since alternated between the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party. Beijing continues to claim Taiwan and has never renounced the use of force; most countries, following a "One China" policy, maintain unofficial ties with Taipei rather than formal recognition.

Taiwanese culture is rooted in southern Chinese (Hokkien and Hakka) traditions, layered with fifty years of Japanese influence, the mainland heritage brought in 1949, and a growing emphasis on a distinct Taiwanese and Indigenous identity. Folk religion is everywhere — thousands of temples to Mazu (goddess of the sea), Guan Gong, and local deities, with processions, spirit mediums, and burning of paper offerings — alongside Buddhism, Daoism, and Christian minorities.

The society is generally seen as friendly, orderly, and helpful to visitors, with a strong civic culture (reflected in effective disaster response and, famously, recycling and rubbish-truck routines). Family obligation, respect for elders, and education remain important, and Ghost Month in late summer brings widespread observances.

Sixteen officially recognised Indigenous peoples, about two per cent of the population, maintain their own languages, festivals, weaving, and music, particularly in the eastern and mountain regions.

About 23 million people live on Taiwan, most on the flat, developed western plain, with Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung the main cities and the mountainous east far less populated. It is a wealthy, highly educated society with universal health insurance, dense public transport, and near-total connectivity.

The economy is dominated by technology manufacturing, above all semiconductors — TSMC alone makes a large share of the world's most advanced chips, giving Taiwan outsized global importance. Long working hours, a very low birth rate, and high housing costs in Taipei are pressing concerns, as is the constant background of cross-strait tension and Chinese military pressure.

Everyday life mixes the high-tech and the traditional: temple visits and convenience stores on the same block, scooters swarming past night markets, and mountains and beaches within easy reach of the cities.

Taiwan is one of Asia's great eating destinations, and the night market is its stage: beef noodle soup (a candidate for national dish), gua bao (pork-belly buns), oyster omelette, stinky tofu, braised pork rice (lu rou fan), pepper buns, scallion pancakes, and shaved-ice mountains topped with fruit and syrup. Bubble tea (boba) was invented in Taichung in the 1980s.

Regional and heritage strands run deep: Hakka stir-fries and preserved vegetables, Indigenous mountain foods, Japanese-influenced bento and seafood, and the mainland regional cuisines that arrived in 1949, with Din Tai Fung's soup dumplings now a global export. Breakfast shops serve soy milk, shao bing, fried dough sticks, and rice rolls.

Tea is central — high-mountain oolong, Tieguanyin, and the ritual of gongfu brewing — and Taiwan also makes respected craft beer, whisky (Kavalan), and rice wine used in cooking.

Taipei combines the 508-metre Taipei 101 tower, the vast collection of Chinese imperial art at the National Palace Museum, the night markets of Shilin and Raohe, the hot-spring valley of Beitou, and the tea terraces and gondola of Maokong. Just outside are the volcanic Yangmingshan National Park and the coastal rock formations of Yehliu, the old gold-mining town of Jiufen, and the sky lanterns of Pingxi.

The east is the scenic heart: Taroko Gorge, a marble canyon with cliff-hugging trails (partly closed after the 2024 earthquake), the rift valley and Pacific cliffs down to Taitung, and whale- and dolphin-watching off Hualien. The mountainous spine holds Yushan, at 3,952 metres the highest peak in Northeast Asia, plus Alishan with its sunrise railway and cloud seas, and Sun Moon Lake in the centre.

The south has the old capital Tainan, dense with temples and history, the port city of Kaohsiung with its redeveloped harbour and the Fo Guang Shan monastery, and Kenting National Park's beaches at the island's tip. Offshore, Penghu, Green Island, Orchid Island, and the frontline Kinmen and Matsu islands each have a distinct character.