Taiwan - First Impressions

I'm currently an Asia-Pacific Studies and East Asian Studies double major in my final year at the University of Toronto. I was really excited when I heard about how the Taiwan government decided to start a global pilot project of inviting student delegates, at UofT in Canada. I was even more over the moon when I was selected to be part of the delegation.

We flew out on Friday, December 4th at 6pm from Toronto. This was after everyone was scrambling to finish final assignments and exams for fall semester. At Vancouver, we boarded the flight to Taipei that took 14 hours. By the time we got to Taipei, I was both extremely tired yet energized from the prospects and opportunities that lay ahead of us. It felt surreal at Taipei's Taoyuan Airport because I hadn't processed the reality of going to Taiwan and being in Taiwan. I and my fellow peers have been so absorbed in studying for exams and writing papers that I'm sure like me, they didn't get a chance to let reality and the situation to sink in. Going through the Diplomat, Crew, and Other line made the event even more surreal because it really set this trip apart from a regular pleasure trip. But when we walked out of the airport and I saw the minibus and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials waiting for us, the fuzzy, surreal moment suddenly became crystal clear. We're in Taiwan and we're actually participating in this fieldwork opportunity.

We met Alex Fan, the deputy director of the North American department at MOFA, who welcomed us to Taiwan. He is no stranger to Toronto since he worked at Taiwan's Toronto office for 6 years. Professor Wong told us how he was instrumental to placing Toronto and Canada on the mental map of Taiwan along with the official representative to Ottawa, Mr. David Lee, whom we met during a briefing meeting prior to the trip. Our guide here is Kathy, an employee at MOFA and chatting with her about what it's like to work at MOFA and various aspects of Taiwanese culture and society is very enriching.

I had never been to Taiwan before so everything was very new to me. However, I have traveled to other parts of East Asia like visiting relatives in China, doing exchange in Japan, and taking fieldwork course in Korea, so inevitably based on my past experiences, I intuitively started making comparisons to places of my own experiences. The drive from the airport to Taipei felt very nostalgic because it reminded me of road trips through the Appalachain Mountains with my parents, Okayama Prefecture in Japan when I went to pick chestnuts, and bits and pieces of China that I saw as well. The feeling of nostalgia and the familiar got stronger the closer we got to Taipei, but it is not just one country that pops into my mind when I observe Taipei at a glance, but rather, it's a mixture of American (or North American), Japanese and Chinese traits reflected in the cosmopolitan character of the city.

We had lunch at the famous Din Tai Fung restaurant for lunch and there were numerous kinds of xiaolong bao. I consider myself a foodie so eating local foods and trying restaurants are very important to my travel itinerary and overall procedure to experiencing a new place. The fact that we were able to go to Din Tai Fung and that we were treated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (who arranged our entire field school) was just heavenly. Din Tai Fung is northern Chinese cuisine but really popular and famous in Taipei. The xiaolong bao had the regular pork ones but also had varieties like shrimp, fish, and taro and red bean for dessert.

Later, we visited Taipei 101 which represents as a national symbol Taiwan's advancement in technology and development. It is currently still the tallest building in the world because Burj Dubai (same building that overtook CN Tower's record) hasn't been completed yet. It took 37 seconds to go up to the observation deck and we also saw the Damper the building used to ensure against the wind. Following Asia's love of mascots even for inanimate objects, Taipei 101's mascots are the Damper Babies.

All in all, I had a very fun first day here in Taipei so far, albeit sleep deprived. Tomorrow will start off the official visits to government offices. I already have some interesting things to blog about so please look forward to them.