Lonely Planet Taiwan

With international travel booming, the travel book industry churns out books like this, short on historical perspective, long on mother hen nagging, and eager to show political correctness at every turn. Worst of all is the hype. When are these people going to figure out that we buy the book because we're Going To The Country? We don't have to be Sold On The Country. Let me now join the international call for a moratorium on the following words in travel books: vibrant, boasts, awesome, enjoy, proudly.

If you think I'm exaggerating about Mother Hen, just turn to page 23. There, you are advised not to leave home without tissues or tampons or shoes or clothing. It's hard to pinpoint the exact time that travel book companies got the idea that the bulk of their readership was under the age of ten, but social scientists have theorized that it was in the early eighties when many leaders of the Nanny States in the US and UK lost their jobs in government and went into publishing.

Mother also wants to remind you to be "out of any river by 3pm or 4pm." (p.141) It seems "afternoon showers are a daily occurrence and rivers can become swollen very quickly. Also, be on the lookout for snakes." If you forgot to bring your shoes to Taiwan a snake could bite you on the toe, and if you traveled to Taiwan without health insurance against Mother's advice (p.354), "emergency evacuation is expensive...over US$100,000". Page 72 boasts a sermon on recycling as well as an admonition to refrain from "extensive gawking" at the aboriginal locals, who've complained that tourists "treat the locals with less respect that the locals would prefer".

In addition to not venturing to Taiwan without clothing, readers should also not go there without reading the LP guide to its very end, because some of the advice given at the beginning changes by the end. For example, page 63 touts local food and drink: "Fresh fruit stands selling juices are all over Taiwan...wonderful thirst quenchers on a hot summer day. All you have to do is point (not gawk) at the fruits...and the person standing behind the counter will whiz them up in a blender for you after adding water." You might be gullible enough to fall for this seduction (clearly offered in jest) if you don't read all the way through to page 358, which sternly warns: "Avoid fresh juices--they may have been watered down."

Well! Dear reader, you KNOW they have been watered down! By that local person behind the counter!

But all kidding aside, Taiwan offers much more than just the fetishization of aboriginals and opportunities to protect yourself against foreign danger. A quick look at Wikipedia reveals that the aboriginal languages of Taiwan are thought by many linguists to be the source of the Austronesian language family which comprises over 1200 related languages spread over an area from Madagascar to Easter Island and from Taiwan down to New Zealand. Is it too much to ask that the makers of the LP travel guides dig up some striking vignettes or anecdotes relating to the Austronesian language family? Must we beg for fascinating information regarding the fifty years that Taiwan was a part of Japan? What about the childhood home of Wen Ho Lee, the Taiwanese American scientist who was falsely accused by the FBI of espionage? Why isn't that included in this guidebook? How about some locations of tea plantations where one could go see how it is cultivated? And considering Taiwan is less than half the size of Ireland and has an excellent circumferential railroad, wouldn't it make sense to discuss a few walking tours, which have long been acknowledged by seasoned travelers to be the best way of seeing a country? I could go on, but I've gone on enough.

For the seventh edition of their Taiwan guide Lonely Planet didn't just stick a new cover on an old book. The guide has been extensively updated and includes some new places. The east coast section has been expanded with details of many of the interesting places between Taidong and Hualian as well as the expected coverage of these two cities. There is also more detailed coverage of Taiwan's islands such as Penghu and Kinmen.

There are always a few places that will get left out of any guide book. Nanzhuang and Taipingshan were two that I thought were notable for their omission. However, I don't think this is such a bad thing. It still leaves a few interesting places for the traveller to discover and adds an element of surprise. There are also a number of places listed in the book that I had never heard of but am certainly curious to visit. The Danayigu Ecological Park is one. I suggest you read the book if you want to find out more.

The coverage of hiking is great and there a range of hikes covered from easy walks that take a few hours to multi-day expeditions. I like the writing style of the with its many interesting little anecdotes.

There are plenty of maps, as is the standard for Lonely Planet guides. The map keys have place names written in English/Pinyin as well as Chinese characters. Names in the text also have pinyin with tone marks which should be useful for getting the pronunciation right.

Overall, this is an excellent guide that would serve any traveller in Taiwan very well.

All the other reviews for this book are for the previous edition. I'm very happy with this updated Taiwan 7th edition which came out a month ago. The two writers live in Taiwan and have added an extra focus and assembled detailed information on a range of Taiwan's attractions like hot springs, mountaineering, river rafting as well as the more well-known things like eating out, temples, museums etc. that bring people to Taiwan. At the same time, the urban attractions of Taipei and more established destinations like AliShan, Taroko Gorge, Kenting beach and other areas have been updated and more obscure areas have been added since the last edition. Despite its small size and reputation as a junkyard, Taiwan has a wealth of things to see and do and this Guide, for my money, has been successful in showing how to get the most out of it.

All of these reviews are for the previous edition. I have bought the previous editions. Has someone read this 2007 current edition? Is it improved and updated?

Thanks

Last summer, I took nearly three weeks and traveled all around Taiwan, an excursion which included three additional islands: Kinmen, Orchid Island, and Green Island. Before I left, I picked up a copy of this Lonely Planet, even though I've lived here for nearly a decade. All in all, I found it useful, and, hence, I don't really have any serious complaints about it although I might if I were new to this country.

Absolutely, the volume could stand to be thicker. Taiwan is actually deceptively small; a round-island trip entails about 1000 km of transport by bus, train, what have you. And more places could have been listed in the "Places to Stay" sections. Having said that, there are loads of hotels (usually marked as such in English) in cities and towns in Taiwan and people are so friendly here (something that should become apparent to anyone relatively soon after arrival) that inquiring at a place, say, next to a recommended place that is unfortunately booked shouldn't be such a stretch. If you made it to Taiwan, you can make it into the lobby of large building marked HOTEL on a main street and ask if they have a room; really, you can. After all, a guide book is meant to guide you, not to suck all the adventure out of traveling. And it's not like this is Sudan or something.

The book's maps were fine, and, well, as mentioned, the book was generally fine too. One more suggestion, though, and admittedly its a very random one: Kinmen (an island in the Taiwan Strait) is such a confusing place to drive around (all the roads look the same/it's difficult to tell which direction you are going) that the writer(s) might want to suggest picking up a compass. Actually, a compass in any Chinese city is a great idea as the roads are usually laid out along compass points. How convenient. Oh, and one more thing...

Back in the good old days, Lonely Planets were much more honest in their assessments. If there was bugger all to do in a place, they would say so. Nowadays, all travel books have to hype places and hype them big, otherwise potential customers glancing through them might think, "That sounds like a dreadful country," before putting the book back on the shelf and heading off to the magazine rack. But at least with the Lonely Planet, it's easy to read between the lines. If the first listing in the "Things to See and Do" section is, say, a botanical garden, that might be a good indication that there just isn't a whole lot on offer in that particular town. Also, they provide a handful of routes and suggested itineraries at the beginning of the book. Another reviewer noted how only six hotels were listed under "Places to Stay" in Kaohsiung. 'How could that be,' the reviewer wonders, 'in Taiwan's second largest city?' If they had looked more closely, they may have noticed that Kaohsiung failed to make it into any of the prescibed routes. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. Never mind the mediocre reviews: The Lonely Planet Taiwan is a decent travel guide. It shouldn't be confused with a tour guide.

Troy Parfitt, author