CLINKS of cutlery and indistinct chatter interrupted the early silence of that grand welcome dinner in downtown Taipei. The mood was stiff and movements calculated, as formal engagements normally go, but everything proceeded like it normally does—much looser and more relaxed.
It was the first night of a recent seven-day Taiwan tour with a mix of Philippine journalists. The gathering’s hosts – executives of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), a nonprofit trade-promoting organization – rolled out the red carpet with a 12-course feast at the VIP suite of a landmark building. Matching the food in grandeur was the view on the panoramic windows, where the busy Taipei streets across and the mountain ranges beyond glowed under the dusk sky.
The conversations eventually swirled from the importance of Philippine-Taiwan relationship to the latest Hollywood films. The ice was broken.
By the fourth dish, people were laughing. By the eighth, a question that seems to have been loaded for a while finally got asked: “Do you guys know Dao Ming Si?” said a fellow lifestyle and entertainment writer seated beside me.
Our Taiwanese hosts answered “No,” and asked who the guy was. The Filipino bunch was perplexed. “F4? Meteor Garden? They’re huge in the Philippines!” he asserted.
A couple of writers rallied behind him. Still no dice from the Taiwanese hosts.
It was an interesting moment, which led to an even more interesting thought: Not counting the Philippine media on that instance, who were simply engaging in light fun with the hosts, how much does the common Filipino really know about Taiwan, outside its unofficial, hirsute television ambassadors from the early 2000s?
Dr. Gary Song-Huann Lin, Manila representative of the Taiwan Economic Cooperation Office, believes the answer is “not much.”
Lin met with the Filipino contingent in the Philippines days before the trip, and explained the gap is exactly what Taiwan’s “New Southbound Policy” aims to bridge. Launched exactly a year ago, the initiative targets to expand the island’s economy through regional connectivity with 18 countries, comprised of 10 Asean member nations, including the Philippines.
Lin said Taiwan used to look north to Japan and west to China and the US, but never south—a mistake, he said, because it is where economic growth is. In 2016, the bilateral trade between the Philippines and Taiwan was $7.1 billion.
He added the key to making the policy work is human development, or the people-to-people aspect, which is why tourism efforts are being ramped up.
“Our two sides have looked over each other for too long,” Lin said. “Taiwan is a treasure. It is the most livable country in the world, with one of the best healthcare systems. Yet, Filipinos don’t know.”
Several efforts have been made by different parties to introduce Taiwan to the Filipinos, but none bigger than what will commence this weekend, from September 29 to October 1, at the SMX Convention Center with the Taiwan Expo 2017.
The event will showcase Taiwan’s various industries, bannered by agriculture and fisheries, tourism, technology, education and green energy.
A total of 170 exhibitors and 21 universities will participate in the Manila leg of the expo, which had a run in Indonesia in May and Vietnam in July, as well as an upcoming iteration in Malaysia this November. It is organized by Taiwan Association Inc., led by President Allan Lin and honorary President Seimo Huang, along with TAITRA.
Walter Teh, TAITRA President and CEO, the expo is not just a one-time event because the Philippines and Taiwan need to have more exchanges. He assured another edition next year.
“We hope through these efforts, the Filipinos can know Taiwan better,” Teh said at the welcome dinner in Taipei. “We have to expand as partners. We are neighbors.”
Located 1,200 kilometers north of the Philippines, Taiwan can be reached through a two-hour flight.
First sight
THE moment our group of Philippine media landed in Taiwan for the tour, to get an experience of its attractions and to visit some of the expo exhibitors, it immediately passed the eye test. The streets were clean and the traffic orderly, a welcome sight if you’ve been fixated to Manila roads.
We took the freeway from the Taoyuan International Airport going to Taipei by a 45-minute bus ride, passing through the island’s harmonious sights of urban development and environment preservation. There was a healthy amount of verdancy amid the progressive urbanity.
Another noticeable view is how most buildings in Taiwan are not clustered, but are allotted with breathing spaces. This allows the structures’ design to stand out, and save the viewer from concrete fatigue. The spaces also allows for the mountain ranges to peak from certain angles.
Our group knew we were closing in on Taipei when the island’s architectural marvel revealed itself from the distance.
Taipei 101 is more than a sky-scrapping icon. At 1,667 feet, it not only stood as the world’s tallest building for six years, from its completion in 2004 until Dubai erected the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa in 2010, but serves as Taiwan’s pride. Its design is influenced by the island’s rich culture, with advanced features that reflect its people’s capacities.
A visit to the building was one of the tour’s first stop, and as it turned out, the astonishment I got there as a first-timer in Taiwan was sustained throughout the whole seven-day trip.
Experiencing Taiwan
EACH stop proved to be a pleasant revelation. The itinerary, curated by Jeron Travel and Tours Corp, had us traveling like a touring rock band, hopping from one hotel to another at various points in Taiwan, from north to south, to central and back.
Following the visit at Taipei 101 and the dinner with our TAITRA hosts at the capital in the northern part of the island, we traveled south to Kaoshiung aboard the Taiwan High Speed Rail, which runs at a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour (km/h). That’s 345 km covered in just 96 minutes.
Kaoshiung has a more laid-back vibe compared to bustling Taipei. The place is rich in colors and in culture. A couple of destinations for those inclined to the arts are the Kaoshiung Pier-2 Art Center and the KMRT Formosa Boulevard Station.
The Pier 2 warehouse used to be a sugar storage when Kaoshiung Port was still the fifth-biggest port in Southeast Asia. But since Taiwan focused less on agriculture, the area was reinvented to a recreational park, with the warehouses converted into theaters and stores. Now, Pier 2 houses contemporary art.
Meanwhile, the KMRT Formosa Boulevard Station is named after the former name of Taiwan, Formosa, which in Portuguese means “beautiful island.” The ceiling of this underground station is adorned with a sea of vibrant hues by an art installation, which tells the story of human life, titled “Dome of Light.” It was created by Narcissus Quagliata, known for his use of fused glass in large projects.
Kaoshiung is also home to some of the island’s most stunning temples. The Taiwanese are predominantly Buddhists, accounting for 35.1 percent of the total population, according to worldatlas.com. The Fo Guang Shan Buddha Monastery is the biggest Buddhist monastery in the island that spans 30 hectares. Our tour guide, Albert Jhou, said a whole day is not enough to see the whole area, comprised of university buildings and shrines.
The same worldatlas.com data show that a close second to Buddhism as the island’s top religion is Daoism (Taoism) at 33 percent. Kaoshiung’s must-see Taoist temple is the Spring Autumn Pavilion and the Dragon Tiger Pagodas in the Lotus Pond, a place that is as arresting as it sounds.
Filipino tribe in Taiwan?
OUR bus took us the next day to Tainan, a municipality in the central part of the island. There, we met at the Silaya Scenic Area an indigenous tribe called Siraya, which has yet to be recognized by the Taiwanese government.
Much to our surprise, the tribe’s language closely mirrors that of the Filipinos’. In one of their learning pamphlets, which target to keep their language alive, a sentence reads “Akumeya ki anim ki asu tu darang,” or “There are six dogs on the road.”
Helping the tribe on their mission to keep their culture alive through language and songs is Edgar Macapili, a Filipino who left the Philippines 25 years ago to marry Uma Talavan, daughter of a full-blooded Siraya named Ban Cheng Hiong Talavan. Macapili lends a hand in translating a 17th-century Book of Matthew in Siraya language, which was handed to them by a Taiwanese professor in 2002.
“No one could understand the book, but me,” Macapili said. “It was very close to Bisaya. I translated the words to English; then my wife translated it to Chinese.”
In 2008, they were able to publish a Siraya dictionary. Today, 14 schools in Tainan teach Siraya.
Macapili said that despite the achievements, he still hopes for two things: That the government recognizes their tribe, and that a Siraya University gets established.
The ensuing part of the Tainan trip was a visit to the calm and breezy Sun Moon Lake, where the next day, we got to go on a cruise tour and visit its surrounding temples. There, time slowed down and tourists got to feel Taiwan’s natural beauty and storied culture—a nice way to experience the island from another perspective.
Business trips
THE rest of the itinerary was peppered with business visits to Taiwanese companies that will be part of the Taiwan Expo 2017 in Manila. The first two were food-and-beverage manufacturers Saucedo Food Co. Ltd., a company that specializes in kitchen sauces that posted NT$150-million global sales in 2016, and Noodles Origin, which recorded a NT$20 million revenue last year.
A trip back to Taipei the following day landed us at the offices of two tech companies: the hybrid micro-grid system designers Controlnet International Inc., and radio frequency identification systems developer ClarIDy Solutions Inc.
A stop was also made at the Acer Inc. headquarters for an introduction to the Acer BYOC (Build Your Own Cloud) branding that for over 15 years, has offered cloud infrastructure and related services.
In between those destinations were getaways to Taiwan’s famous night markets, which all lived up to the hype, really, with a selection of cheap, quality finds and a gamut of street-food choices.
Whether it’s the Ningxia Night Market at Taipei, Feng Chia Night Market in Taichung or the nocturnal shopping district of Ximending, no commercial areas are alike. Each one has its one character, as well as their own version of food favorites like the deep-fried squid, milk tea and stinky tofu.
There’s food, there’s art, there’s fast and there’s slow. Taiwan leaves no doubt it is beyond the television characters Filipinos associate it with, but rather, a nearby, multifaceted destination that covers all bases.