Travel In Taiwan Episodes

400 Years: Dutch Formosa - part one:Of course, Chen Di was not actually the first person from China to visit Taiwan. What makes him special is that he wrote an account of what he saw here in 1603, and that account is the earliest surviving manuscript discovered thus far.Chen Di's short travel commentary focuses mostly on the Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan; their customs, diet, etc., a rare and valuable documentation by a man who was both a scholar and a warrior. Chen Di's account of his 1603 trip was only rediscovered in 1955!  Interestingly, the same year Chen Di came to Taiwan was when the Dutch East India Company (the VOC) set up a permanent trading post in what's now Indonesia. The Dutch are determined to break into the China trade market - but they'll need another base. Somewhere a bit closer.

Need a break from typhoons (Taiwan)? Need to escape the non-stop election-related noise (USA)? Or maybe you simply would like to hear John and Eryk babble about a couple of strange out-of-print books with a Taiwan connection (everyone)?  This week we meander, go off on tangents, tell virtually unknown stories (including mysterious deaths), and discuss two books we bet you’ve never heard of, let alone read. Also: Happy Halloween (and of course, it's Chiang Kai-shek's birthday).

Lonely Planet travel guidebooks provided some of best info on a new destination in the pre-internet era, and the late Robert Storey (1954-2017) wrote quite a few of them... including the first four editions for Taiwan. Robert Storey’s Lonely Planet Taiwan editions are funny, sarcastic, and insightful, and they now serve as wonderful “time capsules.” So, join us as we peek back at the late 1990s, and discover what’s changed - as well as what hasn't.