On the map north of the Philippines you will find an island about the size of the Netherlands in the form of a sweet potato, Taiwan.
About two thirds of the island is mountainous. The highest elevation, the 3952 meter high Yushan, is exactly crossed by the climate border between tropics and subtropics. In the north there is a humid subtropical climate, with noticeable temperature changes according to the season. In the south the temperature is quite constant between warm to hot.
Taiwan is hit by an average of four typhoons every year. Much more frequent are earthquakes, 15,000 to 18,000 earthquakes each year are not unusual, but many of them are so small that a normal person does not notice it.
Taiwanese cuisine is characterized by a great variety, partly due to the history of the country, and is considered one of the insider tips in Asia.
An important part of the cuisine is xiaochi, a category of small dishes that can be found at night markets. Examples are baozi, steamed bun with savoury fillings, grass jelly, a jellied dessert or a Taiwanese sausage. Another specialty of Taiwanese cuisine is stinky tofu, fermented tofu, which does not bear its name unfairly.
Taiwanese tea definitely smells better. The planting of tea trees goes back several centuries. Most of the tea planted in Taiwan is black tea, green tea, white tea and oolong tea.
Because drinking pure tea may have become too boring in the long run, in the 1980s bubble tea was developed, tea with milk and chewy tapioca balls. What coffee shops are in other countries, are in Taiwan tea cafes. There you get a large selection of teas, with different tastes, mixed with other juices or milk and toppings, such as the classic tapioca pearls, fruit jelly or pudding can choose.
Between 1950 and 2016 the population of Taiwan more than tripled. In 1950, Taiwan had around 7.6 million inhabitants, by 2016 it had over 23.5 million.
The number of different surnames of the residents is just 1503 according to a study by the Interior Ministry of Taiwan in 2016. The ten most common names are shared by more than 50 percent of the population. The most common surname is 陳 (Chén). It is used by more than 11 percent of citizens.
