Magazine

Jaiyou! Taiwan.

By LUCAS B.B.

Jaiyou! Jaiyou! Is the Japanese equivalent of ‘Ganbate!’ As we cycled and hiked some 250km over the course of six days through Taiwan’s magnificent natural landscape the people routed us on with heartwarming cries of Jaiyou! making us feel welcome to ‘be’ and ‘share’ all that is Taiwan.

In recent years Taiwan’s popularity amongst Japanese travelers has greatly increased. However, still undiscovered is Taiwan’s awesome nature. Taiwan is an extremely mountainous island. In fact it has the largest number and density of high mountains in the world. They’re more than 250 mountain summits over 3,000 meters! So what’s the catch? Why hasn’t the ‘outdoor boom’ sweeping the world not penetrated Taiwan? The only thing holding Taiwan’s nature back from the people is that there is little infrastructure and barely any information as to how and where to access Taiwan’s pristine forests, high peaks, shiny seas, and rural roads. So for the past two years Papersky and our crew in Taiwan have been researching. The result of this hard work is the Taiwan ‘hike & bike’ issue you are now holding in your hands.

Our guest for this issue and fellow Taiwan ‘nature lover’ is Akira Natsume from the outdoor brand Yamatomichi. Our mission: to create a six day cultural excursion into Taiwan’s wondrous natural playground. We made the route simple so everybody from the holiday hiker to the weekend biker can enjoy it. We begin our adventure from Taipei’s Shilin metro station and hiking for three days pass through, up and over the Yangmingshan mountain until we reach the beaches of Jinshan. From Jinshan we take a bus, then train to Hualien station and rent bicycles and bags from Giant’s Hualien shop. Here we begin a three day bike journey along the magnificent eastern coast. Our trip takes us through peanut farms, banana plantations and visits to indigenous lands occupied by a few of Taiwan’s tribes. Our odyssey ends in Taitung at the Giant bicycle shop and from there it’s an easy train ride back to Taipei.

It is our hope that both visitors and Taiwanese alike will walk and cycle this beautiful six day route and will come to know and appreciate Taiwan’s magnificent mountains and nature.

PAPERSKY Soundtrack For Travelers
Taiwan edition

A list of Songs to enjoy over a cup of coffee, while driving, and of course while flipping through the pages of the Taiwan edition of Papersky. 

Selected by:
GOOD NEIGHBORS’ MUSIC VENDER