'Made in Taiwan'

All I've ever known about Taiwan is that unlike most of my clothing that has 'Made in China' still hanging on to the seam a lot of my electronics and my current touring-around-the-globe bicycle were made in Taiwan. The bicycle albeit a New Zealand brand is of high quality, robust and well built. Its never let me down despite supporting 30 kg of gear for several years accumulating 25000 km on all types of terrain that some 4WDs would fear. Yes, even river crossings and snow. So while 'Ava' (there's a hint of the brand for you) earns a good rest I take the ‘backpack' option for this Asian trek. Not a true 'backpacker' because I'm now much older and I've become a bit precious about my privacy and space at the end of a long day so no more hostels for me.

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I decided to use the TRA slow train network through most of Taiwan so I can view the terrain at a comfortable pace and it's also much cheaper than the high speed rail THSR network. The TRA trains are not that slow in relative terms because they move along at quite a pace. The ticketing machines at the stations are quite antique but they work well and easy to use once you understand the system. As I travelled along the routes I noticed the urbanised/industrial mix of regional and city landscapes. My bicycle and number of laptops/computer systems would probably have come from these locations. As you will see in some of my short video clips the spaces for workers infrastructure and their living zones are not far from each other. It looks like a well planned almost 'cooperative' IT manufacturing system without being communist. The highly educated nation supported by a very flexible and hard working population has allowed Taiwan to prosper very quickly compared to China during the earlier decades. Japan established a strong investment strategy in Taiwan as labour costs were low but standards were high. If I had explored my 'Japanese' laptop closely it would likely have shown 'Made in Taiwan’ somewhere.

Prawn crackers machine

There is a price to pay for Taiwan's booming IT manufacturing economy where industrial zones are compacted into a small area because of its narrow north-south topology between the mountains and the sea. I noticed the smog haze was consistent in most cities and outlying areas. I had not really noticed the white surgical masks covering citizens mouths in Hong Kong but did see them being occasionally worn by Asian students in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne during the last decade. I asked the Taiwanese people why they wore them and the answers were 50 percent flu panic related or 50 percent pollution related. The masks have become a normal fixture and now a fashion accessory where it appears that 1 in 4 people are wearing them. It's more of a placebo for the 'pollution' group because it apparently does not prevent inhalation of harmful air pollutants or very fine dust particles. It does apparently work for the 'flu' group which started a long time ago due to outbreaks of transportable 'killer' diseases in Japan and more recently China.

The heavy cool air appears to weigh down the pollution. I noticed this as I walked along the city river in Tainan southwest Taiwan. It's coming from the usual sources like heavy industry, cars, buses and thousands of motor scooters. I’ve noticed in the developing SE Asian nations like Malaysia, Thailand and here that bicyles are rare and the motor scooter/motorbike is the dominate transport for most people than cannot afford a car. I spend a lot of my pedestrian journeys walking on the road because the motor scooters block my path because there's nowhere to put their scooter other than on the footpath.

Empty bicycle racks everywhere