Is Taiwan an actual country? I guess that depends on who you are asking. A Taiwanese Chinese would say “Of course Taiwan’s an independent country!” A main-lander Chinese may say “Taiwan? Oh yeah that’s one of our island provinces. I prefer to go to Hainan though.“

According to Matt Rosenberg at About.com:

…Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations. Plus, only 25 countries (as of early 2007) recognize Taiwan as an independent country and they recognize it as the “only” China. Due to this political pressure from China, Taiwan does not maintain an embassy in the United States and the United States (among most other countries) has not recognized Taiwan since January 1, 1979.

In addition, Taiwan issues globally recognized passports that allow its citizens to travel internationally. Taiwan also is a member of the International Olympic Committee and this sends its own team to the Olympic Games.

For my purposes, I’ll count it as one of the 196 to visit.

Things I’m hoping to do/see:

• National Palace Museum– Chinese artifacts not found on the mainland? I’ll take a peak.
• Taipei 101 Building– One of the worlds tallest buildings. Sure why not!?
• Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial- Memorials are always fun to visit.
• Night Markets- Not a lover of shopping, but I heard the night markets were something special.
• Temples- Check out some of temples.
• Culture– Get a general feel for the culture and pace of the city.
• Eat and Party all night long- That’s a given.

I’m looking forward to comparing the little rogue island with Beijing (where I live now)! Apparently people follow traffic rules such as pedestrian crossings! Weird!