2025 Taiwan Trip
As the 2025 year comes to a close, Rutherford’s Chinese department got to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Taiwan. Belle Talangi, Billy Heath, Jamie Thomas, Juna Htoo, Kiara Gill, Latham Gilmour, Reika Echizenya and myself, alongside Ms Adeline Hsiao, Mr Tom Bromfield, Grace and John Luong were the eight students who got to go on a stunning trip to visit Ms Hsiao’s home country of Taiwan. Although during the whole trip, it felt like a holiday, the main purpose was as an educational trip to be able to put our Chinese learning from past years to the test and into real-life situations.
We got to visit many villages, cities, temples, old streets, night markets, where we learnt about and experienced Tawian’s vast history, culture and language.
Some highlights included the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village, which showcased Tawian’s sixteen different tribes and functioned as a theme park, all on the picturesque mountainside of Nantou County. At this point, it’s worth mentioning that Taiwan’s indigenous tribes are actually related to Māori people. Our fishing practices, moko, pottery style and language are similar to that of Taiwanese tribes, through connections to the Pacific, dating back tens of thousands of years.
We also visited some of Ms Hsiao’s family, like in Tainan and Taipei, where we experienced true, genuine Taiwanese hospitality, as well as local delicacies - something you cannot get on a normal holiday.
Because it’s December, being Christmastime, many of the cities we toured had special Christmas celebrations. In Kaohsiung City’s Central Park, us kids wandered around all of the Christmas night-lights and performances that were on offer to all of the locals, which made our trip that much more festive.
On one night, we stayed at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA) - literally with the fish. I’ve never been to Auckland’s SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium but I can say that Taiwan’s NMMBA is far better by a country mile, given we got taken on a night tour of the behind-the-scenes at the aquarium - a very rare opportunity for all of us.
One of Taiwan’s great innovations is its High-Speed Rail (THSR) network. From Kaohsiung City, we caught the THSR train to Taipei City. This would normally take five-hours by car or coach but was shortened to just an hour-and-a-half by train, thanks to its speeds of up to 350km/h. Fortunately, a train trip like this on the THSR isn’t short of being beautiful, due to the all of the scenic countryside that the line travels through, making the journey seem much shorter than an hour-and-a-half.
There was plenty of shopping opportunities throughout the trip but the bulk of the buying was done in Taipei, where Ms Hsiao took all of us on a day out around Taipei, using its Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network, which made navigating the biggest city in the country a cinch.
Just a short hour East of Taipei are some beautiful seaside villages, known as Jiufen Village, Guangfu Village and Shifen Village. These villages, between them, included stunning views of Taiwan’s North-east Coast, cats galore and eye-catching evening sunsets in the mountains, watching sky lanterns float up and over the horizon.
To finish the trip, we took the obvious stop at one of Tawian’s most recognisable features: The Taipei 101. Standing at 508m tall, all of us took a 382m trip up the world’s fastest elevator to 89th floor, in just 35 seconds. The 360° views of Taipei and the mountainside couldn’t even put into perspective just how big Taiwan really is, despite being a small country geographically.
In retrospect, doing so many things across our twelve 12-hour days in Taiwan made the trip go by so quickly, so over our 10-hour-long flight back home, I had the time to answer the questions the teachers asked every one of us: pick three words to describe your time in Taiwan.
Beautiful, Friendly, Cheap
If you ever get the opportunity to visit Asia, include Taiwan on your trip, no matter how long for. No time in Taiwan is wasted time, as there never was a dull moment at any point during our trip. Even our bus driver, Ivan, treated us like royals and demonstrated just how classy Taiwanese culture can be!
Besides being a new experience for us, I would love to go back to Taiwan again; not just for its views, not just for its food, not just for how cheap everything is but for the people. People make up all the experiences that we have and make the difference between having a good time or a bad time. For us, I can say on everyone’s behalf, our time with the people in Taiwan gave us experiences and connections we will never forget.
For those of you taking or continuing Chinese next year, you can look forward to a trip to Taiwan in the next few years, where you can put what you’ve learnt to the test. At every chance I was given, I spoke Mandarin for every interaction. In Year 9 and 10, I never thought I would be on the other side of the world in Taiwan speaking Chinese but here we are now…
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go... Oh, the places you'll go!” - Dr. Seuss
Your Deputy Head Boy signing off for 2025:
“If you don’t play, you can’t win. Go for it”
Isaac Lee Sang | 13YK | Deputy Head Boy
