Ｔｈｅ　Ｃｕｓｔｏｍｓ　ａｎｄ　Ｆｏｌｋｌｏｒｅ　ｏｆ　Ｔａｉｗａｎ.docVIP

Ｔｈｅ　Ｃｕｓｔｏｍｓ　ａｎｄ　Ｆｏｌｋｌｏｒｅ　ｏｆ　Ｔａｉｗａｎ 　　WHAT we call Taiwan, and may think of ?C lazily ?C as a single island, is in fact an archipelago of over 80 isles. Her complexity is considerable, and it doesn’t stop with geography. Pivoting around Taiwan Island, their 36,000 square kilometer mass is split by the Tropic of Cancer into two climates, the subtropical north and the tropical south.Socially, the region falls into 25 cities and counties. But Taiwan’s complexity ismore than climatic or administrative; cultural and historical events have shaped the nature of the place. 　　 　　 　　The original furnishings and décor have not survived the intervening 300 years, but the course of history can be read in remnants of the old outer city. 　　 　　The island was a lure to foreigners and its terrain no deterrent to invaders or conquerors among them. The major body, Taiwan Island, has a swath of plain on the western shore providing horizontal relief from the remaining two thirds of the territory, shriveled by steep mountains and valleys. At the beginning of the 17th century, both the Dutch and Spanish invaded Taiwan’s shores, the Dutch finally routing the Spanish in 1642 to make the whole of Taiwan its colony. 　　In 1661 General Zheng Chenggong of the Southern Ming regime (1644-1662) moved to repossess it, leading his army of 25,000 soldiers and hundreds of ships in a 10 month siege against the colonists. The region was to be lost again 200 years later.After China’s defeat in the 1894-1895 war with Japan, Taiwan was ceded to the victor as spoils. It was returned to China in 1945 at the close of World War II. 　　By the 1960s Taiwan’s economy had begun to heat up, and it soon won inclusion in Asia’s Four Little Dragons, together with South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. Today it is viewed as a land of milk and honey ?C affluent with sugar, salt, rice, fruit, forest and fish.A sanctuary of butterflies and corals in great variety, the island appeals to tourists seeking unspoiled natura