ONE OF THE most popular tourist destinations with local travellers since the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand launched the one-year visa exemption for holders of Thai passports in the middle of last year, Taiwan has been attracting thousands of Thais keen to explore its nature and culture.

Standing between China’s Fujian province and Japan’s Okinawa prefecture, the island is an interesting blend of Chinese and Japanese ways of life, inheriting the former from its Chinese ancestors while learning humility and discipline from the Japanese culture during its occupation in World War II.

A further attraction is the cost of living, which is on a par with Bangkok. Public transport is easy and convenient for travelling and the capital, Taipei, offer shoppers everything from brand name products to streetwear with affordable price tags.

On a recent visit as guests of China Airlines, we don’t get to shop in Taipei but head west and south to explore the arts and culture of the island’s smaller towns.

The bus takes us though the countryside to Taichung, Taiwan’s third largest biggest city and home to Rainbow Village and its hand-painted murals. Situated on the west side of central Taiwan, Rainbow is one of several villages built between 1940 and 1950 to provide accommodation for Kuomintang’s soldiers and families after they retreated from Mainland China.

One of old villages for veterans and their families, Rainbow Village is adorned with handpainted cartoons, Chinese words and animals. 

The last 20 years have seen these veterans’ villages torn down one by one as the government hands over the land to construction companies for new and modern developments.

Disgusted at this turn of events, one of the last residents, Huang Yung Fu, now 94, turned the walls of his village into a massive canvas, painting manga characters, animals, Chinese letters and drawings.

Students from Ling Tung University discovered his artworks and the village became an instant hit with locals and foreigners, forcing the government to shelve the land development project and conserve this historical site.

Grandpa Huang also serves a local guide, taking visitors to inspect his house and village and creating artworks in a form of postcards, caps, umbrellas, pins and notebooks as souvenirs.

Former soldier Huang Yung Fu created the Rainbow Village.

Our next stop is Summit Resort in Taichung’s suburbs, which is home to a European-style castle complex standing in a large botanical garden complete with a lake. Seasonal flowers add colour to the garden, which is a popular spot for pre-wedding photo shoots

We end our day in Fengjia Night Market just down the road from the city’s universities and tutoring schools. A foodie’s paradise, it’s packed with street vendors offering such local favourites as stinky tofu, fried chicken, seafood and bubble tea.

We’re back on the road early the next morning, travelling along the coast to the ancient seaport of Lukang in Changhua City, an important trading post in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Popular with those seeking a soul mate, the old Lukang Longshan is one of six Longshan temples in Taiwan constructed in 1738 during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and has been renovated many times.

Lukang Longshan Temple was built 260 years ago and is now popular with those searching for a soul mate.

Famous for its beautiful Chinese architecture, this sacred temple was named a first-class historic site in 1983 and is a showcase of handicrafts and local wisdom. An amazing Eight Trigrams ceiling was built at the Stage area to create resonance effects during plays and also to keep evil away.

Artists of every age and persuasion gather in the Lukang Osmanthus Alley Artist Village, a former Japanese-style dormitory complex. Today it showcases everything from calligraphy and paintings to visual arts and offers a range of workshops which visitors can join.

Another attraction in this small town is the old-fashioned red-brick buildings lining Old Market Street, which come alive at weekends as they morph into gift shops.

Our journey south to Chiayi City takes us through expanses of paddy fields and vegetable gardens and it comes as something of a shock to arrive at Gugong, the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum.

A Japanesestyle dormitory complex, Lukang Osmanthus Alley Artist Village showcases many art exhibitions and workshops. 

Opened in 2015, the museum occupies 70 hectares and boasts a main building, a scenic park and an artificial lake. The building was designed by well-known architect Kris Yao and draws on three features of Chinese ink painting – nong-mo (thick dark ink), fei-bai (half-dry brush), and xuan-ran (washes).

A state-of-the-art metal bridge at the entrance links the solid wing of Mo-Yun Hall with the virtual wing of Fei-Bai Hall. Inside, the exhibition is spread over three floors and divided into three zones – a permanent exhibition, temporary exhibition and an exhibition of loaned artefacts.

Further into Chiayi City, we stop to marvel at the High Heel Wedding Church, which is designed to resemble a 17-metre, high crystal heel shoe fashioned from bright blue glass.

The High Heel Weeding Church borrows a pattern of Cinderella’s crystal shoes.

Even though brides and grooms haven’t been allowed to host a ritual ceremony here, it’s already become the hottest location for wedding parties, based on the Taiwanese tradition that a bride wears high heel shoes to trample tiles then throws them out before entering the groom’s family house as a symbol of the beginning of a good life.

In Tainan, another small town not far from Chiayi, the Ten Drum Art Percussion Group has converted an abandoned sugar factory built during Japanese colonial rule into the Ten Drum Rende Sugar Culture and Creativity Park.

Spread over 7.5 hectares and showcasing traditional structures, the park features 22 old-fashioned warehouses that are home to the Drum Museum, Drumming Experience classroom, Ten Drum restaurant, a 250-seat Audio Visual hall, an outdoor Water Tank theatre with an audience capacity of 1,500 audiences, the 900-seat Drum Sugar theatre and a Sky Walk. Art lovers can enjoy a drum performance and workshops on how to create and play drums with specialists.

The old port and its warehouses in Kaohsiung have been converted into Pier2 Art Centre.

Also developed from old-fashioned warehouses, the Pier-2 Art Centre in Kaohsiung has an outdoor contemporary art exhibition of graffiti, sculptures made from several materials and paintings by local artists. Visitors can take time out at the cafe, bistro or bookstore.

Standing alone on a hill, the former British Consulate at Takao is a model of vintage European architecture and home to ancient documents, black-and-white photographs, maps and artefacts.

But the most popular attraction in Kaohsiung is the Formosa Boulevard Station, which has been voted the second most beautiful metro station in the world. The station is famous for its Dome of Light, the world’s largest single glass artistic production and designed by Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata.

Featuring 4,500 glass panels, it measures 30 metres in diameter and covers an area of 2,180 square metres. Each quadrant depicts the lifecycle of the cosmos, humanity, and Taiwan’s own tumultuous political history. The imagery moves through periods of painful growth and inevitable destruction, but the overall message echoes with hope and rebirth.

IF YOU GO

>> China Airlines offers three flights daily between Bangkok and Taipei and one flight daily from Bangkok to Kaohsiung.

>> Find out more at http://www.China-Airlines.com.