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.

BACK IN 2004, former university professor Waraporn Suravadee realised a long-held dream – turning the residence on Charoen Krung Road in downtown Bangkok she had inherited from her mother into the Bangkok Folk Museum. Determined to preserve the lifestyle of 1930s Bangkok and the history of Bang Rak district for generations to come, Waraporn donated the property to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration on the condition she could continue to live in the compound as caretaker.

Waraporn Suravadee converted her housing complex into Bangkok Folk Museum in 2004.

Last year, the folk museum made headlines on the social networks when Waraporn launched a fund-raising campaign to acquire a sizeable plot of land next to the museum to stop the construction of an eight-floor modern home office project, which would overshadow the charming environment of the museum.

The fund-raising drive proved a success, raising more than Bt10 million that she added to her own funds to convert the empty land into a parking lot and recreational area, where visitors could come to share her memories and learn how her family and the Bang Rak community lived in the past.

Sadly, Waraporn was unable to see the rest of her dream come to fruition, dying late in January at the age of 80 from injuries she sustained in a fall. Her nephew Parakrit Sudsat has stepped in as custodian and is kicking off his tenure by closing down all fund-raising activities.

“The land next to the museum already belongs to the Insart-Sa-ang Foundation, which my aunt Waraporn founded. Now, we’re waiting for the Courts to appoint a trustee and then we will start the construction of what my aunt always called her green space by using the Bt2 million remaining from the fund-raising campaign. We already closed the campaign and our family is pleased to cover extra expenses on the construction,” Parakit says.

“My aunt aimed to provide a green space that welcomed all visitors at no charge. She worked as a lecturer and saw this green space as an open learning area for the community. Now, we’re reconsidering the design of the green space. We are try to find the best solution that can really meet the demands of the community.”

A short walk from the General Post Office, the museum on quiet Charoen Krung Soi 43 is spread over one rai and 100 square meters and was once home to nine members of the Suravadee family. Parakit too grew up here.

The veranda served as the reception area in traditional Panyastyle house.

The family moved out after Waraporn inherited the housing complex from her mother Sa-ang more than a decade ago. Shaded by towering tress and local plants, the museum is home to three Panya-style old teakwood houses filled with rare household artefacts that evoke memories of the happy family life once enjoyed here.

A teakwood pavilion stands in the middle and once served as an open kitchen. The two-storey white house, which was constructed in 1937, is named Ruen Khun Nai Sa-ang, and it’s easy to conjure up an image of Sa-ang spending her leisure time playing an imported piano and singing with her kids in the living room.

The furnishings are as they were when the house was built, mainly hardwood pieces crafted in Thai, Chinese and European style. The western-style chairs are engraved with the floral and bow motifs so popular in the 20th century while the Chinese hardwood cabinets boast different pearl-engraved designs.

The beautiful tableware dates back to the Reign of King Rama V era.

The dining room showcases elegant glassware, Qing Dynasty blue-and-white ceramic tableware and European porcelain produced by Johnson Brothers between 1899 and 1913 as well as an expandable wood dining table with its legs engraved to resemble a lion’s paw.

“My grandmother loved pets and loved collecting antiques, which is why we have many things to display and there are cats and dogs walking around. In the past, we raised goats for their milk and we cooked our own food. Eldest aunt was responsible for the cooking. We want to reflect good memories of bygone days,” Parakrit explains.

Upstairs visitors can pay respect to Waraporn and her parents in the Ancestor room with its Benjarong bowls in Thepphanom design and Chinese-style sacrificial offerings.

A leisure zone on the second floor, where Waraporn and her sisters often sat and read books.

Next door is the master bedroom and dressing room furnished in Art Deco-style and boasting a teak dressing table equipped with three mirror panels and a porcelain table top basin with a blue rose pattern.

This house is also home to the Dr Francis Christian Library, so named in tribute to mother Sa-ang’s first husband, who worked as a doctor. Another room, known as the Wanida Bedroom, was added by Sa-ang to welcome her daughter Wanida back home from her master’s degree studies at Indiana University.

The oldest of the properties is Ruen Dr Francis Christian, an elegant two-floor teak house moved from Tung Mahamek in 1929. It’s designed as a clinic and residence and tells Christian’s story through his vintage medical equipment, old textbooks, notebooks and home furnishings.

Dr Francis Christian’s home was moved from Tung Mahamek and designed to be both a residence and clinic.

Today, the BMA has turned its basement into a space that local artists can use to exhibit their art and a reading space stocked with second-hand literary works. BMA has also renovated Sa-ang’s eight shophouses and turned them into an exhibition space.

Waraporn filled the ground floor with rare artefacts, old stamps, bank notes and old-fashioned tools used in handicrafts. She also set up a cooking corner, showcasing all too rare antique kitchenware.

On the second floor, BMA takes visitors back to the history of Bang Rak, once one of the most prosperous business hubs in the city and home to Chinese residents and foreign merchants.

“We plan to open the house where my aunt lived before she passed away. We will keep everything just as it used to be.” Parakrit says.

“We want to host training for volunteer guides so that they can accurately relate the background of the houses and the community.”

IF YOU GO

>> The Bangkok Folk Museum is at 273 Soi Charoenkrung 43. It’s open Wednesday to Sunday from 9am to 4pm.

>> Call (02) 233 7027 or (02) 234 6741. Find out more at http://www.BMALocalMuseum.com.