It’s the Year of the Horse 🐴 and Taiwan is THE place to celebrate! 🐎 The last few weeks have seen us celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year, and I was delighted to welcome my nephew, Lawrence and his wife, Anja, to Taiwan to celebrate too. They were kind of following in the footsteps of Lawrence’s parents, my brother, David and his wife Anna, who made a similar trip in May 2025; check out that blog post here. Over these last 3 weeks, we’ve been everywhere, all over Taiwan, we’ve seen everything and met everyone ~ and what an amazing time we’ve had! Special thanks to everyone who gave us such a warm welcome and showed us such wonderful hospitality, especially those in the Taiwan Episcopal Church. It has really been an incredible experience.

Lawrence and Anja’s trip, from February 8-27, 2026, started in London, but was delayed as their flight circled 5 times over Taiwan before landing. We later discovered the delay was due to an earlier flight losing a wheel on arrival, which closed one runway and delayed all flights. I was beginning to wonder if they’d ever stop going round and round up there – but hey ho, they did! They arrived early evening, and as it was only 2 weeks after Alex Honnold had scaled Taipei 101 in his epic free solo climb on January 26, I knew that the first place we had to go was to check out Taipei 101. Gotta get there fast because the Taipei 101 lights are supposed to go off at 10:00 pm – though in fact they didn’t, much to our relief. From now on, my guided tour will always include where we stood on that day to watch Alex Honnold live – checking out the exact corner where he climbed from, now fenced off with a ‘DO NOT CLIMB’ sign! On the second day of their visit to Taiwan, we met up with Angel and her son and went up Taipei 101 from the inside (via the world’s fastest lifts), up to the observation deck on the 89th floor. On any normal day, it’s really quite awe-inspiring to stand up there and look out and down at the scenery, but then to see the exact place where Alex Honnold had climbed is even more mind-blowing ~ and to think he did it all without any safety equipment, just incredible.

The colour always associated with Chinese Lunar New Year is red; it’s on all the decorations everywhere, and the other colour I think of at New Year is pink, because of the cherry blossom, and it’s everywhere too. Red and pink accompanied us all around Taiwan. We spent the first 2 days in Taipei City, watching the honour guards outside Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, having a welcome lunch with Bishop Lennon Chang and all the diocesan office staff in honour of the New Year, and a tour of the National Taiwan University (NTU) with Rev. Claire Wang, Sandy, Shiphrah and Aaron. Bishop Chang, Lawrence and Anja, all three of them have PhD’s in Maths, and on our tour of NTU, we just had to pass by the NTU maths dept and take a photo! We also visited St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei, and Lawrence had a go on the pipe organ. As Anja is from Germany, and in honour of her visit, so the children of St. John’s Cathedral Kindergarten had learned a few words of German from our German family, whose children study in the kindergarten. Ah, we had such great fun with the kids all saying Guten Morgen, Danke and Supergut!

We also visited Di-Hua Street 迪化街 with Sandy, which hosts a traditional New Year market, attracting thousands…

On Wednesday, February 11, we started our mega round-island tour of Taiwan by making the most of the upcoming New Year holiday; ah, it was such fun! First off was by high-speed rail to Taichung, where we were warmly welcomed by Rev. Lily Chang at St. James’ Church, and later at a delicious Japanese dinner, kindly hosted by St. James’ Kindergarten Supervisor, Luanne, with Rev. Charles C. T. Chen and his family, who entertained us with many lively stories. They were all leaving the following day for a 10-day New Year family holiday to Australia and New Zealand, so they would be back in Taiwan before we arrived back in Taipei. Nobody could quite believe that we would be travelling for 2 weeks around Taiwan! But I love Taiwan, and 2 weeks is hardly long enough to see everything! On our first afternoon in Taichung, we visited the original bubble milk tea shop, from where the current bubble milk tea craze all started. Yes, it all started in Taichung at Chun Shui Tang – here bubble milk tea is known in Chinese as 珍珠奶茶, translated as Pearl Milk Tea, and it all began in a very unassuming little shop in Taichung, not far from St. James’ Church. Then the next day, my good friend, Ah-Guan and her friend Su took us to visit Sun Moon Lake for the day, one of the scenic highlights of our whole trip – and it was so beautiful!

On Friday, February 13, we said goodbye to Taichung and headed south to Tainan, where Bishop David J. H. Lai and his wife, Lily, kindly hosted us to a delicious lunch, followed by tea-drinking in their home and a birthday cake for Anja. Yes, it was her birthday, and the celebrations lasted for several days! Rev. Mark C. C. Cheng, vicar of Grace Church, Tainan, took us to visit the Tainan Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Confucius Temple. Tainan is the kind of place that I would always like to stay longer, and as the former capital of Taiwan, it has so much history and is full of interesting places to visit – I just wish it had a Metro (MRT) line, otherwise it’s such a great place!

And so to Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s third largest city (after Taipei and Taichung), and ranked as the ninth busiest container port in the world. In May 2025, I came here with David and Anna, and they loved it so much that we had to come again this time! This time, though, we stayed at St. Timothy’s Church, where the Rev. Antony Liang is now the rector, and we attended the Sunday service there on February 15, where we also met Sheerah and her family, our good friends from Taipei. Church services there are in Taiwanese, and I am very grateful to Antony for giving the sermon that day in Mandarin Chinese and English. The Sunday before Lunar New Year is Ancestors Memorial Sunday in the Taiwan Episcopal Church, and Antony’s sermon was so excellent and so meaningful for all three of us that I have attached it here, in English and Chinese. Among other things, it really helps explain the Christian approach to the Chinese Lunar New Year traditions of ancestor worship.

Kaohsiung has so much to see and do these days, and the city government has really worked hard to make the city more attractive for visitors. There’s still the usual factories, lots of pollution and all the port industries, but there’s also the Weiwuying Concert Hall, the boat trip to Cijin Island, Pier 2, and lots of painted houses everywhere – I love all the colour. There was even Ultraman in all his glory in the water. Despite it being the Year of the Horse, there were no horses in sight, but hey, Ultraman is attracting the visitors and there’s always horses for another year! We were delighted to meet up with Jane Ou for sightseeing and dumpling making, with George and Eliza for a trip to Cijin Lighthouse, with Isaac for the best Matcha in Kaohsiung and with Antony and his family for a trip to the Liuhe Night Market. Such fun!

And so farewell to our wonderful friends in Kaohsiung and off on the short 20-minute train ride to Pingtung where we were to spend the actual Lunar New Year. We were met by Deacon, Rev. Christina Hai and taken to St. Mark’s Church, where a warm welcome awaited us. And then to my good friend, Ju-zi’s home for the next 3 nights. Ju-zi is very lively, and her life story is fascinating, and can be read in a previous blog post from my visit there in 2021 (see the link here). Her mother was evacuated from the Dachen Islands in 1955 to Taiwan, and their home in the Dachen Village in Pingtung is where Ju-zi has lived all her life, and where she now makes her living and shares her faith through cooking her mother’s Dachen Island food – so we had delicious meals every day – thank you, Ju-zi! She’s delighted to have been featured in this month’s edition of the Taiwan High-Speed Rail Magazine, plus other foodie magazines, and we were honoured to be so warmly welcomed, especially as Ju-zi is extra busy these days after opening a market stall that serves Dachen food 3 or 4 afternoons a week. We did help a little with the traditional New Year’s Eve customs of spring cleaning, replacing the red couplets around the outside door and getting ready for the New Year – I’m so pleased that Lawrence and Anja are both so tall, as well as being so willing to help!

We also visited local sites, Shengli Village and the Lantern Festival displays, and on New Year’s Day, while everyone else in Pingtung was visiting temples and then relatives, we went to Sandimen, to the indigenous Paiwan villages, where we made our own Paiwan beads and visited the villages where Paiwan people had been relocated after typhoons. It’s almost 10 years since I last went to Sandimen, so it was great to return, and I love the beads we made! Pingtung is also famous for its oh-so-romantic traffic lights – always gotta check them out when in Pingtung!

While the first day of the Chinese New Year is usually quite quiet on the roads, the second day is definitely not. The second day is the day when everyone traditionally leaves the husband’s family to visit the wife’s family, so the roads are packed with cars, and trains are full. I am forever grateful to Lisa in our diocesan office for helping book our train tickets, and although we had to travel later in the day, we still got the tickets for the days we wanted. So, on Wednesday, February 18, off we set for Taitung, going through the mountain tunnels from the west coast to emerge on the east coast. It immediately felt cooler and was overcast, and the weather was set to be like that for the next few days. Our friend, Ah-Guan had joined us the night before in Pingtung, having spent her own New Year with her family. For the rest of our trip, she would be with us. It’s always helpful to travel with Taiwan people, and so much easier, and she thought it was great, all four of us with different country passports, and all travelling around together. Our destination, Taitung, on Taiwan’s SE coast, is beautiful, but has suffered greatly economically in recent years due to a lack of visitors, partly due to the pandemic, but especially the April 3, 2024 Hualien earthquake that devastated Taroko Gorge meant tourists no longer coming to Hualien – and therefore no longer extending their trip to Taitung. We, of course, were so pleased to be there. Taitung is one of my favourite places in Taiwan, though it’s so far away and needs a major plan to get there. We had a plan, we also had a tour arranged, thanks to my friends, Winston and Marjorie, and we also had a guest house booked, thanks to Rev. Shawn Wang, whose father recommended we stay with Mr Huang and his family. It turned out that in the late 1960’s, Mr Huang had been a lay reader in the Taiwan Episcopal Church, serving in St. Paul’s Clinic, Kaohsiung – located on the site that is now St. Timothy’s Church, where we had been staying only a few days earlier. He even had a lay reader’s certificate, signed by Bishop James Wong. What’s more, he had served under Rev. Richard Ou, the first Taiwanese priest in the Taiwan Episcopal Church, and father of Jane Ou, who only days before had been teaching Anja to make dumplings. Ah, it’s a small world! Mr Huang moved to Taitung in 1970 to work in the Taitung Christian Hospital and has been there ever since, opening up a guest house in his retirement – he’s now 81 and still going strong! We were so fortunate to be able to go up the east coast as far as Sanxiantai 三仙台 and see all the sights along the coast, largely populated by indigenous people of the Amis Tribe. Also, a big cave, a lighthouse, monkeys, and coconuts. We also visited the old Taitung Sugar Factory – always places filled with derelict old buildings, art installations and ice-cream. Taitung’s weather was cooler and the air fresher; we loved it all!

After 2 nights in Taitung City, we went further inland on a short 10-minute train ride to spend the night at the Bunun Leisure Farm up past the tea plantations at Luye. I’ve been there probably 8-10 times, and I really like it. Bunun Leisure Farm was set up by the Rev. Bai Guang-sheng in 1995, after serving 11 years as a Presbyterian pastor in the village church. Through the “Bunun Cultural and Educational Foundation”, his aim was always to develop a sustainable tourism industry with a Bunun flavour, including performances – the Bunun people are especially famous for their 8-part harmonies (we went to 4 performances!), coffee shop, guest houses, and a restaurant. All the employees are Bunun people, and it has clearly greatly benefited the local community. Although it suffered during the pandemic, it is gradually building back up again. Unfortunately, a typhoon in August 2025 destroyed the windows of the building that the community were using as a church; it is currently roped off. It was sunny, so our walk to the local township of Yanping in the early morning was beautiful, and watching the sunrise from the 7-Eleven means you can drink coffee at the same time – and there was a very friendly cat in there too! We also met Rev. Bai’s daughter, now in charge and very talented in singing and managing the place. We also met some Tanzanians, former interns there, helping out over the New Year and now working in northern Taiwan. Oh yes, and not forgetting the little white duck, with blue shoes, which someone had brought along as their pet!

And so to our final destination, Hualien, on Saturday, February 21 – it was dark by the time we arrived. We stayed at Rose Land Guest House, owned by Mr Yang and his family from St. Luke’s Church, Hualien. We spent Sunday at St. Luke’s Church, warmly welcomed by Rev. Joseph Wu, the vicar, and his church members. As Ash Wednesday had occurred on the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, imposition of ashes was postponed until the following Sunday – hence everyone in the photo below has ashes on their foreheads. I was especially pleased to see Dr and Mrs Kuo from Guangfu Dental Clinic – such amazing memories of my last visits to Hualien in autumn 2025 to help clear up after the mudslides at Guangfu – see those blog posts here and here. And we were delighted to meet up again with Mr. Jerry Liang, his wife, Jean and grandson James, family members of Rev. Antony Liang – Antony was previously vicar of St. Luke’s Church and his son remains in Hualien for his final year of junior high school, looked after by his grandparents – all of us have such admiration for them! We also went to the sea, the night market for the famous coffin toast (!) and the Lantern Festival too.

Monday, February 23 was the day set by the Taiwan government to return to work and school after the 9-day New Year holiday, but we were still in Hualien, where it was now much quieter, and so we joined a tour to visit Taroko Gorge. This was an amazing visit. Taroko Gorge was badly damaged by the 7.4 earthquake on April 3, 2024, and has been largely closed ever since. Repairs to the trails and road are ongoing, and will continue for years to come, but there is big pressure to reopen, as Taiwan’s tourism industry has been badly affected. Taroko Gorge is Taiwan’s Number One scenic attraction, and as long as the aftershocks have more or less stopped, the quicker it’s reopened, the better for everyone. Last May, on our most recent visit, private cars were allowed through Taroko Gorge in convoy, but tour buses like ours were only allowed as far as the visitors centre; now they are allowed up to Tianxiang. This time, we could join the convoy driving up to Tianxiang, which happens every 2 hours or so, and it was fascinating to see how the road repairs are progressing, as well as the amazing scenery. It was great to see that the river water, once turquoise, then turned grey by all the landslides, is now back to a blue-green colour. On the way up, it was raining, but when we arrived at Tianxiang, the rain stopped, and the sun came out. At Tianxiang, we visited a stunning Buddhist Temple, full of pink cherry blossoms and friendly nuns selling fruit juice. We also visited Xincheng Town, famous for its RC church built on the site of the Shinto Shrine and burial place of the Japanese soldiers and police killed in the Xincheng Incident in 1896 and the resulting Truku War in 1914. Our final destination was the beautiful Qixingtan Beach, right by the Hualien Airport, where the air force was busy practising; it was beautiful but oh so noisy!

On Tuesday, February 24, we said goodbye to Hualien and headed back to Taipei, but there was one last place to visit on the way. It was a big highlight of their Taiwan trip for Lawrence and Anja to visit Kavalan Whisky Distillery in Yilan. Anja started learning about whisky when she first studied in Scotland, and is more knowledgeable about whisky than anyone I’ve ever met, so for her it was a kind of pilgrimage, and her whisky friends at home were highly envious! Kavalan Whisky Distillery only started whisky production about 20 years ago, making great use of the pure, clear water coming down from the central mountain range, as well as the high temperatures and humidity that enable the whisky to mature faster. Kavalan has since gone on to win major awards in the whisky world, so Kavalan is the whisky of choice! We joined an English tour, and as a result of our visit, I now have Kavalan VIP status for the next year! 😂 Come and visit if you’re interested!

And so back to Taipei, where we dropped our luggage and rushed off to see the New Taipei City Lantern Festival at Sanchong, with a mix of horse lanterns, temple lanterns and even Bible stories!

We now had two remaining days in Taipei to see everything we hadn’t already seen and meet everyone we hadn’t already met! The highlight was an amazing duck and steak dinner, with an exquisite almond milk and papaya dessert, hosted by Winston and Marjorie, who also invited Claire, Sandy and Danny too. Such a lively conversation and a very delicious dinner! We also visited the National Palace Museum (check out the horse photos below) and the Grand Hotel, also a tea-flavoured chocolate coffee shop, gua bao for lunch, had afternoon tea with our German friends, and we finished with a stunning organ concert at the National Concert Hall by German organist, Ludger Lohmann, organ professor and organist at Stuttgart Cathedral, attended by many of us from the Taiwan Episcopal Church. A wonderful end to Lawrence and Anja’s visit to Taiwan!

And so to their departure, and on Friday, February 27, my alarm went off at 3:30 am, and we set off at 5:00 am for the airport. All went well, and 24 hours later, they arrived home all in one piece!

Thank you, Lawrence and Anja, for coming to Taiwan; it’s been so great to welcome you both, and I know you’ve made many friends here. I hope they’ll all come and visit you one day! I also know that they were moved by so many strangers offering their help and advice, and how friendly everyone was. Thank you to everyone in Taiwan who has welcomed us, hosted us, greeted us and helped in any way to make this visit such a success; thank you especially to Bishop Chang and all in the Taiwan Episcopal Church, and of course, thanks be to Almighty God for so many blessings, wonderful weather, safe travels, good health, and such warm welcomes and gracious hospitality!

感謝上帝!❤️感謝大家!