Taiwan is an island of highs. The International Finance Centre 101 in Taipei was built to resemble a stalk of bamboo, and towers above the surrounding low-rise city. The nearby National Palace museum is a cultural high with the world's finest collection of Chinese art, while the Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek memorials commemorate the high-water mark of early 20th-century Chinese nationalist uprisings before the advent of Mao Zedong and communism.
Mountains are Taiwan's most dominant feature however and provide a natural high unsurpassed in Southeast Asia. Just an hour distant and with similar climate, cuisine, culture and shopping experiences, it's tempting to see Taiwan as Hong Kong writ large. This might be the reason so few long-haul tourists visit the island in comparison to Hong Kong.
Taiwan's mountains stretch 170km in a series of jagged, remote peaks rising to 3,952 metres at Yushan (Jade Mountain) - which sounds even more impressive when quoted as 12,965 feet. Yushan is almost as big as Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest peak, bigger than Mount Fuji and high enough to cause altitude sickness and boast snow cover throughout the winter months.
Reaching the mountains involves a white knuckle ride along the exhilarating Suao-Hualien Highway, perched hundreds of metres above the Pacific. Consequently, the road is listed by many motorbike clubs as one of the world's great journeys: the bends are tight, the drops vertiginous and the views breathtaking. On one side, mountains rear up and crowd the road and on the other the ocean seems never to end, its flat expanse broken only by the occasional fishing boat.
Eastern Taiwan also has the highest concentration of indigenous people on the island. Many still uphold tribal culture despite the rapid economic development epitomised by the urban sprawl of Taipei 100km away. Add white-water rafting, snorkelling and swimming and east Taiwan becomes beach resort, adventure paradise and cultural experience all rolled into one.
The peaks of Taiwan are home to a wide range of flora and fauna, far from human contact and with boundless hiking and climbing opportunities. At the foot of the hills in the northwest of the island is Taroko Gorge. This is an accessible but untamed land where Formosan black bears can still be spotted and visitors can soak their weary bones in an abundance of hot springs. Cliffs of solid marble 300 metres tall, trails that run through alpine forests and through tunnels blasted out of the rock, and suspension bridges perched high above raging rivers are reminders that nature is on a truly grand scale here. Hong Kong it definitely is not.
If all of this sounds like an environmental utopia, it is worth bearing in mind that this hasn't always been the case. Taiwan's economic miracle created growth of nearly 9 per cent per annum and a 360 per cent growth in gross national product between 1960 and 1985, due mostly to an abundance of cheap and educated workers and an absence of independent trade unions. The natural beauty of the island had long been sacrificed at the altar of greater prosperity. Urban sprawl and pollution have taken a heavy toll and vast tracts of forest have been destroyed, decimating animal habitats and causing extensive soil erosion.