Name: What do you know about Taiwan? | DW Documentary
Uploaded: 2024-08-08T04:42:53.000Z
Duration: 42 min 26 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

It's like any other country in Asia, but there's more than meets the eye.

And brand new ships are built that will never see water.

The capital, Taipei, is a metropolis of millions, with spectacular wilderness just 20 kilometers away.

The island's east coast boasts 3,000-meter-high mountains.

In between, fields of rice, with a view of the ocean.

People here are part of a millennia-old culture, with ancestor worship, fortune-telling and religious rituals.

The southern part of the island enjoys a warmer climate, averaging almost 25 degrees over the year.

The region around the Kenting National Park attracts a particularly large number of visitors.

Kilometers of lowlands dominate the west coast.

The people live both near and from the sea, harvesting sea salt and farming fish and oysters.

Near Fengyuan, the sea retreats several kilometers at low tide, exposing one of Taiwan's largest oyster farms.

Three times a week, Annie walks through the mudflats, even though cows typically don't like the water.

It takes up to three months before a cow dares to go on the mudflats.

It's hard work to train them, and they remain cautious, especially of the tuk-tuks.

Tuk-tuks, motorized tricycles, have now taken the place of most cows.

Annie Wei-Qing Xue and a few of his colleagues still rely on the four-legged harvesters.

After an hour, the two reach their oyster beds.

First of all, I have to put on my gloves.

First hang up these empty shells, and also take home some oysters.

Wei has ten lines of empty oyster shells with him.

He hangs them so that they hover just above the seafloor.

I hang the mature oysters next to them so their offspring can settle on the empty shells.

Each one has to come in contact with 50 to 100 mature oysters for this to work.

I have to align them well so they move with the tide.

It will take about a year and a half for the new oysters to be ready for harvest.

But in two hours, Annie and Wei have to leave.

Taiwan is located off the Chinese coast in the western Pacific.

The island is about 400 kilometers long and 145 kilometers wide, making it slightly smaller than the Netherlands.

The sea has shaped the country, with its 1,500 kilometers of coastline.

The sea goddess Mazu is particularly revered here.

In the city of Tainan, a 16-meter-high statue of the patron saint of the sea stands right at the mouth of the harbor.

It's believed many ships in distress have been miraculously rescued by Mazu.

In Taiwan, hundreds of temples are dedicated in whole or in part to the goddess of the sea.

Many temples here house sacred ships, known as kingboats.

They are believed to keep evil spirits at bay.

A new kingboat has just been finished here in a suburb of Tainan.

Lin Yangtai is one of the last boat builders in the country still making these vessels.

The client is, in a way, the goddess Mazu.

The goddess decided everything — its size, appearance, and even how long I should work on it.

Today the boat is handed over and checked by the temple head.

Instead, they will be set up next to the temples for a year, and then burned.

He is quite the unique kind of boat builder.

I built my first one when I was 13 years old.

At that time I was working on a fishing boat.

And then an old teacher came and explained to me how to make these special boats.

He only knew the theory, but I put his advice into practice, and that's how I built my first boat.

Lin has been building kingboats for almost 60 years now.

Hi. Yes, no problem. I'll be right there. Wait for me.

An emergency operation is taking place in this hall next to the Xiangshan temple of Dongshu.

One of several Wangye festivals will take place here in two days.

The highlight — this boat built by Lin — is to be burned.

And a broken boat for the sea goddess is out of the question.

The wood is warped. It's a very hard wood, and the boat has been sitting here on dry land for a year after all.

Lin decides to let the painter take care of the crack with some silicone and paint.

But he has a more urgent problem to deal with.

The mast, which will be mounted on the boat at the festival, still needs some rope.

Two days before the festival, we're already pretty stressed, but we're looking forward to it.

You can't forget anything. Every detail is important now.

And most importantly, the goddess is watching what we do very closely.

In two days, Lin's boat will make its way in a procession to the sea.

But it won't go any further than the shoreline.

The country's east. Famous for its steep shoreside cliffs.

The Suhua Highway is considered one of the most spectacular coastal roads in the world.

The Sanxiantai Arch Bridge is modeled after a sea dragon.

Crossing it takes some effort, but it's said to bring good luck.

The east coast is also home to Taiwan's famous hot springs.

There are more than 100 of them on the island.

The warm water, with its sulfurous rotten egg smell, has attracted bathers since the 19th century.

Nowadays, it's also a booming business for wellness tourists.

On a street corner in Hualien, there's somebody who wants in on the wellness boom.

Tong Fanchun has a special business idea.

He's a business man who's been doing business for over 50 years.

He's a businessman who's been doing business for over 50 years.

They're one and a half square meters in size.

Instead of spring water, this just comes from the tap.

But unlike real hot springs, the temperature here can be regulated.

Originally, I built this just for myself.

Then I realized that it has a wider appeal.

A key part of the business is his bath additive invention, which provides that hot spring scent of rotten eggs.

It's a particular smell, and not everyone likes it.