Name: Falling in Love with Taiwan
Uploaded: 2018-09-03T00:17:09.000Z
Duration: 21 min 20 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 gone by different names as it's been discovered and ruled by different people over time.

When Portuguese explorers first caught sight of this beautiful island in 1544,

More years brought more names from more people: the Dutch, the Japanese, the Chinese.

But to me, the best name is the one affectionately used by Taiwan's own people:

The curvy tapered coastline is behind this pet name, but it fits in other ways too.

A sweet potato looks quite a bit like a regular spud,

but one bite tells you that, unless you look inside, you entirely miss the sweetness that sets it apart.

Marc and I experienced a whirlwind trip to Taiwan and we're taking you along.

It's going to whet your appetite but, trust me, you're going to want more.

Air Canada invited us on a trip to Taiwan.

They are celebrating the one year anniversary of their non-stop flight from Vancouver, Canada

to Taipei, Taiwan and I can't think of anything I would rather be doing at this exact moment

than getting on a plane to go to Taipei for the first time.

Our first impression came before we even left the tarmac

and the woman who was sitting in front of us

heard us talking about how this was our first time in Taiwan

and she leaned around, she's like, “Welcome to Taipei!

and I just thought, wow, what an introduction to this country.

Such warm people so far from what we can tell.

you can't help but notice that one building towers above the rest of the city.

There is no massive skyline here and that's what makes it stand out,

like one tall tree that stretched above the others to get a better view.

And a better view is exactly what we wanted, so we went there first to start at the top.

This was the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010 when Dubai took over.

It's meant to look like a big stick of bamboo

but it's 101 stories which is what gives it the name Taipei 101.

We've just come up to the 91st floor which is outdoors just in time for the sunset

and there's a very nice breeze up here too.

Our first full day in Taiwan also happened to be the hottest day in recorded history in 122 years!

The perfect day to head to the beach for a sand sculpture festival.

I used to make a few sand sculptures as a kid like everyone

but this is some pretty next level looking stuff.

Oh nothing, just another day at the beach in Taiwan

looking at international sand sculptures.

The record breaking temperature already had us breaking a sweat

so we chased the breeze by cruising into the countryside.

We rented some bikes and it's going to get a lot cooler and a lot darker

because this is a two kilometre long tunnel we're about to go through

and it was originally built to connect Taipei with the east coast

because the terrain is really mountainous unless you cut right through.

Riding through this old train tunnel was my first taste of how Taiwan looks forward

Some parts of the world are eager to knock down old things,

But here there's an understanding that the present is deeply rooted in the past.

when abandoned sites are transformed and people move back in.

We visited a place where it wasn't people that moved back – it was nature,

We're in Tainan at the Anping Tree House and this is no ordinary tree house

it is literally a house, or a warehouse formerly,

that has been taken over by huge banyan trees.

and this whole area was full of warehouses and they were abandoned at a certain point

and nature just moved in and they're here to stay.

And now it's called the tree house because that's what it's become.

Everywhere that you look out of the bricks, out of little crevices, crawling up and over,

are all of these incredibly beautiful limbs of this huge banyan tree – multiple banyan trees.

This is definitely something that I love.

If you're someone like me who has ever kind of thought about or wondered

what the world will be like without humans

and how nature will take over and what that might look like

and just seeing how this tree just envelops this building and takes over

and it's become this beautiful testament to the fact that whatever we build,

It's staggering to see how quickly tree giants can break their fists through brick walls

and swing their legs over the eaves, making rooftops into tree tops.

I always wanted to live in a tree house growing up, just like Swiss Family Robinson

and I think I have found the perfect tree house scenario here.

Just find an old building, let the banyan trees move in first, then move in.

Would you live in this tree house with me?

I would absolutely live in this tree house with you.

I felt really at home in a country that sees the beauty in letting trees

stretch their way into houses, piercing new holes to let the light in.

Of course, light comes through wherever you look for it -

like at the Formosa Boulevard subway station in Kaohsiung.

It's amazing to see how light can transform a transient place full of rushed commuters

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Falling in Love with Taiwan

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