Taiwan

The isle of Taiwan is in the West Pacific, 160 km Southeast of China. On this tiny space, the volunteers will discover both the charm of Far East, a subtropical nature, the Chinese culture and the Asian religions while volunteering working for a small organization. The isle is essentially covered by mountains but the Western part is flat in the center and in the south. The higher top of the Yu Shan mountain (玉山 Yùshān, Jade Mountain) that culminates to 3952 meters. The climate of Taiwan is a tropical climate in the south and a subtropical humid climate in the north, typhoons strike Taiwan from spring to summer.

Concerning the budget, if we don’t need to find accommodation on the isle, life remains very affordable. Here is a few examples of the prices :

Basic products Prices in Euros / New Taiwanese Dollars
1L of water (botel) 0,5 € /  18 TWD
1 meal (2 dishes) 2, 8 € / 102 TWD
1 bus ticket 0,5 € / 18 TWD

The Taiwanese population consists of 98% of Han Chinese and 2% of Austronesians still called “aboriginal”.

New immigrants and foreign workers, mainly coming from China and southeast Asia are almost 1 million.

The status claimed to be “Republic of China” imposed mandarin as official language and among the “traditional” languages, we can find :

  • Holo (or hoklo), spoken by about 70% of the population,
  • Hakka (about 14% of the population),
  • The Austronesian languages of the14 aboriginal communities are almost 500 000 and represent about 2% of the population.

Taiwan is a small culinar China in concentrate, with typical meals from the big cities and the Chinese provinces. The Taiwanese absorbed the influences of the Cantonese cooking, the Fujian province, Hakka and the other Han Chinese regional cooking’s. The Japanese cooking which is the heritage of 50 years of Nippon presence is also present on the isle (1895-1945).

Vaccine and specific advice :

Find out what vaccines are recommended for the country and what are the diseases preventive and/or treatment measures on site.

Checklist :

Vaccine renewal, country-specific vaccinations: 1-3 months before leaving

Visit your doctor or specialist for any health problem, repeat of medical prescriptions, contraception, to have a sufficient initial stock of drugs, adjustment of dosages. Moreover, you will need to send your coordinator a certificate from your doctor certifying that you are well able to participate in an international volunteer project.

Dentist: a dental check-up can be useful before you leave !

We recommend you to visit the mentioned below websites to consult the travel advice.

UK : https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/taiwan/safety-and-security

USA : https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Taiwan.html

Canada : https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/taiwan

Our local partner VYA is an organization that organizes volunteer projects in various fields (environment, agriculture, rural development, social work, education…) with help of young volunteers brought to involve themselves for very short periods (from one day to two weeks). VYA also regularly sends us its volunteers in Belgium on our short or long-term projects.

With regard to obtaining a visa and entry requirements, we invite you to contact the embassy in question :

Embassy of Taiwan in the UK :

Taipei Representative office in the U.K.
50 Grosvenor Gardens
London SW1W OEB
United Kingdom
TELEPHONE (+44) (20) 7881-2650
FAX (+44) (20) 7730-3139
EMAIL [email protected]

WEBSITE www.roc-taiwan.org/uk/

Embassy of Taiwan in the USA :

4201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016
United States
TELEPHONE (+1) (202) 895-1800
(+1) (202)895-1814 (Visa)
FAX (+1) (202) 363-0999
EMAIL [email protected]
[email protected]

WEBSITE www.taiwanembassy.org/us/

Embassy of Taiwan in Canada :

45 O’Connor Street Suite 1960
World Exchange Plaza
Ottawa, ON K1P 1A4
Canada
TELEPHONE (+1) (613) 231-5080
(+1) (613) 762-6090 (Emergency)
FAX (+1) (613) 231- 7235
EMAIL [email protected]

WEBSITE www.taiwanembassy.org/ca/

List of projects available in Taiwan