Formosa!
Flying thirteen hours on an airplane felt like a trip to the galaxy. Okay, well, maybe not quite, but it was really a long journey. It probably felt that long because the more I read and
learned about Taiwan, the more I longed to get there.
Finally, we were flying on top of Taiwan. As the airplane descended, through the clouds below, I saw the vast blue ocean, followed by a land of green. Dad told me, Taiwan was once named
Formosa, which means ”beautiful island” in Portuguese.
The pilot announced the land temperature in Taiwan was 37⁰ Celsius, approximately 99⁰ Fahrenheit. It was going to be extremely hot!
‧Taiwan is located in the Western Pacific Ocean to the southeast of China and to the north of the Philippines. The Tropic of Cancer runs through it.
‧The highest point is Yushan, which is 3,952 meters, or 12,966 feet in height. It's the tallest mountain in Northeast Asia!
‧The area of Taiwan is roughly 36,000 square kilometers, about the same size as Belgium or the state of Maryland in the US.
‧The population of Taiwan is around 23 million people.
‧Three quarters of Taiwan is made up of mountainous regions. It is subtropical in the north and tropical in the south. There are four seasons but with little change in temperature. The summer
temperatures can reach as high as 39⁰ Celsius. From July to October is the typhoon season. The typhoons are the strongest in the southern and eastern coast, where they tend to land more often,
but can also do a lot of damage to places like Taipei.
（中文手冊翻譯）
美麗的島嶼
經過了十三個小時的飛行，感覺就像飛了一趟銀河一樣。好啦，可能不完全是，但這趟路途真是有夠遠的！我想，可能是因為知道愈多關於台灣的事，我就愈期待來到這裡 , 所以才會覺得路途遙遠。
