When you travel in Taiwan, will be able to see the diversity landscape influenced by rich history background.

Taiwan’s history can be traced back to at least 7000 years ago. Between 7000 and 400 years ago, Austronesian ancestors of the Aboriginals arrived in Taiwan in small groups and became the earliest known inhabitants of Taiwan.

During the Age of Discovery of the 16th Century, Western sailors arrived in the Far East to set up colonies and conduct trade. As Taiwan was located at the conjunction of East Asia and the oceans, as well as being where the Northeast Asian waters meet the Southeast waters, it became the focus of Asian and Western powers that were operating in East Asian waters at the time. In the first half of the 17th Century, the Dutch established a presence at Anping (modern day Tainan). There they conducted missionary activities, trade and the production of various goods. They also recruited many Han settlers from the coast of China, ushering in the multicultural history of Taiwan.}

For the next 200 years, during the short-lived Cheng family rule and the subsequent Manchu control, the number of Han settlers gradually increased, forming Han communities in Taiwan. At the end of the 19th Century Taiwan became a Japanese colony with the rise of imperialist expansionism. During the 50 years of Japanese colonial rule, Taiwanese society gradually emerged from its traditionalism to become a modern society. With the end of World War II in 1945, Taiwan’s colonial rule ended. In the latter half of the 20th Century, Taiwan experienced its economic miracle and political democratization, garnering worldwide attention. In terms of its own domestic development or when compared to the history in the rest of the world, there are definitely unique aspects to Taiwan’s historical developments. These have attracted the interest of many historians from around the world.

Taiwan today enjoys excellent public infrastructure, convenient transportation and comprehensive communications services, making it one of the most developed regions in the Asia-Pacific. With the election of Mr. Chen Shui-bien of the Democratic Progress Party as the President of Taiwan in year 2000, he is set to lead the people of Taiwan in creating and writing the next chapter in the history of this land from a different perspective.