Answer: China
Officially known as the Republic of China, Taiwan lies about 180 km off the south-east coast of mainland China. The Philippines lies more than 250 km to the south across the Luzon Strait. Tokyo, Japan is roughly 2,100 km to the north-east and Vietnam is a bit closer at about 1,700 km to the south-west.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: Kaohsiung
In 2010, Kaohsiung City expanded by joining with Kaohsiung County. The total population in 2011 was about 2.8 million. Taipei had about 6.5 million people in 2011, but only if the 3.9 million of the separately-administered surrounding area known as "New Taipei" were included. Taipei City and Taichung had about 2.6 million people each in 2011, but neither is a seaport.
From Quiz: A Quick Tour of Taiwan
Answer: Taipei
When Taiwan's Taipei 101 skyscraper was completed in 2004 it became the world's tallest building at that time.
From Quiz: Taiwan
Answer: Yushan
About five million years ago, this area was underwater. Tectonic plate movement since then has seen the island being formed as well as the creation of 165 mountains on the island over 3,000 metres in height.
An American sailing captain noticed the mountain in 1857 and the mountain bore his name for a while - Mount Morrison. Alternatively it may have been named after the 19th century missionary Robert Morrison.
During the Japanese period, the name was changed by the first known ascensionists in 1900 to Niitakayama. This name was part of the code phrase launching the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, bringing the Americans into the Second World War.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: Blue, white and red
When competing Taiwan has to be called Chinese Taipei and does not use its own flag.
From Quiz: Taiwan
Answer: Austronesian
Population pressure is said to have led to migrations by sea initially down through the Philippines from perhaps as early as 5,000 BC.
Over thousands of years these seafarers reached as far as Madagascar, New Zealand and Easter Island. The arrival of the sweet potato in South America suggests that they may even have reached there. There are perhaps 400 million people with an Austronesian heritage.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: The shape of the island
The island of Taiwan does look rather like a sweet potato, with a bit of imagination. It is an elliptical shape, oriented roughly north-south. Its longest axis is about 395 km (245 mi) long, and its width is about 145 km (90 mi). Sweet potatoes are a popular food in many Asian and Polynesian countries, including Taiwan, but not the most important staple food.
Early maps drew the island as it is approached from the west, so that the length spreads from side to side of the map, showing the shape in a different light, which has led to it being compared to a whale.
From Quiz: Taiwan (Republic of China)
Answer: Fujian
The Fujian dialect is almost identical to modern day Taiwanese.
From Quiz: Taiwan
Answer: It is salt water
There are only three salt water hot springs known in the world. Apart from this one, there is one on Kyushu Island, Japan and one on Sicily, Italy. Its relative remoteness from the main island meant that Green Island was a favoured spot to send political prisoners during the second half of the 20th century.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: Austronesian
Taiwan is thought to be the original home of the Austronesian language family, which is now spread over thousands of miles in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Aboriginal people make up about two percent of the population of Taiwan. Of their 26 languages, ten are now extinct and several others endangered.
From Quiz: A Quick Tour of Taiwan
Answer: Dr. Sun Yatsen
Sun Yatsen was the first president of the ROC but did not crave power and so stepped down.
From Quiz: Taiwan
Answer: Humid sub-tropical/Tropical monsoon
Taiwan is affected by the East Asian monsoon and experiences two monsoon seasons. The north and centre of the island has a sub-tropical climate while the south has fewer temperature fluctuations and is considered tropical. The mountains are more temperate.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: Southern Fujian
Most inhabitants of today's Taiwan are descended from immigrants from the southern part of Fujian province (especially the cities of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou) who came to Taiwan in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The dialect of Chinese spoken in that region, Southern Min, also predominates in Taiwan.
From Quiz: A Quick Tour of Taiwan
Answer: Yushan
Yushan means Jade mountain and at 3,952m is higher than Japan's Mt. Fuji.
From Quiz: Taiwan
Answer: Mountains in the eastern two-thirds, flat plains in the western one-third
The mountains are in five different ranges running the length of the island: Central, Hsueshan, Yushan, Alishan and Coastal. They include around 200 peaks over 3000 m (9800 ft) in elevation. A list of 100 of these has been compiled, which mountaineers scale much as UK climbers try to collect all the Munros. The mountains are home to a diverse native flora and fauna, and few people. Over 90% of the island's population can be found in the plains and hills of the west. During the time of Japanese rule (1895-1945), much of the timber resource of the mountains was used to for construction of buildings and shrines, and the timber industry has never fully recovered.
From Quiz: Taiwan (Republic of China)
Answer: Red
The traditional gift is an even monetary sum given in a red envelope. White is actually the colour for death in Taiwan.
From Quiz: Taiwan
Answer: West side
The island's formation at the boundaries of tectonic plates has resulted in a wedge-shaped land form. Two-thirds of the island is taken up with mountain chains with the coastal plains to the west. Already with a quite high population relative to total land area, most of the 23 million are crammed into cities on the western plains.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: 4
In Chinese the number four sounds like the word for death.
From Quiz: Taiwan
Answer: Nuclear waste disposal
Despite being in an active earthquake zone, Taiwan has several nuclear power plants. The solution to the nuclear waste problem has been to store about 100,000 barrels of it on Orchid Island. The local population had no say in the decision.
Protests over the years have sought the removal of the barrels. No alternative solution has been forthcoming. In the meantime the power company has promised to repackage the waste due to the corrosion of the existing steel barrels caused by the island's salty air.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: Grass Mountain
That's Caoshan in Chinese, so-called because the Japanese burned off forest cover to discourage the local population from poaching valuable resources such as sulfur. When Chiang Kai-shek arrived, he renamed the mountain in honor of one of his favorite thinkers, the Ming-dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming (1472-1529). Today Yangmingshan is known for its hot springs, beautiful scenery, and venomous snakes.
From Quiz: A Quick Tour of Taiwan
Answer: Acer
Acer has been a major sponsor of the Taiwan Open (Golf) since the 2000 event.
From Quiz: Taiwan
Answer: Damming the outlets
The island at one time helped to create the shapes of the sun and crescent moon in the lake, giving rise to the lake's name. It was a sacred place for the Thao aborigine tribe. When the lake was dammed for a hydro-electric scheme in 1934 by the Japanese, much of the island was submerged. It shrank further as a result of the 921 earthquake in 1999.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: Taiwan is the only place in the world where they are found
A species (or subspecies) is endemic to a region if that is the only place where it is found. Madagascar is well known for having a lot of species which are only found there (and it's usually the answer to a trivia question about the only place where some species can be found), but other islands commonly have a number of endemic species. Taiwan's endemic species include plants such as the Formosan Cypress and the Taiwan Fir, land animals such as the Formosan Black Bear and the Formosan Sika Deer, and birds such as the Swinhoe's Pheasant and the Taiwan Blue Magpie. Unfortunately, economic development has led to habitat pressure on many of the endemic species (most of which are found in the eastern mountains, especially near Yushan), and a number of them are designated as endangered.
From Quiz: Taiwan (Republic of China)
Answer: Portugal
The Portuguese are first recorded giving it the name 'Ilha Formosa' (or 'beautiful isle') in 1544. It was however the Dutch who were the first Western country to colonise it, followed briefly by the Spanish, then the Chinese, and the Japanese.
The island has been inhabited for thousands of years, perhaps as much as 30,000 years. It was also connected to mainland China by a land bridge during one of the glacial periods. The Taiwanese aboriginals probably date to 6,000 BC and now represent less than three per cent of the population with Han Chinese being the dominant race.
From Quiz: Ilha Formosa
Answer: Ilha Formosa
Ilha Formosa means beautiful island and when you get out of the polluted cities you can see why.
From Quiz: Taiwan