[.ca] Lonely Planet Taiwan (ISBN 1864502118)

A step up...from some others:
Lonely Planet does a fairly good job from a western perspective when it discusses pop music artists of Taiwan. As far as discussing people, it fails to acknowledge the dual ancestry of the Taiwanese Hoklo (Hokkien) and Hakka peoples of Taiwan. The author probably has been sold on the myth taught by the Nationalist Chinese and KMT that the Taiwanese are just ethnic "Chinese" from Fujian and Guangdong. It fails to discuss that it was predominantly Hoklo and Hakka men from Fujian and Guangdong who intermarried with the current lowland Taiwanese aboriginal women at the time. It also does not discuss the many lowland Taiwanese aboriginal households who were forcefully assimilated into the Hoklo culture...and to adapt chinese surnames such as Chen, Tsai, Huang, etc. (the aboriginal tribes discussed are usually the highland and mountain tribes that survived but are small in number) No one would be able to tell because the current Taiwanese population speaks predominantly both Mandarin and Taiwanese, although Hakka too is making a comeback. Speaking of this...Mandarin and Taiwanese pronunciations should be BOTH listed in this guidebook as BOTH languages are widespread in Taiwan. Visitors to night markets and who take taxi cabs will probably want to know some Taiwanese. Television programming is in Mandarin, Taiwanese (Hoklo), and Hakka.

Worthless for anyone who wants to see the REAL Taiwan!:
As an American who spent many years in Taiwan, I found this book to offer little to no insight into Taiwan at all. A far better source for anyone who wants to learn about this wonderful island NATION (not renegade province of China) "Culture Shock -Taiwan." In Tapiei, Taiwan you can also buy a lot of great travel books at Caves Books that are published by local publishers in English ("Formassan Odyssey" is GREAT!!!) The cultural information presented in this "Lonely Planet" guide is pretty out of date (my Taiwanese in-laws had a good laugh at some of the information presented), and the many of the destinations offered are VERY tourist centered. If you are looking for a starting point this book is OK, but if you want to learn about Taiwan, or really experience Taiwan today there are far better sources. For a Lonely Planet guide this book is a shame. A new version is needed badly. No matter what, DO GO TO TAIWAN, it is a great place!!!

Disappointing:
I never imagined that Lonely Planet Taiwan could be so bad, but it indeed is. For instance, maps in the book are useless, and the Taipei metro direction is unclear and useless. And I cannot understand why the author says " For sth really special you can try Haagen Daz." I didn;t belive the previous reviews, and now I learned how bad it is. If you need more information, lots of Taiwanese websites provide very useful information. You can just go to Taiwanese consular office website and find the links.

May not be as bad as the other reviewers suggest.:
I just spent about 6 days in Taipei, and I brought this book with me. Yes, most of the sights mentioned in the book are pretty tourist oriented, but that may be because there is not much else to see (in Taipei, at least). My relatives, who live in Taipei, laughed when I mentioned some of the sights listed in the book. But when I asked them for other recommendations on what to see, they really didn't have any suggestions. Also, I think the section on conduct and behavior is absolutely dead on. The author isn't exaggerating when he says that there is a long sequence of insisting and refusing when exchanging gifts or doing something of that nature. I have witnessed countless times my parents (who are from Taiwan) and my aunt/uncle argue for literally 10 minutes about who should pay for a dinner bill. I give the book only four stars, though, because it doesn't really tell you how to get to various places. It wasn't a problem for me, because I had relatives take me to the various sights. But if I had been on my own, then I would have had a lot more difficulty. In addition, it is now 2004, so this book, which was published in 2001, may be starting to get out of date. Looking at older editions of the book, it appears that Lonely Planet Taiwan gets updated only once every 3 years.

Lacks even the most essential practical information:
Taiwan being one of the few Asian countries I have not yet been to, I bought this book for advance planning. It has already failed even before leaving home! When trying to estimate travel costs by looking for long-distance bus fares, I could hardly believe they were not given! In the "Getting There & Away" section after each town/destination, it was merely mentioned that buses do run there (surprise, surprise!), but no information on how long they take and how much they cost. That is exactly the kind of practical information people usually buy Lonely Planet guides for, and I don't think I have ever seen another LP guide that didn't have them... The 2 stars were given as it does give information about major sights, but given how poorly-researched the practical information is, I would be surprised if the rest was accurate. This may just be the worst LP guide of all.