Looking for a New Destination? Consider the Colorful Island-Nation of Taiwan.

On Sunday's Travel Show, my daughter Pauline provided a fascinating description of her recent trip to Taiwan, a long journey from which she returned last week.

Not many Americans include Taiwan on a list of potential vacation destinations, but the Taiwanese government has recently launched a major marketing effort to change those attitudes. Actually, the largest current group of tourists to Taiwan are Chinese, who can now fly there non-stop from Beijing. That totally unexpected cooperation in aviation marks a startling shift in what used to be a policy of unending enmity between the two republics (Taiwan persists in calling itself The Republic of China, while Beijing styles itself as The People's Republic of China).

Why did the change come about? Why non-stop air between two former adversaries? A political science professor-friend of mine suggests that Taiwanese businessmen are now so heavily engaged in making investments in mainland China that the Chinese have felt compelled to soften their tone. And obviously, Beijing wants Taiwan back, and may now be offering a carrot rather than a stick. That's also (perhaps) why some mainland cities are partially subsidizing the trips to Taiwan of their residents wanting to experience the strong, historic culture of China.

There remains, of course, the ever-present possibility of an armed takeover of Taiwan by mainland China. Beijing's threat is so sensitively felt by the Taiwanese, according to my daughter's observations, that citizens of Taiwan are unusually cordial to visitors from the United States, which they regard as their chief defender against such a Chinese move. Invariably, people would broadly smile at her, make friendly comments, even hug her on occasion, the moment they learned she was an American. The stay was made unusually pleasant by such gestures, as it will be for any American tourist going there.

When the nationalist army of Chiang Kai-Shek was finally defeated (around 1948) by the Chinese communists, they fled to Taiwan, and were accompanied in the immediately-succeeding years by more than two million Han Chinese from the mainland. They also brought with them many of the most precious and important historical relics of the Chinese culture (especially from Beijing's Forbidden City), and placed many of them in an important Palace Museum in Taipei. Accordingly, a visit to that museum is a stunning immersion in the ancient culture of China, stronger perhaps than what one sees anywhere in today's mainland China (where so many artifacts of history were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution). Scattered throughout Taiwan are also numerous religious temples, seemingly more numerous than anything one views in mainland China. These are intricately decorated; and the religious rites and exercises within are done with surprising force and fervor.

But despite those two million Han Chinese that came here with Chiang Kai-Shek, the demographics of Taiwan are amazingly diverse; there are large ethnic groups representing some 17 tribes that historically occupied Taiwan, along with a large number of Japanese who once ran Taiwan. In the "night market" of Taipei, Pauline saw scores of food stands, each one totally different in content than the next. She tasted numerous different ethnic cuisines, one better than the next. In restaurants, she never repeated the ethnicity of a meal.

And prices were surprisingly moderate. She paid the equivalent of one dollar for a bowl of Pork Liver Soup, the equivalent of two dollars for an astonishing Oyster Omelette, one of the best dishes she has ever had.

She ascended to the top of Taipei 101, the world's second highest skyscraper. She went to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, and witnessed an intricately-choreographed Changing of the Guard. And at stores and market places, she never felt herself harassed to purchase, unlike the ever-present and very intrusive hawking of tourists in mainland China.

I've noted only a fraction of her impressions, which you will hear in much greater detail if you turn to the first hour of our March 3 podcast, at wor710.com. I think you'll enjoy hearing her comments, and may be persuaded to consider a trip to Taiwan.