All articles filed in Orchid Island & Green Island

Green Island may be tiny, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in rugged volcanic scenery, startling political history, and a tropical sense of abandon. Its hot springs and teeming coral reefs draw hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, almost all of whom whiz round the island on motor scooters. For those who perhaps want to take things a little slower, the island’s compact size makes exploring by bicycle not just a possibility but a pleasure, and gives you the chance to avoid the irony of a gasoline-fuelled “Green” Island rampage to boot.

Lanyu, or Orchid Island, may be on Taiwan’s doorstep – two and a half hours by ferry from Taitung – but it is a world apart. Home to the Tao indigenous people, it has a culture, lifestyle, traditions, cuisine and sense of time and space that are nothing like those on what the Tao call “the mainland.”