Beyond the forbidding entry rules of Taiwan is a culture rich in seafaring history and stunning landscapes, finds Cameron DueckWe were still five miles from port when we realised that clearing into Taiwan might not be as simple as we\u2019d hoped. Our VHF radio crackled into life and a stern voice from the port authority asked who we were, where we were coming from, and where we were going.
\nIt was mid-October, and we\u2019d just sailed 340 miles from Hong Kong across the Taiwan Strait, double-handed. The crossing was mostly upwind and rough, affirming the strait\u2019s nickname, the Black Ditch. Strong currents, choppy waves and sporadic rain was not how we wanted to start what we planned would be a multi-year cruise, but packing up our home and saying goodbye to family had taken longer than we planned, so we took the weather we were given.
\nOur cruising plans were vague, but we wanted to overwinter in Taiwan and then sail Teng Hoi, our Hallberg-Rassy 42F, north to Japan. Taiwan is a familiar destination for Hong Kongers, sharing enough common culture to feel neighbourly, but enough differences to make it interesting. Taiwan would offer a relatively soft start to our new cruising life, or so we thought.
\nWe were pleased with ourselves as we closed in on Kaohsiung, on Taiwan\u2019s south-western coast. This was the longest crossing we\u2019d made as double-handers, and we were in a jubilant mood, showering and preparing for port, when the radio call came in.
\nThe author sailing across the Taiwan Strait. Photo: Cameron Dueck
\nI answered the port authority\u2019s questions, adding that we\u2019d submitted all of our pre-arrival paperwork via MTNet, Taiwan\u2019s maritime administration website. We lowered our sails and were motoring past the massive stone seawall when they called us again, asking us to wait outside the harbour while they checked our online documents.
\nAfter a few hours of bobbing in the sea, the port authority invited us to moor at a coastguard security dock for further inspection. We were 2m from the dock, about to cast our mooring lines ashore, when they changed their minds and ordered us to turn around and leave port, sending us into the evening dusk.
\n\u201cWe are a small vessel with only two crew, and we are tired from a long crossing. You are putting us into danger by sending us back to sea,\u201d I told them over the radio.
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We slowly idled out of the harbour, hoping the officials would quickly change their minds.
\n\u201cCan\u2019t your motor go faster than that?\u201d they radioed back. \u201cSpeed up, and go at least five miles out. Wait there until we radio you.\u201d
\nI did as I was told, knowing that they held all of the power. We drifted in circles among anchored cargo ships as night fell, all the while making desperate phone calls to marinas asking for assistance. Finally, thanks to a flurry of activity behind the scenes by sympathetic agents and officials that overheard our radio traffic, we were called back into port.<\/p>\n
Six hours after our first attempt we secured our lines in the darkness, assisted by apologetic marina staff.
\n\u201cWelcome to Taiwan. It shouldn\u2019t be this way,\u201d one of the staff said, bowing deeply in apology.
\nWe\u2019d had a small glimpse of the decades-long fear and defensiveness towards the sea that has hobbled Taiwan\u2019s own yachting culture, and plays a role in deterring foreign cruisers from visiting.
\nIn the days to come we\u2019d learn that unclear instructions on the government website contributed to the confusion. We also realised we\u2019d made a mistake by attempting to clear into a major international port, so we were treated like a cargo ship rather than a yacht. And finally we conceded that we should have hired an agent, as we\u2019d been advised to do, to help us navigate the clearing in process.
\nGlittering mahi mahi caught off southern Taiwan. Photo: Cameron Dueck
\nA rich culture
\nOnce the dust had settled we sailed north to Tainan, Taiwan\u2019s oldest city and former capital, still with a keen appetite to explore Taiwan.
\nTaiwan is geographically well placed as a stopover for boats heading north in the western Pacific. From the Philippines it\u2019s only 200 miles across the Luzon Strait to reach Kenting, a small port on the southern tip. Taiwan is also only a three-day voyage from Hong Kong, offering a safe harbour before continuing on to Japan. However, while many yachts en route to a North Pacific crossing to Alaska make stops in Japan, far fewer call at Taiwan.
\nOver the course of the winter in Tainan we would learn more about what has stymied both domestic sailors and visiting cruisers, and we\u2019d also experience the rich culture, warm people and stunning landscapes those cruisers are missing when they bypass Taiwan.
\nDuring the martial law period from 1949 to 1987, amid fears of a possible invasion by Communist China, the Taiwanese lived as if they were a land-locked country with heavy restrictions on all maritime activity. Ordinary Taiwanese were prohibited from going to the beach outside of a few designated resort areas. The coastline and outlying islands were militarised, with land mines and gun placements instead of beach umbrellas and marinas.
\nArgo Yacht Marina in Tainan, Taiwan\u2019s former capital. Photo: Cameron Dueck
\nHeavy industry then took over the coastlines with unsightly, polluting factories and petrochemical plants.
\nWhen martial law was lifted the coastline returned to national attention, with new parks created on outlying islands. But the government\u2019s view of pleasure boats has taken longer to change.
\n\u201cThe bottleneck is at the government level, especially the coastguard and maritime bureau,\u201d said Keith Chen, director of United Project Center, Horizon Yacht, one of the biggest yacht builders on the island. \u201cThey have a historical habit of controlling everything, but they don\u2019t understand pleasure boats or how to manage them. The measures they take sometimes actually make owning a boat harder, not easier.\u201d
\nUntil 1999, boats had to return to the same port that they departed from, and they were not allowed to go to sea for activities other than fishing. Day trippers had to show a fishing rod upon boarding in order to comply with the law. The political clout of the fishing industry in small ports also hinders maritime recreation. They have slowly ceded control but many ports remain hostile towards pleasure vessels.
\n\u201cWe have more than 400 fishing and commercial harbours around Taiwan but most of them don\u2019t allow pleasure boats to dock, even though more than half of them are almost empty and no longer active in fishing,\u201d said Peter Pan, owner of Taiwan Marine Sailing School in Kaohsiung, and a key local contact for visiting yachts.
\nTaiwan\u2019s bustling night markets are full of energy. Photo: Shih-Wei\/Getty
\nIn contrast, Japan has in recent years opened its hundreds of small fishing ports to cruisers, providing basic, but safe and accessible mooring across the country.
\nShaped by seafarers
\nThese restrictions are ironic given that Taiwan\u2019s history has been shaped by seafarers. In 2024, Tainan celebrated the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Dutch maritime traders who, in 1624, sailed in to the swampy delta of the Zengwun River at the settlement of Tayouan, where they built Fort Zeelandia. A rebuilt version of the fort still stands, and Dutch architecture marks many of Tainan\u2019s historical districts, while its museums tell the story of how the oceangoing Dutch turned Taiwan into another link in their global trading empire.
\nOne of Asia\u2019s most famous sailors, Zheng Chenggong, also known as Koxinga, was a Ming general and pirate who drove the Dutch out of Tainan in 1661. He still looms large over the city, both figuratively and physically. Since then, Taiwan has gone through Japanese and Chinese rule, and on to a fragile independence while developing a booming semiconductor industry. Tainan\u2019s wealth of historic architecture and traditional cultural practices defines the city, and as we explored its narrow, twisting alleyways it was easy to let our daydreams carry us back in time.
\nAt Chihkan Tower, the oldest building of Tainan\u2019s historic West Central district, a statue of Koxinga watches tourists clamber over the weathered stone walls. Koxinga\u2019s son Zheng Jing built the nearby Confucius Temple, Taiwan\u2019s first education institution, to honour his father. The compound is decorated with intricate calligraphy, while a granite stela carries instructions for all who pass to dismount from their horses to show respect.
\nTouring historical landmarks by bike. Photo: Cameron Dueck
\nAt night we explored Tainan\u2019s night markets, which are central to local nightlife and culinary culture. Tainan Flower Night Market was crammed with grazing visitors, inhaling the pungent tang of tofu mixed with the heavy scent of deep fried squid. Crowds jostled through the narrow lanes, creating the threat of being speared by a wayward skewer and joining quail eggs and grilled beef on a wooden spike.
\nExploring inland
\nWe had hoped to cruise up and down Taiwan\u2019s coast, but once we learned of the challenges in finding moorings we instead made plans to travel inland using Taiwan\u2019s excellent and affordable high-speed rail network, which can whisk a traveller from one end of the island to the other in hours.
\nGoing inland quickly leads you to the mountains that form a towering wall running the length of the island and attract waves of hikers on the weekends.
\nThe jewel of the mountains is the Alishan National Scenic Area, filled with trails, farms, small resorts, and home to the indigenous Austronesian people that call themselves the Tsou, literally meaning man or human being.
\nTaiwan\u2019s east coast is Greener, wilder and less populated than the west coast. Photo: Getty
\nAlishan\u2019s forests are known for their giant Taiwan red cypress and yellow cypress trees, with some trees believed to be more than 2,000 years old. As we hiked the broad network of trails the tall, straight cypress swayed back and forth high above us, dropping a thick carpet of needles onto the shady forest floor. The giant trunks creaked like ships masts as they moved, their music joined by the rattle of branches and the sighing wind as it filtered through the forest. As we climbed higher, the trees faded to grey in the thick, gloomy mist that rolls in every afternoon.
\nThese mountains are famed for producing teas such as alpine Oolong tea and Jinxuan tea. But interspersed among the tea fields are a growing number of coffee plantations. The British brought coffee plants to Taiwan in the late 1800s, and the crop gained renewed attention about 20 years ago. Today there are dozens of artisan growers and roasters dotting the hillsides.
\nWhile hiking is the most popular way to see the interior, cycling has become a national pastime along Taiwan\u2019s coastline, so we were free to explore.
\nWe were cycling novices \u2013 most of our experience came from the tiny folding bikes we carried on our boat \u2013 but we rented touring bicycles and set off all the same. Our ride began in Taipei, at the northern end of the island, from where we headed south down the west coast to make a counterclockwise loop.
\nTowering cypress trees in the Alishan National Scenic Area. Photo: Getty
\nTaiwan is about 200 miles long, and about 80 miles across at its widest. The west coast has hot, flat plains planted with rice and vegetables, interspersed with semiconductor factories and oil refineries.
\nAt the southern tip of Taiwan we crossed the mountains and turned north, where we were struck by the sharp contrast between coasts. The east coast is green and wild, with roads and towns hemmed in against the sea by the soaring mountains. The mountain barrier has protected this coast from the waves of colonial rule and maritime trade over the centuries, and even today it feels quieter and less developed than the rest of the country.
\nTwo weeks after setting out we returned to Taipei, exhausted, road weary, but exuberant. Our plans to sail around Taiwan had been thwarted, but we\u2019d still seen the island in its entirety.
\nWhile difficulties finding affordable mooring stymied our initial attempts at exploring Taiwan by boat, we were also kept on the dock in Tainan by that old familiar foe of sailors everywhere \u2013 an engine breakdown.
\nWe\u2019d arrived with a long list of upgrades and repairs we wanted to make to our boat, though an engine overhaul was not on that list. Taiwan was a leading international boatbuilder in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Then a sharp appreciation in the NT dollar raised the price of Taiwanese-built boats, and the global financial crisis in 2008 further weakened the industry. Today, the few remaining builders are focussed on large custom motor yachts for export. Still, we hoped to find freelance shipwrights available for hire.
\nTaiwan\u2019s economy is driven by its high tech semiconductor factories, but the countryside is still dotted with terraced rice farms \u2013 here on the east coast. Photo: Getty
\nOur hopes were soon dashed as we learned that, due to the limited number of cruising sailors, boat repairs in Taiwan are either a DIY project or an expensive haul-out at one of the big builders. However, with enough contact-building, research and begging for favours we managed, over the course of five months, to install a diesel heating system, make some glassfibre repairs and undertake a significant engine overhaul.
\nHopes of change
\nAlong the way we made friends within the tight-knit community of passionate sailors in Tainan and Kaohsiung, all of whom desperately want to grow the sport and attract more visiting yachts. We were invited to a small marine industry conference to share our jarring experience of clearing into the country, and the industry professionals all expressed the same hope: that someday Taiwan will become a sailing destination.
\n\u201cSailing can totally change this country, not only for the economy and sport, but culturally. We need to go back to the ocean as our ancestors did,\u201d Pan said.
\nWe also learned more about how to go about cruising to Taiwan\u2019s outlying islands, even as our broken engine kept us port-bound. Each destination required the filing of permits and requests, sometimes by post, again validating the use of a local agent.
\nuthor\u2019s Hallberg-Rassy 42F Teng Hoi moored in Kaohsiung. Photo: Cameron Dueck
\nPenghu, a small archipelago of 90 tiny islands located about 45 miles north-east of Tainan, is a popular destination with a small private marina, but it is too far from the main island for a day sail. Green Island, about 15 miles off the east coast, was a penal colony for political prisoners during the period of martial law, and offers another cruising option once a permit to moor in the port has been secured.
\nBut with a limited number of outlying islands available for day cruises, Bob Chiang, who runs Sailing Forward, a Tainan-based sailing school using J\/80s, chose to instead focus on developing a racing culture.
\n\u201cThe west coast of Taiwan has good, steady wind all year around, which makes for very good racing. And for racing you don\u2019t need islands or bays nearby, you just need open water and wind. So my dream is to bring more of a club racing culture to Taiwan, especially using smaller boats,\u201d Chiang said.
\nWhile sailing around Taiwan proved difficult, exploring the island by bicycle is popular with locals and visitors alike. Photo: Cameron Dueck
\nSpring escape
\nBy April our engine was repaired and the winds were beginning to turn southerly. We bid farewell to our new friends in Tainan and turned south to round Kenting at the tip of the island. Suddenly it felt like we were cruising again, a feeling that was made complete by a glittering mahi mahi on our fishing line.
\nAs we sailed away we reminisced about the people we\u2019d met and the adventures we\u2019d had. We were already entertaining \u2018next time\u2019 scenarios of the islands we\u2019d visit and coastlines we\u2019d explore, now that we\u2019d learned how better to manoeuvre Taiwan\u2019s maritime rules.
\nOnce around the southern cape we turned north, catching a lift on the powerful Kuroshio Current. The sun was out, and we had steady wind on the quarter. The Taiwanese coast slowly faded away behind us, but its mountain peaks towered up out of the haze for hours in a long, lingering goodbye.<\/p>\n
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Beyond the forbidding entry rules of Taiwan is a culture rich in seafaring history and stunning landscapes, finds Cameron DueckWe were still five miles from port when we realised that clearing into Taiwan might not be as simple as we\u2019d … <\/p>\n