Taiwan 9 (inglés) (Lonely Planet Country Guides)

Going to Taiwant in October and I have really learned alot from reading this book. Other reviewers have differing opinions perhaps because they have travel there before, but for the Taiwan newbie there are some really helpful suggestions. Nothing beats google and actually being there but this book is a nice start!

For a long time, Taiwan was rather neglected by Lonely Planet, and their guide to the country used to be awful - many reviews here still refer to old editions! That has changed with publishing this edition, which is very good. Completely rewritten by authors resident in the country, it now covers diverse attractions with accurate, detailed practical information of the sort LP specializes in. If you simply want to tour the main tourist sites of the country, aided by prior knowledge of prices and the like, this is pobably the best book to take. However if your interest extends to exploring further off the beaten track and especially to hiking in the national parks, or would love to know more about Taiwan's culture and history, get the Rough Guide, which is even better!

Forget the negative reviews in this list...they are for the 2004 edition, which had many problems. For some reason, they've lumped the reviews for the 2004 edition in with those for the far superior 2007 edition. Many of the problems people complained about regarding the 2004 edition were addressed and fixed in this one. The 2007 edition has excellent information about hiking, which is fitting, since Taiwan is a hiker's paradise. And there's a lot more about hot springs, of which there is a great variety, from luxury hot spring resorts to remote wild hot springs; fitting all budgets from free to bank-busting. An added innovation is the maps which include Chinese characters. My main complaint with the book is the photos...too many of them are uninteresting, unrepresentative of Taiwan (especially the cover photo). Lonely Planet would do well with seeking out the fine work of some of the many outstanding photographers in Taiwan's expat community.

For the seventh edition of their Taiwan guide Lonely Planet didn't just stick a new cover on an old book. The guide has been extensively updated and includes some new places. The east coast section has been expanded with details of many of the interesting places between Taidong and Hualian as well as the expected coverage of these two cities. There is also more detailed coverage of Taiwan's islands such as Penghu and Kinmen. There are always a few places that will get left out of any guide book. Nanzhuang and Taipingshan were two that I thought were notable for their omission. However, I don't think this is such a bad thing. It still leaves a few interesting places for the traveller to discover and adds an element of surprise. There are also a number of places listed in the book that I had never heard of but am certainly curious to visit. The Danayigu Ecological Park is one. I suggest you read the book if you want to find out more. The coverage of hiking is great and there a range of hikes covered from easy walks that take a few hours to multi-day expeditions. I like the writing style of the with its many interesting little anecdotes. There are plenty of maps, as is the standard for Lonely Planet guides. The map keys have place names written in English/Pinyin as well as Chinese characters. Names in the text also have pinyin with tone marks which should be useful for getting the pronunciation right. Overall, this is an excellent guide that would serve any traveller in Taiwan very well.

All the other reviews for this book are for the previous edition. I'm very happy with this updated Taiwan 7th edition which came out a month ago. The two writers live in Taiwan and have added an extra focus and assembled detailed information on a range of Taiwan's attractions like hot springs, mountaineering, river rafting as well as the more well-known things like eating out, temples, museums etc. that bring people to Taiwan. At the same time, the urban attractions of Taipei and more established destinations like AliShan, Taroko Gorge, Kenting beach and other areas have been updated and more obscure areas have been added since the last edition. Despite its small size and reputation as a junkyard, Taiwan has a wealth of things to see and do and this Guide, for my money, has been successful in showing how to get the most out of it.