"Prelude"

Every story has a story. Sometimes, it's even more interesting than the story itself.

Claire and Orchid met on Internet during 2007 CNY holidays. They have something in common: they were both born and raised in Taiwan, they are both the child of two cultures, they both love swing dancing! And, of all the good things about Taiwan, they both feel that there is one thing missing - No swing dancing. They thought Taiwan is doomed to be a swing-less island until recently.

Over whining and bitching over MSN during the boring CNY holidays, they finally decided to stop being negative and do something to make things happen. Claire proposed a lindy exchange in Taipei. Orchid accessed the feasibility, the do-ability, etc. as she often does before doing anything, and found it at least worth a try.

So, they plan to organize a lindy exchange (without local swing dancers, sad) and invite dancers from Japan, Korea, HK, Singapore, China, and etc. to come. The idea is to combine sight seeing, food tasting, shopping with dancing. Since Taiwan receives thousands of tourists from the above regions (except China) every year, adding the dancing part should make the dancers feel more attractive about going to Taiwan! Taiwanese dancers of other lines of dance will be invited to join the parties, meet the dancers and even try out some classes provided by volunteer visiting dancers. Hopefully, some of them will find it interesting and carry on the torch. The date is not set yet. Will be sometime around mid to late August. People from Canada, US, Japan ASEAN, most of EU countries do not require visa to visit Taiwan.

Before the trip, Claire and Orchid would like to give you a list of summary what you can do and experience in Taiwan when you are not dancing -

- Hot Spring (actually there are cold spring, too; about 30 minutes outside Taipei to the north) - Tea (including taste, buy and visiting the tea plantation; also 30 minutes outside Taipei, another direction though)

- Massage (foot massage is invented in Taiwan by a Catholic priest, you know that?)

- Food and snacks (each little town has its own specialties.) - Sight-seeing (visit both mountain and seashore within one day, if you like. And, lots and lots of sea food!!!!)

- Bubble milk tea (it deserves a separate listing because you can find about 30 different kinds of tea drinks in any roadside milk tea stand or shop. A 500cc-cup cost about 10rmb only; I know it's cheaper in China but hold your complains until you taste the REAL milk tea make of REAL good quality tea.)

- Papaya-milk / Watermelon-milk / Mango-milk drinks (healthy, nutritious and delicious!)

- Fruits (from tropical to temperate. for taiwanese, it's difficult to differentiate fruits and desserts because we make fruits into desserts and even dishes)

- Beef Noodles (Taiwan has a beef noodles street. you will get to know what "satisfaction" really means after enjoying the beef noodles there.)

- Streets and People (taiwanese don't spit on the streets, cars wait for you when you pass, taiwanese say "please""thank you""sorry" a few hundreds of times a day, taiwanese form a single line when they cue)

Here is a link for you to find out more about Taiwan. It's an official website from the Tourism Bureau so it tends to be a bit humble like Orchid usually when it comes to things about Taiwan. :-) http://202.39.225.132/jsp/Eng/html/attractions/index.jsp