One thing I never checked out and haven’t heard anything about is beaches in Taiwan. It’s an island with a lot of coastline, is there any place with sandy golden beaches where bikini-barely-clad women frolic in the surf? Good places to relax and drink out of a coconut?
Taiwan does have beaches, although about half of the coastline is concrete. It depends on your expectations I think. If you’re used to grey skies and mudflats, or rocks, then a Taiwanese beach on a sunny day will be perfectly fine. Fulong is popular in summer and just an hour out of Taipei by train. There is a lovely nuclear power plant just across the bay, so it pays not to think too much.
The power plant isn’t operating, and may never get switched on, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it 
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Someone please tell him what happened when some foreign athletes went topless at Kenting.
Bikinis I haven’t even seen for sale. Famous beaches here they expect us to take off our shoes and wade, not knee high, though.
However, there is a wonderful park in Tainan with awesome beaches and pristine mangroves… can’t recall the name. That is as far as it goes.
And there is the beach at that train stop, close to Fulong, the one with the Brown Café place, and the cute Greek style cafes and the quirky museum.
You might want to read threads about beaches and offshore islands in the Travel Forum:
Wow, all that coastline and no sandy tourist beaches, what a waste! And no bikinis even for sale! I knew they were conservative but no bikinis? 
There were tons of beaches around even just 20 years ago. However, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, when there were a lot of money to throw around, candidate in local elections would promise to build fishing ports everywhere to gain votes.
These “fishing harbors” were built without concern to what they would do to the environment, and were often just giant slabs of concrete. They changed the way waves would travel and caused the waves to cut into sandy beaches and instead deposit sand inside the crappy harbors. The erosion rendered most of these harbors inoperable, and left behind a fast retreating coastline. To combat the lost of land, the local officials then threw in even more concrete into the sea, and that’s how over 50% of Taiwan’s coastline is concrete.
also large areas have been used for industrial projects, ports and fish farming and been walled off to prevent flooding, most of the west coast in fact.
Ahhhhhh, yes, fishing ports. “Want your town to look like every other town in this country? Hate those pesky migratory birds and biodiversity? Want the smell of seafood to take over the entire village and even get under your fingernails? Boy do I have a proposal for you!”
Sounds like the Monoral proposal on the Simpsons.
When I put on a locally made bathing suit, I focus on my inner silver screen 50’s goddess. A la Lana Turner pinup, if you know what I mean.
Please note I come from the land of tangas. Max two hours drive to the beach. From world famous touristy packed to the gills beaches, but also empty oasis envied worldwide.
Ahhhhhh, yes, fishing ports. “Want your town to look like every other town in this country? Hate those pesky migratory birds and biodiversity? Want the smell of seafood to take over the entire village and even get under your fingernails? Boy do I have a proposal for you!”
Sounds like the Monoral proposal on the Simpsons.[/quote]
“Nan’ao have I got a proposal for you. Nah, it’s more of a Suao, Wai’ao, Dong’ao kind of thing.”
Yeah, at the moment it’s purely decorative, with the wonderfully atmospheric name of - take a deep breath - Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant. As if that name isn’t asking for a world class nuclear accident. Anyway, you can lie on the sand, gaze across the sparkling blue water at ‘Lungmen’ and meditate on the superiority of Taiwanese construction and government oversight over the Japanese. Or vice versa.
Yeah, at the moment it’s purely decorative, with the wonderfully atmospheric name of - take a deep breath - Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant. As if that name isn’t asking for a world class nuclear accident. Anyway, you can lie on the sand, gaze across the sparkling blue water at ‘Lungmen’ and meditate on the superiority of Taiwanese construction and government oversight over the Japanese. Or vice versa.[/quote]
The one across the bay from Kenting is still working, isn’t it, if you need that extra warmth while hanging out on the beach. 
The best beaches in Taiwan are on Kinmen and Penghu. Really beautiful though as usual the Taiwanese fuck them up as best they can with development and rude beach behavior.
Do tell, please. Or a link. Thank you.
In any case, it depends on where you are. In northern Taiwan the two primary beaches are Baishawan and Fulong. In southern Taiwan, it’s Kending. And in the Taitung area there are some long, empty stretches of beach.
But Taiwan is no Thailand.
And many of them are completely deserted (those without easy access that is), though in the case of Kinmen I am wondering if there might still be hidden surprises in form of forgotten landmines in the sand.
Authorities say Žinmen is mine-free, but I wouldn’t take that bet, even for a 2,000 NTD bill.
What is this? 抑揚拼音？ 
What is this? 抑揚拼音？ [/quote]
The Hok is apparently from Čeština (also known as the Czech Republic). 
It’s Czech-based pinyin that I’ve been working on. I only used it because I knew Forumosa would “correct” Kin-men if I spelled it correctly and I couldn’t bring myself to type Jin… that one. I guess I could just type Quemoy.