Though Taiwan broke off diplomatic relations with Korea formally in Aug. 1992, people-to-people exchanges were not cut off. Due to the Korean wave, the exchanges in economy and culture have also made substantial progress. However, this doesn’t bring...
Though Taiwan broke off diplomatic relations with Korea formally in Aug. 1992, people-to-people exchanges were not cut off. Due to the Korean wave, the exchanges in economy and culture have also made substantial progress. However, this doesn’t bring about a great upsurge in the researches on the relationship between Taiwan and Korea. Most researches are limited to political and economic issues. Though there are occasionally researches on culture related to the Korean Wave, they only focus on the late 1990s when the wave rose gradually. In this context, the writer thinks it’s necessary to fill up the gap in history of the early people-to-people exchanges between Taiwan and Korea. Therefore, A View of Taiwan under Japanese Rule from Travel in Hong Kong and Taiwan was published in Feb. 2014. It outlined the Koreans’ impression of Taiwan at that time through the diaries and poems left by Kong, Seong-Hak et al. during their nine-day travel in Taiwan and discovered cultural implications hidden behind the landscapes and the historic and cultural relationship between Taiwan and Korea. It can be known from Eight Views of Taiwan, Twelve Points of Interest in Taiwan and Two Extraordinary Places in Taiwan selected by Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpo that the sightseeing trip in Travel in Hong Kong and Taiwan tally with these places substantially. And it can be found by looking into how these places became scenic spots that they were mostly related to economy, politics and even military interests at first. Later, they became tourist attractions. Few of them were developed as scenic spots at the very start. However, leaving aside the major cause of why these places became scenic spots, a scenic spot can attract numerous sightseers mainly because of, despite its own landscape, a good combination of transport & accommodation facilities. Therefore, it can be judged that the scenic spots visited by Kong, Seong-Hak et al. reached a certain level in terms of transport & accommodation facilities. Based on the research motivation above, by focusing on the diaries and poems in Travel in Hong Kong and Taiwan and referring to related historical data before and after Kong, Seong-Hak travelled in Taiwan, this paper tries to reproduce what’s less known about transport & accommodation facilities in Taiwan during the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule from the viewpoint of foreigners (Koreans) so as to fill up the gap in history. It divides the transport into maritime transport and road transport. For maritime transport, it starts from the competition between Osaka Shosen Kaisha and Nippon Yusen, then introduces the epic meaning of Yoshinomaru, a luxury ship of a shipping route between Taiwan and Japan and describes how little steamers changed to sightseeing ships from transport ships at last. And for road transport, it mainly talks about the rise and decline of transport trolley and the peculiarity of Alishan Mountain Railways. Through the above-mentioned transport facilities, the writer hopes to conduct an integrative discussion and provide a supplement to the researches on transport facilities in Taiwan during the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. As for the accommodation facilities, this paper focuses on Beitou Hot Spring, Caoshan Hot Spring and sightseeing-related facilities. It starts from the early use of hot spring in Taiwan and development of hot spring during the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Then, it explores Bashengyuan which can serve as both hot spring hotel and restaurant. At last, it briefly introduces the existence and meaning of comfort women and geishas who satisfied the psychological and physiological needs of tourists. The writer hopes to conduct an integrative discussion and provide a supplement to the researches on transport & accommodation facilities in Taiwan during the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule through this study.