If Taiwan is mentioned in the news, it’s usually with reference to the question: “when will China invade?” But meanwhile, as the world waits to find the answer to this, 22 million people are getting on with living their lives on a green, mountainous island.

So, what is Taiwan like? Is it a good place to visit? Is there much to see and do? We wanted to find out for ourselves. Unfortunately, we only had one week, so we decided to split our time between three cities: Taipei, the capital; Hualien on the east coast; and Kaoshiung in the south-west. Here’s how we spent our week.