AP and Post-AP Chinese take on Taiwan

On March 14, 2024, the AP and Post-AP Chinese students traveled to Taiwan for their spring break curriculum trip. Spending a total of eight days in Taiwan, the students traveled to three cities along the west coast of Taiwan: Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. Ivy Jiang, the trip advisor and the Chinese teacher at LFA, said that the trip’s purpose was to “give our students an opportunity to practice their Mandarin and immerse themselves in the Taiwanese culture, such as the history, food, and lifestyle.” Starting with the long exhausting plane ride to Taiwan, students were in the sky for a total of 15 hours to go to Taiwan. The long flight, fortunately, paid off with going to a local breakfast place in Taiwan right after they landed in Taipei. Students enjoyed the soy milk and rice balls from local breakfast places. After the filling breakfast, the group visited the Taipei 101 tower, the tallest building in Taiwan. After getting up to the top, students came back down for some shopping at the mall. After a group lunch at Din Tai Fung, a world-renowned dumpling place, students could experience the authentic Chinese food they saw in their textbooks.  After visiting the capital of Taiwan, Taipei for 4 days, students moved to the second largest city in Taiwan, which is Kaohsiung. Throughout the trip students went to various night markets, which is a big part of Taiwanese culture where people meet up and hang out walking around the market and eating delicious food. Kaylee Park ‘25, one of the students on the trip, thought the trip was a great opportunity to “make connections with new people and learn about Taiwanese history and culture.” The Taiwan trip gave students an experience where they could apply the Chinese language and culture they learned during class, and also an opportunity to form an unforgettable memory.