I journeyed south to Tainan by train, which served as a splendid reminder of how civilised this mode of transport can be: the carriage was spotless, the leg room spacious and the attendants only too pleased to refill my coffee whenever asked.
Tainan was Taiwan's historic capital for over 200 years until 1884. In the mid-1600s it became a refuge for Ming loyalists who fled there under the aegis of the formidable pirate king, Koxinga, when the dynasty was toppled on the mainland. Mirroring the Nationalists' great retreat nearly 300 years later, they left harbouring dreams of reconquest that never materialised. At this time, however, the island had been partially colonised by the Dutch, who operated out of the forts Zeelandia and Provintia in Tainan. Koxinga was lionised for ejecting the foremost western maritime power of the age. A large statue of the bestriding general in front of his shrine occupies a prominent position in the city's centre. His appeal for many Taiwanese today lies chiefly in his defence against the encroachments of an overbearing government on the mainland. Surprisingly, he enjoys a similar level of popularity with the Chinese Communist Party. Koxinga is credited with being the first to subjugate the island to Chinese rule and so provides an enticing parallel with their current desire to bring this refractory province to heel. In a final bizarre twist, he is also venerated in Japan because of his Japanese mother. They invoked his figure to legitimise their colonisation of Taiwan in 1895 as a return to Japanese rule. It was under their occupation that many of these sites were restored, including the addition at Fort Provintia of a teeming koi pond that would give ours in the south of France a run for its money.