Adventure Travel Writing and Photography by Matt Gibson

Tag Archive for ‘Culture’

Yenshuei Fireworks Festival 2010 Photo Gallery

Share The Yenshuei Fireworks Festival (Yenshuei Fong Pao) is a festival held in the Yenshuei township in Southern Taiwan every year.  During the festival millions of fireworks are shot out of large hives into crowds of revelers dressed in heavy clothing and full-face motorcycle helmets.  Each hive may contain as many as sixty thousand fireworks.  [...]

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Help Me Pick My Best Travel Photos

Share For the last few days I’ve been working on my application for the Glimpse Correspondent Program. I’ve gone through all of my old photos, picked out my favorites, and touched them up. I now have a total of thirty-three pictures.  The problem is, I need to narrow my submission down to twenty.  If you [...]

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Standing in the Fireworks: A Trip to the Yenshuei Beehive Fireworks Festival, Taiwan

Share On Febrary 27, 2010 a Chinese New Year fireworks celebration in the Guangdong province went awry and killed 19  villagers. On February 28th, 2010 I was in Yenshuei Township in southern Taiwan facing a several hives containing tens of thousands of fireworks set to fire into the hundreds of people that were crowded around [...]

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A Good ‘Ol Fashioned Boat Burning

The story of my misadventure documenting the ancient Wang Yeh Burning Boat Festival for Highway 11 Magazine, which begins with erroneous advice from an internet bulletin board, and ends with me driving hundreds of kilometers across Taiwan on my motorcycle at night and not sleeping for nearly thirty-six hours.

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Bunk Magazine Issue 5 is out now

Share The first issue of Bunk Magazine was published by the Armory nearly 10 years ago, long before I arrived in Taiwan.  Around the time I moved to Taiwan the last issue of Bunk, issue 4, was published.  Bunk had a big influence on my decision to start Xpat Magazine.  It showed me that an [...]

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Letter from the Editor: Bunk Magazine Issue 5

Share The Armory is synonymous with art. The Armory itself is a work of art, having been built by a sculptor from the remains of the demolished armory that once stood in its place. Since then the Armory has hosted numerous art and photography exhibitions, usually for charity, and often paid local bands to play [...]

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Wang Yeh Burning Boat Festival Taiwan

Share The Wang Yeh boat burning festival occurs once every three years.  Disease spreading ghosts, or Wang Yeh, are lead onto the boats by priests and mediums.  The boat, sitting atop a mountain of ghost money (money burned by locals for the benefit of their dead ancestors) is then burned, sending the spirits back to [...]

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Three Reasons to Teach English and Live in Taiwan

In today’s climate of financial uncertainty, where layoffs are rife and jobs are increasingly hard to find in many Western countries, more and more people are looking to Asia for employment. Taiwan is a very attractive option to many people. Here are three reasons why.

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About Me

Matt GibsonI'm a travel writer and photographer currently based in Tainan, Taiwan where I founded and edited Xpat Magazine, one of Taiwan's largest and longest-running expatriate periodicals. My writing and photography has been published in various print and online publications including Taiwan Today, the Taiwan Fun Magazine Group, and TransitionsAbroad.com. I speak English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese (to varying degrees) and am available for assignment. I can be reached through the form on the contact page of this website, or at xpatmatt (at) gmail.com.



If ever you’re visiting this part of the world, see Taiwan hotels for cheap accommodation and further information on what to do when you're here.