Taiwan or the Republic of China is a country with eleven times more inhabitants than Slovenia, although it is only one and a half times larger than our country. The name of the island (Ilha Formosa – Beautiful Island) turned out to be true, as it has a very diverse landscape, steep cliffs overlooking the admirably blue Pacific, narrow gorges reaching deep into the interior of the island, many high mountains in the interior of the island, a volcanic landscape with geysers, tropical forests and paradise beaches. Most of the population lives in large, very densely populated cities, such as Taipei with almost six million and Kaohsiung with more than two million inhabitants. Since most of the industry is also concentrated there, the atmosphere of the cities is excessively polluted. We avoided the cities and visited the beautiful national parks, which make up one-fifth of the island. The fauna and flora are among the most diverse in the world. The visit to Taiwan began on Sunday and ended on Friday, which means that we avoided the crowds of park visitors on weekends. (Janja Simoniti)

The lecture will be held in the Levstik Hall.