I'll visit one day.
I took 3 years of Mandarin and decided to go to China to practice. I don't regret it, It was truly beautiful and being there for as long as I was I find it hard to believe its changed as much as it has (that's what the media says). I'm dying to to visit Taiwan, Singapore, and all the Mandarin speaking countries.
I first visited Taiwan 20 years ago when I was studying in Tokyo. Went with my Japanese flatmate, landed in Taipei, rented bikes, and ended up in Kenting. After that I learnt Mandarin and lived and worked in China for a while, then five years in Singapore. Been to Taiwan many times since, and it's still one of my favorites places in Asia second only to Japan. The shit they have to put with, including the catastrophe that the landing of the KMT with one million mainlanders in the Taipei metro area, is phenomenal. I probably wouldn't.
By the way, in Taiwan, let's be polite and if you want to be there long term, try to learn at least Min-nan/Hokkien or who knows, maybe even Hakka. Still goes a long way in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines nowadays (and obviously in Fujian in China).
