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Original content written by Hocheng Yen, translated by Jack C.

It’s the height of summer and you just want to dive headlong into a mountain stream and bask in natural tranquility. Why not open the popular website: “Follow Xiaofei”? The scenic photos there are like nothing you’ll ever find on the Tourism Bureau’s official website. Just the sight of them will satisfy your craving for travel and adventure.

“I reckon there are about five thousand pictures. Some of the places I’ve been to myself, some I’ve not yet had a chance to visit. Look at the white spot in this photo, it might be a waterfall. Now you see it, now you don’t. Maybe it’s a temporary phenomenon caused by a typhoon or an earthquake, or maybe it’s a new, permanent addition to Taiwan’s landscape,” the website’s creator, Asher Leiss, says excitedly as he opens Google Map on his smart phone. The map of Taiwan is covered with notes and markers denoting areas of interest.

The thousands of undiscovered scenic spots were compiled by this thirty-something American adventurer. He spent the past couple of years creating a “map of secret attractions” for Taiwan. His method: he compares Google satellite images and finds new secret locations to explore. Then he uploads his findings, along with exact GPS coordinates, a brief introduction and guide, and helpful safety reminders to his website so fellow trailblazers can share in his discovery.

New Age Cartographer Unveils the Mystery of Taiwan

“As far as I’m concerned, all I need are GPS coordinates. If there is a ready path, I’ll take it; if not, I’ll find another way. Then I’ll mark the coordinates on my own map so others can find their way there, too.” Leiss embodies the spirit of ancient cartographers who mapped the seven seas during the age of discovery and showed mankind what the world looked like. He is equipped with all the technological inventions of the modern age that will help him show the world the hidden beauty of 21st-century Taiwan.

Why did he begin with a map of waterfalls in Taiwan? His answer is simple: “Taiwan has many waterfalls and also a very hot climate, so I had to find good swimming spots.” He often rode his motorcycle around the island. In the process, he was pleasantly surprised to find there were many undiscovered waterfalls all over the country. To help others explore these beautiful locations, he created his website and Facebook fan page in 2015. He unveiled little-known attractions in Taiwan to the world. Currently, he has 230,000 fans and 220,000 likes on social media.

“I like to go where no man has gone before. I like to travel with friends, but I’m not suited to be a tour guide or anything like that. I don’t like client-and-guide relationships. If someone is looking for a guide, I’d refer them to companies such as ‘TAO Taiwan Adventure Outings’,” says Leiss.

To date, Leiss has published over 275 discoveries on his website. His findings include waterfalls, open-air hot springs, creeks and lakes. Lots of places don’t even have a name, so Leiss takes it upon himself to name them. Sometimes he borrows names from nearby locations, such as villages, rivers, hills or bridges. He also refers to names used by the locals. In case there really isn’t any name for his new discovery, he takes the liberty of coming up with a name all by himself.

“I like to find blank spots on the map and give a new name to these unknown places,” says the lanky, suntanned Leiss.

The Wandering Spirit Who Found a Home in Taiwan

Leiss is 34 years of age and hails from North Carolina, USA. He’s been a wandering spirit all his life. When he was thirteen, his father wanted to buy him a gift, so he asked for an atlas. When he was older, he did management information system (MIS) work as well as hotel work in Florida. He also spent time selling candles in Hawaii. He even joined a circus and traveled across continental United States with circus animals and clowns.

“My older brother worked in the circus, so I’d do odd jobs for them whenever I got the chance. The circus traveled by rail. Our train would crawl slowly through the American countryside like a scene out of a Buster Keaton movie,” says Leiss.

Eventually, he traveled around the world, too. He’s been to 45 different countries, including Nepal, Thailand, Australia, and nations in Europe and East Africa. He planned to go to university in Nepal, but later found the school did not meet his expectations. He then journeyed to Israel but had trouble securing a job there. At last, he went online and found a job teaching English in Hangzhou, China. But after three months, he was ready for a change.

It just so happened a friend he made in Nepal had moved to work in Taiwan. He was invited to visit. So eight years ago, he took the high-speed rail from Hangzhou to Xiamen, took advantage of the “Little Three Links” agreement between China and Taiwan, and arrived in Taiwan by way of Kinmen.

At first, he was no different from any other backpacker. But as he explored Taiwan, he fell in love with the island and determined to stay. He started by learning Chinese. Since he never went to college in the States, he decided to get a degree in Taiwan. He studied for a year at National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, then transferred to the School of Business at Kainan University in Taoyuan. He graduated this summer.

“Taiwan is a lot of fun. I like to explore, and I like it here, there’s so much to do. Taiwanese people don’t realize how great Taiwan is. It doesn’t cost much to travel around the country, I go around on motorcycle and camp out in the wild. There are plenty of free camping sites, and food and gas aren’t expensive,” says Leiss. “What’s more, Taiwanese people might not appreciate the fact you really don’t have to worry about guns and violence here as you do in America. Frankly speaking, I can’t think of a single place in Taiwan where I need to worry about walking alone at night.”

Education Over Prohibition

To Leiss, the scenic attractions of Taiwan hold great potential for tourism, especially ecotourism. However, he feels one of the challenges faced by the Taiwanese tourism industry is a lot of breathtakingly beautiful locations are closed off to the outside world. Even though there are plenty of well-designed and well-maintained hiking trails in Taiwan’s national parks, any path that’s not officially designated as a hiking trail is off-limits to explorers.

“You could design a 60-day mountaineering trip in Taiwan, but right now it’s impossible because you need a mountain permit. The permits you can apply for on national park websites limit you to following official trails, so you’re not allowed to go off the beaten track, and there are no other options on the internet,” says Leiss.

The government bars entry into dangerous areas out of safety concerns, but Leiss has a different view on the matter: education over prohibition. Cordoning off an area will never be 100% effective, and it doesn’t guarantee accidents will not happen. Rather than stopping people from exploring Mother Nature, it’d make more sense to provide astronomical, geographical, and meteorological information that educates the populace about potential hazards and teaches them to coexist with nature.

For example, river trekkers should be educated about how quickly and drastically the water level may rise if it suddenly rains. That way, when it really happens, they will know how they can seek shelter to wait out the storm. (Read: River Tracing in Taiwan)

Leiss exemplifies this principle in his website’s introduction to Thousand Stones Waterfall (千層岩瀑布) in Tainan: “Ten minutes upstream from Thousand Stones Waterfall is Youqing Waterfall. This waterfall is in a small sandstone canyon, and the pool in front of it is very deep. The pool guess [sic] deep immediately, without any shallow areas, so please be careful around the mouth of the canyon.”

“People need information about potential hazards. You can advise caution, you can warn people how dangerous it is, but you should not prohibit them from going to those places,” recommends Leiss.

In addition, as more and more people experience the beauty of nature and the fragility of our environment, society as a whole will become more environmentally conscious. For instance, if more people explored the mountains, there would probably be less illegal logging. Leiss not only talks the talks but also walks the walk: everywhere he goes, he makes sure to clean up at least one piece of trash he finds on the mountain.

“It’s not our job, but just one piece is enough. The river will have one fewer piece of rubbish to worry about. If a hundred people did this, that’s one hundred pieces of trash removed from Mother Nature. Just pick up one piece, make it a habit,” says Leiss. “Nature is fragile, but as we get closer to nature, nature will become better cared for.”

From Backpacker to Internet Sensation Advocating Taiwan Tourism

Leiss started this project out of personal interest, but now he has become something of an internet sensation among Taiwanese explorers and tourists. He wants to use this newfound power for the greater good. Leiss plans to create a web series about traveling.

In order to acquire legal resident status after graduation, he has invested his life savings into starting a company. He bought an old 1996 Mitsubishi Delica and converted it into a “mobile studio”. He invites fellow adventurers to hit the road with him and post new videos from all over Taiwan so they can share travel stories and experiences. Because all this content will be for free, he is thinking about corporate sponsorship. He has already started shooting videos for Volvo and Gogoro. Even though the business model is far from certain, Leiss remains optimistic about the future.

“It was very hard work setting up my company last year, but now everything’s taken care of, I can continue living in Taiwan. My dream is to create a web series, I want to participate in and contribute to environmental protection. I want to foster educational, safe, and sustainable tourism. I want to make a platform that contributes to Taiwanese tourism,” says Leiss.

Even though his web series is still at a nascent stage, Leiss’s effort to promote tourism in Taiwan has already garnered plenty of attention and praise. The Tourism Bureau invited him to sojourn in the U.S. and Canada to promote Taiwanese tourist attractions, especially outdoor exploration and ecotourism, to North American travel agencies.

“I feel this has been a very successful journey. Our primary mission is to let everyone know about all that’s good and beautiful in Taiwan, because most foreigners still lack some basic knowledge about Taiwan. We don’t learn about Taiwan in school, our movies and television shows don’t mention Taiwan. An English travel and living channel about Taiwan is relatively groundbreaking. But I hope this method of promotion really takes off and becomes ‘the next big thing’,” enthuses Leiss.

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Translated by Jack C.

Edited by Sharon Tseng