400 Years: Dutch Formosa - part one

Of course, Chen Di was not actually the first person from China to visit Taiwan. What makes him special is that he wrote an account of what he saw here in 1603, and that account is the earliest surviving manuscript discovered thus far.

Chen Di's short travel commentary focuses mostly on the Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan; their customs, diet, etc., a rare and valuable documentation by a man who was both a scholar and a warrior. Chen Di's account of his 1603 trip was only rediscovered in 1955! 

Interestingly, the same year Chen Di came to Taiwan was when the Dutch East India Company (the VOC) set up a permanent trading post in what's now Indonesia. The Dutch are determined to break into the China trade market - but they'll need another base. Somewhere a bit closer.

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