I long ago lost count of how many articles I’ve had published in newspapers, magazines and websites that pay their writers, but as of early 2022 it’s probably north of 1,000. I don’t count blog posts for which I’ve been paid, nor translations of my articles into other languages. How many have I done for non-paying publications? Three or four, including one for which I was promised payment, but the owner-editor was arrested for dealing cocaine before he could wire me the money. (A sad story: He eventually beat the charges, but was left bankrupt and died soon thereafter.)

I’ve written about hiking trails and temples, industrial-heritage sites and museums. I’ve reported on Taiwan’s yacht-building industry, solar energy, and sustainable architecture. For a couple of years during the early, heady days of the Internet (1999 to 2001), I wrote three articles each week about web-related business, political and social developments in Taiwan for an international website. A few years after that I was working for a local company running an entertainment/listings monthly. As well as edit every part of every issue, I wrote dozens of articles. Many of them were 150-word “what’s new” or restaurant-roundup pieces; others were substantial stories, like this one.

My work has appeared in the inflight magazines of half a dozen airlines, most often and most recently in Les Isles, published by EVA Air. Beyond Taiwan, my byline has appeared in the South China Morning Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and CNN Traveller Asia-Pacific. Recognizing my experience and knowledge of tourism in Taiwan, in the past seven years I’ve been commissioned by private- and public-sector entities to write scores of advertorials, including one which appeared in Time and others for the International Herald Tribune.