Camp Taiwan – Summer Camp in Taiwan

Climbing Wall

At the heart of Camp Taiwan is our five-sided climbing tower. This tower offers eight climbing walls with beginner to advanced routes, cargo net, giant cooperative ladder and an abseil. All campers participate in climbing activities and learn from professional climbing instructors.

Mini

Mini Campers learn the basics of equipment, safety and basic climbing skills. Mini Campers practice these skills on the easiest routes on our climbing wall and also on the cargo net.

Youth

After acquiring the basic skills of care and maintenance of equipment, youth campers also learn basic climbing skills. They learn the technique of team belay and are responsible for helping each other with their climbing. Youth campers are shown more advanced skills and more advanced climbing routes.

Teen

Teen campers also follow a progression of skills beginning with equipment and safety standards. Teens learn both team and individual belay techniques. Teens are challenged to try our more advanced climbing routes, learn abseil techniques and try the cooperative ladder.

River Tracing

River tracing is a combination of trekking and climbing and sometimes wading along the river. It involves particular techniques like rock scrambling and climbing on wet surfaces and also educates campers about the geographical features of river and valleys. There’s no better way to learn about a river.

Mini

Campers wade in our smallest streams, are taught the basic skills and also stop along the way to study the life in our streams.

Youth

Campers have a more challenging river route and their river trek takes them further upstream. The youth river tracing experience is more technical and along the way they see many more geographical features of the riparian zone.

Teen

Campers are taught more advanced river tracing and climbing skills. Teens go into the national park where they river trace the larger river up to a set of dramatic water falls. Skilled instructors teach the teens techniques for ascending the waterfalls on belay using skills campers have learned during climbing activities.

Archery

All campers love their chance to explore one of the “Six Arts of Ancient China” – archery. Instructors give step-by-step instruction based on international standards.

Mini

Campers are taught the basics of archery including proper form, stance and basic shooting techniques.

Youth

After learning the basics, youth campers also learn more advanced and physically challenging shooting stances and techniques. The shooting distance increases and campers participate in tournament style competitions.

Teen

Campers learn all the basic and more advanced shooting techniques. They are introduced to larger bows and their shooting distance is increased as they learn how to use different sight methods. Teen campers also participate in a tournament competition.

Ecology

There is a growing movement among environmentalists, educators and parents alike to introduce environmental stewardship to today’s youth. As citizens of the world we are all becoming more aware of issues like global warming and the disappearing natural world. Here in Taiwan – and at Camp Taiwan especially — we are fortunate to live in a rich and diverse natural environment. Camp Taiwan is positioned in the sub-tropical or sub alpine region of the rain forest and as such we are able to offer hands-on ecology programs. Some highlights of our program are:

• Flora of Northern Taiwan: Taiwan has an amazingly diverse plant population. With over 250 species of ferns alone Taiwan is a world-class ecological site. Our flora study introduces campers to the most common plant life found in Northern Taiwan, introduces the basics of plant classification and teaches the importance of plant life in the larger ecosystem.
• Fauna of Northern Taiwan: All summer, Camp Taiwan is literally buzzing! Cicadas, dragon flies, and butterflies rule our summer skies. Our streams are full of fresh water shrimps, crabs, nymphs, fish and an array of insect life. It is impossible to go a day at camp without “discovering” a bug that captures your interest or imagination. Our program is designed to take the fear out of the bugs that live in our midst and are a critical link in the natural chain of life.

Mini

Campers are introduced to basic terminology and simple concepts. Ecology classes are very hands on with opportunities to search out and collect samples. Mini Campers study individual animals and plants learning to the basics of identification and classification.

Youth

Campers are introduced to more advanced terminology and concepts. Classes are structured as field- studies and these campers use the principals of scientific method in their research. The scope of youth camp ecology classes is larger so that campers study individual plants and animals. They also learn how they are interrelated and how these relationships are important to the greater ecosystem.

Teen

The teen ecology program is designed to introduce and develop the concept of teens as environmental stewards. The ecology program for these campers focuses on human impact on our ecosystem, causes and prevention. This ecological stewardship is featured in their end-of camp documentary.

Kayaking

Learning basic kayaking techniques is the first step toward many rewarding adventures for those who love the great outdoors. There is no match to the tranquility felt through the methodical paddling associated with gliding across the water.

Youth

Campers are taken to flat water near the camp. Here they are taught basic safety and kayaking skills. Instructors introduce games and activities for these campers to practice and improve strokes.

Teen

Campers learn the basic skills on flat water then take a half-day ocean kayaking tour.

High Ropes

Giant’s Ladder offers a series of challenging, mental and physical tasks. It requires a tremendous amount of teamwork, communication, problem solving, and trust. Two people must work together using problem solving, communication and trust to get to the next rung. As the team moves up the ladder, the task becomes increasingly difficult causing the team to think outside of the box, depend on one another, trust each other and accept the other’s possible solution to solve the task at hand. The Giant’s Ladder is our ultimate test of teamwork!

Teen

This is a Teen Camp activity.

Zip Line

This activity is as fun as it sounds! In this high-rope element, campers are belayed up a pole to a high platform. Professional staff then clip each camper’s harness onto the zip-line pully. Then the camper jumps off the platform and literally zips across the camp on a gravity propelled cable. Even the most adventurous camper will get a thrill as they zip through the air having an experience similar to the rush of flying!

Giant Swing

One of our most popular activities, and it’s no wonder! Teammates pull on a rope that raises campers up to 10m in height. Each decides how high he/she wants to go before pulling the release cord. Wind rushes by as campers swing out over the valley and take in the view of the beautiful Northeast coast below.

Arts and Crafts

Tie-Dye

Camp is a great place for arts and crafts activities. One of the favorites of any camp is “Tie-Dye.” Tie-dying is a an activity that allows campers to be creative while designing a personalized t-shirt or bandanna. Tie-Dye has become a traditional camp activity in camps across North America as the shirt or bandanna becomes many campers’ primary remembrance.

Ceramics

Clay is a wonderful, tactile medium that many kids have never experienced before. Its three dimensional nature forces them to think about structure, shapes and forms. Our new ceramics studio and clay program will highlight the relationship between clay and nature.

Cooperative Games

Cooperative games focus on process versus outcome and strive for a common interest among the participants. Research on the use of cooperative games has shown increased self-esteem, decreased aggressive behaviors, increased cooperation, and enhanced positive socialization. In each case, cooperative games allowed youth to build social skills and self-images that permitted them to progress as effective contributing members of society.

Wide Games

“Camp Wide” games are the ones that are closely linked to our summer camp theme. These games involve all the campers and take place most afternoons or early evenings. Traditional popular camp-wide games include capture the flag, bandits and settlers and stratigo just to name a few. Each summer our program staff plan to adapt games to tie into our summer theme – this helps promote the fun and excitement of the theme.

Evening Program

When the sun goes down the fun continues with our evening programs. Campers participate in opening and closing campfires. The closing campfire is an especially moving program where campers share their highlight of the week in a candle-light ceremony. Other evening activities include theme-based activities and movie night.