Activities
Camp Taiwan offers a wide variety of activities specially tailored to the age and experience of each camp. This is an overview of some of the Camp’s core activities and how each is modified for our different summer groups; Mini Camp (5-7) (no mini camp in 2021), Youth Camp (7-12), and Teen Camp (12-14). (Some activities do not require significant modification.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Arts and Crafts
Campers have the opportunity to be creative with one of our many camp and nature inspired craft activities. Additionally, friendship bracelets, tie-dye shirts, wood chip name tags are all popular crafts kids might get to bring home. Each session has its own special craft project.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.