Speaking Part 2 你想去的地方 Band 7+ 範答

Describe a place you would like to visit in the future.

You should say:

• where it is
• how you heard about it
• what you would do there
• and explain why you want to visit this place.

¹ The place I'd most love to visit in the next few years is Iceland — specifically the capital Reykjavik and the Ring Road that loops all the way around the entire country. ² It's been on my wish list for about four years now, ever since a friend of mine posted a photo on Instagram during the pandemic of a tiny orange cabin sitting alone against a completely black volcanic landscape. ³ I remember thinking at the time that it looked like another planet entirely.

⁴ The first thing I'd do is rent a small camper van and drive the full Ring Road — it's roughly 1,300 kilometres and takes about a week at a relaxed pace. ⁵ Along the way I'd stop at the famous waterfalls like Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, sleep overnight in farm-stays that offer basic accommodation, and spend at least two nights in the east fjords hoping to catch a glimpse of the northern lights. ⁶ I'd also prioritise the geothermal pools — not the heavily crowded Blue Lagoon, but the smaller, locally run ones where you soak with half a dozen Icelanders in near total silence.

⁷ The reason I want to go is honestly quite simple — I crave the kind of emptiness that a city like Taipei never really gives you. ⁸ Living in a city of two-and-a-half million people, I've realised I'm increasingly starved for quiet, for dark skies, and for landscapes that don't contain other humans. ⁹ Iceland has a population roughly the size of Taichung spread across an area half the size of Taiwan; the sheer scale of the empty space is, in itself, the attraction for me.

¹⁰ I'd also love to experience the midnight sun in June, or conversely the long polar darkness of December. ¹¹ It would be a completely different relationship with time, and I think that kind of disorientation might be exactly what I need.

The city I most want to visit is Istanbul. I'm drawn to places where continents meet, and the idea of a city that's literally split between Europe and Asia fascinates me.

Although I've lived in Taiwan my whole life, there's one place here I've never actually been — Lanyu, or Orchid Island. It sits about 70 kilometres off the east coast, and I've heard it described as the Taiwan you don't know exists.

The place at the top of my list is Kyoto in autumn. I've been to Tokyo twice, but Kyoto is a different proposition — an entire city built around temples, old wooden houses and careful seasonal rituals.