If you look closely in this picture you can see a running track. This is part of a well known high school. It's a boarding school for females, set deep in the mountains, about an hour out of Taipei. The idea is that so far away, there is nothing to do and nowhere to go, so there are no distractions, all students can do is study.
There are quite a few unique schools off in the mountains across Taiwan. It seems like if schools are in the city they have a lot of rules to follow under the gaze of the ministry of education, but out in the mountains they are free to do what they want. A lot of them are religious schools (mostly christian) which I haven't gotten a firm answer regarding whether they teach creationism or not. I also know that there is a Cullen school, which teaches Taiwanese and foreigners together in a multilingual setting, the only school in the country to do this.
Even in the cities there are many male only and female only schools. Again to cut back on distractions. This coupled with the fact that no men are allowed in female dormitories in university, I think contributes greatly to the low birth rate in Taiwan. Seems like a politician could do wonders to the moral of students, and the birth rate in Taiwan, if he/she just integrated schools and dorms. I guess I'll just save that for my presidential bid after i become fluent in Chinese.
