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@zouo
Hi, I'm a former Taiwan resident living in the UK now. Taiwan is indeed a country but only if you recognise it as such. I think the UK stopped recognising Taiwan in 1972. If you pick up an English/UK dictionary Taiwan will not be listed as a country. There's only a handful of countries that currently recognise the "Republic of China" (Taiwan) and Taiwan currently has no representation at the UN. The tricky situation at the olympics is mostly down to China - who refuse to have "Taiwan" or "ROC" represented. It's all about "face" which is very important to Chinese politicians it seems.
The bottom line is that Taiwan is as you perceive it. If you think it's a country then that's good enough for now;-)
The official language of Taiwan (ROC) is Mandarin, but only since 1945 when the Japanese handed Taiwan back to the Nationalist Chinese after the war. For 50 years before that Taiwan was a Japanese colony and the spoken language was Japanese. Most Taiwanese also speak what is commonly known as "Taiwanese" which is in fact a language that also came from China but is very different from Mandarin. Throw into the mix some local languages from the aborigines and it gets quite confusing!
Bikes: There are plenty of cycles in Taiwan but you rarely see them on the road. It's a little to hot and humid in the summer and the traffic/polution/scooters make it a dangerous way of getting around.