Juming museum 朱 銘 and Yehliu 野柳

I first encoutered Juming's sculpture in front of the National museum in Singapore. A few "people" sat on a bench who looked like they were jostling with each other. I supposed I didn't appreciate his art then. However, after a visit to his museum, I began to see things differently. His sculptures are very rugged and his Taichi series are exhibited all over the world.

Juming started from very humble beginnings. His life history can be found here:
http://www.juming.org.tw/juming-en/biography_en.html


The Juming museum can be reached via Guo Dao Ke Yun Taipei station or Taipei city art museum, take the Jinshan Ke Yun get off at Jinshan station and then take a cab. You can also take the Juming museum bus from the Taipei art museum 台北市中山區中山北路三段181號之1 , Zhongshan section 3 No. 181-1. The bus has only two starting times 840 and 1310. The return journey is 12 noon and 1730. If you take this bus, the fare is 400 Nt inclusive of museum entrance fee and return fare. You can call 24989940, ext 1704, 1706. It opens from 10 till 6 pm, close on Mon.

We decided to visit Yehliu geopark since the last time I was there was 1991. So we took the 12 noon museum bus and alighted in the Jinshan town. We visited the old street where all the buildings were very old and under conservation. Here there's a street market, shops etc. The restaurants serve pretty decent crab, prawns, clams, fried toufu, vege etc. You choose your food, pick it up when it's cooked and go eat in a different place, maybe upstairs or in another room.

From the street, we went to the bus station, took the bus that goes to Yehliu, (it plies between Taipei main station and Jinshan youth centre). It was a short ride from Jinshan to Yehliu. The place to alight is at a small town once you see the Yehliu words. Otherwise, you would miss the stop.

Back in 1991, there was no exhibition hall or major food stalls. There was a seaworld kind of show though. Last weekend when we went, the place was really touristy. Adults need to pay 50NT to enter. There's a video that's worth watching though. It talked about how the different rock formation came about, in English, mandarin and Japanese. We requested English audio and mandarin subtitles. Opening hours are 8am -5 pm daily. It is best not go near there when typhoon is near, the waves and winds are quite scary.

Pictures of the rock formation can be seen here:

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Taiwan/North/Taipei/YehLiu/
Other links http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cabana/7031/scenic/yehliu.html

Hsinchu 新竹

Hsinchu is about 1 hour away from Taipei if you take the fast train or 40 min more if you take the EMU. The fare difference is about 74 NT. The railway station is a relic from the Japanese occupation.

What I like about Hsinchu is the glass museum. When one comes out from the railway station, turn right and look for the underpass. It will go beneath the railway track. Turn left after emerging from the underpass and cut through the carpark. Then continue along the road towards the zoo which looks like a multi-coloured glass castle and you will see the glass museum on the left. The museum used to be a Japanese government building to entertain VIP and then later as a jail for military personnel after the Japanese occupation. The entrance fee is 20 NT. The best part of the museum is the video, it displays how glass is blown, weaved into intricate art.

If you follow the road to Hua Yuan road, see map http://www.ambassador-hsinchu.com.tw/frontend/en_html/location/location_map_s.htm
under the flyover, there is the night market. Here you can find the best fish head curry cooked by a Singaporean. He uses spices brought back from Singapore, with his peranakan twist. The flesh of the fish is tender, cooked just right and juicy. His ladies finger and brinjal are cooked to perfection, not too cooked, or too raw. Costs 80 NT. The name of his stall is 168 Singapore delicacies. He also sells other Singapore favourites like bak kut teh, chicken curry, mee goreng (Indian style) etc.

A must try is the Ah Zhong ice shop. The owner uses RO water to make the shaved ice to make desserts. Very yummy. It's across the road from Zhong Xing hotel or China Trust hotel.

The famed goodies of Hsinchu is the hei mao pau, black cat bun. It's near the city hall. It's called black cat after the name of a female palace cook. Apparently her bun was so good that the Qing emperor had to bring her along everywhere he travelled.

If you are a old cinematography buff, you may like to pay a visit to the cinematography museum. The entrance fee is 20 NT but it's free for local Hsinchu resident. The place features old film reels, camera, and also screen movies in the evening. The museum closes at 9 pm.

Chiayi 嘉義市

The weather in April wasn't great, so much so that the flight to Matsu was delayed indefinitely. We flew by Uni Air 立榮航空 to Chiayi city. The flight took 40 min. At least down south wasn't so bad, weatherwise. The Chiayi airport was very military looking. We had to take an airport service bus to the arrival area. Along the way, we could see military installations, like tower, a huge well, guard posts, rolling gate with the spikes on the road etc. The airport is very small. From there, we had to take a cab to town. As it was only eight something in the morning, a lot of shops, food stalls weren't open. So we felt like we were going on in a ghost town.

We stayed in King hotel. What I liked about it was the water machine in each room. It could oxygenate and dechlorinate the water and produce either warm or hot drinking water. The other thing was the dining area. The hotel kept a few white eyes and what appears to be a Java sparrow, I think. Every morning, these birds would be darting among the foliage at the back of the dining area. The transparent roof top, together with the white wall and the foliage make a very nice backdrop to the dining area. The birds add lots of life to the whole place. They only hung around the foliage when there're people around but they would fly quite freely in the hall when no one was around.

By taking bus number 1, I managed to reach the Botanic garden, park and sports stadium. The bus fare was NT14. I realised later that it was a straight walk from the hotel on Zhongshan Road. I realised in every county, there are the same road names, like Zhongshan, Linshen, Zhongzhen etc. So for someone overseas to write a letter to Taiwan, it's of utmost importance that he writes down which county!

The park was of a reasonable size, set up in 1910, at the east end of the city. It also had the old train engine of the Alishan rail. As usual, there's a temple, this one is the Confucius temple. It was here even before the park, built in 1706 and then refurbished in 1961.

The botanic garden has many tall trees, some trees are sort of left wild so it looks rather natural. There are a few trees that are labelled. The Heritiera littoralis were huge with prop roots. What is amazing about this tree is its natural habitat is normally in the back mangroves, receiving some seawater innundation. However, in the botanic garden at Chiayi which is 30 m above sea level, it's nowhere near the sea!

In one corner of the Botanic garden, is the Chiayi historical museum. Built in Japanese-style, originally for social and worship activities, after return to Taiwanese rule, it became a place to commemorate the war dead. Later the Chiayi government took over and converted it to a historical museum. One has to remove shoes and wear the slippers placed outside the door before entering.


A structure that one cannot possibly miss is the Sherita, 射日塔, direct translation means shoot the sun tower. With a height of 62 m, the top is shaped to represent the county flower, Magnolia. The circular pillar shape of the tower is inspired from the sacred tree of Alishan, the brown aluminum strips is that of the bark. The tower is hollow, viewed at the right angle, one can see the brass carving depicting the Aboriginal legend of shooting the sun. The story goes like this: In the ancient days, two suns appeared in the sky. The people were suffering from the heat, the plants and animals were dying. So this father brought along his son, to go and look for a place on earth that's nearest to the sun so that his arrow can shoot it down. The journey took so long that he died of old age. His son, continued the quest and managed to shoot down the sun but he never made it back home.

In the east of the Chiayi city, is a 2 hectare lake, Lantan, 蘭潭, developed by the Dutch, later managed by the Japanese, it's an important reservoir for the city. One can walk all round the lake and enjoy the view especially during sunset.



Not to be missed is the stone museum. Entry to the museum is free. It was set up by a stone collector who was an engineer, now in his 70s. There are stones from different parts of the world, minerals of every kind and fossils. There are modern models of Chiayi's attractions and model buildings from all over the world. There's even a pair of Egyptian sarcophagus.


As Chiayi is right on the tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Cancer Garden is built there and has an observatory with 16 telescopes for astronomy. The building of the observatory had many face lifts through the years and each model is detailed at the stone museum. The observatory is very near the airport.

I think the owner should set up a donation booth to collect some income to maintain the place. The cost of running the place, electricity like air conditioning will force the place to close one of these days. It would be a pity because there are many good collections.

Budai 布袋, southwest of Chiayi county, is well known for salt production. Traditional method of salt production, sun drying, can be seen here. Sun drying requires 12 days, from Mar to May, Oct to Feb. Mechanized drying takes place only from Feb to Apr, only one harvest. Both types of salt production are found here.

There are many interesting things to see and do in Chiayi county. A book which lists them all is in Chinese, Outdoor life, Chiayi county and Chiayi city. ISBN 957-8987-83-8.

While I was in Chiayi, I took a bus to the recreational farm. I happily hopped on the bus, having paid NT193, little did I realised how difficult was the journey. The bus made countless 90 degree turns, climbing higher and higher. Everywhere were bethel nut plantations. The whole journey took 2.5 hours. Many people made stops along the way, they were probably bethel nut farmers. An elderly couple sat beside me, the wife had a portable radio and she had the radio at full blast. Even then she managed to fall asleep. As the bus climbed higher, reception was all but gone, only static. Yet she managed to sleep through it all. Lots of people turned around and stared at her but no one said anything. Anyway, they got off the bus later. Peace at last!

The farm was more a children's educational park. As the bus got there at 330 pm and was leaving for Chiayi at 4 pm, I didn't go in. I did notice that there were hotels there.

After the driver had his cigarette break, he started the bus again. This time, he sped up so that he could finish work earlier. The hairpin turns were closer, before long, my stomach couldn't take it anymore and thank goodness, I had a plastic bag. So much for an adventure to nowhere.

Mount Chihsing at Yangmingshan 陽明山的七星山

In late April, I took a trip to Yangmingshan. It was the most interesting trip I've ever had. While I was at xiaoyoukeng, the area which was still spouting steam and hydrogen sulphide, I overheard a volunteer guide telling the school children about the fumaroles. What appeared to be a crater was not really a crater, it was so because of high temperature steam (over 90%), CO2 and H2S bursting out from the ground causing fissures and cracks and through the years appear like a giant crater. Pictures of these and the surrounding areas are in these links:
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/suk2b.aspx
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/suk2c.aspx
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/suk3a.aspx

Due to volcanic activities that are still ongoing, new fumaroles appear and while I hiked up to Mount Chihsing, I can see new fumaroles forming.

In the visitor centre

http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/suk2a.aspx

I could see a model of the surrounding mountains that made up Tatun range. There were also display panels, books about the flora and fauna within Yangmingshan. Various rock samples were also shown to indicate how rocks changed due to the action of high temperature, erosion and new mineral deposits formed from the action acidic steam.

Plants that can be seen in xiaoyoukeng are in the following links: http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/suk3b_1.aspx?p=suk&f=data_file/plant93/flower93_07.htm
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/suk3b_1.aspx?p=suk&f=data_file/plant93/flower93_03.htm
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/suk3b_1.aspx?p=suk&f=data_file/plant93/flower93_04.htm
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/suk3b_1.aspx?p=suk&f=data_file/plant93/plant93_c3-039.htm
Worthy of mention is the Prunella vulgaris. This plant in Mandarin means wilt in the summer. The dried floral parts have excellent detox function. It can be found in Chinese medicine shop sold in dried form. Boiled in water with some brown sugar to taste is effective against acne, general heatiness.

I was told that there used to be lots of waterbuffaloes roaming around at Qingtiankang, the grassy meadows however, there was a court case whereby a father put his young son on the buffalo calf as it was cute and he wanted to take a picture. However, the cow wasn't happy so she rammed her horns into the father. The father sued yangmingshan park authorities and won so many of the buffaloes had to be reined in and kept elsewhere away from the public.

From xiaoyoukeng, I climbed up the fairly steep rock steps to the peak. Up there, thousands of yellow moths Eilema costipuncta were flying about. What a sight!

http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d4-232.htm

They had no qualms on landing on clothing, hand etc. Some were resting on the ground but they were in danger of being stepped upon by hikers and many succumbed.

Along the way, there were many 麗紋石龍子 Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink (Eumeces elegans) http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d3-336.htm and other species of skinks.

It took me about an hour to clim up to Chihsing peak. From there, a few minutes to the east peak and then down, down, down to the Chihsing park and to the visitor centre. From the peak to the bus terminus, I took about 2.5 hours of meandering and detouring to the visitor centre.

From the peak to chihsing park were some trees and lots of bamboos and grasses. From the park onwards were lowland forests.

The visitor centre was small but very well done. It showed slideshows with commentaries of wildlife in the grassy, aquatic and highland areas. Some of the insects were placed in an erect stand which was an interesting way of displaying. The floor was made of glass. It was a bit too dark though.