Wild Taiwan

XiTou 溪頭森林遊樂區 and Shanlinxi杉林溪

2006-10-18T09:49:00.000+08:00

This will probably be our last vacation in Taiwan this year so we wanted to go to a really nice place. The two places which we chose were XiTou and Shanlinxi. We took the train to Taizhong and then took the Taizhong bus to XiTou. While waiting for the bus, we had a walk around Taizhong city. It's a huge city with a lot of Philipinos, Vietnamese, Thai and Burmese. Some of these were probably married to Taiwanese men or immigrant workers. There were also many shoe shops, jewellery shops and bead shops. It's almost like Taipei!
The Taizhong bus left at 1 pm and drove through Nantou city, Luku and finally Shanlinxi. Nantou had some streets which were really old and the street signs were so faded. The houses were one storey with classic red gates. These same houses are usually abandoned in Taipei but in Nantou, they seemed to be occupied. As Nantou lies on the faultline, lots of earthquakes happen here. In Sep 21 1998, there was a 7.8 quake and 4 bridges collapsed, the hospital caved in and many buildings were damaged and couple of thousand people died. As we were staying in Xitou we got off the bus there and walked to our inn. The inn which we stayed in was 好聖地民宿 meaning good holy ground inn http://forest.mmmtravel.com.tw/?ptype=a1It's probably a deliberate change of chinese character to sound like the original tourist attraction 好勝地. The inn has two locations. One down the road built like a tudor house and one at the shopping street. We stayed at the shopping street as it's nearer to the entrance gate to Xitou.
The shopping street housed restaurants and shops, all selling the same things like tea, bamboo rice, trout, stream prawns, fermented bamboo, honey, carbon-coated peanuts, preserved plums etc.
As the altitude was around 1000 m, it was quite cool. It even rained shortly after we checked into our room. Thank goodness that each bed has a very thick and warm blanket. One thing I must say, Taiwanese inns have super hard beds, it was the same in Wulai and elsewhere. We used one of the blanket as mattress in order not to wake up with stiff shoulder and necks, even then it only barely helped matters.
The second day, we woke up to a hazy morning. As the inn doesn't serve breakfast, we went to this local breakfast place tugged in the village and had fried noodles, hot soy bean drink and carrot cake. Only the noodles and soy bean were good. We packed some glutinous rice from the stall as lunch. As it was Sunday, the whole place was swamped with cars and people. There weren't enough car parks and all the cars were parked on both sides of the road which was a slope. Nobody seemed to put any rock beneath their tyres. It would have been quite a disaster if some car's brakes failed. We were waiting at the bus stop for the bus that would bring us to Shanlinxi and in that half hour wait, we saw about 10 cars coming to park at this particular spot. After each car had parked properly, as the driver stepped out of his car, the parking attendant would yell at him and said parking was not permitted. So much petrol was wasted! A woman drove up in her SUV and asked everyone at the bus stop whether they want any lift to Taichung. I supposed she would charge a fee. No one said yes so she sat down and had her breakfast.
The bus came and we paid 60 NT each to get to Shanlinxi. It was a winding road. Each complete curvature was named after one of the twelve chinese zodiac character. I supposed it would help in case a car breakdown or in an emergency, the exact location could be given. We climbed above cloud level. Along the way, we saw tea plantations and some more inns. Some cars were also parked along the road side. There were also vegetable sellers selling fresh local produce. At the entrance, a staff boarded the bus and we paid him the entrance fee of 150 NT. Then he left and wished us a pleasant trip.
Shanlinxi is a temperate/alpine forest area. There are some broadleaved plants, conifers, and of course stream/river from the waterfall which gave it the name shanlinxi. 杉 is chinese fir. 林 is forest while 溪 is stream or river. I've always understood 溪 as a stream but in Taiwan, that can be a huge river!
A road connects the waterfall at the edge of the park to the entrance. Bus fare was 20 NT per person. We decided to walk along the road which was pleasant enough except when the bus passed by, we had to hold our breaths against the diesel fumes. The bus ran every few minutes so holding our breaths was a regular exercise. We passed by a green eutrophicated lake, which I suspect received its water from the toilet built next to it, an archery ground, experience earthquake fun house, karaoke shops and restaurants. There was a medicinal garden with lots of medicinal herbs and an eatery that sold some of the medicinal soups using the herbs found in the garden. A budhist bell was in a pagoda and kids and adults alike hit it. The sound travelled quite far and we thought initially that there was a monastery within.
The waterfall was not spectacular but the curved caves on either side was very interesting. There must have been more water before causing so much erosion.
As the bus to XiTou was departing at 250 or 430 pm we decided to take the earlier bus. We initially wanted to walk down to Xitou but the rising mist was getting too thick that we couldn't see ahead of us. The 40 min bus ride brought us back to where we started and the same lady with the SUV was still waiting there.
There was nothing to do when we got back to Xitou except wander outside the park entrance, around car park, looking at people plucking some cucumber-like plants.
The first night we had grilled trout, trout soup with fermented bamboo shoots, stir fried mushrooms and raw egg with young fern fronds. It was all pretty good. The second night we went to another stall and had bamboo rice, oil-dipped chicken, stir-fried dragon's bristles and lily bulb soup. It was not so good. I asked the owner what's the difference between the bamboo rice sold at Xitou vs Wulai and he said they're the same as the bamboo came from the same area.
As we wanted to see more of the south rather than just Xitou and Shanlinxi, we asked the inn keeper and his wife whether they knew anyone who would drive us around. They found a friend of theirs who would charge us 3000 NT for a trip to Sun moon lake. After further discussion, the wife of the innkeeper decided that they would drive us themselves. So the third day, we walked around Xitou instead. The inn keeper drove us passed the entrance so we didn't have to pay the entrance fees. We had breakfast at the Leader hotel within the park. For 500 NT for the two of us, it was really expensive and service was non existent. We had to clear the table and get the spoons and chopsticks ourselves so that we could eat. The CDs that the restaurant was playing kept jamming so it was quite an endurance test.
Anyway, it was good to get out of there and walked around the park. Xitou is one of the experimental station runned by National Taiwan University's Forestry Department. There are Taiwan fir, gingko trees, bamboos etc. There were lots of birds too. We walked along the road and then took the bird watching trail to the peak where the observatory was. It was a long walk, to and fro, about 10 km uphill and downhill. Then we went to see the University Pool. It was one the best scenic locations. All in all, we walked about 20 km.
To celebrate our second year wedding anniversary, we had dinner at another hotel, Mingshan hotel. See http://www.mingshan.com.tw/di-2.htm Surprise, surprise, we had the same kind of food offered at the shopping street: bamboo rice, stir fried dragon bristles, trout soup, steam trout, stir fried watercress. We just can't escape local specialities!
The next morning, just as we were leaving the inn, there was power failure. It was very good timing, the inn keeper and his wife drove us to Luku to eat rice cupcake and wanton noodles. Both were excellent albeit too oily. Then we head to sun moon lake. Along the way, the inn keeper's wife was telling us lots of interesting titbits aboud places and people. The bananas, rice, tomatoes were excellent in the Mingjian 名間 area. The 集集 Jiji mini train station where people go and see the train station and bicycle around. 綠色隧道, green tunnel, a nice road with camphor trees planted on both sides. We went to see a collapsed temple that was still standing because the contractor did a shody job. It was quite amazing, the ground floor and upper floors were all collapsed and sunk underground. We saw only the outer facade of the temple and the intact roof. She also mentioned that the Shuilisheyao 水里蛇窯, a pottery kiln that also sold pottery was nothing great and also very expensive. Finally we reached Sun Moon Lake日月潭. It turned out to be just another lake, not fantastic. I wonder what all the huha was about. It was a major tourist trap. Everything was expensive.涵碧樓大飯店 The Lalu Sun Moon Lake must be the top of the top in terms of price range. The brochure indicated that the hotel charged 17840 NT (S$900) for a single room. We wanted to use the washroom and it was not permitted. We were not even permitted to visit the place. I guess each flush of the toilet would cost 1000 NT. In the end, we used the toilet from the teacher's hostel next door.
After sun moon lake, we went to Puli 埔里. Now this is an interesting place. Here is a geographic marker which marks where the centre of Taiwan is and also a wine factory. The wine factory makes the famous Shaoxing wine 紹興 that is used by every household that cooks chinese dishes. This wine is sold all over S.E. Asia too. The factory is not so much a factory but more like a display shop with museum upstairs. The shop sells Shaoxing rice crisps, Shaoxing ice cream, cakes and several different types of wines. The museum upstairs was showing the earthquake scenes and the extent of damages in different districts within the Nantou county. Previously, the inn keeper's wife told us that the earthquake happened at night, when they got up in the morning, the whole mountain moved and all the soil piled out just outside their door! The huge boulder, five times a man's height and with width doubling that, inside Xitou, was actually further up the mountain but was loosen after the quake. During the typhoon, it was swept to its present location. Since nobody could move it, it became a tourist attraction.
For lunch, we had some fatty pork, also called kongbak, in Taiwanese, with rice. It was really tender and smooth. Then it was time to bid farewell to our inn keeper and his wife. We took the Puli bus back to Taizhong (150 NT each) and then it was back to Taipei. All in all, it was a very enjoyable and educational trip.

內雙溪聖人瀑布 Nei Shuangxi Shengren waterfall

2006-10-08T22:05:00.000+08:00

While I was surfing through the web looking at ManYueYuan, I found this weblink to the Shengren waterfall (meaning Saint's waterfall). http://www.pse100i.idv.tw/n/neasn/neasn001.htm
If you go to the link, don't you think the photographer's work is really beautiful? So being attracted to this kind of scenery, we decided to go this afternoon. It was real easy to get to. Unlike the bus that leaves every top of the hour to Manyueyuan, the 小18, runs every half hour from Jiantan MRT see bus link http://www.capital-bus.com.tw/busline/index.htm
The ride was very scenic. It reminded me of Manyueyuan and Wulai. I supposed because these are all catchment areas. There were green hills all around. The air was fresh and there was a nice cool breeze. After we alight from the bus at the last stop, we took a long route to the right and walked along the waterways (probably constructed since the Japanese occupation to channel water to rice farms). Then as the path disappeared along the waterway, we walked on the road. There were some cars parked on the roadside and children with nets catching butterflies or fish. After passing by a huge brown house, which sure looked out of place there, we took the road on the right and walked back to the main road. This road was parallel to the waterfall but we couldn't see it but we could hear it. There was a brand new education centre beside this road just after the falls.
When we got back onto the main road, we walked to the shengren chiao, saint's bridge and walked through the river, 內雙溪, to get to see the watefall. We didn't get ourselves wet because the waterlevel was low and there were huge flat boulders which we could step easily to cross the river.
When we did see the waterfall, it didn't look as nice as those in the photos. There was also a wooden barrier with green wires to prevent people from going right to the falls. Of course, people climbed right over the barrier and sat beside the waterfall. This was also BBQ season so there were crowds barbequeing on any and every exposed boulders. The people tend to leave the charcoal, BBQ pits or food behind so it won't be doing a lot of good to our drinking water in the long run.

Man Yue Yuan National Forest Recreation Area 滿月圓國家森林遊樂區

2006-10-08T21:04:00.000+08:00

I was looking for places to go on weekends and I found this Sanxia 三峽 and Man Yue Yuan National Forest Recreation Area 滿月圓國家森林遊樂區 whilst browsing through books at the Chang An library (a branch of Taipei public library).
http://www.tpml.edu.tw

There are many ways to go to Sanxia but I think the fastest way is to take the MRT to YongNing 永寧, take exit 4 and hop on any bus that brings you to Sanxia 三峽. From the bus terminus, we took the mini bus that goes to xiongkong 熊空. This bus only leaves at the top of every hour in the morning http://yoyonet.biz/egoing/bus/beichi/long/peik/06-t.htm
and only one bus returns from 熊空 in the afternoon at 345 pm to Sanxia. The last bus is 610 pm. This didn't leave us with a lot of time to explore the park because we just missed the 10 am bus.
Anyway, since there was nothing nearby in terms of shops or scenery which appealed to us so we waited at the bus stop which offered a little shelter from the sun and caught the 11 am bus.
The bus was very crowded, many old folks got up later from the wet market. The old folks live in the mountain areas, they are probably farmers of tea or vegetables. They sure look fit as a fiddle.

The bus passed by 大板根森林溫泉度假村 Dabangen forest spa village http://www.xn--54q421cqj0anqf.tw/ViewPage.asp?TravelID=1270.
I was thinking of visiting but after 滿月圓, I don't think I want to pay 250 NT just for a visit.

It was a good thing there was a family going to 滿月圓 as well as there was no sign telling us where to alight. It was basically at a junction which had a yellow sign with red lettering selling honey 蜂蜜. A few meters after the bus stop, there was an area with landslide so we could see the roadside concrete barrier completely battered from the falling rocks and boulders. We hurriedly walked past this area. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to the ticketing entrance. There were some carparks but cars were parked all along the roadside. It was a very nice day and lots of people had the same idea of visiting the park. We were thinking if the bus runs more frequently, people wouldn't have to drive.

People living in Taipei county get to have 50% discount on entrance fees so we only paid 50NT for the two of us. The walking paths were covered with gravel and the sides with two rock slabs. We preferred to walk on the rock slabs as it was less tiring. However, other people had the same idea too so it was rather crowded.

The forest is beautiful. There are two waterfalls, virgin and ManYueyuan falls. The one on the right is ManYueyuan fall.
At the beginning of the trail, we saw at least four partriges which quickly disappeared into the undergrowths http://www.birdingintaiwan.com/taiwanpartridge.htm
There were lots of butterflies, some birds with very nice calls but we didn't get to see how they looked like and mosquitoes that bit through my socks. There was a boy who caught a stag beetle probably a Neolucanus swinhoei http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1803/species.htm

We saw other trails that were not packed with people but the signs were very helpful saying that they take 4-5 hours to complete. There was also a big sign listing the potential animals that you can see such as Formosan clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyurus), Formosan black bear (Selenarctos thibetanus formosanus), Formosan sika deer (Cervus nippon taiouanus) etc. Much as we would like to see the wildlife we don't fancy being mauled by the predators. We also had to catch that 345 pm bus so we gave those trails a miss.

Other websites on ManYueYuan: http://www.pse100i.idv.tw/t/mnyuun/mnyuun007.htm http://taipei.mmmtravel.com.tw/index_m.php?ptype=map_main&id=570

Wulai 烏來 and Neidong 內洞

2006-09-16T17:40:00.000+08:00

We wanted to kill two birds with one stone by staying overnight at Wulai one weekend. Not only did we experience hotspring bath at Wulai but we also managed to see the beautiful waterfalls at Neidong.
Wulai was hot in August and humid since it was a catchment made up of pristine forests and waterfalls. We took the xindian bus near Taipei main station and rode it all the way to Wulai which cost 70 NT per person. Most people would take the MRT to Xindian and board the bus from there but it would be very crowded. One would have to stand all the way as the bus sped through hill roads and one's balancing skill and jostling for hand holds would be severely tested.
Wulai in the Daya aboriginal language means hotspring. Legend recorded that two hundred years ago, a Daya hunter whilst hunting saw a stream with steam emitting out from it. When he went nearer, he realised it was hot and he yelled wulai! wulai! and that was how the name came about.

Although we were there on a weekend, it wasn't particularly crowded. We managed to book a room really last minute, like two days before. The inn that we stayed in was called 碧山閣飯店 http://www.greenhillspa.com.tw/. It was so so, no breakfast, staff were friendly and helpful. The room has a small hotspring pool that can squeeze in two people. The hot water came from the hotspring while the cold water was from the river. The hotspring in Wulai is unusual in that it's not smelly, basically odourless and clear. Because of this property, some hotspring inns used heated normal tap water instead of hotspring water. I don't quite see the point though. The hotspring would be hot and no heating required whereas heating up tap water would cost more I would have thought. Anyway, Wulai is not short of hotspring spa, every inch of buildable land is a hotspring inn or spa place. Some looked really grand and expensive.

We walked from the old street of Wulai down to the river for a picnic. There were lots of young people having a barbecue. This seems to be a favourite national past time. Where there's a river, you will find people having BBQ. The water was actually rather cool. Then we walked back to the road to the mini railway station and beyond to get a better view of the waterfall. It was hot and humid in early Sep. By the time we got to the one and only coffee shop opposite Naruwan hotel, we felt like we're suffering from sunstroke. It wasn't as if we didn't carry any water with us, the two of us finished 2 L of water just for that 2 h walk. Then we took a taxi to Neidong 內洞.

Most people may have heard of Wulai 烏來 http://visitnative.nat.gov.tw/aborigine/wulai/index.html but not Neidong 內洞 which loosely mean inner cave. It was also called wawagu 娃娃谷 previously. At Wulai you see waterfalls far away but at neidong, some are so close, you can feel the water spray.

To get there, we could either walk or take a taxi which costs 300 NT one way. The taxi driver told us that people will walk to Neidong at the crack of dawn to enjoy the fresh air and coolness.

We had walked from Wulai to Qingwagu Neidong 青蛙谷 and had we walked further and paid the entrance fees, we would have visited Neidong in the spring of 2002 when it was cooler.

There were many people in the park. We could see the first of four waterfalls across the river. The river water has a jade green colour. According to the taxi driver, he said the water is very pure and comes from Fushan mountains 福山.

There was one toilet beside the river. From the abundance of butterflies hovering near an outlet pipe, I gather the sewage, maybe not the solids, goes right into the river.

Other than butteflies, we saw some Formosan monkeys. While we were walking on the trail, the rain came. It was a torrential downpour that stopped after 20 minutes. While it was raining, the frogs came out, daddy long legs etc. I would say the forest came alive!

The trail that went up the side of the biggest waterfall was quite poorly managed. The path was narrow and certain parts had no barrier at all. It was on this path that one of us fell and it was a good thing he didn't go all the way down the mountain. I found it strange that for such a popular park, the path was not in better maintenance.

Other links on neidong: http://www.dan-studio.com/leisure/taibei/ix-wawa.htm

Taipei World Trade Centre

2006-08-12T19:18:00.000+08:00

One of the things we like to do on weekends is to visit the Taipei world trade centre to see the trade shows. Today, two exhibits interest us. One was the kitchenware, renovation, furniture expo at hall 1 and the other the pets and aquarium show in hall 3.

Before we even went into hall 3, we were seeing all dogs of different breeds with their owners walking along the side of the Songzhi Road. I was wondering why were the dogs going to a pet show. Later then I figured out why.

Hall 1 exhibits appeared to be a miscellaneous, left over from previous furniture design exhibition last month. There were jewelleries, organic waste processor, leak-proof window manufacturer, earthquake proof home, floor polish, curtains, vacuum bags, one kitchenware and kitchen designer, water purifier, the machine that sucks and cleans humidity in the air and convert to drinking water etc, etc.

Both of us were most impressed with the organic waste processor. It looked just like a rubbish bin but it had to be connected to electricity at all times. Inside I guessed was a mixture of bacteria or fungus and basically it broke down whatever kitchen waste that was poured into the bin. It could treat fish, chicken, pork bones, vegetables, milk, etc. It could process rice within 4 hours and bones in just a few hours more. It also consumed very little electricity (used to run a slow moving rotor to turn the food waste and mix with the fungus), maximum cost per month on continuous run on the rotor was 130 NT but usually it would be less than that because the rotor need not run all the time in normal household use. When the food is processed, the rotor stopped turning. The processed waste, looking like wood chips, could be taken out and used as compost. The smell was like dried wood chips. Not at all unpleasant.

Within the same hall was the chinese food festival. As one of us was still fasting, we skipped that part all together.

After we were done with hall 1, we went over to hall 3. It was packed! With humans, dogs, a few cats, a few ferrets and a few sugar glider (short-headed possum) that the shop owner was trying to sell. Sugar glider see:
http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/animals1/kangaroo/sugarglider.html
We saw the golden retriever was shaved almost all throughout except the back leaving some slightly longer hair the shape of a heart. This only happens in Taiwan, I mused.

The pet owners were bringing their pets for free grooming sessions, training sessions, clothes and accessories fitting, pet food tasting etc. One dachshound's nails were being trimmed and either it moved or the groomer cut too deep, there was blood spewing out from its paw and it jerked hard and wanted to run away! It was a good thing that the mistress held on tight. Anyway, mistress and dog soon left after the groomer put some kind of absorbent granules on the bleeding toe to stop the bleeding. I so pity the poor animal.

We saw two St Bernards. The two owners were obviously pleased to know of each other's existence I supposed as they were eagerly chatting with each other while people formed a ring aroudn them and fire away with their cameras. Taiwanese seemed to love Labrador retriever, golden retriever, chiwawa, dachshound, Ainu, collie, huskies etc.

We had more fun outside the pet show exhibition than inside. We were like bird watchers, or rather dog watchers sitting by the wayside admiring or commenting the dog breeds and owners. Dogs would be dogs! We observed this wee little pomeranian which was so ambitious about marking territories. It lifted its back leg and wanted to pee on every available tree, bush, left over dog pee but it was dryer than the sahara. It just raised its leg and never gave up!

Some dog owners cleaned up after their pets but others didn't do a thorough job. We observed the size of the poop decreased with each passing wave of humanity. We pity the cleaner after this show with all the bags of or tissue covered poop. The smell would challenge the patience of the stoic nose.

Beitou 竹內溫泉餐廳

2006-08-07T18:39:00.000+08:00

We went to look for the spa 竹內溫泉餐廳 that was mentioned in the Taipei guide book available in the stores now. It's all in mandarin, with no directions on how to get there other than an address. It mentioned that this spa place is also some kind of farm and if you take the hotspring dip in the evening, you can see the sunset. All sounds very nice so I guess my imagination got the better of me.

See views of the place: http://www.twem.idv.tw/3/9/1/a95.htm

We took the bus 260 to the terminus and walked along Shamaoshan Road to the address mentioned. Along the way, we passed by the Shamao trail that leads to the top of the hill. We saw a crushed giant earthworm, about 1 foot long and a family of Formosan macaques. We heard them first then we saw them. They were making warning noises and we peeped through the foliage and saw them in the undergrowth.

The view was very nice; with the evening sun, coating the trees to a shade of golden brown. Those trees in the shadow of the hills remained green and fresh. The sky was cloudless and blue.

We walked and walked, always had to be wary of approaching traffic as there was no pedestrian walkways. In certain section the road for the two way traffic was so narrow, we had to run past that stretch when there was a lull in the traffic.

Finally, we reached the 竹內溫泉餐廳. It was such a let down. I was thinking of seeing animals, nice looking spa but you can see for yourself the pictures of the place in the link. I supposed my expectations were too high.

However, if you should like to go see for yourself, you can take the 230 bus from Beitou which sort of stops directly opposite the spa.

Now, the bus ride on 230 is something else altogether. As mentioned earlier, the roads have no pedestrian walkways, some stretches are so narrow, there is only room for a bus stop on one side of the road, after that is either the hill or the sheer drop into the valley. If you want to take the bus on the opposite side of the road, you'll just have to stand on the other side of the road to the bus stop and signal to the bus driver to stop. If a car drives a bit slower, then the traffic gets bunched up behind this car. When there's no traffic, some drivers tend to speed and have their engines roaring away. You can hear them coming miles away, that's the time to flatten ourselves against the hill or squeeze ourselves to the side of the edge leading down to the valley.

The bus had to make many hair pin turns going downhill. As we were standing we could see the bottom of the valley where the hotsprings originate. It looked almost like a mine, there was no vegetation, just white rocks, sands, water vapour and the milky white pools of hotsprings. The rotten egg smell was unmistakable, due to H2S, hydrogen sulphide. Lots of pipes were seen piping the hotspring water to the various spas in the area. They looked like thick black wire cables. I wondered how the spa owner know how to repair the pipes if it should leak along the miles of piping going along the sides of the mountain, forest etc. Some cars were parked right beside the hotsprings and I supposed these dare devils braved the smell and the heat to take their dips.

Hotspring therapies are very popular here in Taiwan. The various springs come in different temperatures, from mid thirties Celsius, about 40s to a high of 50. There are individual jacuzzies type in private rooms, or communal pools for men or women, outdoors. Some dip in the hotspring stark naked while others wear swimming costumes.

cool escape

2006-08-03T17:44:00.000+08:00

Nowadays, Taipei is blessed with clear blue sky and amazing winds. Unfortunately it's still like an oven in my apartment and in the street where my apartment is.

I escaped to Yang Ming shan yesterday as it's much cooler there. 26 degrees or so. It was windy too. I took the feeder bus, got off at the second last bus stop thinking that it's nearer to the waterfall as it appeared so in the map. However, there was no path leading there. I had to walk to the next stop and continued to the waterfall. Along the way I saw some really huge stink bugs with thick hind legs. They were really abundant on the trees.

It seemed stinkbugs are quite seasonal. I saw a different one earlier in May, smaller, with bright red bodies on the Machilus trees in Taipei city. They had a habit on landing on the ground and some got stepped on. When one was dead on the ground, the others woulld congregate around it, touching the dead companion. I really didn't know what they were doing but it sure looked mournful!

I walked along the trail with a waterway constructed beside it. It was constructed during the Japanese occupation. Apparently after the waterway was created, it changed the whole landscape, rice cultivation became possible. There was a very common herb along the way, Begonia formosana, 水鴨腳秋海棠, http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/plant93/plant93_c3-106.htm

It seemed it's also mating season too. There were lots of dragonflies mating and depositing eggs in the water. And of course, there were lots of butterflies.
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d4-121.htm, http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d4-127.htm, http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d4-152.htm

I didn't have to try very hard to look out for birds, they were very comfortable around me. There were a number of white eyes (popular songbirds) darting among the foliage. http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d3-2139.htm. There was a pair of Bambusicola thoracica, 竹雞, crossing the path http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d3-2123.htm
and a pair of Lesser Scimitar Babbler http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d3-212b.htm

There was even an earthworm which jumped about 8 cm high when I tried to move it away from the walking path! I didn't know they have this ability!

Alishan 阿里山風景區

2006-06-13T17:57:00.000+08:00

Alishan mountain range is in the west of Yushan 玉山range. Separated by Nansingxian stream, it faces Yushan. In the north is Nantou, the southern tip reaches Kaoshiong Jiguanshan. The whole range is North, northeast – south south west, 250 km long. On average 2200 m, the highest peak is Datashan大塔山.

The upside down U shaped range, funnel in the west southerly trade wind during the summer. On average the summer temperature is 18.8 degree Celsius. In May, June, it’s the rainy season, Jul, Aug, typhoon season, so the rainfall in these months is 70% of the annual rainfall. Rainfall days are 209 days. During autumn, winter, northeasterly trade wind brings more rain but also brings a lot of cloud, giving the cloud seascape.
From Chiayi city, at an elevation of 30 m above sea level, climb up to 2600 m, the forest range from subtropical, temperate to alpine zones. Subtropical zone consisted of figs, bethel nuts, bamboos and longans. At zhaoping, chiyunshi, are broad-leaved, pine needles and dominated by artificially planted Cryptomeria forests. Further up to zhushan, are Cryptomerias 柳杉, hemlock spruces 鐵杉, pine, mixed needle-leaved forests.
Alishan can be reached by car in two hours. There are also public buses at Chiayi which leaves at 630 am or 2 pm for Alishan. The most memorable one of course is the Alishan rail. It is one of three mountain railway in the world, the other two being found in India (Darjeeling-Himalaya Railway) and Peru (Andean Central Railway). It ascends up the mountain in its unique switch back method. The Alishan railroad was built by the Japanese from 1906-1913. The reason was timber. Three-thousand year-old cypress trees with girths of ? The trees were cut and transported by rail down to Chiayi and later shipped to Japan. Most of the old trees are no longer seen but a few are left and they can be seen along the giant tree trail boardwalk. At the shenmu station before Alishan station, there is an old tree trunk lying by the side of the railway track. It was called the sacred tree. It was upright till Jul 1 1997. Many of the old postcards or pictures will show this tree trunk leaning towards the railway track when it was still standing. The trees that visitors see are from reforestation work done by the Taiwanese after the Japanese occupation.

Initially the train was powered by steam, later diesel. Along the way, one can see lots of Bethel nut palm trees all over the mountainside. The whole length of the railroad is 71.35 km. Starting from 30 m above sea level at Chiayi to 2216 m. It has to pass through 50 tunnels and 80 bridges. Some of the stops along the way are worth stopping and visiting, such as Jiaoliping, Fenchihu. Zuqi station is built completely of the timber of Alishan. Zhangnaoliao station onwards was the most difficult stretch of rail to build. The story was that the Japanese engineer in charge of the project was stuck in how to build the rail along that steep part. One day, as he took a rest and ate his lunch, he saw a snail crawling by him. He got his inspiration from the snail shell’s spiral whorls. So if you look at the back of your train ticket, you can see how the rail spirals before straightening and then it went zigzag. The zigzag part was when the train switch rail to go up another stretch of the hill. As the train first left Chiayi, the train engine was pushing from the back of the train. At the zigzag part, the train is being pulled when it switched track. So first you go forward, then backward and then forward again until Alishan station where the train terminates.

One of Alishan’s famous produces is wasabe, the Japanese mustard. It was introduced from Japan to Alishan. The wasabe is a perennial herb, belonging to the Brassicaceae family. It prefers to grow in high altitude areas, cool wet and shady places. As the plant grows slowly, the price of wasabe is high. Those found in the market in the less expensive restaurants are artificial, or are made of horse radish.

For the naturalist, bird watching, flowers, giant trees, insects are a great draw. A few of the trees like Elephant nose tree, three-generation tree were thousand year old. The museum was closed when we went, it supposedly have collections of plant and animal specimens, mountain models, and cultural items. There’s also a Botanic pathway, very much derelict, with small signs giving the identity of the trees. Everywhere one goes, one cannot miss the Digitalis herb, downward pointing bell-shaped flowers in chains rising up from the ground with the leaves converging at the base. The flowers are colourful, pink, purple, white or yellow. They produce copious amounts of nectar thus they compete with local plants for pollinators. Although the plants are beautiful, introduced by the Japanese from Europe, they are extremely poisonous so nothing can eat them. They are flourishing all over Alishan, posing an ecological hazard.

One of the nicest views of Alishan is the sisters’ lake. The lake waters are very clear. A shady hut is right in the middle of the lake. The view of the hut over the lake changes with the seasons. The nicest one was a picture I saw in a restaurant when the whole place was covered with snow.

Zhaoping station was where the old station used to be. Now, it carries passengers up to the Zhushan to view the sunrise. Tourists staying in Alishan Gou hotel are within walking distance to the station. The disadvantages of staying so near the railway station are the noise from the crowds waiting to board the train and the whistles from the train. One can also easily walk up to see the sunrise although a torch may be needed. However, the best way to savour the giant tree forest is the walk down after seeing the sunrise.

Juming museum 朱銘 and Yehliu 野柳

2006-05-28T23:03:00.000+08:00

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

2006-05-28T22:25:00.000+08:00

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

2006-05-08T21:57:00.000+08:00

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

2006-05-08T10:46:00.000+08:00

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.

Aboriginal peoples of Taiwan

2006-04-13T16:51:00.000+08:00

Most people who visit Taiwan will pay a visit to the National Palace museum. However, there's a little treasure just beyond which is not well know. I didn't know much about the Aboriginal peoples of Taiwan till I went to Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines.
http://symuseum.myweb.hinet.net/index.html

Through the multi-media programs, I was surprised to find out that this group of people are related to some tribes of Indochina, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia all the way to Madagascar. On hindsight, from what I've seen of the handicraft works of Vietnam, Borneo, Indonesia and Madagascar, I can see the similarities arising from a common origin.

There are many detailed introduction to the 12 different tribes, including harvest festivals, worship ceremonies, marriage and wedding clothes, games and funeral rites. There are original pieces of cloths and artefacts of the different tribes which are real eye-openers. The exhibits are housed in three storeys. The museum offers a discount to visitors who have visited the National Palace Museum.

The most well known singer of Aboriginal origin from Taiwan is A-Mei. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-Mei. Other Taiwanese artists are also exporting their art forms to Europe, US and Canada. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/05/16/2003308432

I'm glad that these groups of peoples are no longer ignored and are less likely to be looked down upon as in time past. They are becoming more proud of their heritage so they take pains to remember their traditional ways which I think is a good thing. Recently they even insist on keeping their original Aboriginal names in their ID card rather than recording them in Mandarin.

I like the museum so much that I've visited it three times in just over a year! I really hope more people will go and visit. I've hardly seen a soul during the times I was there. It would be a shame if it has to close because it couldn't afford the high maintenance cost. To get there, take the bus that goes to the National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院 from Jiantan MRT station. Get off at Palace museum and walk up Zhishan road, address is 台北市至善路二段282號

Other information:
http://www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/culture/0795_TribesOfTaiwan.html

Hualien 花蓮

2006-01-14T20:38:00.000+08:00

Hualien is a very nice county. It is beautiful in a rugged sense. Bordered by mountain chains which protected the county from the cold winds from up north, thus it's warmer than Taipei while facing the Pacific ocean on the other, it has an interesting climate. On mornings, it can be sunny while in the afternoon, rain. Warm, moist air from the ocean rises after meeting the high mountains, cools, condenses and forms big cumulonimbus clouds and eventually falls as rain. A phenonmenon known as Orographic precipitation.
http://www.hlhg.gov.tw/
http://www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/scenery/1096_Hualien.html
Hualien is the largest county in Taiwan but is also the least populous due to its rugged terrain. It is famous for its high probability of being hit by typhoon and earthquake (60%). Typhoon season is from May till October while earthquake events are very much all year round. So far the damage from typhoon is more severe than earthquake.

A famed group of products of Hualien is marble and all kinds of mineral rocks. Annual production: among 8,960,000 tons of marble are 230,000 tons of dolomite, and 2,300,000 tons of cement. The marble is top quality and the mineral rocks are multi-coloured, pink, green, brown etc. The colour indicates the kind of mineral it contains. For instance, pink is Manganese, Black is Iron etc. All of Taiwan's jade is from Hualien.
With all these mining, the landscape is somewhat barren in certain parts especially along the railway track. If one drives towards Taroko Gorge, one cannot miss seeing the giant cement factory. Disputes had been going on between the Aboriginal people and the Cement factory see http://www.taiwanfirstnations.org/dthreats.html

The jewel of Hualien is of course Taroko Gorge. It was designated a national park in 1986, and it's the second largest in the whole of Taiwan. It is an awesome place, smaller than Grand Canyon but it has its own spectacular mountains, marble canyons and magnificent gorges carved by many rivers and waterfalls. Over 200 workers died constructing the road that leads into the gorge. A shrine has been set up to commemorate these braves. Many parts of the gorge remain a mystery because there's no road. Strangely enough, a five-star Formosa hotel is built right inside the gorge. Was told during one the typhoons last year, the tunnel that leads out of the hotel to the outside world was 3/4 flooded. A helicopter was needed to bring in food etc. Rock falls are constant threats especially at night when the rocks contract after a day's heating. There are now tunnels under the mountain to allow easier access but one loses the opportunity to see the gorge unlike one who travels along the open road carved into the mountain. Well, safety versus beauty, I suppose.

In Chisingtan, so named because the coast was shaped like the roman alphabet 7, overlooks the Pacific Ocean. The pepples here are real nice. They are mostly grey with patches or lines of white or brown.

There are Aboriginal peoples here and one group is the Taroko. Not many of them are left now. This is the fate suffered by many other groups as well, some have become so localised like the Han chinese that they've lost their traditional identity. Taiwan tourism should capitalise on this unique cultural heritage and let the world know more about the Aboriginal peoples. If nothing else, their architectural designs are something to be marvel at. They build their own homes and other buildings and the style is far more unusual than the standard architectural styles seen in local modern Taiwanese housing. Their knowledge about plants, animals, ways to cook them ought to be enjoyed by a wider public as well as preserved for posterity.

One aboriginal restaurant at Liyutan called Tree House serves absolutely fabulous food. The dishes were cooked by the Amis people. We had giant tilapia, the fish was gutted but the scales were left intact, coated generously with salt and baked on hot stones. So when we ate the fish, we just flicked the whole sheet of skin with scales away. Yum! We had other kinds of vegetables which were deep fried in batter, lemon papaya with sesame, chicken soup cooked with niubing, the long underground stem which made the soup sweet.

A new attraction is the ocean park built and designed by Japanese about 4 years ago. The photo above is taken from the park showing the beautiful coast. It's entertaining for kids and those young at heart. The discovery island which is usually missed is actually quite educational. The dolphin shows were the highlight of the park. I'm sure the trainers were in pain each time when they were sent off at high speed and then landed up on the pools' edge. If they were not careful, they could very well hit their heads on the low barrier or the wall of the pool since the dolphins were swimming so fast!

The hotel that I highly recommend is Parkview Hotel. The rooms are huge and clean. There's a nice grassland, artifical waterfall which is very well designed and a golf course. The room either faces the mountains or the coast. This photo is taken from our hotel room. As you can see the hotel has a huge garden and golf course.

Hualien can be reached by road, air or rail. I'd recommend the rail since one can see the Pacific ocean along the way. It is only 3 hours or so.
http://202.39.225.132/jsp/Eng/html/attractions/city_introduce.jsp?city_code=10015

Shifen waterfall 十分瀑布

2006-01-06T15:38:00.000+08:00

Shifen is located at Pingxi township, in Taipei county. It's upstream from Jilong river. The whole area is mountainous, many waterfalls and full of what the locals call huxue, 壶穴, kettle pits in the river beds. Huxue are round, shallow pits formed by erosion of the soft rocks by pebbles grinding against the soft rocks by rapid water action. There were coal mining here but have ceased to exist. The areas have been transformed into coal mining museums.

Shifen waterfall is nicknamed the little Niagara of Taiwan. There is some resemblance to the real thing although much more a scaled down version. See my pictures.

One can get to Shifen fairly easily. If you are taking the train, give yourself plenty of time. From Taipei main station -> take Yilan or Hua-Dong line, get off at Ruifang or Houtong station -> transfer to Pingxi line -> Shifen -> 15 min walk to Shifen visitor centre. The train actually passes by the waterfall, if you stand up instead of sitting on the train seats, you can see it quite well. An artificial wall prevents one from seeing it easily so that they can charge entrance fees of 100NT. The entrance fees include insurance and maintenance fees of the environment.

If one is driving, 1) goto shenkeng -> shihding interchange -> take county road 106 -> Pingxi -> shifen or 2) take National expressway 1 -> Badu interchange -> ruiba clearway (County road 102B) -> county road 106 at Ruifang industrial park -> shifen or 3) xizhi 汐止 ->si-ping clearway (county road North 31) -> Pingxi -> Shifen or 4) National Expressway 2 north -> shihding interchange, take National Expressway 5 ->county road 106 -> Pingxi -> Shifen.

By bus, take route 16 to Pingxi at Mamingtan, Muzha, Taipei city -> shnkeng -> shenkeng -> Shiting -> Pingxi -> take train (pingxi line) at Pingxi station to Shifen -> 15 min walk to shifen visitor centre; or take route 15 to shifen -> 10 Min walk to shifen visitor centre.

By MRT take Muzha line -> get off at Muzha station -> transfer to Taipei bus, take route 15 or route 16, see above.

Shin-shin bus: taipei main station -> Muzha, Shiting _> get off at Shungsi-Kou station -> transfer to route 15 or 16 see above.

The visitor centre gives out English as well as Chinese brochures which shows you the map of the area and some information like the area of the whole place, how to get there etc. It also explains the formation of the kettle pits. More can be done at the visitor centre, I feel.

From the visitor centre, walk across the suspension bridge, continue in the direction of the river, is the eyeglass cave. The waterfall here is smaller but no less spectacular. The waterfall forms a veil over a concave cavern.
On a cold, windy day, the sellers will set up stalls barbequeing the pork sausages. The wind carrying the wonderful aroma will wiff upstream as you walk towards little Niagara. By the time you reach eyeglass cave, your salivary glands would have gone on overdrive and you simply must buy one to savour the tasty sausages and overcome the gastronomic cravings.

To continue to little Niagara, one has to walk beside the railway track, avoid the train every half hour interval to get to the entrance of little Niagara. This is not the place to wear stiletto heels. The loose rocks or pebbles to support the railway track can sprain one's ankles easily.

At little Niagara, there's a little coffeeshop where one can sip coffee or tea and admire the view. There's washroom here too. Other than that, a little shrine and nothing else.

If one takes the train right to Qingtong terminal station, there's a railway museum which features some black and white pictures of the local folks. It also shows the location of the old coal mine, the hospital, school etc. On the street path is a number of historical plaques which shows the year the coal mine was established, significant events at Qingtong as one walks along in the direction of the museum. Nothing much here other than short walks to the mines or the surrounding areas.

November is the flowering season of Alpinia ginger so white flowers can be seen dotted here and there. The flowers are very fragrant, people like to keep some cut flowers at home to bring light, sweet, citrus fragrance to their homes.

seafood in Taiwan

2005-12-22T14:30:00.000+08:00

Taiwan has a lot of marine fish cultures, eels, groupers, small abalone (or nine holes Haliotis diversicolor), shrimps etc. See http://www.roc-taiwan.org/taiwan/5-gp/yearbook/2002/chpt12-6.htm

The Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica, or unagi, is the one that's cultured in Taiwan. Eel culture in Taiwan can be in the form of a nursery operation, raising newly transformed elvers of Anguilla japonica to fingerlings, in the form of a production operation, raising fingerlings to market size eels, or a combination of the two.
Eels have an interesting life cycle, half in the sea and half in freshwater. Eels spend their growing period in freshwater but breed in the sea. They become sexually mature after the adult eels migrate back from the rivers into the sea. In nature, the larvae feed on small crustaceans, worms, insects. They spend anywhere from 5 to 20 years in freshwater and grow to a size of about 45cm or longer before reaching sexual maturity. Then they go into the sea toward their spawning ground. After hatching, the transparent leaf-like larvae drift with the Kuroshio current along the Western Pacific coast up to Japan. They are believed to spend 5-6 months as pelagic swimmers before metamorphosing into elvers and migrate upriver. They are totally transparent but have the body shape of an eel and are called glass eels. The glass eels are carried by tides into the estuaries of coastal rivers where they undergo further development to become elvers (up to 1-3 years of age), which are similar to the adult form except for size. The elvers then undertake a more active secondary migration into the freshwater, upper reaches of the catchment where they grow and develop into sexually mature adults before returning to the sea to spawn (average 10-25 years of age, although this varies with species and location).
The Japanese eel are endemic only in waters of China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. With a total dependence on natural sources, the supply of glass eel is limited, very unpredictable, and is the bottleneck in the development of eel culture. Many people thus place their hope for the future for eel farming on artificial propagation. Induction of ovulation through hypophysation, artificial fertilization of eggs, and hatching of such fertilized eggs has been carried out successfully in Japan and Taiwan. The cultivation of such larvae to the elver stage for the farming industry, however, will probably not be possible in the near future.

In order to culture eels in the freshwater environment, a lot of groundwater is pumped thus causing land subsidence. source: http://www.american.edu/projects/mandala/TED/eelfarm.htm
Eels are commonly sold as fresh or already smoked with teriyaki source.

There are many grouper species but the most common grouper species cultured in Taiwan is the orange-spotted (Epinephelus coioides). They are fed with trash fish or artificial feed (dry formulation). Seed, which is usually fry or fingerling, can be wild-caught or hatchery-bred. In the former, supply is usually seasonal and unpredictable but are however more robust and hardy as they would already have undergone pre-selection by nature. In the case of hatchery-bred seeds, supply is more predictable, and, depending on whether the parent stocks were wild-caught or farm raised, could be produced on schedule in batch-operation sequence. More information available on http://www.redlist.org/search/details/44674.pdf

Another is the small abalone
http://www.fish.org.tw/english/breeding66.files/image002.jpg
In 1998 it has suffered bacterial disease from Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Letters in Microbiology (2000)31:433-437). Eventhough some abalone may fall sick, they were still considered safe for human consumption provided they were cooked properly. More information available on http://www.fishtech.com/facts.html

Yang Ming Shan

2005-10-24T11:18:00.000+08:00

Yang Ming Shan, with an area of 11.455 hectares, is the third National park set up in Taiwan back in 1985. The altitude range from 200 to 1120 m. The whole area is what remained after volcanic activity. The original crater can still be seen at Chisingshan because its eruption was most recent. However, it's the highest mountain in the whole mountain range at 1120 m. With 1300 species of plants here, that's about a third of all plant species in Taiwan. There are many rare plants and animals, one rare plant is Isoets taiwanensis. See http://163.23.105.65/water/data1/data2.htm

Yang Ming Shan is a famous spot for local Taiwanese and tourists alike. For more details on location and information see http://202.39.225.132/jsp/Eng/html/attractions/scenic_spots.jsp?id=R139
and
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/HTML/ENGNEW/index.htm

To get there, take bus number 230, 260 or red 5. The cost may be 15 or 30 NT depending where you get on the bus. The buses will terminate on the mountain, one can then take a bus that loops all over the Yang Ming Shan to see the rest of what Yang Ming Shan has to offer. One can get off at each stop to enjoy the spot and then hop back on the bus again. Each time one has to pay 15 NT.

Yang Ming Shan is a few degrees cooler in the summer than lowland Taipei so on weekends, it is packed. There's only one road that leads to it so there may be traffic jams on weekends.

There are a few stops one simply must visit. The first is xiaoyoukeng, or small oil pit 小油坑, is one of the accessible places where gas emission is the strongest. One can still see the thick, white hydrogen sulphide fumes emitting from it. Of course, it will smell a little of rotten eggs but not overwhelming so it's worth a visit. If you can feel the ground through your shoe soles, it's actually quite warm. Boiling water pools can be seen from the edge of the rock path. There're patches of yellow sulphur all over the place. There's a visitor centre which tells you the geological history of the place but it's all in Mandarin.

Another stop is the qingtiangang, 擎天崗. The whole place is grassy, which was why yang ming shan was called grass mountain. One can have picnic here. On rare occasions, one can see wild cattle. Their presence is evident by the large pile of droppings dotted here and there. Walk up a slope and you can see the fumes coming up from xiaoyoukeng.

If you should get hungry, go to 竹子湖, chuzihu. It happens to be the old crater which had filled up with water and parts of it have dried up and became fertile land for cultivating calla lily and other vegetables. One can taste fresh grown vegetables cooked to perfection.

One mustn't miss the lengshuikeng, 冷水坑, to enjoy a not-so-hot hotspring. It's only 40 degree Celcius so it's comfortable. There are bathing facilities so one can have a dip.

Urban adventures

2005-08-17T10:32:00.000+08:00

Didn't go anywhere WILD so I'll write about the 'wild' urban Taipei.

We went cycling yesterday by the keelung river. To cycle, we need to go downstairs, open three doors, bring the bikes down, one at a time, go back up and lock doors. We had enough exercise just climbing stairs ;-(

Not bad, to get there, we have to cycle from home, go via all the back lanes and cross major roads. We have to watch out for scooters and cars coming from all directions eventhough it's a one-way street. Since no one obeys traffic laws, hardly anyone horns at anyone. Quite challenging, since you know my cycling is only passable. Anyway, it was not crowded so it was quite enjoyable. Not much of a view since on either side of river are buildings. Apparently from the wharf, one can take the ferry to the Tamshui coast. The ferry company was having promotion, if a pair of lovebirds kissed in front of the ticket seller, they get a lovebird discount and a drink. Silly right? I saw numerous sparrows, two magpies, what looks like a stork but it was too far away. Some Kandelia candel was growing by the banks of the river.

By the way, their traffic light system is quite strange. Every junction has different timing, some 120s, 95s, 60s, some 20s. You see a green man slowly walking at first and then he starts to jog and then run , all on the green light like Singapore, except for the graphics.

No matter whether it's one way or two ways, one must always look out for traffic coming in both directions. No one is safe even on pedestrian walkway. So the motorcyclists park their vehicles there and they will drive on the pedestrian walkway. Some days when I walk out of the door and a scooter come zipping by, I do get a sense of panic. One time, I wasn't paying attention, while I was walking on the pedestrian walkway, suddenly a Mercedes drove right in front of me and parked. It was legal because he was in front of Royal hotel driveway. The driveway is exactly the same as the pedestrian walkway!

Parking is a huge problem in Taipei. There are simply not enough lots for cars and scooters. Some owners advertise their parking facility beneath their buildings. So when you see this flashing red light, it means a car is coming out from the underground carpark. Some garages have double parking. The first car goes on a platform and then it sinks to a lower storey. Then the next car go on another platform and it goes on top of the first car. If the first car wants to come out, the second car's platform will elevate sufficiently for the first car to come out. Good use of space, I must say! Let's hope the levers and pistons work properly each time, or we'll see sandwiched cars.

He Ping island marine park

2005-08-10T13:35:00.000+08:00

One of Taiwan's port city is Keelung. It's in the north eastern coast of Taiwan. There's a Peninsula that juts out of this port city called He Ping Dau park or peace island or Jungjeng park. The entrance fee is NT$60 or about S$3. It's a very popular park.

The moment you enter the park, you'll see a giant swordfish? replica. All the buildings are kind of old. There are some hawkers selling drinks, nets used in aquarium tank, swimming gear, floats etc.

As one walks further, over the floating platform, one'll reach a concrete path. Beyond that, are the strange rocks. The rock formations here are really interesting. One can also see fossil arthropods embedded in the rocks. As the rocks are mainly sandstone with other harder rocks embedded within, erosion rates differ. Due to differential rate of erosion from rain, wind and acid rain, the rocks showed shapes like seals, mushrooms, tofoo etc. The other more famed coastal area where one can presumably see the head of Cleopatra is Yeliu.

One has to watch out for falling rocks whilst on the path. Recently there are steel nettings overhead so it's safer. One can also see forts with lookout posts up on the slope, presumably defence against China, although it's facing the wrong side.

There's a swimming pool just next to the sea, I'm not sure whether the water is fresh or it's marine. Just beside it are people BBQing. Strange mix.

There are so many Lygias there, the sea cockroaches. They're as numerous as the beetles in the movie, The Mummy. I wonder if they are so numerous because of the recent typhoon Matsa, which blew in a lot of debris, organic or otherwise. I didn't recall seeing them during the cold spring last year.

This park has many potential but unfortunately it's not run very well. Maintenance is not very good. As you walk on the floating wooden walkway on the sea, some of the wood already rotten and if you're not careful, your leg may just go right through. There's little education about marine life at the park. Almost everybody is trying to catch fish, crab, or whatever they can find and put into mineral water bottle to bring home. There are few if any educational signboards. Strangely enough, there's a famous marine university just round the corner. Perhaps there should be more involvement from the uni folks in public education.

Siva's office during renovation

2005-08-01T12:01:00.000+08:00

Siva's office during renovation
Originally uploaded by amychoong.

This is Siva's mess while they were moving. It was a massive undertaking, no joke.

Lady of Leisure

2005-08-01T10:48:00.000+08:00

The lady of leisure in Taipei writes about wildlife that can be found there. It's a very crowded city. Surprisingly, there are pockets of wild areas that are really quite amazing. Beautiful butterflies darting among the foliage.