The Official Bimonthly English Magazine of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau.Website: ht tp://taiwan. net .t w Advertisement
No. 55, 2013 /
Kending eco TourDiscovering the Natural Attractions of Taiwan’s Far South
BACKPACK BUS TOURS From Chiayi City To Alishan
TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS Jiufen, Jinguashi, and Shuinandong
Jazz and Saxophones Sun Moon Lake Cycling Climbing Mt. Jade
1 2
The crown jewel of CaotunMajestic combination of fashion with graceful presentation that enlightens your mind
Enjoy a Five-Star Experience at Formosa Hotel in Caotun The Crown Jewel of Caotun
● TEL:+886-49-2304168 ● FAX:+886-49-2300708 ● E-mail:[email protected]● Add: 78 Bishan Rd., Caotun Township, Nantou County (南投縣草屯鎮碧山路78號)
Welcome to Taiwan!Dear Traveler,
In this issue of Travel in Taiwan we have a strong eco theme, and you’ll be spending much more time in the hills, in the countryside, and by the sea than in the city. In our Feature we spend three sunny days in Kenting National Park, at Taiwan’s southern tip, enjoying bicycle jaunts, a tidal-zone exploration, a day hike in the coral-terrain hills, a night-time guided forest hike, scuba diving, and other eco-adventures. As always, we also give you ideas on where/what to eat, the best souvenir purchases, and where to stay. Ever stayed in a “bike hotel” before, or one of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s former villas?
We head to pretty Sun Moon Lake in the central mountains for Come! Bikeday, one of the many cycling-theme events held around the island during the annual Taiwan Cycling Festival. The round-lake loop here has been called one of the world’s 10 best bike routes by CNNGo. We stay in the soaring central mountains to visit popular Alishan National Scenic Area, going hiking and taking a scenic alpine-railway ride, along the way telling you about the ultra-convenient Taipei Tourist Shuttle Bus service, a coach service that lets you inexpensively zip around the island to major tourist sites. In a separate article we explore a number of tourist-welcoming villages inhabited by the Tsou, an indigenous people for whom Alishan is home. It’s then over to majestic Yushan National Park where we hike up Yushan, northeast Asia’s highest peak.
Back down on the f latlands, Da jia calls. Da jia is a rural area within central Taiwan’s Taichung City that, among other things, is renowned for taro and sweet potato cultivation. We tell you all you need to know about these delicious edibles. We also head to downtown Taichung to soak up the sometimes dulcet, sometimes staccato, always enjoyable notes of the annual Taichung Jazz Festival.
Mountain, countryside, and sea are all prime attractions on a visit to Jiufen, Jinguashi, and Shuinandong, a village triumvirate by the northeast coast collectively chosen as one of Taiwan’s Top 10 Tourist Towns in public polling. Spend a day exploring old mining facilities, quaint heritage teahouses, colonial-era Japanese architecture, and the vestiges of an infamous WW II POW camp.
I wish you a Happy New Year!
David W. J. HsiehDirector General
Tourism Bureau, MOTC, R.O.C.
台 灣 觀 光 雙 月 刊
Travel in Taiwan BimonthlyJanuary/February, 2013 Tourism Bureau, MOTCFirst published in Jan./Feb., 2004ISSN: 18177964 GPN: 2009305475 Price: NT$200www.tit.com.tw/vision/index.htm
Copyright @ 2013 Tourism Bureau. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without written permission is prohibited.
PUBLISHER David W. J. HsiehEdItIng ConSULtant Wayne Hsi-Lin LiuPUBLISHIng oRganIzatIonTaiwan Tourism Bureau, Ministry ofTransportation and CommunicationsContaCtInternational Division, Taiwan Tourism Bureau Add: 9F, 290 Zhongxiao E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei, 10694, TaiwanTel: 886-2-2717-3737 Fax: 886-2-2771-7036E-mail: [email protected]: http://taiwan.net.tw
Where you can pick up a copy of Travel in Taiwan abroadOffices of the Tourism Bureau in Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Frankfurt; Taiwan Representative Offices; Overseas Offices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs; Overseas Offices of the Central News Agency; onboard China Airlines, EVA Air and other selected international airways; selected travel agencies in Asia, North America, and Europe; and other organizations
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Time for Celebration-Taiwan Tourism Events
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1228
CONTENTSJanuary~February 2013
Travel in Taiwan 3
feaTure12 Kending Eco Tour — Main Kending? Ken Do! – Surf and Turf Eco-Fun in Taiwan’s Deep Tropical South — Stay Soaking Up the Sun – Recommended Eco-Theme Hotels — Eat/Buy Kending Specialties – Eating and Buying Well by the Tropical Seaside
1 Publisher’s Note4 Taiwan Tourism Events7 Meeting Tourists8 News & Events around Taiwan
10 Concerts, Exhibitions, and Happenings
32 Fun with Chinese 54 Daily Life
aCTive FUn22 Come! Bikeday
— Scenic Cycling at Sun Moon Lake
HiKinG26 Mt. Jade
— A Must-Hike for Any Mountaineer Visiting Taiwan
SPlenDiD FeSTivalS28 Prayers and Flames
— The Burning of the King Boat at Donggang
TOP Ten TOUriST TOwnS34 Water, Gold, Nine
— Exploring the History and Scenery of Three Attractive Tourist Towns in Northeast Taiwan
MUSiC TOUrS38 Jazzing Up Taichung
— Taiwan’s Third Largest City Is a Center of Saxophone Production and Host of a Great Annual Jazz Festival
inDiGenOUS villaGeS42 Natural Beauty and Indigenous Culture
— Visiting Villages of the Tsou Tribe in Alishan
BaCKPaCK BUS TriP46 Alishan, Here We Come!
— Taking the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle from Chiayi City to the High Mountains
FOOD JOUrneY50 TARO TOWN— Visiting the Dajia Region’s Taro and Sweet Potato Farms
38
4222
A Feast of Celebrations for the International Traveler
• Taiwan Lantern Festival• Taiwan Lantern Festival – Yanshui
Beehive Rockets Festival• Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival
• Tern–Watching Tour, Matsu• Xiuguluan River Rafting Activity• Summer Solstice at 23.5 North Latitude • Lukang Dragon Boat Festival• Taiwan Balloon Festival (June to Aug.)
• 2013 Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival (May and June)
Jan
May
feb
Jun• New Year's Eve Celebration (mid-Dec. to Jan.)
TAIWAN TOURISM EVENTS
4 Travel in Taiwan
• Taichung City Mazu International Festival • Song-Jiang Battle Array in Neimen, Kaohsiung (Mar. and Apr.)
• 2013 Dapeng Bay International Regatta (Apr. and May)
• Taiwan Wedding and Honeymoon Photography Activity (Apr. to Oct.)
• 2013 Daxueshan International Bird Watching Competition
• Spring Wave Music & Art Festival • Penghu Ocean Fireworks Festival
(Apr. to June)
• Taiwan Culinary Exhibition • 2013 Keelung Ghost Festival• National Yimin Festival• Kinmen Mid-Autumn Moon-cake
Gambling Game Festival
• 2013 Taoyuan International ACG Carnival (July and Aug.)• Yilan International Children's Folklore & Folkgames Festival
(July and Aug.)• Toucheng Cianggu Grappling with the Ghosts
pole-climbing competition (July and Aug.)• Hohaiyan Rock Festival in Gongliao
Jul Aug
Mar Apr
Each year the Taiwan tourism calendar brims
with international-caliber events that would
each make a fine feather in the cap for you, the globe-trotting
adventurer. Recently the Taiwan Tourism Bureau staged an
online vote to discover which annual events the public enjoys
most. Here’s a selection of the winners for you, matched in pairs
according to themes that we figure will most interest the traveler from afar.
Interested in old-time religious celebrations? The Keelung Ghost Festival features colorful
processions, water lanterns, and various rites to appease “hungry ghosts” released from hell
during Ghost Month; the Taichung City Mazu International Festival is centered around one of
the world’s great religious pilgrimages, with hundreds of thousands escorting Mazu, Goddess of
the Sea, to temples around the central plains.
Old-time folk customs? During the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival thousands of glowing sky
lanterns fill the night skies, carrying blessings; the Yanshui Beehive Rockets Festival features a
town alive with fireworks blasted laterally through the streets, used in days of old to dispel evil
spirits bringing pestilence.
TAIWAN TOURISM EVENTS
Sep Oct
Nov DeC
The Hohaiyan Rock Festival in Gongliao
is a multi-day seaside jam showcasing local and
top-f light international acts, with folk, pop,
reggae, and punk thrown in for good measure.
Hakka culture? The Miaoli Hakka Food
Festival supplies an endless table of the proud
Hakka people’s distinctive cuisine, and the
Hakka Yimin Festival, held in various locales,
has colorful processions and rituals honoring
Hakka braves who gave their lives defending
their communities in imperial times.
An honorable mention must be given to the
massive New Year’s Eve Celebration, which
overlaps with some pairings above with its pop-
music extravaganza, traditional Taiwanese
snack foods, and tremendous midnight Taipei
101 Fireworks Show.
There are of course many other travel
themes you can use when choosing, and below
we provide a full list of the most popular events
for you.
• Sun Moon Lake International Swimming Carnival• Sanyi International Woodcarving Art Festival
• Taiwan Hot Spring & Fine-Cuisine Carnival• Huashan Living Arts Festival• 2013 Love in Alishan – Wedding under Sacred Tree• 2013 LPGA Taiwan Championship• International Flower Drum Art Festival (Oct.to Nov.)• Yunlin International Puppet Arts Festival• 2013 Taiwan Open of Surfing
• Purple Butterfly Watching Activities (Dec. to Mar.)• Taipei Marathon • New Year's Eve Celebration (mid Dec.to Jan.1)• Chiayi City International Band Festival
• Kunshen Wangye's Salt for Peace Festival• 2013 Taroko Gorge Marathon• 2013 Taiwan International Festival of Arts • Miaoli Hakka Food Festival• Taiwan Cycling Festival
TAIWAN TOURISM EVENTS
6 Travel in Taiwan
At the Taipei 101 Observatory, one of Taipei’s biggest tourist attractions, Travel in Taiwan asked tourists from Europe about their Taiwan travel experience.
First-Timers’
First Impressions of Taiwan
Dirk & Anja
Eija
from Frankfurt, Germany
from Helsinki, Finland
Travel in Taiwan: Could you please tell us more about your Taiwan trip?
Travel in Taiwan: Could you please tell us more about your Taiwan trip?
Travel in Taiwan: Where do you plan to go next in Taiwan?
Travel in Taiwan: What are your initial impressions of Taiwan?
Travel in Taiwan: What do you plan to do while here?
Travel in Taiwan: What are your initial impressions of Taiwan?
Dirk: This is our first time in Taiwan. We are on a 17-day tour and
this is just our third day here. So far we have only seen Taipei.
Eija: My husband and I just arrived in Taiwan from Shanghai, and we’ll
be here for a few days. It’s our first trip to Taiwan. We are on holiday.
Anja: We have a rough idea, but nothing is planned in detail.
We will be going to Sun Moon Lake, and then follow the western
coast south and the eastern coast back up north, with no fixed
itinerary. We always travel like that. We have done it already in
many other Asian countries as well. We really travel a lot. Once a
year we absolutely have to go on a tour somewhere.
Eija: It’s clean and the people are
friendly. The weather has been
perfect, not too hot, not too cold.
Eija: We will stay in Taipei the whole time,
doing sightseeing. We plan to check out
the hot springs (in Beitou) and the cable
car (Maokong Gondola). Taipei 101 is very
impressive. You can see the whole city. We
wish we had time to see more of Taiwan, and
hope to come back again.
Dirk: It’s been great so far. People are very friendly
and helpful, a bit shy, but kind of friendly shy. Very
pleasant.
Photos: Ivy Chen
MEETING TOURISTS
Travel in Taiwan 7
8 Travel in Taiwan
WHAT'S UP
News& Events around Taiwan
Books
Snakes of TaiwanTaiwan is a paradise for hikers and nature lovers,
and going for a hike in the island’s forests and
mountains is a real treat. There you can explore
unique f lora and fauna, coming across birds,
butterf lies, and SNAKES! It’s not likely that you’ll
step on one during the daytime while ambling
along a wide hiking trail, but they are often not far
away, even in the lowlands close to urban areas.
If you want to know more about these fascinating
reptiles, learn which species can be found in which
parts of Taiwan, and find out which are poisonous
and which harmless, a new book by Hans Breuer,
a German who is a long-time resident of Taiwan
and a serpent expert, is highly recommended. It
gives you a comprehensive overview of the local
snake community, helping you to appreciate them
and teaching you how to protect them. The 246-
page book is available at online bookstores such as
Amazon, and at major bookstores in Taiwan. Cuisine
The Best RestaurantsIn a recent online voting event organized by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, the best
restaurants for group dining around Taiwan were selected by the public. Candidates
were grouped in three categories, according to price range (under NT$2,500,
NT$2,501~4,000, and NT$4,001~10,000). The winner in the first category, receiving
16,652 votes, was seafood restaurant Hai Pa Wang (www.hpw.com.tw), based in
Taipei. Two restaurants were judged to share top spot in the second category, Jin Di
Wang (10,184 votes) and Kizhen (10,147; www.kizhen.com.tw), and the last category
was topped by vegetarian restaurant Lin Chi Ge (10,879; www.lck888.com). These
restaurants, and the other 26 restaurants listed on the event’s Chinese-language
website (tfood.taiwan.net.tw), are all excellent choices for tourist groups from abroad.
They are able to cater to large numbers of guests, and give diners the chance to
experience the widest range of the amazing local cuisine.
TV
Fun Taiwan Challenge 2In the second season of Fun Taiwan Challenge, an adventure-
travel show on Travel & Living Channel, a group of daring
young foreigners are again traveling around Taiwan, facing
elimination-style challenges in each episode. Participants
in the show – the first episode aired in Taiwan at the end of
December – have to find their way through the urban jungle,
demonstrate their skills in an indigenous sports meet, try
their hand at calligraphy, and survive on a beautiful deserted
island, among many other challenges. Those finishing first
will be treated to fine dining, luxury accommodation, and
soothing hot-spring resort baths, while each episode may see
losers sent home. The show is hosted by popular American-
born Janet Hsieh, who has risen to local celebrity status over
the past few years as host of the widely watched Fun Taiwan
travel show, introducing the best Taiwan has to offer as a
travel destination. For more info, visit www.tlc-tw.com/tv-
shows/funtaiwanchallenge.
Guba Leisure Resort
WHAT'S UP
Travel in Taiwan 9
Tourism
More than 7 Million Visitors in 2012The number of visitor arrivals to Taiwan has been climbing steadily over the past number
of years. While last year the 6-million mark was reached for the first time, this year
the 7-millionth visitor was greeted before year’s end. For Malaysian Lin Swee-chin, 71
years of age and accompanied by four daughters and three grandsons, her Taiwan trip
began with a surprise when on December 18 officials at Taiwan Taoyuan Int’l Airport
approached her and presented her with 70 special gifts for being the 7-millionth visitor
of the year. Gifts included round-trip plane tickets to Taiwan, three free nights at a
Howard Hotel, a tablet computer, a five-day pass for the nation’s two railway systems, an
EasyCard for the Taipei Metro with NT$10,000 on it, as well as other souvenirs. With
Taiwan’s popularity as a travel destination rising, government officials are hopeful that
the number of annual visitors to Taiwan will reach the 10-million mark in 2016 or before.
Accommodation
Alishan House Reopened after RenovationDespite the cold weather in winter, the high-mountain Alishan area
is a popular travel destination during this time of year. Many visitors
come especially to gaze at the beautiful blossoms of the many cherry
trees in the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area. If you opt to
stay at Alishan House, you might see blossoms right outside your
window. The hotel, located in the area, has recently been renovated,
and now offers more guestrooms (141) and facilities than before. It is
one of the best choices for travelers planning to stay in Alishan. For
more info, visit www.alishanhouse.com.tw.
Travel in Taiwan
E-Magazine AppStarting with this issue (January/February), Travel in Taiwan is also available as an
e-magazine edition in the Apple Newsstand. iPad and iPhone users can now enjoy more
content, and a convenient interactive reading experience. The e-magazine contains more
images than the print version, some of which can be shown in full-screen mode, and
also has multimedia content such as audio and video clips. The user-friendly interface
allows for convenient navigation through the magazine. Download the magazine free of
cost from the app store, and read it on you mobile device wherever you go!
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!We, the producers of Travel in Taiwan , wish to improve our magazine with each issue and give you the best possible help when planning – or carrying out – your next trip to Taiwan. Tell us what you think by filling out our short online questionnaire at v-media.com.tw/survey/travelintaiwan.html. Senders of the first 10 completed questionnaires for each issue will receive three free issues of Travel in Taiwan. Thank you in advance for your feedback.
10 Travel in Taiwan
CULTURE SCENE
Concerts, Exhibitions, and Happenings
Taiwan has a diverse cultural scene, with art venues ranging from international-caliber concert halls and theaters to makeshift stages on temple plazas. Among Taiwan's museums is the world-famous National Palace Museum as well as many smaller museums dedicated to different art forms and aspects of Taiwanese culture. Here is a brief selection of upcoming happenings. For more information, please visit the websites of the listed venues.
This year, the Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA) will be held
for the fifth time. Under the theme “Newly Launched Masterpieces Sail
on Accolades Overseas,” eighteen outstanding productions by artists from
Taiwan and overseas will be presented. In total, there will be 49 stage
performances, including the following three:
February 15 ~ March 31tifa.ntch.edu.tw
Taiwan International Festival of Arts台灣國際藝術節
Song of the Wanderers premiered in November 1994, and has
since become a classic in the repertoire of the internationally
acclaimed Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. It was inspired
by Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, a 1922 novel on a Buddhist
theme, and depicts the journey of pilgrim wanderers fervently
in search of inner peace. Creator Lin Hwai-min has called the
performance “a dance of gold,” referring to the renowned scene
created with 3.5 tons of golden rice, some raining down on the
dancers. The music is provided by the Ensemble Rustavi of
Georgia, singing Georgian folk songs.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan & Ensemble Rustavi of Georgia: Songs of the Wanderers 雲門舞集與喬治亞魯斯塔維合唱團:流浪者之歌
February 21 ~ 23National Theater
Voyages is the first production of
Salamandrum, a percussion duo
founded in 2011 by two Israeli
percussionists, Tomer Yariv and
Gilad Dobrecki. The music is a blend
of folk tunes from Morocco, Iran,
and Israel with elements of classical,
jazz, and funk music. Both musicians
are well-known internationally. Yariv
enjoyed great success as a member
of the duo PercaDu, which attended
the 2011 Taiwan International
Percussion Convention. Dobrecki has
been called one of the greatest contemporary jazz percussionists.
His works are a dynamic mixture of musical elements from the
Middle East, Africa, and Brazil with classical music and jazz,
capturing the attention of audiences around the world.
Salamandrum Percussion Duo & NSO: Voyages 變色龍擊樂二重奏與NSO
February 23National Concert Hall
The German troupe Volksbühne am
Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz will present
Der Spieler (“The Gambler”),
created by prestigious German
theater director Frank Castorf. The play is based on a short novel by
famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821~1881), who was forced to
write the novel in less than a month to pay off gambling debts. In the story,
the main character is drawn to and becomes obsessed with both gambling
and a woman, much in the same way the author himself was obsessed with
playing roulette and a young woman named Polina.
Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz: Der Spieler
February 28, March 2~3National Theater
德國柏林人民劇院:賭徒
CULTURE SCENE
Travel in Taiwan 11
This exhibition presents a collection of
porcelain works with painted enamels
(falangcai) from the reign of the Qing
Emperor Yongzheng (1678~1735).
Falangcai porcelain is decorated with
enamel pigments, and combines Chinese
and Western painting techniques. It
was manufactured in the Qing court’s
Imperial Workshops. Because of their
extremely fine and delicate decoration, pieces have been highly
prized by connoisseurs. During the Qing Dynasty, both Emperor
Yongzheng and his predecessor, Kangxi, were impressed by the
Western technique of using gold as colorant to make gold-red enamel,
and they demanded that their artisans do the same. After a period of
continuous experimentation they were successful, creating 18 other
new enamel colors along the way.
A Special Exhibition of Porcelain with Painted Enamels of Yongzheng Period in the Qing Dynasty 金成旭映—清雍正琺瑯彩瓷特展
December 1, 2012 ~ October 30, 2013National Palace Museum
Taipei
Taipei Zhongshan Hall (台北中山堂)
Add: 98, Yanping S. Rd., Taipei City( 台北市延平南路 9 8 號 )
Tel: (02) 2381-3137www.csh.taipei.gov.twNearest MRT Station: Ximen
Taipei International Convention Center (台北國際會議中心)
Add: 1, Xinyi Rd., Sec.5, Taipei City( 台北市信義路五段 1 號 )
Tel: (02) 2725-5200, ext. 3517, 3518 www.ticc.com.twNearest MRT Station: Taipei City Hall
National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂)
Add: 21 Zhongshan S. Rd., Taipei City( 台北市中山南路 21 號 )
Tel: (02) 2343-1100~3www.cksmh.gov.twNearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial Hall
National Concert Hall (國家音樂聽)National Theater (國家戲劇院)
Add: 21-1 Zhongshan S. Rd., Taipei City( 台北市中山南路 21-1 號 )
Tel: (02) 3393-9888www.ntch.edu.twNearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial Hall
National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館)
Add: 49 Nanhai Rd., Taipei City( 台北市南海路 4 9 號 )
Tel: (02) 2361-0270www.nmh.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial Hall
National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院)
Add: 221 Zhishan Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei City( 台北市至善路 2 段 2 21 號 )
Tel: (02) 2881-2021www.npm.gov.twNearest MRT Station: Shilin
National Taiwan Museum (國立臺灣博物館)
Add: 2 Xiangyang Rd., Taipei City( 台北市襄陽路二號 )
Tel: (02) 2382-2566www.ntm.gov.twNearest MRT Station: NTU Hospital
Novel Hall (新舞臺)
Add: 3 Songshou Rd., Taipei City( 台北市松壽路 3 號 )
Tel: (02) 2722-4302www.novelhall.org.twNearest MRT Station: Taipei City Hall
National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國立國父紀念館)
Add: 505 Ren-ai Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City( 台北市仁愛路四段 5 0 5 號 )
Tel: (02) 2758-8008www.yatsen.gov.tw/enNearest MRT Station: Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋)
Add: 2 Nanjing E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City( 台北市南京東路 4 段 2 號 )
Tel: (02) 2577-3500www.taipeiarena.com.twNearest MRT Station: Nanjing E. Rd.
Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館)
Add: 181 Zhongshan N. Rd., Sec. 3, Taipei City( 台北市中山北路 3 段 181 號 )
Tel: (02) 2595-7656www.tfam.museum Nearest MRT Station: Yuanshan
Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (台北當代藝術館)
Add: 39 Chang-an W. Rd., Taipei City( 台北市長安西路 39 號 )
Tel: (02) 2552-3720www.mocataipei.org.twNearest MRT Station: Zhongshan
National Taiwan Science Education Center (台灣科學教育館)
Add: 189 Shishang Rd., Taipei City (台北市士商路 189號 )
Tel: (02) 6610-1234www.ntsec.gov.twNearest MRT Station: Shilin
TWTC Nangang Exhibiton Hall (台北世貿中心南港展覽館)
Add: 1, Jingmao 2nd Rd., Taipei City(台北市經貿二路 1號 )Tel: (02) 2725-5200Nearest MRT Station: Nangang Exhibition Hall
Lin liu-hsin Puppet Theatre Museum (林柳新紀念偶戲博物館)
Add: 79 Xining N. Rd., Taipei City( 台北市西寧北路 79 號 )Tel: (02) 2556-8909www.taipeipuppet.com
TaichungNational Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立台灣美術館)
Add: 2 Wuquan W. Rd., Sec. 1, Taichung City( 台中市五權西路一段 2 號 )
Tel: (04) 2372-3552www.ntmofa.gov.tw
TainanTainan City Cultural Center (台南市立文化中心)
Add: 332 Zhonghua E. Rd., Sec. 3, Tainan City( 台南市中華東路 3 段 332 號 )
Tel: (06) 269-2864www.tmcc.gov.tw
KaohsiungKaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (高雄市立美術館)
Add: 80 Meishuguan Rd., Kaohsiung City( 高雄市美術館路 8 0 號 )
Tel: (07) 555-0331www.kmfa.gov.tw Nearest KMRT Station: Aozihdi Station
Kaohsiung Museum of History (高雄市立歷史博物館)
Add: 272 Zhongzheng 4th Rd., Kaohsiung City( 高雄市中正四路 27 2 號 )
Tel: (07) 531-2560http://163.32.121.205/Nearest KMRT Station: City Council
EDA Royal Theater (義大皇家劇院)
Add: 10, Sec. 1, Xuecheng Rd., Dashu District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市大樹區學城路一段10號 )Tel: 0800-588-887Website: www.edaroyaltheater.com.tw
Venues
The Science of Aliens is a touring exhibition that had its premiere at
the London Science Museum in October 2005, and has been shown in
science museums around the world since. It gives visitors the chance
to learn more about what creatures from outer space might be like,
and “get in touch” with them. Via a touch-sensitive installation about
two meters wide and about
seven meters long, visitors
can not only watch aliens but
also inf luence the creatures’
behaviour and actions. This
exhibition is the largest of its
kind ever staged.
The Science of Aliens 外星人探索特展
November 10 ~ March 3National Taiwan Science Education Center
Music, dance, and a touching
love story are the ingredients of a
good musical à la Broadway, and
this is exactly what Dancing Diva
promises. This Taiwan-produced
musical is the biggest of its kind
ever to be staged on the island, the preparation taking 18 months and
the production costing NT$80 million. It tells the story of a young
woman who starts off as a pole dancer and gradually climbs the ladder
of success before she is betrayed by her manager. Misfortune leads to
romance when she meets a one-legged heartthrob who becomes her
dance partner. The musical will be staged at EDA Royal Theater, in
Kaohsiung’s E-DA Theme Park.
February 9 ~ April 28EDA Royal Theater
Dancing Diva 台灣舞孃
Surf and Turf Eco-Fun in Taiwan’s Deep Tropical South
When the cool of late autumn/early winter settles in around Taipei and the seasonal rains come, and I find my skin looking ever more pasty-white, Kenting National Park (“Kending”) beckons. It takes up much of the southern tip of the island, is in the tropics – the rest of Taiwan island is subtropical – and always seems to be drenched in sunshine.
Text: Rick Charette Photos: Jen Guo-Chen
Kending? Ken Do!
Shadao Beach
FEATURE
12 Travel in Taiwan
KENDING
MoreWanlitong
Guanshan
YOHO Beach Reaortto Kaohsiung
South Bay
Little Bay
Houbihu
Maobitou
Chuanfan Rock
Shadao
Eluanbi Park
Southernmost Tip
of Taiwan
Longkeng Ecological Protection Area
Kenting National Park
Sheding Nature Park
Gloria Manor
Kenting National Park Headquarters
and Visitor Center
Longpan
PacificOcean
Bashi Channel
Fengchuisha
Mt. Dajian
Longluan Lake
Hengchun
Kending
Kenting National Forest Recreation
Area
(YOHO Kids Hotel/
YOHO Bike Hotel)
FEATURE KENDING
Travel in Taiwan 13
It’s also easy to get to, so on a recent
moody day of drizzling rain and high
humidity in north Taiwan I hopped
aboard a High Speed Rail (HSR) train
with a few friends for a 3-day DIY
Kending eco-tour. The trip from Taipei
to Kaohsiung took just 90 minutes,
and as usual once we popped out from
the north’s hills/mountains onto the
central plains near Taichung the sun also
obligingly came out to play. Right outside
HSR Kaohsiung (Zuoying) Station we
boarded a waiting Taiwan Tourist Shuttle
bus, and two hours later our green-theme
frolic on tropical land and sea began.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again
– never visit this park without first
visiting the main visitor’s center, just
west of Kending village by the main
highway, Provincial Highway No. 26.
Kending was the first national park in
Taiwan, officially opened in 1984, and
it’s big, taking up about 20,000 hectares
of land and about 16,000 of ocean. You
can choose from myriad activities,
and park staff can help you set things
up. Here’s a sampling; i.e., everything
we tackled in our three days: daytime
Sheding Nature Park hike, Longkeng
Ecological Protection Area hike, Shadao
eco-preserve beach visit, guided tidal-
zone tour, bike-ride on park’s west side,
Longluan Lake birdwatching, snorkeling
off Maobitou peninsula, guided Sheding
Nature Park night tour, and Kenting
National Forest Recreation Area visit.
I once wrote elsewhere that Kending
is a “giant organic health and fitness
center.” By the way, most every place
you choose to go will be very close
to Highway 26, a wide thoroughfare
with gentle curves, cool breezes, and
appealing scenery that makes it very
popular with bicyclists. Also, note that
the park administration provides English-
speaking guides for tour groups; advance
notice required.
Our first adventure was in Sheding
Nature Park, in the hills behind Kending
village, which – drifting off topic – is
the park’s main settlement, the main
recreational and accommodation center,
and the main nightlife attraction, with
many restaurants, bars, night-market
stalls, and other entertainments along its
main road, the local section of Highway
26.
Getting back on topic, Sheding
Nature Park receives fewer visitors than
neighboring Kenting National Forest
Recreation Area, primarily because
the latter is less rugged, with paved
walkways. We found our “Sheding
Nature Park Self-Guidance” brochure,
picked up at the visitor’s center,
invaluable. The terrain is raised coral
rock. Pathways slice through crevices
and small gorges, and there are a number
of limestone caves. You’ll see stalactites,
stalagmites, stone columns, and other
natural structures; it takes five to 160
years for the first two to grow a single
centimeter.
You’ll pass by the pit of an old lime
kiln; there were many here in imperial
days, the exposed coral an excellent
source of masonry material. We were
also lucky enough to spot some members
of the local monkey community, darting
about among the wind-stunted trees on
high coral outcroppings.
Day 1
Kenting National Park Visitor’s Center
I always enjoy the scale model of the park here, which gives you an indelible impression of the terrain. There’s also a video on the park’s scenery and natural resources, photos/specimens/models/videos on the flora and fauna, many useful information brochures, and quality park-theme souvenirs.
Longkeng Ecological Protec tion Area
FEATURE
14 Travel in Taiwan
KENDING
Next up was Longkeng Ecological
Protection Area, at Taiwan’s southernmost
point, on finger-like Eluanbi peninsula. Most
people believe this is in nearby Eluanbi Park,
where the iconic gleaming-white Eluanbi
Lighthouse stands, but ’tis not so. Only 200
people can visit Longkeng each day; sign up
at the main visitor’s center or on the national
park’s website (www.ktnp.gov.tw). Wearing
your identifying wristband (after visiting the
small info center), you walk a shady path
through 20 minutes of tough, wind-defying
cacti-like plants higher than your head, then
emerge quite suddenly amidst a bizarre
moon-like world of raised coral traversed
by shoe-friendly boardwalk. From a high-
point lookout I saw Taiwan’s Qixing (Seven
Stars) Islands for the first time, small bodies
of raised coral about 10km south of Eluanbi
that are, some say, Kending’s best dive site
and, say I, the bane of sailors in the days of
sail, and a major reason why Great Britain
built and manned Eluanbi Lighthouse in the
1880s, the world’s only fortified and armed
lighthouse.
We ended our day’s eco-theme
adventuring with a visit to Shadao, site
of a magnificent stretch of beach almost
300m-long that actually shines. This is said
to be Taiwan’s purest shell sand, with 98%
crushed seashell, coral, and foraminifera.
The coast here makes a dramatic 90-degree
turn, meaning the materials are washed
in but not easily washed back out. Above
the beach, now off-limits, the Shell Beach
Exhibition Hall answered all our questions,
first and foremost being: “What the heck is
foraminifera?”
Kenting National Park
This precious ecological and recreational resource is known for its exposed coral reefs (uplifted through tectonic activity), oceanic natural resources, and coastal tropical rainforest. Ecosystems range from grassland to monsoon rainforest.
Night tour encounters in Sheding Nature Park
Kenting Forest Recreation Area Longkeng
Sheding Nature Park
FEATURE KENDING
Travel in Taiwan 15
After a leisurely breakfast at YOHO
Beach Resort, on the west coast, we joined
the daily 9:30am guided tidal-zone tour.
I’ll never visit a tidal zone again without
looking down every step to avoid crushing
another living being’s house. There was
life everywhere. Among my many unique
thrills was my first face-to-face encounter
with a live sea cucumber, that Chinese
banquet-table favorite, thick skin rough
to the touch, which hides just out of sight
under coral-rock shelves in tidal zones to
escape hunting birds’ notice.
We then almost immediately jumped
on a bike (me) and e-scooters (my
gang) for a Longluan Lake jaunt. Our
machines were rented from a Giant
shop right inside the resort. My bike
ride took just 25 leisurely minutes on
easy-grade, two-lane, mostly tree-
lined backroads with shady, dedicated
bike paths along most of the length.
We stayed on the road much of the
time, for this was a Thursday, most of
Taiwan was at work or school, and motor
vehicles were scarce.
Taiwan lies along a major migratory
route stretching from Siberia to
Southeast Asia, and Longluan Lake
(entry fee) is a premier spot to ogle both
endemic and migratory waterfowl. This
protected water-body is surrounded
by lush wetlands. A fine nature center
overlooks the thriving mini-eco-
environment, telescopes allow close-up
observation, and there’s ample on-site
reference information (with English).
The “Kenting National Park Bird-
watching Guide” brochure, picked up
on our first day, was also a great help.
We identified white-breasted water hens,
cinnamon bitterns, great white egrets,
gray herons, and many other types –
even, we believe, the magisterial and
elusive gray-faced buzzard. Viewing
prime-time is October~May.
In the afternoon we went snorkeling
off Maobitou peninsula, our boat
launching from Houbihu Harbor. I had
a grand time. The variety of marine
life in terms of both color and shape
was far beyond what I’d anticipated.
More systematic, coordinated habitat-
protection efforts over the past six years
have resulted, our guides said, in the
return of many species. Over 40 species
of stony coral (reef-building) have been
recorded off Kending, along with over 40
of soft coral, and 1,105 types of reef fish.
What I know I saw was clown fish, angel
fish, parrot fish, surgeon fish, knife fish
– and, yes, seahorses. What I don’t know
but saw, was much, much more.
Our day’s eco-exploration itinerary
was ended with another extra-special
treat, a guided Sheding Nature Park
night tour (fee). The national park
administration has now transferred many
trained-guide service responsibilities to
Day 2
the local population, and our extremely
friendly guides were from the especially
active village of Sheding (www.shirding.org.tw), which offers numerous different
theme tours, and handles English
tours with advance notice. My night’s
highlights were repeated encounters
with the rare Formosan sika deer, and
an encounter with a fist-sized land crab
which insisted I give way and advanced
in slugging form, claws swinging. I
survived. Certified local guides are also
given access to normally off-limits paths,
and ours brought us to an old charcoal
kiln, among other bonuses.
Snorkeling
Most local outfitters will pick you up from elsewhere in the park. Ask the main visitor’s center which operators can handle English-speaking visitors. Can’t swim? No worry. Experienced guides pull you along on a rope. Your life jacket – literally – won’t let you down.
Snorkel ing of f Maobitou Peninsula
FEATURE
16 Travel in Taiwan
KENDING
We scheduled just one major adventure for our final day, a foray into
Kenting National Forest Recreation Area, in the hills above Kending
village (entry fee). The area’s core is a botanical garden and herbarium
opened as a research station by the Japanese in 1906 when they controlled
Taiwan, in which they gathered specimens from around the globe looking to
enrich their empire. Many of the trees are now giants, and truly magnificent.
When you explore yourself, you’ll find the two greatest, the wondrous
breadfruit tree and looking-glass tree, the latter over 400 years old.
Before heading back to Kaohsiung via the same Taiwan Tourist Shuttle
bus service we used coming in, we rambled this way and that along and off
Highway 26 on bicycles rented in Kending village. Having been careful to
use sun-block my three days away, I came home to Taipei with skin tinted
healthy-brown rather than the usual lobster-red. I type these final words in a
confident, still-somewhat-bronze state, weeks later. It’s raining outside.
Day 3
Kending – Michelin-Approved
Kending does very well in Michelin’s 3-star rating system. In its Taiwan tour guide the park itself gets three stars, and many spots mentioned in this article get two: Sheding Nature Park, Longkeng, Eluanbi Park, Shadao, and Kenting National Forest Recreation Area. Elsewhere, Nanrenshan Ecological Protection Area gets three, and Dawan (Big Bay) two.
INFOA one-way High Speed Rail ticket between Taipei and Kaohsiung is NT$1,490. Buy a Taiwan Tourist Shuttle - Kending Express (www.taiwantrip.com .tw ) bus ticket for NT$356 at the Kending Express kiosk by Exit No. 2 at Kaohsiung 's HSR station; save 15% by using your EasyCard . The same company, Pingtung Bus Lines (www.ptbus .com .tw ), also operates crisscrossing Kending Shuttle Bus routes to points inside and just outside the park ; a one-day ticket (NT$150) brings unlimited rides . There are also high-value HSR/Kending Express/Kending Shuttle Bus combo tickets .
Bike/Scooter RentalsThere is a variety of bike- and e-scooter rental locations in the park (bikes about NT$200 an hour, scooters about NT$500 a day). The main visitor’s center is your best source for guidance.
English and ChineseDawan 大灣 Eluanbi Lighthouse 鵝鑾鼻燈塔Eluanbi Park 鵝鑾鼻公園Houbihu Harbor 後壁湖港Kenting National Forest Recreation Area 墾丁國家森林遊樂區Kenting National Park 墾丁國家公園Longkeng Ecological Protection Area 龍坑生態保護區Longluan Lake 龍鑾潭Maobitou 貓鼻頭Nanrenshan Ecological Protection Area 南仁山生態保護區Pingtung Bus Lines 屏東汽車客運Shadao 砂島Sheding Nature Park 社頂自然公園Shell Beach Exhibition Hall 貝殼沙展示館
Fei laishi Rock
Eco -tour organized by YOHO
Chuanfan Rock
FEATURE KENDING
Travel in Taiwan 17
Soaking Up the Sun in Kending Recommended Eco-Theme Hotels
Kending offers you quality places to stay in all budget categories, accommodating whatever you’ve chosen as your trip theme – eco-touring, beach and water fun, sun-tanning, and loafing.
Text: Rick Charette Photos: Jen Guo-Chen
YOHO Beach Resor t
Glor ia Manor
FEATURE
18 Travel in Taiwan
STAY
Though other facilities
existed, for the
longest time if you told a Taiwan local
you’d been to Kending they’d almost
automatically assume you’d stayed at
the iconic beachfront Caesar Park Hotel
– Kenting (https://www.ezhotel.com.tw/caesar), a fine family-oriented resort
that’s still there and still first-rate. But
in the past decade or so an explosion
of new options have come into being,
and on my most recent Kending foray,
covered in our main Feature article, I
tried out two new spots. My trip theme
was eco-touring, and both facilities have
a strong eco-friendly focus. The YOHO
Beach Resort is a mid-range, family-
targeted option; the Gloria Manor is
decidedly upscale, placing you amidst
trappings fit for a king – or, as you’ll see,
a Generalissimo.
The YOHO Beach Resort is located
near the coast on the quiet west side of
Hengchun Peninsula. It is a multiple-
building complex, featuring the
main lobby/admin building, YOHO
Kids Hotel, YOHO Bike Hotel, and
restaurant/spa facility. You can check
in at the main lobby or at the counters
in each hotel. As we checked in at the
main lobby a Filipino band serenaded
guests in the plaza before a waterfall
pool area, with golden oldies by the
Eagles, Carpenters, and other groups; we
watched part of their gig later that night
at the Rendezvous Bar in the YOHO
Star Plaza, a recreation complex on the
Nanwan (South Bay) beach. The resort
runs regular shuttles to Nanwan and
Kending Town.
At the YOHO Bike Hotel, opened in
2009 – the only bike-theme hotel I’ve ever
heard of – the small check-in counter area
doubles as a Giant Bicycles rental center
and boutique shop. You can also rent
electric scooters here. Giant, dedicated to
Taiwan bicycling promotion, runs rental
and repair shops all around the country.
You can walk your bike right into your
room, and there are special collapsible
wall-mounted frames to hang them on,
up and out of the way. There’s even a
nifty ground-f loor Bike Spa where you
can shower off the dirt of the day. (Prices start at NT$7,300; breakfast included.)
The Gloria Manor’s eco-harmony
mission begins with its very existence. It’s
located in the hills high up behind coastal
Kending Village, right in the Kenting
National Forest Recreation Area,
mighty Mt. Dajian right beside. The
elegant, quiet, and sophisticated facility
was built with one of Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek’s former villas at its
core, thoroughly refurbished and now
looking chic and ultra-modern. Earth
tones predominate and local materials
have been emphasized, notably wood and
stone, limiting transport-related carbon
emissions. Over 50% of the hardware
used is green-certified. The chefs also
emphasize locally sourced farm and
marine produce for the same reason (see
our accompanying Eat/Buy article).
Extensive use has been made of
traditional Taiwanese elements, notably
wickerwork, lanterns, and hexagonal
brickwork symbolizing long life. Rooms
are bright and airy, with light woods
prominent, and are green-designed to let
in maximum sunlight and fresh air. From
each room you have a picture-frame view
of sea and Maobitou Peninsula. There
is a large, inviting open-air pool and
expansive lawn on a tier just below the
hotel, and from room balconies and the
dining area you gaze out over pool/lawn
and past a sweeping expanse of treetops
to the coast below and before and
imposing Mt. Dajian beside and above,
the mood of the majestic, pointed bare-
rock face constantly changing. (Rooms start at NT$6,800; breakfast and dinner included.)
INFOYOHO Beach Resort (墾丁悠活麗緻渡假村)Add: 27-8 Wanli Rd., Hengchun Town, Pingtung County (屏東縣恆春鎮萬里路27-8號)Tel : (08) 886-9999Website: www.yoho.com .tw
Gloria Manor (華泰瑞苑墾丁賓館)Add: 101 Gongyuan Rd ., Hengchun Town, Pingtung County (屏東縣恆春鎮公園路101號)Tel : (08) 886-3666Website: www.gloriamanor.com
HomestaysThere are over 20 officially recognized homestays in Kenting National Park, but there are many unlicensed facilities as well. The national park administration suggests you contact it first for guidance.
YOHO Green Explorations
Among the YOHO’s many eco-oriented activities (there are many other theme activities as well) are bike-training classes, kids’ snorkeling, stargazing outings, west coast bike tours, and guided littoral explorations (the last is free).
Near YOHO Beach Resor t
FEATURE STAY
Travel in Taiwan 19
Gloria Manor Eco-OutingsManagement has mapped out a number of local eco-tours, and helps guests with all arrangements. Arrangements are free; the tours themselves involve fees.
At TableRegular expat visitors will tell you
that you have not had the full Kending
experience until you’ve hung out beach-
bum-style at Warung DiDi restaurant/
bar. Opened way back in the ’90s by the
warm, outgoing DiDi, who does much
of the cooking, it’s located off the main
drag in Kending Village, down an alley
toward the beach. On a huge open deck,
there’s a cozy open-faced indoor dining
area toward the rear and a bartender
station in a shack-like structure on one
side. Choose the alfresco seating along
the sides so you can enjoy the sun and/or
stars.
The food is predominantly Thai and
Malaysian Chinese. I can never take a
pass on the Thai boneless chicken with
basil sauce, and a relatively new addition,
Indonesian beef rendang, is also both
hearty and delicious. There is a NT$200
per person minimum, met by ordering
a single dish. I also suggest you try the
special NT$100 appetizer cocktail made
with passion fruit, kiwi, and strawberry –
yummy fresh.
For a nice change of pace, enter
an oasis of tranquility and elegance
at the Mu Restaurant/Lounge in the
Gloria Manor hotel. In keeping with
the management’s eco-focused mission,
earth tones are emphasized and dark
wood is visually dominant. The lounge
section has a line of picture-frame
windows that give a sweeping view of
Kending Specialties Eating and Buying Well
by the Tropical Seaside
After all your hard work during outdoor sessions on the trails and on/under the sea, Kending rewards you with tasty food to replenish yourself – presented in attractive restaurants and in gift-package form at specialty retail outlets.
Text: Rick Charette Photos: Jen Guo-Chen
Houbihu Harbor
Another location offering superb value is the tourist center at Houbihu Harbor, with numerous simple seafood eateries inside. Almost everything is fresh off the boats, with many Kending specialties. How can you beat sashimi at just NT$100 a plate?
Mu Restaurant
Bar of Yoho Star Plaza
FEATURE
20 Travel in Taiwan
EAT/BUY
Tumi House
A special mention must also be given to Tumi House in Kending Village, where David, hailing from Peru, sells stylishly dynamic hand-made jewelry and accessories with eclectic Peruvian and other indigenous themes.
the sea and Maobitou Peninsula before,
majestic Mt. Dajian right beside. The
emphasis of the eco-friendly menu is on
locally sourced, in-season produce. At
dinner, among the many delicious local-
theme dishes dreamed up by the head chef,
those that most tickled my palate were the
short rib and shrimp with deep-fried rain
mushroom, dried oilfish roe, seared lobster
with honey mustard sauce, seasonal
fish sashimi, and pan-roasted duck with
Chinese cabbage stew
At breakfast, taken outdoors on the
sunken terrace directly before the lounge-
area windows, among the many treats of
the filling set menu are the eggs Benedict,
the rich sauce approaching pudding
consistency, and the various European-
style breads delivered hot from the ovens.
On Display RacksDuring your Kending stay you’ll see
fishing boats out at sea, bright-painted
sides ref lecting the sun by day, lights
INFOMu Restaurant/Lounge (Gloria Manor) (沐餐廳)Add: 101 Gongyuan Rd ., Hengchun Town, Pingtung County(屏東縣恆春鎮公園路101號)Tel : (08) 886-3666Website: www.gloriamanor.com
Tumi HouseAdd: 178 Kending Rd ., Hengchun Town, Pingtung County(屏東縣恆春鎮恆春鎮墾丁路178號)Tel : 0927-575-717 Website: tumihouse.myweb.hinet .net (Chinese)
Master Tom (唐師傅)Add: 151 Kending Rd ., Hengchun Town, Pingtung County(屏東縣恆春鎮墾丁路151號)Tel : (08) 886-3845Website: master-tom .inks .com .tw (Chinese)
Warung DiDi (迪迪小吃)Add: 26 Wenhua Lane, Kending Rd ., Hengchun Town, Pingtung County(屏東縣恆春鎮墾丁路文化巷26號)Tel : (08) 886-1835
twinkling at night. So it’s no surprise
that seafood treats are the main local
specialty-item gift purchases. At
Master Tom, in Kending Town, buy
delicious mochi in which Kending-
sourced seaweed is the f lavoring for
the gummy skin. At the Houbihu
Harbor gift shop you’ll find – this is
just a sampling – abalone paste, f lying
fish crisps, and dried charcoal-baked
octopus and squid.
Warung DiDi Seafood at Houbihu fish market
Tumi House
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FEATURE EAT/BUY
L
“Life is pretty good,” I thought
to myself as I looked
out over the rippling waters of the still-
sleeping lake at my feet and up at the
brightening mountain peaks all around
me, just waking up. It was 6:50 a.m. on
November 11, 2012, a Sunday. In my
childhood I dreamed and day-dreamed
constantly of adventuring in faraway
places, and here I was, 10,000 kilometers
from eastern Canada and home, up in
Taiwan’s central mountains, a part of the
loveliest of settings. The air was cool and
crisp and perfect for bike-riding.
I was here to play a part in the first
Come! Bikeday at Sun Moon Lake, one
of the many cycling-theme events being
held all around the island during the
annual Taiwan Cycling Festival, which
is staged each November. With air horns
blasting and a thumping “Everybody
go!” in Chinese from the event’s on-stage
emcee, I headed out from the grounds
of the aesthetically dynamic Xiangshan
Visitor Center along with 500 new
friends on a 9-kilometer family-fun ride
up and down the west side of the lake,
one of Taiwan’s most famous and popular
tourist destinations. At this hour there
were no other tourists out and about save
for us bike-riders, and after the air horns
died down the quiet whir of a thousand
turning wheels filled me with a pleasant,
peaceful feeling. “Great to be out of the
city, out of doors, and up in the hills,” I
thought.
Up with the Dawn - Meeting All My New Buddies
Interested in cycling along what has been called one of the world’s 10 finest bike routes – with 2,000 friends? Come! Bikeday was tailor-made for you.
Text: Rick Charette Photos: Maggie Song
Scenic Cycling at Sun Moon Lake
Come! Bikeday
Xiangshan V isi tor Center v iew
There were two Come! Bikeday rides.
The 1,500 entrants for the 30-kilometer
round-lake jaunt on the pretty highway
loop had left 20 minutes earlier, at 6:30.
They took part in the Challenge Ride,
for more serious bikers, with two hilly
and twisting sections on the route. A chip
attached to their helmets would keep track
of their times. I was heading out on the
family-oriented Joy Ride, featuring easy
grades throughout. Part of the excursion
would be on the highway, with one lane
closed off much of the way and with very
little vehicle traffic at this time of day, and
part would be on the attractive boardwalk
that runs along the lake’s western side,
sometimes beside it and sometimes –
bringing a pleasant sensation of f loating in
the air – right above it.
ACTIVE FUN
22 Travel in Taiwan
SUN MOON LAKE
Leading our giant,
slow-moving
pack was the director-general of the
Taiwan Tourism Bureau, David W. J.
Hsieh, and three celebrated professional
racers, Anthony Chartreau and Jérémy
Roy of France and Francisco Mancebo of
Spain. They had competed the day before
in the Taiwan KOM Challenge, which
one racer has blogged is “up there with
the world’s most epic climbs, for sure.”
This demanding race is from sea level
on Taiwan’s east coast, up through the
famed, awe-inducing Taroko Gorge, and
up, up, up to Taiwan’s highest highway
point at Wuling, not far from Sun Moon
Lake by vehicle, where the eye-level view
of mountain peaks running off into the
distance is stunning.
Chartreau mentioned, during a short
Joy Ride stop where I had the chance
to chat with him, how enjoyable the
short ride was because he could take his
time to look around and soak in what
he called Taiwan’s inspiring and unique
mountain/lake/river combination.
Talking with Roy after wading through
a thick crowd of admiring riders waiting
to have their pictures taken with him,
the racer commented on how friendly
and welcoming the people of Taiwan are
– something I’ve heard countless times
from first-time visitors during my two
decades here.
After riding over it, many riders
stopped at the lookout beside the Shuishe
Dam to take in the wide-open views
of the lake and backdrop mountains.
I talked with Julie, who was riding
with a group of middle-aged travelers
from eastern Canada. Looking across
the water at a mountainous peninsula
directly before us, which would have tour
boats docking at its foot in great number
starting in a few hours, she said “It’s
really lovely how Lalu Island, the two
temples (Xuanguang and Xuanzang),
and Ci’en Pagoda on the peak all line up.
We were told they line up exactly with
the Hanbi Peninsula, where Chiang Kai-
shek had one of his favorite villas (now
the location of the The Lalu hotel), and
that the perfect line-up brings powerful
fengshui. Our guide also told us you get a
year’s good luck if you climb the pagoda
and bang the giant gong.”
Just north of the dam we came across
Englishman Bill Barrie staring down
into a huge round water-intake hole just
offshore. When the lake’s waters reach a
certain level, excess automatically drains
into the hole. “I’m an engineer,” said Bill,
“and after reading how CNNGo described
Sun Moon Lake as one of the world’s 10
best bike routes I began reading more, and
found the lake is also the centerpiece of
Taiwan’s first great hydroelectric project.
The Japanese dammed and flooded the
basin in the 1930s, creating Lalu Island,
the top of what was an exposed high hill.”
This hill/island was/is sacred to the local
indigenous tribe, the Thao, whose main
settlement was moved twice, the second
time to the site of today’s Ita Thao village,
a prime tourist draw on the lake’s south
side.
Foreign Encounters - Other Riders from Faraway Lands
Come! Bikeday1. At the s tar t l ine2 . Foreign r iders3 . Family fun4 . Sun protec tion
1
3
42
ACTIVE FUN SUN MOON LAKE
Travel in Taiwan 23
This Joy Ride OverThe Lake, However, Always “Open”
Back at Xiangshan Visitor Center after the ride,
Challenge Riders, who had finished circling the lake,
confirmed their times and received their official
certificates of completion. There was a grand prize
draw for all registered riders (with top-end Merida
bikes as the big prizes), stage performances, and an
autograph/photo session with the aforementioned
celebrity pro riders, which generated great excitement.
Sadly, I won no prizes in the draw, but I still had
my free blue Come! Bikeday jersey, a set of commemorative stamps, a box of
oranges, and a breakfast snack (in my tummy) – plus a new set of fine memories.
Thereafter, all day long I saw Come! Bikeday riders rambling around the lake’s
highway and bikeways, along with many other later-arriving tourists. You’ll find
bike-rental outlets along the highway in both major settlements, Ita Thao and
Shuishe, and diagonally across from Xiangshan Visitor Center.
For more information on Come! Bikeday and the lake’s other draws, visit
the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area website (www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw).
There’s also a Taiwan Cycling Festival site (taiwanbike.tw). Note that the ninth
edition of the annual “Merida Cycling Day” will be held in late April this year
(2013), with the Xiangshan Visitor Center as the start and end point. In addition
to runs just like Come! Bikeday’s Challenge Ride and Joy Ride, there’s a scenic
60-km run through the nearby towns of Checheng and Shuili, with 18 km of
climbing (sport.promos.com.tw/merida; Chinese).
1. At the south end of Sun Moon Lake2 . Stopping for a rest3 .Cer t i f icate and medal for completing the lake loop
1
3
2
Crossing Wedding Photo Br idge
ACTIVE FUN
24 Travel in Taiwan24 Travel in Taiwan
INFO
Getting There: Visit the Taiwan Tour Bus website (www.taiwantourbus.com.tw ) for information on English-language Sun Moon Lake outings provided by local tour agencies, launching from Taipei and central Taiwan. Alternatively, take a High Speed Rail train to Taichung Station, then catch a bus direct to Sun Moon Lake from the ground-level bus station. The ticket counter is right by the door, and the destination is marked in English on the bus.
Getting Around: The bus stops at the Visitor Information Center in Shuishe Village. From there, comfortable local buses round the lake, stopping at/near major attractions and a number of trailheads. Service is 9 to 6; a one-day unlimited ticket is just NT$80, and you can get on and off as you please.
Where to Stay: Sun Moon Lake accommodations run the gamut. At the extreme upper end are The Lalu (www.thelalu.com.tw) and The Wen Wan Resort (www.thewenwan.com), on the Hanbi Peninsula. In the mid-range is the Sun Moon Lake Hotel (www.smlh.com.tw). A cozier mid-range option is the Sun Moon Lake Full House Resort (www.fhsml.idv.tw), a log-theme chalet in the Rockies style. In the inexpensive range is the Assam Dream (www.assam-dream.com), a wood-theme homestay amidst a betelnut-tree plantation just a few minutes north of the lake, and at the lowest end campsites (contact the National Scenic Area Administration).
English and ChineseCi'en Pagoda 慈恩塔Checheng 車城David W. J. Hsieh 謝謂君Hanbi Peninsula 涵碧半島Ita Thao 伊達邵Lalu Island 拉魯島Merida Cycling Day 美利達單車好行Shuili 水里
Shuishe Dam 水社壩Shuishe 水社Sun Moon Lake 日月潭Thao Tribe 邵族Toushe Basin 頭社盆地Xiangshan Visitor Center 向山遊客服務中心Xuanguang Temple 玄光寺Xuanzang Temple 玄奘寺
Before Wenwu Temple
ACTIVE FUN SUN MOON LAKE
A Must-Hike for Any Mountaineer Visiting Taiwan Text & Photos: Stuart Dawson
JadeMt.
The single-day ascent is a challenging 12-
hour hike, but it does have some advantages,
one of which is not having to carry a heavy
backpack
HIKING
26 Travel in Taiwan
MT. JADE
turns sharply to the right and climbs even
more steeply to the peak. Exhausted,
some six hours after we began the hike,
we arrived at the top and were treated to
stunning views.
We could have easily spent hours at
the top admiring the world below us, but
the looming clouds began to close in and
we knew that we had to get off the peak
before an afternoon thunderstorm might
begin. We arrived back at the trailhead as
the heavens opened, completely soaking
us, but even that couldn’t dampen our
spirits after our successful single-day Mt.
Jade ascent.
By the time we reached the trailhead,
the sun was already on its way up,
revealing a cloudless sky. We stopped
for a moment, gratefully soaking up
its rays before heading along the trail.
The single-day ascent is a
challenging 12-hour hike,
but it does have some
advantages, one of which
is not having to carry a heavy backpack.
Without the weight, we made great
progress. We reached the Paiyun Lodge
in no time, and stopped for a quick rest.
The real hiking began after the lodge.
There are steep, seemingly never-ending
switchbacks, and the solid rock of the trail
gives way to loose scree. We all began
to feel the altitude, and our pace slowed
considerably as we gasped for air. However,
not far up the mountain the tree line
awaited us, and the promise of even more
spectacular views pushed us onwards.
Along the way we passed a point
named Fengkou (“Wind Gap”). Many a
hiker has been turned back at this point
by strong winds, but fortunately on this
day the air was still. From here the trail
Stuart Dawson is one of the partners at Taiwan Adventures (www.taiwan-adventures.com), an outdoor adventure and hiking company dedicated to helping the adventurous explore Taiwan’s beautiful natural areas.
English and ChineseAlishan National Forest Recreation Area 阿里山國家森林遊樂區
Dongpu 東埔Dongpu Hostel 東埔山莊Fengkou 風口Paiyun Lodge 排雲山莊Tataka 塔塔加Yushan (Mt. Jade) 玉山Yushan Mountain Range 玉山山脈 Yushan National Park 玉山國家公園
At 3,952 meters, Yushan (Mt.
Jade) is not only Taiwan’s tallest
peak; it is also the tallest mountain in
Northeast Asia, and one of the most
prominent peaks in the world. On a
clear day the views offered are quite
exceptional. The star of the Yushan
Mountain Range, Yushan is located in
southern Taiwan’s Chiayi County, close
to the well-known Alishan National
Scenic Area (www.ali-nsa.net).
Typically, Yushan is climbed in two
days, with hikers spending one night in
the Paiyun Lodge (8.5km from the trail
entrance), getting up in the very early
morning next day, making the ascent to
Mt. Jade Main Peak (2.4km from the lodge)
to see the sunrise, and then hiking all the
way back to the trail entrance. The lodge,
however, has been closed for some time
now and is currently (early 2013) still under
renovation, which means for the time being
the best way to bag the peak is to do the
single-day ascent.
For most people, the Yushan hiking
adventure will entail a stay at the Dongpu
Hostel – and that’s just what I did when I
took on the one-day climb with friends in
the summer of 2012. The name of the hostel
can be misleading, as people often assume
it’s in the hot-spring village of Dongpu, a
two-hour drive away. It is in fact located
at Tataka, a hamlet close to the Yushan
trailhead. It’s a very basic hostel, with a
grubby kitchen and showers, but at an
altitude of around 2,500m it’s the perfect
place to get some sleep and acclimate
before beginning the hike.
The Yushan National Park
(www.ysnp.gov.tw)
authorities stipulate that hikers need to
reach the Paiyun Lodge before 10 a.m.
when doing the single-day ascent, and so
we hit the trail before sunrise at 4 a.m. It
was chilly compared to the heat of Taipei,
but we soon warmed up as we headed up
the road to the trailhead proper. Along the
way we spotted an unusual-looking worm,
which turned out to be the predatory
hammerhead worm – a first for me!
On the trai lAt the top
Tak ing in the scener y
Hik ing up Mt . Jade
HIKING MT. JADE
Travel in Taiwan 27
Taiwan wasn’t always the safe, healthy place it is today. Until the early 20th century, malaria was a constant threat and cholera epidemics were frequent. Lacking medical knowledge and influenced by traditions they had brought from mainland China’s Fujian and Guangdong provinces, Taiwanese of Han descent lived in fear of plague-spreading demons. Naturally, they sought divine protection from these malevolent spirits, whom they called Wang Ye, or “royal lords.”
Text: Steven Crook Photos: Rich Matheson
The Burning of the King Boat at Donggang
SPLENDID FESTIVALS
28 Travel in Taiwan
DONGGANG
The moment the King Boat
left Donglong Temple, the
exodus began. The vessel wouldn’t be set
afire for at least three hours, but Taiwan’s
most famous conflagration happens only
once every three years, so we wanted to
snag a good spot. Judging by the crowd
that swept us through Donggang’s
narrow streets, everyone else had the
same idea.
Getting to the burn site was more like
a mass escape than a religious parade.
Because the crowd was so dense, I found
myself taking short, shuff ling steps.
Every few minutes we were jostled aside
so a deity-bearing palanquin, or a team
carrying one of the ship’s masts, could
pass. But when we reached the beach
we got clear views as the sails were
unfurled and the anchors raised. A king’s
ransom in “spirit money” (yellow paper
rectangles especially made for burning
during folk-religion ceremonies) was then
piled around the hull. Finally, volunteers
laid long strings of firecrackers across
this mountain of combustible material.
Around 5:30 am, it was announced
that “all are aboard.” The signal meant
that every spirit on the passenger list was
in place and the firecrackers could be lit.
Within 60 seconds, f lames were licking
the boat on all sides. Flying embers soon
burned holes through the sails. The
large doll-sized figurines on the main
deck were shedding limbs. As the sky
lightened, the hull blackened. Gaping
holes appeared fore and aft. Confident
that misfortune had been dispelled and
prosperity was assured for another three
years, most of the locals in the crowd set
out for home.
In terms of visual impact, one of the
few equivalents in the Western world
to the Donggang boat sacrifice is the
annual Burning Man event in Nevada.
But there’s nothing countercultural about
the Donggang King Boat Festival. The
event is rooted in ancient beliefs about
the powers of Wang Ye – a category that
includes not only supernatural fiends
but also certain much-admired but long-
dead humans. The festival’s Chinese title
literally means “welcoming the kings
with peace offerings.”
Within 60 seconds, flames were licking the boat on all sides. Flying embers soon burned holes through the sails. The large doll-sized figurines on the main deck were shedding limbs
The burning of the K ing Boat begins
SPLENDID FESTIVALS DONGGANG
Travel in Taiwan 29
Donglong Temple in Donggang, a port town in Taiwan’s far
southwest, is among the liveliest of Taiwan’s more than
600 Wang Ye shrines. The temple’s principal deity is Marshal Wen, commonly called
Wen, Lord of a Thousand Years. He’s a good-guy Wang Ye, a scholar born in 609 A.D.
who is said to have saved his emperor’s life.
For at least a century, Donglong Temple has been hosting a spectacular festival
featuring Marshal Wen (who doesn’t board the King Boat) and an array of other Wang
Ye (who do). In some ways, the event is similar to other large-scale expressions of
Taiwanese folk religion. The pious, who believe participation staves off bad luck and
brings blessings, stand shoulder-to-shoulder with agnostic gawkers. Visitors can expect
to see zhentou (pronounced “din tao” in Taiwanese) troupes perform lion dances, stilt-
walking stunts, and other forms of visual artistry to a soundtrack of gongs, drums,
and trumpets.
What distinguishes the eight-day-long King Boat Festival from other da bai bai (“big
worship ceremonies”) is that the center of attention isn’t a deity or a temple, but a
stunningly decorated wooden junk which costs as much as a Lamborghini sports car.
The 2012 vessel was 13.82m long; all dimensions are decided by means of divination.
The festival is big, colorful, energetic, and steeped in tradition
“It's by far my favorite of Taiwan's
festivals,” said Chris Nelson, an
American who has attended the 2006,
2009, and 2012 events. “It's big, colorful,
energetic, and steeped in tradition. It's
both an all-night party and a glimpse into
the coolest aspects of Taiwanese culture:
mysterious Daoist rituals, spirit mediums
in trances, decked-out temples, fireworks,
and a mile-long procession to the beach.
All in a quaint little fishing town in
Taiwan's deep south!”
Nelson also likes the palanquins in
which deities are carried from the town's
less-well-known shrines to Donglong
Temple and the beach. Unlike traditional
palanquins, which are made of wood
and hoisted on devotees' shoulders, the
ones used in the King Boat Festival
are wheeled contraptions covered with
f lashing LEDs and equipped with
loudspeakers through which liturgical
music is blasted.
“Best of all, this festival is real.
There’s nothing contrived about it,”
Nelson added. “Plenty of tourists come
to see it, but it's not put on for tourists.”
Unlike the Burning Man in Nevada,
no one has to buy a ticket to see the
King Boat go up in f lames. Other boat
burnings in Taiwan are also free.
The custom of burning
specially-built boats as a
way of expelling plague and other evils
is perhaps 1,000 years old, and some
scholars think it may have been inspired
by the discovery that fire is effective at
destroying pathogens.
Member of a j iaotou (rel igious
associat ion)
SPLENDID FESTIVALS
30 Travel in Taiwan
DONGGANG
Communities along mainland
China’s southeast coast would build
boats, load them with religious icons,
and push them out to sea. Some of these
vessels were set alight, but others were
allowed to drift wherever the currents
took them. The boats would carry off
evil and pestilence with them. Many
reached Taiwan’s southwestern coast,
where they were received with a mixture
of awe and fear by Han Chinese settlers.
Wang Ye icons that were found on such
boats are today revered in various houses
of worship, most notably Nankunshen
Daitian Temple in Tainan City’s Beimen
District.
Each King Boat is a work of art, and
worth seeing even if you can’t make it
to the festival. Completed months in
advance, the Donggang boat is put on
display in a storage facility at Donglong
Temple so pilgrims can pay their respects
and at the same time appreciate the
delicate paintings of dragons, elephants,
and sages that decorate its hull.
The first and final days of the week-
long festival are especially interesting;
the inferno happens on the latter. At the
start, during elaborate rituals – including
a procession to the shore – a group of
Wang Ye are invited to the town, and
one is identified as the chief. In 2012,
the leader was Lord Geng; his name was
painted on the prow of the King Boat and
onto a lantern dangling from the vessel’s
main mast.
Before dusk on the final day,
volunteers push the vessel through
Donggang’s streets. The small ship
is believed to act like a supernatural
magnet, drawing disease and malevolence
on board. When it is returned to
Donglong Temple, offerings and supplies
are loaded on to placate the supernatural
entities that have been hoodwinked
into boarding. Among the items placed
on board are dice for gambling, pipes
for smoking, calligraphy brushes and
inkstones for writing, and woks, spoons,
and condiments for cooking.
The loading and many other
rituals are conducted by
members of local religious associations
known as the seven jiaotou. Each group
(which is overwhelmingly male and includes
a good many young people) represents
a different part of Donggang Town.
Recruits are primarily from each respective
neighborhood, but also come from families
that have moved away yet maintained
ancestral ties with Donggang
Distinguishing one crew from another
is easy because each wears a different-
colored uniform. The color doesn’t belong
to that jiaotou, but rather indicates the
group’s duties during the festival. This
year, for instance, the members of the
Dingtou Jiao(tou) wore yellow, as they
had done three years before, because they
were responsible for the hull. Dingzhong
Street Jiao(tou) members wore white, and
carried the anchors. Three years earlier
they donned green outfits and took care
of the rear mast and sail.
Randall Liu, a Donggang native
who attended the final day and night
of this year’s festivities along with four
co-workers – all outsiders, all first-
timers – said he is neither religious nor
particularly traditional, but has been to
four editions of the festival. “What I love
about the burning of the King Boat is
that it has made my hometown famous,”
said the 27-year-old. “And not just in
Taiwan – there are so many foreigners
here!”
At least one of those foreigners plans
to return – Chris Nelson, whose parting
words were: “See you in 2015!”
Good news: You needn’t wait that
long to witness a boat-burning, as a few
other places in the south hold similar
if less extravagant rites each year. If
you happen to be near Chiayi County’s
Dongshi Township at the start of the
fourth month of the lunar calendar
(usually late April), head to Wengang
Village to see the fiery sacrifice of a
bamboo-and-paper vessel. To find out
about other Wang Ye festivals, contact
the Tourism Bureau or ask at one of its
visitor information centers.
English and ChineseBeimen District 北門區da bai bai 大拜拜Dingtou Jiao 頂頭角Dingzhong Street Jiao 頂中街角Donglong Temple 東隆宮
Donggang 東港Donggang King Boat Festival東港迎王平安祭Dongshi Township 東石鄉Lord Geng 王耿Nankunshen Daitian Temple 南鯤鯓代天府
Randall Liu 劉仁杰seven jiaotou 七角頭Wang Ye 王爺Wen, Lord of a Thousand Years 溫府千歲Wengang Village 塭港村
The boat is burned in the ear ly morning hours
SPLENDID FESTIVALS DONGGANG
Travel in Taiwan 31
FUN WITH CHINESE
32 Travel in Taiwan
Chinese characters can look quite intimidating at first glance. Considering, however, that a billion people or so
are able to read them, mastering them can’t be that difficult, can it? It's always best to start with the easy
ones, and those you are going to encounter most frequently when traveling in Taiwan. Take the character 木 (mu), for example.
Very simple and easy to recognize, it means wood; notice how it looks like a tree. It can appear as a single character, usually used
in multiple-character words such as 木馬 muma (wooden horse). It is also an important part, called a “radical,” of many more
complicated characters – located on the left side (村; cun; village), at the top (杏; xing, apricot), or at the bottom (果; guo; fruit).
Put two 木 together and you get the character 林 (lin; grove). Add one more and you get 森 (sen; forest). These two characters
also appear as one term 森林 (senlin; also meaning forest). Very logical, right?
However, next time you go for a walk with some friends in downtown Taipei and spot a road sign with the characters 林森路
(linsen lu; Linsen Rd.), don't start talking about walking on “Forest Road.” The characters in this order refer to Mr. Lin Sen, who
was head of state of the Republic of China from 1931 to 1943.
Wood
Trees
Forest
Forest at Al ishan
Banana farmer Lu Ming in Qishan
TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS
34 Travel in Taiwan
SHUI-JIN-JIU
Water, Gold, NineTOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS
34 Travel in Taiwan
Teahouse in J iufen
Touris ts in J iufen Old school in Shuinandong Eating taro balls
Exploring the History and Scenery of Three Attractive Tourist Towns in Northeast TaiwanFine food, fascinating traditional Chinese culture, and outstanding natural beauty are three things for which Taiwan is justly renowned among visitors. These are perhaps the three biggest reasons why few places within easy reach of the capital city are quite as popular as the little villages of Jiufen, Jinguashi, and Shuinandong. Text: Richard Saunders Photos: Vision Int’l
TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS SHUI-JIN-JIU
Travel in Taiwan 35
Water, Gold, NineSHUI-JIN-JIU
Old-st y le café
Golden Water fal l
Museum of Gold
Souvenirs Mt . Keelung seen f rom the Thir teen Levels mine
Typical al ley
Sitting down for a pot
of Chinese tea and
perhaps a light lunch
while admiring the
magnificent view is an
essential part of the
Jiufen experience
These quaint settlements,
seemingly locked in
a time warp, are atmospheric open-air
museums highlighting one of Taiwan’s
most fascinating eras. Factor in an
outstanding setting – clinging to the steep
slopes of a cluster of extinct volcanoes
overlooking a wide sweep of the Pacific
Ocean – and marvelous old teahouses
and restaurants, and a visit to the area
makes for one of the most interesting
and scenic days possible exploring north
Taiwan.
It’s just a quick zip along the freeway
from Taipei to the town of Ruifang, from
where County Highway No. 102 winds
up into the hills towards the pyramidal
bulk of Mt. Keelung and to Jiufen, which
spills down a steep hillside opposite the
mountain. No vehicle traffic is allowed
along the narrow alleyways of the
village, so park your car (or leave the bus)
at the lower edge of the village, and take
the stairs beside the visitor center, which
climb up into the heart of this deeply
atmospheric place.
Jiufen owes its existence
to gold (which was
discovered in the hills behind the village
in the late 19th century), and later to
copper. The area around Jiufen and
neighboring Jinguashi was discovered
to hold one of east Asia’s richest sources
of precious metals, and there was a huge
inf lux of islanders to work the mines,
which gave the area such prosperity
that Jiufen became known as “Little
Shanghai.” It boasted bars, a movie
theater, and even performances of
Chinese opera. It’s estimated that the two
villages attracted over 100,000 workers
during the 1920s.
Although the last ore was extracted
in the 1980s, there’s still plenty to remind
the visitor of the area’s mining heyday,
including the atmospheric entrance to
Number Eight Mine, a popular place
for shooting TV or movie scenes, below
the main road near the visitor center.
Higher up, off Qingbian Road, one of the
main (pedestrian-only) drags through
the village, Number Five Mine is today
home to a colony of bats. A couple of
minutes down the road from the mine
entrance is Sky Castle Teahouse, one of
Jiufen’s most famous, in one of its finest
remaining old red-brick residences.
Jishan Street is contoured to the
hillside a couple of minutes up the steps
from the visitor center, and affords
some fine views over the village section
below, the steep coastal slope, and the
ocean beyond. The alley-like road is
lined with shops and eateries selling an
extraordinary selection of edible treats.
Especially famous are Mother Lai’s
Taro Balls, at number 143, one of the
best of many places that sell this, Jiufen’s
signature snack, which is made with
powdered taro (a potato-like vegetable).
Perhaps the most famous establishment
along the street is at number 142: the
famous Jioufen Teahouse, occupying
an atmospheric old residence. Sitting
down for a pot of Chinese tea and
perhaps a light lunch while admiring
the magnificent view is an essential part
of the Jiufen experience, and there’s no
more authentic place to enjoy it than
here.
TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS
36 Travel in Taiwan
SHUI-JIN-JIU
War History
Kinkaseki POW Camp at Jinguashi was one of 14 built in Taiwan during the Second World War to house POWs captured by the Japanese as they spread through Southeast Asia. The number of POWs at Kinkaseki (many captured in the fall of Singapore in 1942) rose to over 1,100, and many died under appalling conditions, forced to work in the gold- and copper-rich mines. The survivors were liberated in 1945. A small park now stands on the site of the camp, with a monument to the prisoners. The prisoner-of-war camp was long ago razed to the ground; however, next to the stream at the entrance of the park, on the left, a fragment of wall and gatepost from the original compound remains as a somber reminder.
Museum of Gold Drinking tea at J iufen
While Jiufen, sitting high
on a hillside, has
perhaps the best setting and the most
popular teahouses, Jinguashi, in a valley
on the south side of Mt. Keelung is the
best place to find out what got the whole
gold and copper mining era here started,
well over a century ago. The Gold
Ecological Park (www.gep.ntpc.gov.tw), which opened in 2004, has turned
Jiufen’s once almost forgotten twin into
a hugely popular tourist attraction. The
park is centered on Jinguashi village, a
place of narrow alleys lined with quaint
old houses that are themselves well worth
exploring.
There’s lots here to see and do, but
if time is short, be sure at least to visit
the elegant Crown Prince Chalet, built
in 1922 for the visit to Taiwan of Crown
Prince Hirohito two years later, though
in the end, the crown prince did not stay
here. Set in pretty gardens, the interior
isn’t open to the public, but some of
the beautiful rooms are clearly visible
through the glass windows. Look for the
beautiful Mount Fuji design above the
main entrance. Round the back of the
chalet is a concrete mini-golf course and
an archery range, intended for use by the
royal visitor!
Climb the steps beside the chalet
and turn left at the top onto the wooden
platform that supported the tracks of a
narrow-gauge push-cart railway, once
used to transport ore and minerals. A
few minutes’ walk along the tracks is the
Museum of Gold, which recounts (on
two f loors, with English translations) the
history of gold and gold mining both here
in Taiwan and elsewhere around
the world. The undisputed highlight
of the small museum is the huge
220-kilogram ingot of 99.9% pure gold
on the second f loor, which visitors can
touch.
After visiting the museum, if energy
allows, make the short but stiff climb up
the wide, stepped path behind the museum
to the photogenic ruins of the Jinguashi
Shinto Shrine. Two torii (Japanese
ceremonial gates), pillars, and stone
foundations are all that remain today of
the temple, built by the Japan Mining
Company in 1933, which is dedicated to
the three Kami spirits of metallurgy, but
it’s worth clambering up there if only to
admire the breathtaking view.
Jinguashi is just a short distance
from Jiufen. Regular buses link the two
villages and, further down the winding
road toward the coast past Jinguashi, the
small settlement of Shuinandong. This
village is dominated by one of the area’s
most impressive industrial relics, the
Thirteen Levels building (built in 1933),
which was once used for refining copper.
From the massive building hulk high up
on the mountain slope you have splendid
views of the coast. Close by is also the
extraordinary Golden Waterfall, a series
of small cascades plunging over a tufa
dam built up from minerals dissolved in
the water. Some of these minerals have
stained the rock a bright sulfur-yellow,
hence the name. It’s a favorite spot for
photographers and a great place for a
break on a tour of the Jiufen/Jinguashi,
Shuinandong triumvirate – a truly
remarkable group of villages.
TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS SHUI-JIN-JIU
Travel in Taiwan 37
How It All BeganConsidering its isolated position clinging to a steep mountainside facing the Pacific, and exposed to the full force of the elements, it’s hardly surprising that Jiufen was originally settled by just nine families. At that time, almost all daily necessities had to be brought in from outside, the village’s residents requesting nine portions (jiu fen) each time, hence the name. All this changed dramatically in 1889, when gold was accidentally discovered by a worker washing dishes in the Keelung River near Badu, twelve kilometers west of Jiufen. When the source of the glittery stuff was eventually traced to the slopes of Mt. Xiaozukeng above Jiufen, gold fever gripped the area. And the rest, as they say, is history.
English and ChineseCrown Prince Chalet 太子賓館Gold Ecological Park 黃金博物園區Golden Waterfall 黃金瀑布Jinguashi 金瓜石Jishan Street 基山街Jiufen 九份Mother Lai's Taro Balls 賴阿婆芋圓Mt. Keelung 基隆山Museum of Gold 黃金博物館Number Eight Mine 八番坑Number Five Mine 五番坑Qingbian Road 輕便路Ruifang 瑞芳Shuinandong 水湳洞Thirteen Levels 十三層
INFOJioufen Teahouse (九份茶坊)Add: 142 Jishan St.., Jiufen, Ruifang District, New Taipei City (台北縣瑞芳鎮基山街142號)Tel : (02) 2496-7767Website: www.jioufen-teahouse.com.tw
Artist Teahouse (水心月茶坊)Add: 308 Qingbian Rd., Jiufen, Ruifang District, New Taipei City(新北市瑞芳區九份輕便路308號)Tel : (02) 2496-7767
Museum of Gold (黃金博物館)Add: 8 Jinguang Rd., Jinguashi, Ruifang District, New Taipei City(新北市瑞芳區金瓜石金光路8號)Tel : (02) 2496-2800Website: www.gep.ntpc.gov.tw
The coast at Shuinandong
Taiwan’s Third Largest City Is a Center of Saxophone Production and Host of a Great Annual Jazz Festival Text: Joe Henley Photos: Maggie Song
If you've ever seen a jazz band perform or tried your hand at playing a saxophone, there is a good chance that the instrument you've seen in action or handled yourself came straight from the township of Houli, the musical-instrument capital of Taiwan.
Jaz z great El l is Marsal is per forming in Taichung
MUSIC TOURS
38 Travel in Taiwan
TAICHUNG
Houli is home to more than 10 factories that collectively churn out several thousand saxophones of all kinds every year
Today, Houli is home to more
than 10 factories that
collectively churn out several thousand
saxophones of all kinds every year, be they
alto, tenor, soprano, or baritone. At its
peak in the 1970s, the Houli instrument
industry was producing 30,000 saxophones
per annum in 30 factories, accounting for
no less than one-third of the global output.
Taiwan's contribution to music went largely
unnoticed, however, as the factories of
Houli focused on producing instruments
for well-known international brands rather
than making a name for themselves with
their own. That began to change after 2000,
thanks to the decades-long effort of the
Lien-Cheng Saxophone Company.
This company, the first saxophone
manufacturer in Taiwan, was the vision
of Chang Lien-cheng, the stylish, modern-
minded son of Houli farmers who from
a young age showed little interest in
agriculture. He wanted to pursue a life in
the arts and started out as a painter in the
early 1940s, beautifully depicting traditional
Taiwanese religious scenes. But when a
friend managed to procure a saxophone,
an expensive and rare commodity at that
time available only via import from Japan,
Chang turned to music, forming a jazz band
aptly named Jazz Band that toured all over
Taiwan. Sadly, the group’s success ground
to a halt when the saxophone was damaged
beyond repair in a fire. Chang managed to
disassemble the badly burned instrument
and figured out how its 400 separate parts
were put together. It was then that he
decided to attempt the
The design process was fraught with
peril for Chang. At one point, a ricocheting
piece of metal permanently blinded him in
one eye, but still he persevered. It took three
years to complete his first saxophone, using
such found materials as copper from door
hinges, silver from coins, and various metals
from discarded World War II munitions.
The design was a success, and he managed
to sell the instrument to a musician from the
Philippines for a sum handsome enough for
him to take on his first apprentices, and start
his own business, in 1948.
The business would be passed on to his
son and then his grandson, Chang Tsung-
yao, who made his first saxophone when
he was just 13 and continues to run the
company today. It is an oft-repeated piece
of family lore that when Tsung-yao was just
a few months old and played his part in the
Taiwanese custom of having a child choose
between numerous different items placed in
front of him to indicate his destined path in
life, he chose a saxophone engraved with the
detailed image of a dragon. This was a gift
from his grandfather. His wife Wang Tsai-
jui, who helps her husband run the business,
teasingly suggests that the saxophone may
have in fact been the only option put before
him.
It is Tsung-yao who has overseen
the company during its transition
from making saxophones for other
companies to marketing its own brand
overseas, drawing visits from such famed
saxophonists as Kenny G and Antonio
Hart. Unsurprisingly, he has passed on his
family's love of music to his four daughters,
who have formed their own saxophone
quartet.
Tsung-yao has also opened up the
doors of his factory to the public and
curates a small museum filled with
artifacts from the company's earliest days,
including machinery used in the forming
of saxophones, from stamping to testing. In
the museum, kids can give key design a try,
sandblasting their own designs onto key
chains they can take home. On weekends,
the attached Chang Lien-Cheng
Saxophone Hall features performances
beginning at 2 p.m., and a small snack
and drink counter offers moderately-
priced beverages and foods. The price of
admission, NT$100, includes a NT$50
voucher for a drink or something to eat.
Guided tours begin in the hall and wind
through the modest museum, with guests
learning all about the saxophone from its
invention to the present day, and getting
a chance to toot away on a saxophone
themselves.
It is also possible to see the factory
works in action, but it is recommended that
you call ahead to make sure this option is
available, as at certain times the facility is
closed to the public. It is a rare opportunity
to see exactly how one of the world's most
beloved musical instruments emerges
from a simple tube of perforated metal
as a shimmering, curvaceous instrument
of precision – an opportunity for which
this pioneer family of Taiwan's music
industry must be thanked. The factory is
just a 30-minute drive from Taichung City
proper.
Tr y ing out saxophones
MUSIC TOURS TAICHUNG
Travel in Taiwan 39
If you happen to be visiting Taiwan in
October this year (2013), don't miss
out on another highlight of the Taiwanese
music scene, the Taichung Jazz Festival,
which celebrated its 10th anniversary last
year. From its humble beginnings a decade
ago, the nine-day event has skyrocketed
in popularity to the point where the latest
edition drew approximately 850,000
spectators. They came to watch the
greats of Taiwan jazz rub shoulders with
international jazz stars.
According to the director-general of
the Taichung Cultural Affairs Bureau,
Susan Yeh, a former TV news anchor
and herself a classically trained pianist,
the festival's reputation has grown year
on year to the point where international
stars are telling their famous friends that
Taichung is a can't-miss stop on their tour
itineraries. This is how the Taichung Jazz
Festival managed to score a performance
from the legendary patriarch of the first
family of American jazz, Ellis Marsalis, in
2012, who came on the recommendation
of his youngest son Jason, a jazz musician
alongside his brothers Wynton, Branford,
and Delfeayo.
Yeh first attended the festival six years ago
on a personal invitation from the mayor of
Taichung, and never imagined that one day she
would be the official host. The event's success
means just as much to her as it does to the city,
and the importance of presiding over the tenth-
anniversary edition wasn't lost on her. In her eyes,
jazz is the perfect musical embodiment of all that
Taichung stands for, and although the average
man on the street may still have a thing or two
to learn about jazz, Yeh explains, the citizens
of Taichung always have an open mind when
presented with something new.
“Jason Marsalis came to Taichung in 2011,
and he told his father this is an amazing festival,”
says Yeh, “so Ellis, who today seldom performs
in public, consented to come to our festival.”
(Jason accompanied his father on stage.)
“It's a milestone for the city and especially
for the continuing jazz movement. I think
that at the time of the first festival most of our
citizens didn't know much about jazz. They just
liked the feel – laid back, relaxed. This matches
the atmosphere of this city. Taichung is a city
of fusion, a city of recreation, and a city of
innovation. The spirit of jazz matches our own
spirit.”
“Taichung is a city of fusion, a city of recreation, and a city of innovation. The spirit of jazz matches our own spirit.”
El l is Marsa l is Tr io & Jason Marsal is
MUSIC TOURS
40 Travel in Taiwan
TAICHUNG
In 2012 three stages were spread out over
Civic Square, which is a sprawling
outdoor park, and the grounds next to both
the CMP Block Museum of Art and the
Calligraphy Greenway. Visitors lounged in the
mild October weather, enjoying drinks and
food from over 40 different vendors and jazz
music from 10 different countries. The Jazz
Festival is actually part of a larger initiative
known as Jazz Month, which includes master
classes, an instrument carnival in Houli, and
an international saxophone competition in
which competitors select from instruments
made by Taiwan's many acclaimed
manufacturers and square off in front of
a panel of esteemed judges, which in 2012
included American free jazz virtuoso Greg
Osby.
As for the future of jazz in Taichung, Yeh
would like to see more companies follow Lien-
Cheng Saxophone Company's lead and develop
their own brands, and she looks forward to
inviting more big-name international acts
to the Taichung Jazz Festival. For those
venturing in from outside Taichung, there
is free shuttle service to the festival grounds
from both the Taichung Railway Station and
Taiwan High Speed Rail Taichung Station.
Be sure to stick around for at least a few days
to soak in the aural ambiance of what is fast
becoming one of Taiwan's most artistic and
musical cities. Do so and you'll quickly find
out why, as Yeh says, “An open mind and open
heart is the spirit of jazz – and the spirit of
Taichung's citizens.”
INFOLien-Cheng Saxophone Company (張連昌薩克斯風有限公司)Add: 330-1 Gong'an Rd., Houli District, Taichung City (台中市后里區公安路330-1號) Tel : (04) 2557-8989
English and ChineseCivic Square 市民廣場Calligraphy Greenway 草悟道Chang Lien-cheng 張連昌Chang Tsung-yao 張宗瑤
CMP Block Museum of Arts 勤美術館Houli 后里Susan Yeh 葉樹姍Taichung Jazz Festival 台中爵士音樂節Wang Tsai-jui 王彩蕊
Assembling saxophones
Finished produc ts
Edison Travel Service specializes in Taiwan toursand offers cheaper hotel room rates and car rental services with drivers .Edison welcomes contact with other travelservices around the world.
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MUSIC TOURS TAICHUNG
Travel in Taiwan 41
Visiting Villages of the Tsou Tribe in Alishan
When visiting Alishan, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Taiwan, it’s worth spending a few days to learn about the indigenous people living in mountain villages scattered around the area, and take in the marvelous scenery.
Text: Cheryl Robbins Photos: Maggie Song
Laij i V i l lage
Member of the Tsou with tradit ional headdress
Indigenous ar t
INDIGENOUS VILLAGES
42 Travel in Taiwan
ALISHAN
The Alishan National Scenic
Area, located in the
mountains of Chiayi County in southern
Taiwan, was established in 2001. This
region has long been drawing tourists
with its tea plantations, glorious sunrises,
and pristine forests. There is often fog,
especially in the afternoon, creating a
cloud and mist effect that is romantically
depicted in Chinese landscape paintings.
With more than 41,000 hectares,
this national scenic area is quite
large, but most tourists stay close to
the main road, the Alishan Highway
(Provincial Highway No. 18), visiting
such attractions as the Alishan National
Forest Recreation Area. Those who take
a detour to visit one of the eight villages
inhabited by members of the Tsou tribe,
however, will be rewarded with a unique
experience of tranquility, natural beauty,
and cultural learning.
Visiting one of the eight Tsou villages
you will be rewarded with a unique
experience of tranquility, natural beauty,
and cultural learning
South along County Road No. 169 – Dabang and Tefuye Villages
Follow the Alishan Highway to
Shizhuo, and then take County Road No.
169 southward to Dabang and Tefuye
villages. These are the only Tsou villages
to possess a kuba (pronounced “koo
ba”), a wooden hut-like structure on
stilts covered with a thatch roof. This is
a meeting hall where the men will meet
to make political decisions and to train
the young males in hunting and warring
techniques, as well as teach them the
history and traditions of the tribe.
Women are prohibited from entering or
even touching this structure.
In Dabang visitors
can hike the Bird
Worship Trail, which
leads through the forest
surrounding the village.
The name comes from
the many Tsou legends
and traditions that are
associated with birds.
The Keupana
Guesthouse in Dabang
has four rooms, and a
large garden area where
it is possible to pitch
tents. It is run by Luo
Yu-feng, also known by
her Tsou name Yangui.
Yangui is a knowledgeable tour guide
regarding local attractions and culture.
Between Dabang and Tefuye villages,
you can enjoy a walk over the brightly
colored Dabang Suspension Bridge,
the starting point of the Tefuye Trail,
which leads to Tefuye village about two
kilometers away. In Tefuye, below the
kuba, is the head of another trail that
takes hikers to a cluster of giant camphor
trees.
It is possible to reach Dabang by
bus. Chiayi County Bus offers service to
Dabang from Chiayi Railway Station; get
off at the last stop. This route has a stop
at a point where the road forks, the other
branch leading to Tefuye, but it is still a
few kilometers’ walk from here to reach
the village. (Note: If you plan to stay in a guesthouse in the area, call in advance to inquire about pick-ups.)
The Tsou are one of Taiwan’s 14 officially
recognized indigenous tribes, and has a
population of around 6,200, most of which
is concentrated in the Alishan area
Several artisans reside in Laiji, including
the multi-talented Paicu Tiaki’ana, who
is a singer, rattan and bamboo weaver,
woodcarver, painter, and leather engraver
The kuba at Tefuye
Dabang Suspension Br idge
INDIGENOUS VILLAGES ALISHAN
Travel in Taiwan 43
Traditional Clothing
During major ceremonies, the Tsou are
dressed in traditional clothing. The men’s
headdresses consist of a red headband
lined with shells, with the fur of the black
bear and eagle feathers for adornment.
This can be placed over a leather cap.
Males also wear a bright red shirt and
leather leggings. The Tsou learned leather-
tanning processes early on, and leather
traditionally played an important part in
protecting them against the elements. The
use of shells points to the tribe’s much
larger area of activity in times past, which
extended to the coast. The females of the
tribe wear brightly colored outfits that
include a diamond-shaped chest piece,
skirt, leggings, and headdress.
North along County Road No. 169 – Laiji Village
To reach Laiji village, head north from
Shizhuo along County Road No. 169. Pass
the old forestry town of Fenqihu, then turn
onto County Road No. 149. Laiji is soon
reached. There is no bus service to the
village (the closest bus stop is at Fenqihu),
but you can arrange for pick-up at Fenqihu
if you plan to stay at a guesthouse in Laiji.
The entrance to this village is marked
by a painted-stone wild boar. According
to legend, this site was discovered during
the hunt for a wild boar by hunters from
Tefuye village, and this animal has become
a village symbol.
Start your tour of Laiji at the visitor
center, managed by the Laiji Community
Development Association. Here you can
find travel information and buy locally
made handicrafts, such as hand-carved
wild boars and owls.
There are several artisans who reside
in this village, such as the multi-talented
Paicu Tiaki’ana, who runs the Tashan
Chashan
Xinmei
Shanmei
ChukouShizikou
HSR Line
Lijia
DabangTefuye
Alishan National Forest Recreation Area
LaijiFenqihu
Ruili
LeyeShizuo
129
169
169Chiayi Interchange
Rai
lway
Lin
e
13
Warring Ceremony (Mayasvi)
In Tefuye, the sloping road that leads
past the village’s kuba allows for direct
views inside this structure. Below the road
and next to the kuba is a plaza for holding
important ceremonies, such as the Warring
Ceremony, called Mayasvi in the Tsou
language.
Mayasvi usually takes place in mid-
February, but the timing can change from
year to year. It is held either in Dabang or
Tefuye. This originally was a ceremony
to honor the gods and to welcome the
return of warriors, as well as to recognize
important achievements such as the
construction of a house. However, during
their occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945)
the Japanese discouraged warring by the
indigenous tribes, and any references to it,
and this ceremony was transformed into an
event held just once a year.
Next to the kuba is a ficus tree that is
considered sacred. To begin the ceremony,
a piglet is sacrificed. Tsou males take turns
inserting the tip of their spears into the
piglet and wiping its blood on the trunk
of the sacred tree to attract the attention
of the deities. Most of the tree’s branches
are then pruned to make a ladder for the
gods to descend from Heaven. After this,
the men go into the kuba to carry out
blessings of newborn boys and coming-of-
age rites for older boys. From time to time,
warriors run out from the kuba and return
with food and drink. This is distributed
among the men by the elders. Later, men
and women join in a session of singing and
dancing outside the kuba. In the evening
the singing and dancing starts again and
continues to dawn, to provide the deities
with a proper send-off.
Wooden wild boars
Tsou family
Indigenous fare at Lanho Guesthouse
Chiayi
INDIGENOUS VILLAGES
44 Travel in Taiwan
ALISHAN
INFOLanho Guesthouse (來吉蘭后渡假民宿)Add: 11, Neighborhood 1, Laiji Village, Alishan Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣阿里山鄉來吉村一鄰11號)Tel : (05) 266-1172; 0978-208-137
Laiji Community Development Association (來吉社區發展協會)Add: 32-1, Neighborhood 1, Laiji Village, Alishan Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣阿里山鄉來吉村一鄰32-1號)Tel : (05) 266-1002; 0921-668-033
Paicu Tiaki'ana/Tashan Gallery (白紫。迪雅奇安娜/塔山藝廊)Add: 54, Neighborhood 2, Laiji Village, Alishan Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣阿里山鄉來吉村2鄰54號)Tel : (05) 266-1351
Keupana Guesthouse (給巴娜民宿)Add: 108, Neighborhood 5, Dabang Village, Alishan Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣阿里山鄉達邦村5鄰108號)Tel : (05) 251-1688; 0912-752-650
English & ChineseAlishan 阿里山Bird Worship Trail 鳥占亭步道Chiayi County Bus 嘉義縣公車Dabang 達邦Dabang Suspension Bridge 達邦吊橋Fenqihu 奮起湖
Laiji 來吉Luo Yu-feng 羅玉鳳Shizhuo 石棹Tashan 塔山Tefuye 特富野Tefuye Trail 特富野步道Tsou tribe 鄒族
Gallery. She is a singer, rattan and bamboo weaver,
woodcarver, painter, and leather engraver. Her works
incorporate themes related to Tsou culture. The village
also features an organic farm and a cooperative for
growing and roasting coffee beans.
The Lanho Guesthouse provides accommodation and
tours of the village. Its entrance is marked by a traditional-
style watchtower and a one-room museum housing Tsou
cultural artifacts.
With advance notice, this guesthouse can prepare a
banquet featuring local ingredients called the Tashan
Wedding Banquet. Tashan refers to the sacred mountain
of the Tsou tribe. Dishes include stone-grilled pork,
chicken stewed with plums, Tashan Bride (mashed taro
root steamed and kneaded with wild mountain honey
and decorated with dates), Tashan Groom (millet, sticky
rice, and banana steamed inside leaves), and Tashan Gold
(deep-fried pumpkin strips, wild celery, and perilla leaves).
This is washed down with a glass of millet liquor.
A good time to visit Laiji is between March and
May, during firef ly season. No matter the time of year,
however, there is always a rich trove of natural beauty and
indigenous culture to explore in Alishan’s Tsou villages.
Wooden owl
INDIGENOUS VILLAGES ALISHAN
Taking the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle from Chiayi City to the High Mountains
There's nothing quite like throwing a few bare essentials in a backpack and taking off on an adventure to a place you've never been – a place where customs you've not yet experienced, a language you cannot speak, and sights both beautiful and mysterious combine for an unforgettable journey.
Text: Joe Henley Photos: Maggie Song
Of course, planning such a trip
can be a major challenge, but
something that is a major help in Taiwan
is a bilingual transportation service that
aids tourists in seeing the island without
much guesswork and hassle. It's called
the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Bus (www.taiwantrip.com.tw).
A total of 22 bus routes have been
established all over Taiwan as part of this
service, with buses usually leaving from
major railway stations every hour daily
(sometimes every half-hour on weekends
and holidays). From New Taipei City
in the north all the way to Pingtung
County in the far south, the trouble of
deciding what is worth seeing and how
long you should spend at each stop has
been greatly eased by this service. You
can simply hop on and off a shuttle as
you please at the various stops along
the way. One hour, two, three – how
long you stay in one place is up to you.
Another bus will come along promptly
on the hour/half-hour, usually between 8
THRS Chiayi
Station
Ding-liou Elementary
School
Wu-feng Temple
Li-mingElementary
School
TRA Chiayi Station
Hugging trees at Alishan
Longmei
BACKPACK BUS TRIP
46 Travel in Taiwan
ALISHAN
a.m. and 5 p.m., to take you to your next
destination. This combines the thrill of
backpacker travel with the reliability of
knowing you'll never be stuck without
transportation.
One of the most stunning Taiwan
Tourist Shuttle routes is the one that
takes you from Chiayi City to Alishan.
Alishan is not a single mountain, but
a range of peaks averaging about 2,500
meters in height located in southern
Taiwan’s Chiayi County. Shuttle buses
leave from both Taiwan High Speed
Rail Chiayi Station (twice a day at 10:10
a.m. and 11:40 a.m.), just outside Chiayi
City, and from Chiayi Railway Station
downtown (between 6:10 a.m. and 2:10
p.m., each hour with some exceptions;
for more info, check the schedule on the
official website). Tickets for the service
from the THSR station cost NT$255 for
a one-way trip along the entire route;
tickets from the Chiayi Railway Station
are slightly cheaper, at NT$221.
Your bus follows a winding mountain
road through a number of small
mountain towns and villages all the
way up to the Alishan National Forest
Recreation Area, inside Alishan National
Scenic Area. But what would be the fun
in just heading from point A to point
B and back again? For this particular
sojourn I was tasked by Travel in Taiwan
with a series of challenges along the
route, testing my travel mettle by having
me locate a selection of the many notable
attractions along the way without the aid
of a guide or translator.
My first mission was to find
two suspension bridges at
Chukou, a town known as the gateway
to Alishan. Watching out the window as
the bus made its way along the mountain
switchbacks, rising in elevation with
every turn, I kept an eye out for any sign
as to where I was supposed to get off.
Thick vegetation whipping by the glass
told me that though I was not more than
an hour from the modern conveniences of
Chiayi City, I was already in a different
world altogether – a world dominated by
the awesome power of nature. Craning
my neck to look out through the broad
front windshield, I saw Chukou come
into view and got off the bus to have a
look around.
Walking a short distance down the
road, I found what I was looking for –
Dijiu Suspension Bridge. This bridge,
along with Tianchang Suspension
Bridge just a short distance upstream
along the Bazhang River, dates back to
1937 – a time when Chukou was a major
regional commercial center. Crossing the
river was then a dangerous enterprise, so
the Japanese, colonial rulers of Taiwan
at the time, built the two bridges. Their
names together mean “everlasting”
(tianchang dijiu), and today the bridges
are a popular backdrop for couples
having wedding photos taken. At one
end of Dijiu Bridge, heading away from
the town, is Longyin Temple, an ornate
place of worship that's well worth a stroll
across for a photo opportunity.
Dij iu Suspension Br idge
BACKPACK BUS TRIP ALISHAN
So, with my first mission
accomplished, my confidence was
running high, and I boarded the next
shuttle that came along, an hour later,
bound for Shizi Village. I was to find
this village’s old train station, active
until Typhoon Morakot took it out of
commission in 2009 and trains from
Chiayi stopped chugging through. I got
off the bus at a rest area and took in the
amazing vista below the tiny hamlet,
seeing tiered tea farms carved out of
the mountainside. Not knowing exactly
where to find the train station, I poked
my head into a tiny shop across the
street, where some elderly locals were
in the midst of a lively conversation.
They were only too happy to welcome
a foreign friend, and through a series
of pantomimes and gestures I was able
to make it known exactly what I was
trying to find. I was pointed in the right
direction.
Walking up a set of steps cut out
of the mountain a short distance from
the shop, I made my way to the station
platform, moving along train tracks being
reclaimed by a forest of ferns, bamboo,
and pine trees. Above the old station
is an observation deck overlooking yet
another unspoiled, sprawling valley, and
for the first time I felt a refreshing chill
in the air. I was reminded that Chiayi
County is one of those precious places
where in the course of a single day you
can experience three different climates
– subtropical, temperate, and alpine –
as you climb higher and higher into the
heart of the verdant mountain range.
Two for two; not too shabby for
a first-time visitor to the
area. My final task was to take the short,
relaxing Alishan Forest Railway journey
through the Alishan National Forest
Recreation Area from Alishan Station
to Sacred Tree Station, snap a shot of the
tree for which the latter is named, and
take a walk along a hiking trail, Giant
Trees Boardwalk. The trail takes visitors
past 20 giant red cypress trees ranging in
age from several hundred years to over
two millenia. The Sacred Tree, or Divine
Tree, is thought to be around 3,000 years
old, and although it fell in 1997 its huge
remnant trunk section has been left
where it toppled. People stand in awe of
the natural world's immense and almost
indescribable beauty.
At times I had long stretches of
boardwalk all to myself as I meandered
through the forest, standing below
towering trees tens of meters high and
several in diameter, their thick trunks
humbling me. Later I stopped to get
a shot of the Three Generation Tree,
which is actually three trees that have
grown together to become one over
hundreds of years. Just imagine that in
the lifespan of one of these giants, as
many as 30 generations of people could
come and go. It's an amazing place to
stand and ponder such thoughts in the
midst of this inspiring natural splendor.
Amidst the collection
of shops,
restaurants, and hotels at the entrance
to the forest recreation area, tired yet
elated and calmed by my surroundings, I
hopped on a shuttle (note: the last tourist
shuttle bus back to Chiayi leaves Alishan
at 5:10 p.m.) headed back downhill and
got off at the village of Shizhuo, where
The Giant Trees Boardwalk
takes visitors past 20 giant red
cypress trees ranging in age
from several hundred years to
over two millenia
Xiding Longtou ShizhuoShizi Village Youth
Activity Center
Alishan
Forest walk
Sacred tree at Al ishan
BACKPACK BUS TRIP
48 Travel in Taiwan
ALISHAN
a room at the mountainside Yun Min Ju
Homestay awaited. It has been run for
over 25 years by Mr. Liu Ning-yuan, who
was born and raised in the farmhouse-
turned-guesthouse, along with his wife.
The homestay sits amidst a tea plantation
and a bamboo/cypress plantation, started
by the proprietor’s great-grandfather
over 100 years ago. Today, Mr. Liu has
opened up his extensive property, sitting
at an elevation of about 2,000 meters,
to anyone who wishes to visit, and has
allowed the government to create hiking
trails on his land. The affable Mr. Liu,
who speaks both English and Japanese,
heads out on the trails daily, and is only
too happy to educate guests about the
area's edible plants and the history of the
region, or just engage in some good old-
fashioned friendly banter. Join him at the
house for a nighttime cup of tea under
the stars as the mists that form year-
round settle in for the evening, the tea
leaves picked fresh from his own farm,
and he'll fill your ear with good-natured
advice about how people need to get back
to the land and live a healthy lifestyle.
What better way to end a fulfilling day
roaming the mountains of Alishan?
English and ChineseAlishan 阿里山Alishan Station 阿里山站Bazhang River 八掌溪Chukou 觸口Dijiu Suspension Bridge 地久吊橋Giant Trees Boardwalk 巨木群棧道Liu Ning-yuan 劉寧源Longyin Temple 龍隱寺Sacred Tree Station 神木站Shizi Village 十字村Shizhuo 石棹Tianchang Suspension Bridge 天長吊橋Three Generation Tree 三代目tianchang dijiu 天長地久
INFOYun Min Ju Homestay (淵明居山庄)Add: 4 Shizhuo, Zhonghe Village, Zhuqi Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣竹崎鄉中和村石棹四號)Tel : 0912-192-948 (05) 256-1066Website: www.yunmingi .com .tw
The famous Alishan
Forest Rai lway
Yun Min Ju Homestay
Ambassador Hotel HsinchuAdd:No.188, Sec. 2, Zhonghua Rd., Hsinchu City, Taiwan R.O.C. TEL:+886 (3) 515-1111FAX:+886 (3) 515-1112
Ambassador Hotel KaohsiungAdd:No.202, Mingsheng 2nd Road, Kaohsiung City,Taiwan R.O.C.TEL:+886 (7) 211-5211FAX:+886 (7) 201-0348
Ambassador Hotel TaipeiAdd:No. 63 Chungshan North Road, Section 2, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.TEL:+886 (2) 2551-1111FAX:+886 (2) 2531-5215
Ambassador Classic Pineapple CakeIn Taiwanese the words for “pineapple” sound like the words for “prosperous future.” Pineapples are therefore often used as auspicious symbols. Resembling little gold bars, pineapple cakes make for a delicious gift with symbolic meaning to friends you want to wish well. The Ambassador Hotel Classic Pineapple Cakes, the finest quality, are made with soft & light outer shell and delicious sweet & sour pineapple paste as filling. By sharing these flavorful cakes with you, we hope to wish you and the people close to you good fortune and prosperous times ahead!
NT$270 Pack of 6NT$450 Pack of 10NT$880 Pack of 20
BACKPACK BUS TRIP ALISHAN
Visiting the Dajia Region’s
Tar
o an
d Sw
eet P
otat
o Fa
rm
s
Taro farmer Zhang Jin-y i
FOOD JOURNEY
50 Travel in Taiwan
TAROS/SWEET POTATOES
Text: Steven Crook Photos: Sting Chen, Sunny Su
Thanks to Taiwan’s fabulously diverse landscape and climatic variations, the country’s farmers are able to grow almost every kind of fruit and vegetable, including many which aren’t native to the island.
If you’ve spent your life in cool
climes, you’ll be excused for not
knowing what taros (yutou) and sweet
potatoes (fanshu; also known as digua)
look like, or how they taste. Every
Taiwanese can tell you in some detail
how taros differ from sweet potatoes,
however, and not only because they have
grown up eating them. The Chinese
names of these root vegetables are used
as cultural code words: “Sweet potato”
is shorthand for a Taiwanese person
whose ancestors came to this island from
mainland China before 1945, generally
from the early 1600s through the mid-
1800s, while a “taro” is someone who
(or whose parents/grandparents) arrived
after 1945.
The taro has its origins in Southeast
Asia, but these days is grown on a
significant scale from Nigeria in the
west to Polynesia in the east. No one
knows when taros were first cultivated
in Taiwan (long before 1945, that’s for
sure), but there’s no doubt which part of
the island is the Republic of China’s taro
capital: Dajia, a bustling town of almost
80,000 people, which is part of a district
of Taichung City.
Downtown Dajia, just 6km from
the sea, is home to one of Taiwan’s
preeminent places of worship, Zhenlan
Temple (also spelled Jenn Lann Temple;
www.dajiamazu.org.tw). This shrine
is the starting and ending point of an
annual nine-day pilgrimage that honors
Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea and
Empress of Heaven.
It was near Zhenlan Temple, at the
Dajia Farmers’ Association office, that
Travel in Taiwan met up with Huang Rui-
yang, who works for the association. Mr.
Huang started by giving us a few facts
and figures. Dajia produces more taro
than any other area in Taiwan, he said,
with around 400 of the district’s 2,100
hectares of irrigated farmland devoted
to the crop. Dajia’s well-drained, sandy
soil is highly suited to taro cultivation,
he explained. The weather – neither too
warm nor too wet – is ideal.
Like many other farmers’ associations
around Taiwan, the Dajia cooperative helps
farmers by adding value to what comes out
of local fields. During the September-to-
June taro-harvest season, the association’s
processing center handles around 1,500kg
of the tubers each day.
Much of the work – scraping off the
soil, washing, and dicing – is done by
hand. Cleaning reveals the vegetable’s
distinctive ridged, pale-brown skins. The
white insides are flecked with short strands
of purple fiber, the stuff which gives
processed taro products their distinctive
hue. Then, using machinery too costly
for an individual farmer to buy, the center
turns the chunks of taro into tasty products
sold in supermarkets and via the Internet
(www.tachia.org; Chinese only). Near
Zhenlan Temple are shops full of candies,
cookies, and other beautifully packaged
taro-flavored goodies you can take home
for your friends and relatives.
Among these goods are cans of soft,
processed taro – it makes a delicious dessert
when served with ice cream – and bags of
frozen taro chunks for adding to hotpots.
Mr. Huang told us the latter are deep-
fried briefly before freezing; otherwise,
they would likely break up while being
simmered. For tourists without access to a
kitchen, the easiest way to sample Dajia’s
most famous foodstuff is to buy a bag of
taro chips. They’re like potato chips, but
slightly chewier and without the salt.
No investigation into Taiwan's
taros would be complete
without visiting a taro farm and
talking with a man who knows a thing
or two about growing the vegetable.
Mr. Zhang Jin-yi clearly knows a lot
about cultivating the tubers: A former
firefighter, he won second prize in
the competition section of last year’s
Dajia Taro Festival, which was held
on September 22, 2012 – no mean
achievement when you consider 62
farmers joined the contest.
Dajia has been holding annual taro-
themed celebrations for the past 12 years,
and if you attend one you’ll find not only
taro delicacies but also other special
products from every corner of Taichung.
Dajia’s relationship with the taro is also
celebrated inside the town’s railway station,
in the form of giant fiberglass taros on
which waiting passengers can sit.
Mr. Zhang is also a rice farmer. He has
to be, he explained, because if he were to
repeatedly cultivate taros on the same piece
of land, the plants would likely suffer from
fungus. To avoid this, each time taros are
harvested from one of his plots, he plants
rice seedlings. Once the rice has been
gathered, the land is once again used for
taro production.
At his invitation, I pulled out a taro
that was ready to harvest. It came out
surprisingly easily, unlike some of the
weeds Taiwanese farmers have to deal
with. But there was disappointment when
we examined the tuber. It had a cavity
the size of a coin, which Mr. Huang told
me was caused by a pest called the golden
apple snail.
Dajia produces more taro than any other area in Taiwan. The well-drained, sandy soil is highly suited to taro cultivation
Visiting the Dajia Region’s
Tar
o an
d Sw
eet P
otat
o Fa
rm
s
FOOD JOURNEY TAROS/SWEET POTATOES
Travel in Taiwan 51
These gastropods, known as fushouluo in Chinese, are not native to Taiwan. They
were introduced to the island from Latin
America in the early 1980s by farmers
who hoped they'd become a lucrative
export. Things didn't work out as planned,
because the snails are considered far from
delicious (which perhaps explains why
those Taiwanese who do collect and eat
wild snails leave golden apple snails alone).
Discarded snails spread quickly, and now
infest a great many fields. Youngsters feed
on young rice plants as well as taro shoots;
adult snails adore taros that are almost
ready to harvest.
Taros are generally harvested between
the Mid-Autumn Festival (sometime in
September) and Tomb-Sweeping Day (in
early April). As Mr. Huang explained,
quality is usually best in the first third of
the harvest season, when the tubers are at
their healthiest, but prices are often higher
later on. Some farmers postpone harvesting
so they can sell at a higher price, but doing
so brings the risk of losing a significant part
of the crop to pests or extreme weather.
Also, if too many farmers decide to wait, a
glut could drive prices down.
Mr. Zhang sticks to what he knows
best: with the help of his wife, cultivating
high-quality taros, washing them as soon
as they’re out of the ground, and then
without delay sending them off to markets
as far away as Taipei. Each taro that leaves
his farm bears a quality sticker copyrighted
by the Dajia Farmers’ Association, plus
a code number unique to Mr. Zhang.
Consumers can therefore be certain where
the taro they’re buying was grown.
Annie Lee’s approach
to agriculture is
altogether less traditional. Eleven years
ago she and her parents transformed
their land into Annie’s Sunflower
Farm. It’s within sight of some of the
many wind turbines that dot central
Taiwan’s coastline, and conveniently
close to Provincial Highway No. 61, an
expressway that runs along almost the
entire west coast.
Annie’s Sunflower Farm offers
tourists more than fresh air and a chance
to wander through fields where taros,
cabbages, and sunflowers thrive. If
they give Annie advance notice, groups
can slow-cook a feast in a kongtuyao
(NT$2,500 for 10 people; all food and
materials included). Roughly translated,
this term means “dirt oven,” and it’s a
fitting description. A fire is set in an
oven made of dried mud, and when it’s
hot enough, the f lames are extinguished.
Food (typically sweet potatoes and
mushrooms wrapped in aluminum foil,
plus a chicken placed in a tin canister so
it cooks in its own juices) is packed inside
and cooked by the heat coming off the
oven walls and f loor.
If you don’t have time for a kongtuyao,
try some of Annie’s excellent home
cooking. The menu includes taro rice,
Delicious and Healthy : Taro is filling yet low in calories; both taros and sweet potatoes are fibrous and thus good for the digestive tract. Taro is a good source of vitamins A, C, and E. Although sweet potatoes contain five times more sugar than regular potatoes – they wouldn’t be sweet otherwise – they’re also extremely low in fat and fatty acids. They have more vitamin B6 and slightly more calcium than white rice, but just a quarter of the carbohydrates.
Sweet potato farmer Chen Ji - qing
Prepar ing food in kongtuyaos
Diced taroCleaning taro
FOOD JOURNEY
52 Travel in Taiwan
TAROS/SWEET POTATOES
which is a meal in itself – small chunks of steamed taro, minced
pork, tiny shrimps, and garlic added to wholesome white rice. The
burger-like fish cakes are another must-eat. These savory delights
are made according to a traditional recipe.
Annie asks that groups and weekday visitors contact her by
e-mail at least two days before visiting; her English is good enough to
handle foreign tourists.
Several other leisure farms in the rural northwest of Dajia
District offer fun activities and variations on kongtuyao. For more
information about these farms, visit the website of the Dajia Farmers’
Association at www.tachia.org.tw/artisan (Chinese).
Dajia has taros, but for sweet potatoes the place to
go is Shalu, less than 20km due south. Shalu’s
uplands, near Taichung Metropolitan Park and the city’s airport,
are notable for well-drained Mars-like red soils in which sesame
and peanuts, as well as sweet potatoes, thrive.
Travel in Taiwan sat down with Mr. Chen Ji-qing, a farmer whose
sweet potatoes are widely enjoyed in Taichung’s night markets,
usually baked and eaten hot (kao digua). He told us that each sweet-
potato season begins with the planting of various kinds – some are
white or purple inside instead of the usual yellow – around the time
of the goddess Mazu’s birthday, which falls around mid-April.
If the June and July rains fall as normal, the sweet potatoes are
ready for harvesting three or four months after planting. Unlike Dajia’s
taro farmers, Mr. Chen doesn’t grow other crops on his land. Rather,
during the colder months, his fields are full of yellow-flowered Indian
Sesbania. These plants, which are also grown in fallow rice fields, fix
nitrogen in the soil and hinder the growth of weeds.
What are fans of sweet potatoes to do when it isn’t the right
season? Mr. Chen is well aware that demand doesn’t let up
throughout the year, so he cooperates with farmers in other
parts of Taiwan to ensure his customers don’t run out. That’s
good news, as few things go down better on a chilly January
evening than a baked sweet potato!
Getting to Dajia: Dajia is on the coastal railway line, and served by 20 express trains each day, plus dozens of local trains. Only a few local services link Dajia with downtown Taichung, however, so if you’re coming from that direction it makes better sense to take a bus from either Taichung Railway Station, Taichung High Speed Rail Station, or one of the many stops on Taichung Harbor Road; expect the journey to take about an hour. Several buses per day between Hsinchu City and Dajia follow a coastal route which is scenic but not especially quick.
Cleaning reveals the taro’s distinctive ridged, pale-brown skin. The white insides are flecked with short strands of purple fiber, the stuff which gives processed taro products their distinctive hue
Annie's Sunflower Farm (向日葵農場)Add: 1-1, Lane 27, Ruyi Rd., Dajia District, Taichung City(台中市大甲區如意路27巷1-1號)Tel : 0910-599-258, (04) 2681-1196Email : [email protected]: http://0426811196.tranews.com
INFO
English and ChineseAnnie Lee 李安妮Chen Ji-qing 陳吉慶Dajia 大甲Dajia Farmers' Association 大甲區農會Dajia Taro Festival 大甲芋頭節digua 地瓜fanshu 番薯fushouluo 福壽螺Huang Rui-yang 黃瑞洋
Indian Sesbania 田菁kao digua 烤地瓜kongtuyao 焢土窯yutou 芋頭Mazu 媽祖Shalu 沙鹿Taichung Metropolitan Park 台中都會公園Zhang Jin-yi 張進義Zhenlan Temple 鎮瀾宮
Taro dishes at Annie’s Sunf lower Farm
Taro chips
FOOD JOURNEY TAROS/SWEET POTATOES
Travel in Taiwan 53
Wait ing in lineHave you seen the long lines in front of certain
snack-food stalls in Taiwan? This is a sign of
something unusually yummy on offer. Many
Taiwanese don’t trust empty eateries, so they will seek
out the ones where people are already lining up. They
don’t even mind standing for quite some time, even in
the blazing sun or pouring rain. We recently tested this
culinary rule of thumb at a popular milkshake joint
in Taipei’s Gongguan area, and after waiting about
20 minutes we were rewarded with a refreshingly
cold and sweet shake containing some strange and
pleasantly chewy soft starch balls. Now, where’s the
next line? We’re hungry for more!
Do I have enough change?
You're next!
Was the waiting
worth it? YES!!!!
There's a system here...54 Travel in Taiwan
DAILY LIFE
Photos: Maggie Song
Longkeng Ecological Protection Area
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Kenting Forest Recreation Area
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Longkeng Ecological Protection Area
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YOHO Kids Hotel
YOHO Bike Hotel
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YOHO Beach Resort
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Exploring the coast of Kending
Snorkeling of f Maobitou Peninsula
Learning about snorkeling at Kending
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