Travel in Taiwan (No.38, 2010 3/4)

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No. 38, 2010

Places to Stay

Homestays with a Homey Feel in Sanzhi

New Perspectives

Passport to Tainan

Visiting the Countryside Windy Coast and Flower Fields in Miaoli Bicycling in the East Rift Valley

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Fresh Seafood at the North Coast

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Publisher's Note ­

Welcome to Taiwan!

Dear Traveler,

TRAIN AND BICYCLE CHARMING EAST RIFT VALLEY Taipei Int’l Flora Expo Exotic Seafood

Welcome to Taiwan! In this issue of Travel in Taiwan we will introduce to you some parts of our country that are a little bit off the beaten track and less familiar to foreign tourists. We start off with a train and bicycle trip to Miaoli County, located on the western coast of central Taiwan. Rural countryside dominates the scenery here, and one of the best ways to get a closer look is by staying at a B & B (known as “homestay” in Taiwan), renting a bicycle, and just wandering about. There are many discoveries to be made, including vast fields of f lowers, orchards where you can pick your own fruit, cafés surrounded by lush scenery, and even a dairy farm nestled in the rolling hills.

Next we traverse the valley that stretches all the way from the city of Hualien to Taitung in eastern Taiwan. This is another area ideally suited for railway and bicycle travel. Dedicated bicycle routes have been (and are in the process of being) constructed in many locations throughout the area. Renting a bike is convenient and cheap, and riding in the mostly flat valley is safe and suitable for the whole family. Among the scenic treats you will find are wide paddies and rape fields, tea plantations, restaurants serving up indigenous specialties, shops selling unique art works, hot-spring resorts, and much more. This is arguably the best part of Taiwan to unwind and enjoy some peace and quiet.

Much closer to Taipei, but seemingly a world away from big-city life, is the township of Sanzhi on the north coast. About half-way between the town of Danshui and the northernmost tip of Taiwan, there aren’t any sensational tourist sites to speak of, except perhaps for the popular white-sand beach of Baishawan. Maybe this is why in recent years the area has attracted many new residents who originally lived in the big city, wanted to get away from it all, and dreamed of starting a new life by opening homestays with a very personal touch. Experiencing the warmth and idealism of these friendly guesthouse owners alone makes a trip to the North Coast worthwhile.

Head a bit further east from Sanzhi and you’ll soon arrive at the north coast’s top tourist attraction, Yeliu Geopark, with its bizarre and wonderful rock formations created by wind and wave over thousands of years. After capturing these very photogenic rocks with your camera and before leaving the coast, make sure to stop at one of the area’s small fishing harbors and order a sumptuous seafood meal. While feasting on fish, crab, shrimp, and lobster you might even see the fishing boats that brought the treats on your table in from the big blue sea just a few hours earlier. Seafood doesn’t get fresher than this!

Come and explore the many fascinating faces of Taiwan. On behalf of the Tourism Bureau, I wish you a pleasant and unforgettable journey!

Janice Seh-Jen Lai Director General Tourism Bureau, MOTC, R.O.C.

Travel in Taiwan March • April 2010

1

PUBLISHER EDITING CONSULTANTS

Janice Seh-Jen Lai David W. J. Hsieh, Chao-Yen Wu

PUBLISHING ORGANIZATION Tourism Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications ADDRESS 9F, 290 Zhongxiao E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei, 104, Taiwan Tel: 886-2-2717-3737 Fax: 886-2-2771-7036 E-mail: tbroc@tbroc.gov.tw Website: http://taiwan.net.tw PRODUCER , Vision Int l Publ. Co., Ltd. ADDRESS Rm. 5, 10F, 2 Fuxing N. Rd., Taipei, 104 Taiwan Tel: 886-2-2711-5403 Fax: 886-2-2721-2790 E-mail: vision@tit.com.tw GENER AL MANAGER Wendy L. C. Yen DEPUTY GENER AL MANAGER Frank K. Yen CHIEF SUPERVISOR Eve S.I Tu ENGLISH EDITORS Richard Saunders, Rick Charette ADVISER TO THE EDITORS Ming-Jing Yin EDITOR IN CHIEF Johannes Twellmann EDITORS Stella Huang, Aysel Then, Joe Lee , Percy Kung

CONTRIBUTORS Rick Charette, Bryan Beaudoin, Jay Acton, Eric Lambert, Francesca Chang, Matthew Davidoff, Kurt Weidner, Chris Lockwood, Phil Dawson, Mark Caltonhill, Wesley Holzer ADMINISTR ATIVE DEPT. Hui-chun Tsai, Nai-jen Liu, Xiou Mieng Jiang DESIGNERS Ting Ting Wang, Wen-Jen Fan, Ellen Yeh, Daemon Lee ADVERTISING DEPT. Pamela Leu, Stacy Cai, Mamie Yang ADVERTISING HOTLINE + 886-2-2721-5412 PRINTER Sinew Color Printing & Reproduction Co., Ltd.

TEL: + 886-2-2225-2513 FAX: + 886-2-2225-2519 LEGAL ADVISOR Chen Lung, Chen & Associates – Attorneys at Law

WHERE YOU CAN PICK UP A COPY OF TRAVEL IN TAIWAN ABROAD Offices 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 Economy; 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

IN TAIWAN Tourism Bureau Visitor Center; Tourism Bureau; Taiwan Visitors Association; foreign representative offices in Taiwan, Tourism Bureau service counters at Taiwan Taoyuan Int’l Airport and Kaoshiung Int’l Airport, major tourist hotels; Taipei World Trade Center; VIP lounges of international airlines; major tourist spots in Taipei; visitor centers of cities and counties around Taiwan; offices of national scenic area administrations; public libraries

台 灣 觀 光 雙 月 刊 Travel in Taiwan Bimonthly March/ April Issue, 2010 http://www.tit.com.tw/vision/index.htm Copyright c 2010 Tourism Bureau.

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form without written permission is prohibited.

ISSN:18177964

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200 NTD

CONTENTS COVER STORY Cycling in the Countryside Miaoli County is among those places in Taiwan where you can take rural scenery on two wheels.

MARCH / APRIL 2010 1 Publisher�s Note

NEW PERSPECTIVES

4 Culture & Art

6 Calendar of Events 8 What�s Happening in Taiwan

40 Passport to an Ancient Capital — Sightseeing in Tainan

FEATURE

POP CULTURE

10 A Better, More Relaxed World — Visiting Rural Miaoli for a Day

46 A Taste of Local Pop Culture — What’s In Over at Ximending

16 Pristine Scenery, Bicycle Fun, Exotic Food, and Much More

— Visiting the Charming East Rift Valley

PLACES TO STAY

10

FESTIVAL 22 Hakka Tung Blossom Festival — Enjoying the “Snow of May” in Taiwan

48 Places to Laze Around — Lower-key Accommodations with a Homey Feel

SHOPPING

EVENT

24 Taipei Int’l Flora Expo — Taiwan’s Capital is Gearing up for Its Next Mega-Event

26

52 Found!

— Great Taiwan Sources for "Famous Food" Cakes and Pastries

HOTEL INFORMATION

FOOD

26 Taste of Traditional Taiwan on Taipei’s Doorstep — Spending an Afternoon Feasting on Seafood at the North Coast

54 Hotels of Taiwan

48

TOUCHED BY TAIWAN 30 Coming as Stranger, Leaving as Family — An Unforgettable Homestay Experience with a Local Family

MY LOCAL FRIENDS

46

36 When Ugly Becomes Art — Life in the Small Seaside Town of Wanggong Revolves around Oysters

Travel in Taiwan March • April 2010

3

CULTURE & ART

CULTURE & ART Taiwan has a very diverse cultural scene, with art venues ranging from international-caliber concert halls and theaters, where internationally-acclaimed stars regularly perform, to make-shift stages on temple plazas where you can witness Taiwanese opera. Among Taiwan’s museums are the world-famous National Palace Museum as well as many museums specializing in different art forms and aspects of Taiwanese culture. Here is a brief selection of upcoming happenings. For more infomation, please visit the websites of the listed venues.

National Palace Museum

Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Figures and Genre in the Art and Aesthetics of Form: Selections from the History of Chinese Painting

Richard Rogers + Architects: From the House to the City

造型與美感 —人物民俗篇 Jan 1 ~ Mar 25

British architect Richard Rogers is known worldwide for landmark buildings like the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Millennium Dome in London. This exhibition presents an overview of his achievements, from the 1960s to the present, utilizing a large chronological list of his finished and unfinished works, displaying models, and showing specially produced films, with a focus on themes such as “Public,” “Systems,” “Transparent,” “Urban,” and “Green.”

This exhibition features a wide variety of figure and genre paintings from the Yuan (1279-1368), the Ming (1368-1644), and the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Sixteen sets of works are on display, some accompanied by transparency enlargements, offering a detailed look at the chosen subjects and the brushwork of artists and revealing their stylistic features and technical achievements. There is also a multimedia screening room where visitors can appreciate dynamic reproductions in high resolution.

National Concert Hall

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 譚盾之“臥虎藏龍” Mar 26 Millions of people have listened to his music, but have never heard of him.

Chinese composer Tan Dun has been the creator of the two very different scores of two very successful Chinese movies, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” directed

by Academy Award winner Ang Lee, and “Hero,” by one of China’s most famous directors, Zhang Yi-mou. On this evening, Tan Dun will present his Internet Symphony No. 1 Erotica, composed for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, and the Crouching Tiger Double Concerto, which will be a world premiere.express contemporary sensitivities.

4 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

理查‧羅傑斯 + 建築師：從住宅到城市 Mar 6 ~ May 2

National Theater/Experimental Theater

Listening to the River 雲門舞集 聽河 Mar 18 ~ 20 As part of the 2010 Taiwan International Festival, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Taiwan’s leading dance ensemble, will premier “Listening to the River.” This new work has been proclaimed as a break from the style that lovers of dance have become accustomed to when watching the magical performances of acclaimed choreographer Lin Hwai-min’s Cloud Gate.

One big change will be the use of technology instead of romantic lyricism to express contemporary sensitivities.

Venues

National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Beyond Vision: Highlights of Abstract Paintings from the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Collection 異象-典藏抽象繪畫展 Jan 30 ~ Dec 26

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 路五段一 號 )

Taipei Taipei Zhongshan Hall Plaza （ 台北中山堂廣場 ）

The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts has selected 142 pieces of abstract art by 65 Taiwanese artists, created over the past 50 years, for a special grand display. The exhibition explores the history of abstract painting in Taiwan since the 1950s and the role of abstract art in today’s local art scene.

Add: 98, Yanping S. Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市延平南 路 9 8 號 )

( 台北市中山北 路 3 段 181 號 )

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.tw/ Nearest 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

Gold and Glory – The Wonders of Khitan from the Inner Mongolia Museum Collection

( 台北市中山南 路 21 號 )

黃金旺族：內蒙古博物院大遼文物展 Feb 6 ~ May 16

Tel: (02) 2343-1100~3 www.cksmh.gov.tw Nearest 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) 3393-9888 www.ntch.edu.tw Nearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial Hall

National Museum of History （ 國立歷史博物館 ）

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

Backstreet Boys

( 台北市 南 海路 4 9 號 )

Tel: (02) 2361-0270 www.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) 2881-2021 www.npm.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: Shilin

Add: 39 Chang-an W. Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市長 安 西 路 3 9 號 )

Tel: (02) 2552-3720 www.mocataipei.org.tw Nearest MRT Station: Zhongshan

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 7 9 號 )

Tel: (02) 2556-8909 www.taipeipuppet.com Nearest MRT Station: Shuanglian

Taichung Taichung Zhongshan Hall（ 台中中山堂） Add: 98 Xueshi Rd., Taichung City ( 台中市學士路 9 8 號 )

National 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) 2372-3552 www.tmoa.gov.tw

Tainan Tainan City Cultural Center

National Taiwan Museum

Comical Martial Arts Performance JUMP

Add: 2 Xiangyang Rd., Taipei City

2010韓國功夫喜劇 JUMP Apr 16 ~ 17

Tel: (02) 2382-2566 www.ntm.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: NTU Hospital

( 台北市 襄 陽 路二號 )

Add: 332 Zhonghua E. Rd., Sec. 3, Tainan City ( 台南 市中華東 路 3 段 332 號 )

Tel: (06) 269-2864 www.tmcc.gov.tw

Kaohsiung

Novel Hall（ 新舞臺 ）

Kaohsiung City Chungcheng Cultural Center（ 高雄市立中正文化中心）

Add: 3 Songshou Rd., Taipei City

Add: 67 Wufu 1st Rd., Kaohsiung City

( 台北市松 壽路 3 號 )

( 高 雄 市五福 一路 67 號 )

Tel: (02) 2722-4302 www.novelhall.org.tw Nearest MRT Station: Taipei City Hall

Tel: (07) 222-5136 ext. 8908, 8909, 8910 www.khcc.gov.tw (Chinese only) Nearest KMRT Station: Cultural Center

National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts（ 高雄市立美術館 ）

（ 國立國父紀念館 ）

Add: 80 Meishuguan Rd., Kaohsiung City

Add: 505 Ren-ai Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City

( 高 雄 市美 術館 路 8 0 號 )

( 台北市仁 愛 路 四 段 5 0 5 號 )

Tel: (07) 555-0331 www.kmfa.gov.tw Nearest KMRT Station: Aozihdi Station

Tel: (02) 2758-8008 www.yatsen.gov.tw/english Nearest MRT Station: Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

Taipei Arena（ 台北小巨蛋 ）

Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei（ 台北當代藝術館 ）

（ 台南市立文化中心 ）

（ 國立臺灣博物館 ）

Ninety minutes of martial-arts action a la Jackie Chan, but performed live on stage without the use of wires and special effects. JUMP is a story centered on a Korean family, with such characters as a drunken uncle, grumpy and draconian grandfather, and karatechopping mother, who love challenging each other to martial-arts showdowns. When two burglars break into the family home, occupied by three generations of highly trained martial artists, the family wields their expertise against the unexpected guests. This is a sensational show filled with splendid displays of martial arts, acrobatics, gymnastics, and comic acting.

Tel: (02) 2595-7656 www.tfam.museum Nearest MRT Station: Yuanshan

Tel: (04) 2230-3100 www.tccgc.gov.tw

Add: 49 Nanhai Rd., Taipei City

Precious artifacts of the Khitan, a nomadic people who established the Khitan Empire and ruled over a vast area of northern China during what is called the Liao Dynasty (907-1125), are presented in this exhibition. The artifacts are on loan from the Inner Mongolia Museum and include rare and exquisite gold and silver wares, along with other materials, found in Khitan gravesites.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum （ 台北市立美術館 ）

Add: 181 Zhongshan N. Rd., Sec. 3, Taipei City

Nearest MRT Station: Ximen

National Palace Museum

Tel: (02) 2725-5200 ext. 3000. 3151~52 www.ticc.com.tw Nearest MRT Station: Taipei City Hall

Kaohsiung Museum of History （ 高雄市立歷史博物館 ）

Add: 2 Nanjing E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City

Add: 272 Zhongzheng 4th Rd., Kaohsiung City

( 台北市 南 京 東 路 4 段 2 號 )

( 高 雄 市中正四 路 27 2 號 )

Tel: (02) 2577-3500 www.taipeiarena.com.tw Nearest MRT Station: Nanjing E. Rd.

Tel: (07) 531-2560 http://w5.kcg.gov.tw/khm/index.asp Nearest KMRT Station: City Council

Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010

5

2010

CALENDAR OF EVENTS until MAR 31

Sun Moon Lake Aboriginal Culture Cherry Blossom Festival (日月潭九族櫻花祭系列活動)

This may be the best time to visit Sun Moon Lake. Enjoy the spectacular sight of more than 2000 Taiwan Cherry trees in full bloom and learn about Taiwan’s indigenous tribes at the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village.

Location: Sun Moon Lake, Nantou County (南投縣日月潭) Website: www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw Tel: (049) 285-5668

MAR ~ MAY

Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival (高雄春天藝術節)

Don’t miss this, the first large-sized outdoor multimedia-based symphony orchestra music festival in southern Taiwan, made possible with the cooperation of Discovery Channel and the BBC. Location: Zhide Hall, Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Kaohsiung City (高雄市文化中心至德堂) Website: www.khcc.gov.tw Tel: (07) 228-8833

MAR 27 ~ MAY 9

Yilan Green Expo (宜蘭綠色博覽會) The Yilan Green Expo, held in Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan each year, promotes sustainable ecology, environmental-protection education, a green lifestyle, and local customs.

Location: Wulaokeng Scenic Area, Suao Township, Yilan County (宜蘭縣 蘇澳鎮武荖坑風景區) Website: www.e-land.gov.tw/ Tel: (03) 925-1000

APR 10 ~ APR 18

Northeast Coast Switchback Road Bicycle Race (東北角峰迴路轉自行車比賽)

The coastal area near the northeastern tip of Taiwan is characterized by mountains with steep slopes. Following switchback-rich mountain roads, this bicycle race presents a challenge for riders and awards them with attractive scenery.

Location: Mountainous area around Jiufen on the Northeast Coast (東北角海岸及九份山區) Tel: (07) 667-4820

APR ~ MAY

Taichung County Mazu International Festival (台中縣大甲媽祖國際觀光文化節)

Many pious people who regard Mazu as their protective goddess go on a long pilgrimage through central and southern Taiwan each year, accompanying a famous icon of the goddess.

Join the festivities surrounding the march to experience what religious fervor on this island is all about.

Location: 21 townships and cities in Taichung County (台中縣21鄉鎮市) Website: www.taichung.gov.tw Tel: (04) 2628-0166

APR 24 ~ MAY 22

Sun Moon Lake Merida Bicycle and Firefly Festival (日月潭美利達單車逍遙遊暨星光螢火季)

There are many reasons for spending an extended period of time at Sun Moon Lake, hiking and bicycling among them. If you come during the early summer, make sure to stay out until dark to catch the mesmerizing sight of fireflies buzzing about.

Location: Huantan Highway, Sun Moon Lake, Yuchi Township, Nantou County (南投縣魚池鄉日月潭環潭公路) Website: www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw Tel: (049) 285-5668

APR 18 ~ JUN 13

Dalongdong Baoan Temple Baosheng Cultural Festival (大龍峒保安宮保生文化祭)

Beautifully restored Baoan Temple is one of the most fascinating of Taipei’s many temples, and this festival, featuring parades, martial-arts fighting, and walking across burning coals, is one of the most exciting temple festivals in all of Taiwan.

Location: Dalongdong Baoan Temple, Taipei City (台北市大龍峒保安宮) Website: www.baoan.org.tw Tel: (02) 2595-1676

MarchAprilMay

MAR 6 ~ MAR 15

Taiwan International Orchid Show (台灣國際蘭展 ) A must-visit for orchid experts and flower lovers. See the best of what local orchid farmers have been cultivating recently and learn all about the orchid business.

Locations: Taiwan Orchid Plantation, Houbi Township, Tainan County (台南縣後壁鄉—台灣蘭花生物科技園區) Website: www.tios.com.tw Tel: (06) 683-0913

MAR 11 ~ JUN 6

Taipei Traditional Arts Festival (台北市傳統藝術季) Over three months the Taipei Traditional Arts Festival each year presents traditional singing, music, dance, and opera performed by outstanding artists from Taiwan and abroad.

Locations: Zhongshan Hall, Taipei City (台北市中山堂) Website: www.tco.taipei.gov.tw Tel: (02) 2383-2170

MAR 17 ~ MAR 20

Taipei Cycle (台北國際自行車展覽會) Asia’s largest and the world’s third-largest bicylce show.

Exhibitors come from 32 countries and regions across the globe to present the latest achievements of the bicycle industry nearly 4,000 booths.

Location: Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall (台北世界貿易中心南港展覽館) Website: www.taipeicycle.com.tw Tel: (02) 272-55200 ext. 2863

APR 24 ~ MAY 29

Penghu Fireworks Festival (澎湖海上花火節)

As if the Penghu archipelago wasn’t beautiful enough, the local government each year presents multiple spectacular fireworks shows accompanied by the tunes of famous singers and other attractions. This could be the romantic highlight of your next trip to the sunny and windy isles.

Location: Guanyin Pavilion, Magong City, Penghu County (澎湖馬公市觀音亭) Website: www.penghu-nsa.gov.tw Tel: (06) 927-4400 ext. 566

APR ~ MAY

Hakka Tung Blossom Festival (客家桐花祭)

Beautiful snow-white blossoms and the fascinating culture of the Hakka people make this festival an unforgettable experience, providing even more reason for visiting the charming countryside of Miaoli and other parts of northwestern Taiwan.

Location: Taoyuan County (桃園縣), Hsinchu County (新竹縣), Miaoli County (苗栗縣) Website: tung.hakka.gov.tw, www.hakka.gov.tw Tel: (02) 8789-4567

MAR 1 ~ MAR 31

18 Peaks Mountain Flower Festival (十八尖山賞花月) Go for a refreshing walk in Hsinchu City’s back garden, just to the south of the city center, gazing at lovely flowerbeds and taking part in a wide range of cultural activities.

Locations: Mt. Shibajian, Hsinchu City (新竹市十八尖山) Website: www.hccg.gov.tw Tel: (03) 521-6121

MAR 26 ~ MAY 2

Zhuzihu Calla-Lily Festival (竹子湖海芋季) Located in Yangmingshan National Park, Zhuzihu is a popular spot for day-trippers, especially in spring, when this festival is launched each year to celebrate the harvest of the snow-white calla lily.

Location: Zhuzihu, Yangmingshan, Beitou District, Taipei City (臺北 市北投區陽明山竹子湖) Website: www.taipei.gov.tw Tel: (02) 2725-6584

APR 10 ~ APR 18

Kaohsiung Neimen Songjiang Battle Array (高雄內門宋江陣)

Once a year the people of Neimen put together a remarkable martial-arts show on a plaza in front of a grand old temple, a great opportunity to witness staged fighting with antiquated weapons and learn about age-old traditions.

Location: Neimen Township, Kaohsiung County Tel: (07) 667-4820

TRAVEL NEWS

WHAT’S HAPPENING in

TAIWAN

Plum Garden Visitor Center in Beitou Taipei’s northern district of Beitou is known for its hot springs and its many interesting historic sites. One of these sites has recently been renovated and given a new function. The Plum Garden residence, located inside Beitou Park, close to the MRT Xinbeitou Station, was built in the 1930s to accommodate Japanese people living in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation (1895-1945), and between 1949 and 1964, it was the summer residence of former Control Yuan President and renowned calligraphy master Yu You-ren. The well-preserved, Japanese-style wooden structure was listed as a historic site by the city government in 2006, and was recently opened to the public as a visitor information center after undergoing a thorough renovation. Apart from providing information about Beitou, the visitor center also features a permanent exhibition on the history of local architecture.

Add: 6 Zhongshan Rd., Beitou District, Taipei City ( 台北市北投區中山路 6 號 ) Tel: (02) 2897-2647

8 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

The Qilan Forest Recreation Area in Yilan County is one of the most pristine and natural getaway spots in Taiwan. In July 2008, Typhoon Fung-wong made landfall on the east coast of Taiwan, subjecting the area to heavy rains and causing the Lanyang River to swell, with serious damage resulting to the foundations of Qilan Mountain Resort. It took more than a year to repair the damage and restore the resort to its former state. The resort was recently reopened and now has, in addition to the original 77 rooms, 11 brand-new “scenery suites” with large windows offering excellent views of the nearby river.

Visitors can also choose to stay in one of the wooden huts available, which can hold up to eight people.

Qilan is best known for its dense forests, which are home to centuries-old “ancient trees.” Other places of interest in the area are Mingchi Mountain Resort, the forests of Taipingshan, and the hot springs of Renze.

For more information on Qilan, visit www.yeze.com. tw/cilan/homepage.htm (Chinese).

Photos / Qilan Forest Recreation Area; Department of Information and Tourism,Taipei City Government; Leofoo Resort Guansh; Vision Int'l

Qilan Mountain Resort Reopens after Lengthy Restoration

Asia’s Only Eco-Resort Offers an Intimate Wild-Animal Experience You don’t need to travel all the way to Africa to see giraffes, zebras, and other exotic wildlife walking right by your window. The Leofoo Resort Guanshi in Hsinchu County now offers you exactly this; an intimate encounter with beasts from the savannah while enjoying the comforts of your cozy and tastefully furbished guestroom. Located adjacent to Leofoo Village Theme Park, the brand-new Leofoo Resort has a total of 164 rooms, each accommodating 2~6 people and decorated in the style of an African hunting lodge. There are also two restaurants serving up healthful cuisine, an Africa-themed games plaza, and souvenir shops selling unique mementos. What makes staying at this resort most special are the large floor-to-ceiling-windows offering unobstructed views of grazing, free-roaming wild animals, animals such as giraffes, rhinos, zebras, ostriches, barbary sheep, ring-tailed lemurs, and sulcata tortoises. Apart from this “African experience,” guests are also given the opportunity to have a “Hsinchu experience,” going on organized theme tours to explore the natural environment and the cultural sites of this area in Taiwan’s north.

During the first months of operation, starting on February 3, the Leofoo Resort is offering a special “Eco Exploration Holiday“ package that includes a onenight stay in a Kongo Blue Sky Guestroom, a healthy breakfast for two, and participation in activities such as picking apples in a fruit orchard or visiting Leofoo Village Theme Park. The package is available at NT$6,800 on weekdays and NT$8,400 on weekends and holidays. For more information, visit www.leofooresort.com.tw.

Targeting 480 Million Visitors in 2010 Despite several setbacks caused by natural disasters and the worldwide financial crisis, tourism in Taiwan continues to grow. After recording a historic high for visitors in 2009 with 4.4 million people arrivals, the island’s tourism authorities are now confident that the number will climb to over 4.8 million this year. This confidence in the market is also evident in the fact that the Tourism Bureau has recently approved a total of 37 new hotel investment projects. The building of these new facilities, including large international tourist hotels, business hotels, and smaller hotels, will increase the number of guestrooms in Taiwan by more than 10,000. Apart from continuing successful promotional campaigns in other Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as Australia and New Zealand, Taiwan will also intensify its cooperation with mainland China, the most promising source for inbound tourists. Last year 600,000 visitors came across the Taiwan Strait, and this number is expected to climb to over 750,000 this year. Not just looking at increasing the total number, tourism concerns on the island are also seeking to attract mainland Chinese visitors to higher-quality tours, such as incentive tours organized by large corporations. To find out more about current tourism activities and promotions, visit the Tourism Bureau website http://taiwan.net.tw.

Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010

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10 March • April 2010

Flower fields and a more relaxed life await visitors in Miaoli

Travel in Taiwan

A Better, More Relaxed World Visiting Rural Miaoli for a Day

By Phil Dawson

Rural Taiwan, which long played second fiddle to the booming industrial areas in the island's economic miracle, is finally seeing something of a renaissance. City dwellers, longing for fresh air and expansive countryside, are now looking to the farming areas that originally drove the nation's economy to find the peace and relaxation they seek and to rediscover some of the island's more unique traditions. Tongxiao Township in Miaoli County is one of those places taking advantage of this new tourism wave. We recently took the short train ride from Taipei to find out why.

Photos / Jen-Guo Chen, Joe Lee

M

iaoli County, located in the northern part of central Taiwan, is home to less than 2.5% of the island’s total population, despite covering an area about twice that percentage. There are no large cities in the county, and the area has a much less crowded feel to it than many other parts of Taiwan.

“Miaoli” is a transliteration of the word for “plateau” in the language of one of the indigenous tribes that originally lived in the area, a very suitable name given Miaoli’s geographic structure.

Most of the present population is of Han or Hakka descent, and fishing and agriculture are the main forms of employment outside the growing service industry.

Tongxiao is located in Miaoli County on the west coast and is a short two-hour train ride from Taipei. The railway system in Taiwan is first-rate, a legacy of the Japanese occupation era (1895-1945), and forms a network that circles the entire island, making rail travel a really convenient way to

get around. As we boarded our train in Taipei a real surge of anticipation rushed through me. I have never used trains to commute, so for me train journeys have always meant going somewhere distant, somewhere fun and interesting. As the train rolled out of the main Taipei station and, after a while, into the bright winter sunshine, I was filled with excitement at this chance to discover a new part of this intriguing island.

As we step out of the station at Tongxiao it feels like we have been transported to another world Although the west coast cannot compete with the majestic east coast in terms of breathtaking scenery, the ride was nevertheless appealing. The railway line splits at the town of Zhunan into a coastal and a mountain line, and as soon as we veered away from the mountains toward the coast the scenery changed

dramatically. The sprawling urban areas centered on the small cities of Taoyuan and Hsinchu made way for enchanting coastal bluffs and towering wind farms.

Despite being thousands of miles away from where I grew up, as I looked out the window I was suddenly taken back to my childhood. The never-ending sand dunes rolling into the deep blue waters of the Taiwan Strait, combined with the faint smell of cool sea air that drifted in through the open windows, were almost identical to those in my memories of growing up in a small coastal town in northeast England. s soon as we step out of the station at Tongxiao it feels like we have been transported to another world – perhaps a better, more relaxed world.

A world with no nine-to-five existence, no Monday mornings, no demanding bosses or overworked employees. The station-master stamps our tickets with a smile and asks if it is our first visit before wishing us an enjoyable trip. We are greeted at the train station by the affable Mr. Chen Zhong-he, director

A

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the most amazing sculptures from the of the Tongxiao Fuli Rural Village soak their feet. The properties of the salt produced by the factory. As we stroll water make it particularly healthy, and Development Association and owner of through the collection of exhibited the Song Tao Ju B&B, who has kindly some locals we talk to swear that their arthritis has improved greatly since they works it really is hard to believe that agreed to be our guide for the day. they have been sculpted from salt. The Enthusiasm seems to ooze out of him; started weekly visits. The factory has a precision and attention to detail is wearing a “Tongxiao” baseball cap and spa area under construction, to be not regaling us with a myriad of facts and unlike the immensely popular hot-spring extraordinary.

A short drive from the Salt Factory stories about the town, he leads us to his resorts around Taiwan. car to begin our trip.

Guided tours are available for larger is Tiger’s Head Mountain Park, which in addition to being a lovely groups and are highly recommended.

Our first stop is the Tung-Hsiao place to walk around also includes Electrodialysis Salt Factory, which Our guide takes us around the different a restored Japanese-era perhaps seems like a The expansive fields of flowers have become shrine. Despite its meager strange choice for a popular for taking wedding pictures height of only 93 meters tourist site, but it is above sea level, the park in fact a fascinating offers spectacular 360-degree views of place. We park just inside the grounds areas of the factory whilst explaining to and Mr. Chen directs us to a fountain us the special electrodialysis process that Tongxiao and the surrounding area. At the observation deck on top of the hill is used. This process negates the need bubbling with hot water and a crowd of there is a memorial plate and cannon. for salt fields and allows the factory to people sitting inside a pavilion to shade This memorial was originally erected produce salt every day of the year, no themselves from the sun. The hot water matter what the weather conditions are. by the Japanese to commemorate the is in fact the seawater that has been important role played by an observation This is particularly important here, as evaporated at the factory in order to station on this mountain during Japan’s this small factory in fact provides salt obtain the salt and then recondensed. war with Russia in 1904-1905. After Instead of just wasting this water by for consumption around the whole of Taiwan’s return to Chinese rule in 1945, letting it cool and pumping it back out Taiwan. At the end of the tour we are the memorial’s purpose was changed to to sea, it is pumped into a long channel taken to a special area that provides us commemorate the end of colonial rule. quite a surprise. Artists have taken over that has become a popular spot for From the deck the coastline stretches as one of the warehouses and are making locals and tourists alike to come and

12 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

Photos / Jen-Guo Chen, Joe Lee

Enjoying a relaxing soaking of the feet in the warm water from the salt factory at Tongxiao

far as the eye can see to the north and south, with fish farms and farm fields dotting the land along the coast. Farther to the west, the deep blue of the Taiwan Strait is peppered with shiny white spray from the blustering wind, and to the east the Snow Mountain Range serves as an imposing backdrop.

I am a big cycling enthusiast, and I jump at the chance to rent a bike and ride a bit around Tongxiao. The westcoast plains in this area are ideal for exploring by bicycle, with very little gain in elevation and a nice cool sea breeze to take the edge off the intense sunlight (especially refreshing during the summer). Many guesthouses in the area offer pick-up from the train station and rent out bikes to visitors who want to get around on two wheels. We follow County Highway No. 121, notable for the expansive fields of flowers that have become popular with soon-to-be newlyweds for taking wedding pictures.

A total of over 160 hectares of flowers makes this an impressive sight to ride past or stroll through.

We stop at San Tend Coffee Restaurant, located just off the highway. Sitting in the spacious restaurant, looking out through the expansive windows at the surrounding forest of camphor trees, we feel as though we’re in the middle of nowhere.

The coffee served at San Tend is roasted on the premises, and the aroma of freshly roasted beans engulfs you even before you walk into the restaurant.

The decor has a wood theme, allowing the building to fit into the natural surroundings, and the atmosphere inside is sophisticated and relaxed. It is quite easy to imagine whiling away warm summer afternoons here, sipping fresh coffee and reading a good book. This day, however, we are here to sample the food, which like everything else in the restaurant has its own unique character.

I can’t imagine myself enjoying a salad lavishly covered in coffee-flavor dressing – until I try it – but the real surprise is the coffee hot pot. There is a delicate flavor of roasted coffee in the broth

From top: Wind farms are part of the coastal scenery in Miaoli; the Flying Cow Ranch is a popular local dairy farm; coffee beans are roasted on the premises at San Tend Coffee Restaurant; salt mountains at Tongxiao

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Above: At the organic Guo Family Tangerine Orchard trees are bursting with juicy and sweet fruit.

Photos / Steve Chang;Wen-Jen Fan;Vision Int'l

Below: Highway 121 is a popular route for bicyclists who come to enjoy the rural scenery.

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that isn’t entirely evident on first taste, instead seeming to slowly grow and spread, and I am absolutely bowled over by it.

Tongxiao, like many other rural villages, is a place that is filled with larger-than-life characters, none more so than Mr. Guo Yong-he of the Guo Family Tangerine Orchard, the

Photos / Jen-Guo Chen, Joe Lee

Listening to the birds roosting in the trees and flitting about the sky above, I start to wonder how I can go back to my city life after this next stop on our trip. Guo greets us at the gate to his property with a smile that is almost as bright as the mass of gleaming orange tangerines that hang from the trees at the entrance. Just looking around his orchard, it is hard to believe that he doesn’t use any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Every tree is positively bursting with fruit, so much so that even after a large lunch I can’t wait to try one. Mr. Guo obviously senses this and cuts a particularly shiny tangerine down, then hands it to me. When I bite into the deep orange segments, the zesty juice oozes out of it and the sweetness is incredibly satisfying. Mr. Guo beams at seeing my enjoyment, the fruits of his labor, so to speak. The winter months

are the best time to visit the orchard, as this is the season when the fruit ripens and is ready to be picked. Mr. Guo generally offers patrons an individual tree from which to cut tangerines, then gives them the chance to use the cleaning/sizing machine (which wouldn’t look out of place at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory) before taking them home. here are not many large hotels in Miaoli, but that is a positive thing, because staying in a guesthouse (“homestay”) offers a far more homey experience. Although we do not have time to stay overnight, we stop by Mr. Chen’s Song Tao Ju B&B. He invites us to some pine-cone tea that he produces himself on-site, grinding cones gathered from the forest that surrounds his quaint little home. Song Tao Ju B&B is a typical example of what Taiwanese call “three generations under one roof ”; and as Mr. Chen pours more tea his son teaches us to make a traditional toy from bamboo, and then his effervescent grandson takes us outside to see his pet rabbits. Sitting on Mr. Chen’s deck, listening to the birds roosting in the trees and flitting about the sky above, I start to wonder how I can go back to my city life after this.

As the sun begins to set over the Taiwan Strait, we make our way to our final destination, the intriguingly named Flying Cow Ranch. Mr. Chen is unable to explain the bizarre choice of name, but can confirm that we wouldn’t be seeing any airborne bovines during our visit! This ranch is a great place for a day-trip and is especially appropriate for families, giving young children the chance to see the workings of a farm and to feed the cows and goats that reside there. The Flying Cow Ranch is locally renowned for its delicious milk-based products, all made from fresh milk produced on-site, the most unusual of which has to be the bai buding, a milk-pudding balloon.

Imagine a water balloon filled with a creamy milk jelly that, when pricked, bursts open to leave a delicious spherical treat on your plate!

In the evening, as we find ourselves on the station platform waiting for our train to roll in, the sea breeze that was so refreshing during the day has a definite chill to it now, and we are relieved when the train arrives and we can warm ourselves up. We are soon speeding away back to Taipei and, too

T

quickly, the open spaces and green hills of the countryside are replaced by the neon lights of the city. On the trip home my mind has wandered, and I realize upon arrival that I have spent much of the time planning my next trip into beautiful rural Taiwan.

Info TUNG-HSIAO ELECTRODIALYSIS SALT FACTORY 通宵精鹽廠

ADD: 122, Neidao Li, Tongxiao Township, Miaoli County (苗栗縣通宵內島里 122號) TEL: (037) 792-121 SAN TEND COFFEE RESTAURANT 上田咖啡

ADD: 93-1, 9 Lin, Fuxing Li Tongxiao Township Miaoli County 苗栗縣通宵福興里9 鄰93之1號 TEL: (037) 783 -798

w w w. s antend .co m (Chin es e)

GUO FAMILY TANGERINE ORCHARD 郭家茂谷柑果園

ADD: 105, 9 Lin, Fuxing Li Tongxiao Township Miaoli County 苗栗縣通宵福興里9 鄰105號 TEL: 0 933 -255 - 8 83 SONG TAO JU B&B 松濤居民宿

ADD: 27, 3 Lin, Fuxing Li, Tongxiao Township Miaoli County 苗栗縣通宵福興里 3鄰27號 TEL: (037) 783 - 4 8 0 MOON HOUSE RESTAURANT 月盧餐廳

ADD: 71 Fengming 1st Rd., Fenglin Township, Hualien County 花蓮縣鳳林鎮鳳鳴一路71號 TEL: (03) 876 -220 6 FLYING COW RANCH 飛牛農場

ADD: 166, Nanhe Li, Tongxiao Township Miaoli County 苗栗縣通宵南和里166號 TEL: (037) 782-9 9 9

w w w. f l y ingcow.co m .t w

ENGLISH & CHINESE Mr. Chen Zhong-he Mr. Guo Flying Cow Ranch Miaoli County Snow Mountain Range Three Generations under one roof Tiger's Head Mountain Park Tongxiao Fuli Rural Village Development Association Tongxiao Township Zhunan

Travel in Taiwan

(陳中和) (郭永河) 飛牛牧場 苗栗縣 雪山山脈 三代同堂 虎頭山公園 通宵富麗農村發展協會

通霄鎮 竹南

March • April 2010 15

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January• April • February 2010 2010 TravelTravel in Taiwan in Taiwan 16 March

The East Rift Valley is among the best places in Taiwan to go on bicycle tours

Pristine Scenery, BicycleFun, Exotic Food, and Much More Visiting the Charming East Rift Valley

By Eric Lambert

For millions of years the Philippine tectonic plate has been plowing its way into the massive Eurasian plate, sculpting not only the landscape of Taiwan but also the way of life here. The border of these two plates in Hualien and Taitung counties is in an area known as the East Rift Valley. Renowned for its breathtaking views and unique culture, the East Rift Valley awaits travelers seeking to engage in outdoor activities and meet people whose lives are tightly interwoven with their natural environment.

Photos / Xing-Jian, Wang; Taiwan Tourism Bureau

R

eady to explore, a few friends and I set off for Hualien, one of the few cities on the east coast and a great starting point for a tour of the East Rift Valley. Just beside the city’s train station is a tourist information center where the Englishspeaking staff gladly showed us maps and suggested some interesting activities.

For our means of transportation we opted to hire a taxi to take us around for the first day, which for about NT$2,200 allowed us the freedom to stop and go exactly when and where we wanted.

Our first stop was the scenic Liyu Lake, about 18 km southwest of Hualien. The lake is popular among cyclists, so we dropped into the Liyu Lake Giant Bicycle Rest Station, located at the north end of the lake,

and rented some bikes. After a pleasant ride along the well-maintained path that curves around the lake, we picked up the pace and pedaled to a recently added path along the nearby Baibao River. With invigorating fresh air falling from the lush plant life that covered the hills, we took in the sights along our 15 km ride.

Aside from cycling Liyu Lake offers plenty of other things to do, including hiking on a circuit of trails up to nearby Liyu Mountain, paddle boating, and camping. There are a number of restaurants and gift stores located along the road on the western side of the lake, and when we reached the southern end of it, a peculiar little restaurant caught our eyes.

With a rustic handmade look

that at the same time showed great design creativity, the Tree House Restaurant stands alone at the corner of the lake on a prime plot of land. Hungry and unfamiliar with the traditional dishes of the area’s indigenous Amis tribe, we ordered a set meal and placed our fate in the hands of the cooks. Fortunately we were in good hands, and as plate after plate of exotic food came our way we savored the unique culinary experience. The salted fish, grilled pork with spring onions, and chicken were among the favorites, although some other unidentified dishes came in as close contenders.

Taking our time to digest and enjoy the views of Liyu Lake and Mountain, we ventured up to the second floor and watched a traditional tree-bark-

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processing demonstration. During the process, the bark of a local tree is pounded into a thick paper-like material and dried. The material has been used for centuries by local aboriginal tribes to make clothing and baskets, but has more recently found its way into trendy interior-design plans.

After returning our bikes we met up with our taxi and continued south to Shoufeng, a township known for high-quality jade. Nephrite, commonly known as Taiwan or Fengtian jade, was originally discovered in small amounts around the mountain streams of the area during the Japanese occupation (1895-1945). The abundance of the stone, however, was not realized until the 1960s, after which a two-decade jade boom fueled the local economy. The 1974 energy crisis and over-excavation thereafter slowed production. Although no longer produced on a large scale, Fengtian jade still remains an important economic and cultural relic of the area and the jade-working craft can still be enjoyed in local DIY workshops.

We decided to make a stop at Rufeng Jade Workshop, owner Jiang Jin-yuan, who has 38 years of

Taking in the scenery and the fresh air at Liyu Lake

experience in processing jade, welcomed us and introduced the process of making jade jewelry. We chose from a plate of roughly cut jade pieces and began a five-step process that included grinding, sanding, and polishing. Before long the intricacies of my Taiwan shapedjade piece were revealed, then given a smooth-sheen finish. Making these souvenir jade pieces costs NT$400600 per session, but you are also free to scavenge the area’s Baibao River or Mugua River and find your own piece to craft for just NT$250.

On the way to our chosen restaurant for dinner we stopped by the Zantan Bamboo Charcoal Workshop and observed another age-old industry being reinvented for the modern world. Small exhibits around the firing area and gift shop explained the numerous uses charcoal has today. From use in clothing and deodorizers to food additives and water purifiers, charcoal's beneficial properties have a range of applications, including use in the gift shop's tasty ice cream.

From there it was on to our restaurant, which had been highly recommended. The Moon House

January• April • February 2010 2010 TravelTravel in Taiwan in Taiwan 18 March

Restaurant, with its lovely Japanese gardens and “earthy” architecture, is built into the side of a mountain – literally. In fact, the back wall of the restaurant is the exposed rock of the mountain. Sitting beside the large picture windows taking in the impressive views below, we ordered a set meal and hoped it was as good as our lunch at the Tree House.

First to arrive at our wood-slab table was a whole, plum-stuffed smoked chicken and two pairs of gloves, one cotton and one plastic. I took the honor of donning the new accessories and ripping apart the plump, juicy chicken, which is a different approach from that used where I come from, but no less effective. Over the next hour, fresh spring rolls, beef stir-fry, ginger steamed fish, and pumpkin soup – among other delicacies – filled our delighted stomachs.

The meal was delicious, and even though there were one or two dishes I didn’t take a fancy to, the set menu satisfied everyone and was a good value at around NT$2,500 for five people. Due to the popularity of the Moon House reservations are a must; and if you want

Photos / Xing-Jian, Wang; Taiwan Tourism Bureau

to know the secret to the Before long the intricacies of my Taiwan shaped-jade piece were mouthwatering plum revealed, then given a smooth-sheen finish. chicken, pick up a jar of dried plums on the way out.

After dinner we pushed south to the hot-spring town of Ruisui, where the day’s activities were capped off with a relaxing bath at the Jixiang Garden Hot Springs. In complementary contrast to the surrounding farmland, the gardens and koi ponds of this hotspring resort provided a relaxing setting for the brick-cottage rooms. At around NT$4,000 per night, with two queen beds and a simple design, the main feature of our room was the hot-spring pool out back, which was big enough for From top: Giant Bicycle Rest Station near Liyu Lake; tree bark workshop at the Tree House eight persons.

Restaurant; shaping jade stones at Rufeng Jade Workshop; ripping apart a plump, juicy chicken Developed in 1919 by the Japanese, the Ruisui hot springs are among many Info in the East Rift Valley, brought to life LIYU LAKE GIANT BICYCLE REST STATION as a result of geothermal venting at 捷安特單車休閒服務站鯉魚潭站 the fault lines where the Philippine ADD: 27 Chinan Rd., Sec. 1, Shoufeng Township, Hualien County and Eurasian plates meet. The spring 花蓮縣壽豐鄉池南路一段27號 temperature at Ruisui is consistently TEL: (038) 6 41- 892 around 48°C, and the slightly alkaline TREE HOUSE RESTAURANT 樹屋餐廳 water is rich in minerals such as iron and ADD: 2 Huantan S. Rd., Chinan Village, barium. These minerals give the water Shoufeng Township, Hualien County a mild rusty appearance and odor when 花蓮縣壽豐鄉池南村環潭南路2號 TEL: (03) 8 6 4 -18 8 8 they oxidize, and are believed to be good for skin disorders, and joint problems RUFENG JADE WORKSHOP and, strangely, for ensuring the birth of 如豐琢玉工坊 a son.

ADD: 91 Zhongxiao St., Fengshan Village, Shoufeng Township, Following a soak in the hot springs Hualien County and a good night’s rest, we woke to 花蓮縣壽豐鄉豐山村忠孝街 91號 discover our beautiful surroundings: a TEL: (03) 8 65 -2323, 0 933 -798 - 6 6 6 (Mr. Jiang Jin - y uan / 姜 錦 源 ) valley of pineapple and tobacco fields spotted with plum orchards. As we filled ZANTAN BAMBOO CHARCOAL WORKSHOP 讚炭工坊 up on a Taiwanese breakfast buffet, we ADD: 15 Zhengyi Li, Fenglin Township, made plans for the day and arranged for Hualien County 花蓮縣鳳林鎮正義里15號 transportation to Ruisui train station.

TEL: (03) 876 -3 4 8 8

Following up on a tip about a new bike path opening that day, we rented bicycles near the train station and headed to Ruibei, a few kilometers north of Ruisui. We arrived in the midst of the opening ceremony for a section of bike path, part of a much larger circuit throughout the East Rift Valley. The valley has long been popular among cyclists, but mostly with those looking to crank down the Route No. 9

MOON HOUSE RESTAURANT 月盧餐廳

ADD: 71 Fengming 1st Rd., Fenglin Township, Hualien County 花蓮縣鳳林鎮鳳鳴一路71號 TEL: (03) 876 -220 6 JIXIANG GARDEN HOT SPRINGS 吉祥庭園溫泉

ADD: 35-10 Wenquan Rd., Sec. 3, Ruisui Township, Hualien County 花蓮縣瑞穗鄉溫泉路三段35-10 號 TEL: (03) 8 87- 6 8 6 6 ~9

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Above: Wuhe is known for its large tea plantations where mainly Oolung tea and the popular Wuhe Honey Black Tea is produced.

Below: A great way of visiting the East Rift Valley is taking the train and then renting a bicycle to explore the countryside at a slower pace.

January• April • February 2010 2010 TravelTravel in Taiwan in Taiwan 20 March

Photos / Xing-Jian, Wang; Taiwan Tourism Bureau

highway from Hualien to Taitung as fast as they can. The goal behind these bike paths, on the other hand, is to provide a safer, more relaxing way to enjoy the area on two wheels. Much thought has gone into the design of the paths, which are accessible from train stations and well marked. There's even a service named “Ruisui Convenient Bicycling, GO!” that includes the provision of maps, bicycle-maintenance tools at various locations, and delivery of goods you might purchase on the way to your destination.

The smooth path followed a set of raised railroad tracks for a while before veering away along powerful landscapes.

We rode for a few kilometers each way enjoying the scenery and the sun.

Looking forward to coming back when the full bike-path network is finished, we returned to Ruisui and headed further south along Route No. 9 to the village of Wuhe.

Our next stop was the tea plantations there to enjoy a fresh cup of tea. Originally developed as a coffee plantation during the Japanese occupation, the Wuhe terraces were found to be ideal for tea cultivation and in 1973 the Council of Agriculture began sponsoring efforts to promote the area for this purpose. Oolong tea is the main type of tea produced here, and much progress has been made—particularly in the past decade, when some farmers stopped using chemicals during the growing process.

Where pesticide use ceased, tiny green leafhoppers returned and began nibbling the tea leaves. It was later discovered that these nibbled leaves produced a honey-like aroma and flavor, and the now famous Wuhe Honey Black Tea made with these leaves has won many awards.

When we arrived at Jia Ming Tea Farm, we were welcomed over to a table where various teas awaited our tasting. While the oolong and green teas were both choice, it was the Honey Black Tea, with its delightful sweetness, that triumphed.

We asked the owner if we could

check out some of the terraces and try to catch a glimpse of the helpful little insects we had been told about, and she pointed up the road while informing us that they truly are minute. The warm sunny day allowed for a refreshing walk through the beautiful terraces, which beamed with life, and even though we saw only one of the elusive leafhoppers I left with a great appreciation for the dedication to practicing natural, chemical-free agriculture.

"Hitting the wall" dumplings

four rooms for rent at the affordable price of NT$1,600 per night.

The set meal featured a tasteful fusion of Vietnamese and Taiwanese cuisine that included basil-stuffed roast chicken, a fresh squid salad, glass-noodle chicken salad, and of course the wellknown dumplings. The Southeast Asian twist gave each plate a good kick of flavor, while the wide range of produce used and the healthy preparation ensured it was good for you too.

After our meal we lingered to enjoy the scenery from the viewing deck, then departed for the train station in Ruisui.

Despite all I’d seen and experienced, there was much of the area left unexplored and I didn’t want to leave this countryside idyll. At least I have plenty of reasons to return.

Info JIA MING TEA FARM 嘉茗茶園

ADD: 76-25 Wuhe Village, Ruisui Township, Hualien County 花蓮縣瑞穗鄉舞鶴村76之 25號 TEL: 0 933 -798 -229

Hungry again, we decided to go to the close-by Saobading Scenery Homestay, which besides offering accommodation also serves awesome dishes, one of them the locally renowned “hitting the wall” dumplings.

The strange name stuck after a funny grammatical error by the owner’s talented Vietnamese wife turned into

The warm sunny day allowed for a refreshing walk through the beautiful terraces a play on words. After hearing that the dumplings contained leek, a vegetable believed to make men more potent or “strong” (qiang zhuang), she mistakenly switched the two Chinese syllables and called the dumplings “zhuang qiang” dumplings, which sounds like “hitting the wall” dumplings. The restaurant resembles a quaint farmhouse and sits on a hill overlooking mile after mile of valley farms and villages. It has both indoor and outdoor seating, and has

SAOBADING SCENERY HOMESTAY 掃叭頂景觀民宿

ADD: 211-1 Wuhe Village, Ruisui Town-

ship, Hualien County

花蓮縣瑞穗鄉舞鶴村211-1號

TEL: 0 910 -552- 019, 0 933 - 4 8 6 -20 6 (Mr. Liu H eng -zheng / 劉 衡正 ) w w w. netete.co m /s ab a / (Chines e)

ENGLISH & CHINESE Amis Tribe Baibao River East Rift Valley Fengtian jade "hitting the wall" dumplings Hualien Liyu Lake Liyu Mountain Mugua River

阿美族

qiang zhuang

強壯

Ruibei Ruisui Ruisui Convenient Bicycling, GO! Shoufeng Taitung Wuhe Wuhe Honey Black Tea

瑞北

zhuang qiang

撞牆

白鮑溪 花東縱谷 豐田玉 撞牆水餃 花蓮 鯉魚潭 鯉魚山 木瓜溪

瑞穗 瑞穗自行車便利GO! 壽豐 台東 舞鶴 舞鶴香紅蜜茶

TravelTravel in Taiwan in Taiwan January March • February • April 2010 2010 21

FESTIVAL

W

Hakka Tung Blossom Festival Enjoying the “Snow of May” in Taiwan

By Kurt Weidner

hen Taiwan’s short spring is in its final days and the next long, hot, and humid summer is just around the corner, the wooded hills of Miaoli turn white. What looks like snow on trees from a distance (for example, when driving on the Second Northern Freeway) is in fact the blossoms of the tung tree (also known as the paulownia tree). This beautiful sight is the second major highlight of the year for flower lovers in Taiwan after the cherry-blossom season, which lasts from late February to early April.

Thousands of visitors head to hill and forest in April and May to see the snow-white blossoms up close. Tung trees can be found in many parts of Taiwan, but their concentration is highest in the counties of Miaoli and Hsinchu, located in the northwest of the island. These two counties also have the highest concentration of Hakka people in Taiwan, an ethnic group that, over the last century, has had a close relationship with the tree and its attractive blossoms.

The tung tree, a deciduous tree growing up to 20 meters tall, is common in southern China, Burma, and northwestern Taiwan, and has long been used commercially for the production of tung oil, which is derived from its seeds. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895~1945), the Japanese planted the tree in large numbers in the hills of Miaoli, which offered ideal conditions for its growth.

The oil was used in paint, varnish, caulking, and wood finish, and for other purposes such as the coating of paper umbrellas. The wood was made into furniture, wooden clogs, toothpicks, and matches. Later, however, the tree lost its commercial value when cheaper synthetic alternatives to tung oil became available. The tree plantations were abandoned, and the trees soon spread at random over large neighboring areas, creating the tung-tree forests that exist today.

There are two species of the tung tree in Taiwan, aluerites fordii hemsi (you tong shu in Chinese), which blooms from

22 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

April to July, and aleurites montana (mu you tong), which blooms a bit earlier, from March to May. The blossoms are loved for their colorful beauty – purewhite petals and bright-red filaments with yellow anthers. What makes them especially popular in Taiwan is their snow-like appearance; because of their large numbers and size, trees seen from afar seem to be covered with a layer of snow. When the blossoms fall in large numbers to the ground they often completely cover stretches of country roads and hiking trails, not unlike fallen snow. In a land where the winters are not cold enough to generate any snow except in the high mountains, the scenes created by the tung blossoms are a welcome alternative to the snowscapes

to taste traditional Hakka fare, listen to traditional Hakka music and watch other forms of entertainment, and to buy unique traditional handicrafts.

The Hakka were heavily involved

Octagon Tower

in the tung-tree business when the industry was flourishing, and their close relationship with the tree is evident in the fact that they have adopted the blossoms as a symbol of their culture and as motifs on a wide variety of handicrafts, from traditional garb to innovative pottery.

The festival is a grand happening lasting several weeks, from April to May this year, involving a large number of villages and communities in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua, and Nantou counties. There will be several hundred cultural events during the festival period. In order to help visitors get their bearings and find out what’s in store at different locations,

common in colder climates.

The Festival

Photos / Council for Hakka Affairs, Executive Yuan; Vision Int'l

the council each year publishes an informative booklet with maps showing the best spots for getting close to the snow-white blossom. The booklet also contains a list of shops and restaurants

In 2002 the Council for Hakka Affairs, Executive Yuan, staged the Hakka Tung Blossom Festival for the first time. This annual event is centered on the blooming season, the aim being to attract visitors to come and gaze at the amazing floral beauty and at the same time experience the many intriguing aspects of Hakka culture.

During numerous activities staged over several weeks you get the chance

where you can buy Hakka products and feast on Hakka specialties. For more information, visit http://tung.hakka. gov.tw. This very helpful website (in Chinese, English, and Japanese) presents you with much valuable information on the best places to visit, cultural programs, available tours, shops, restaurants, and guesthouses. There is even a frequently updated map showing the current status of the tung-tree bloom around Taiwan.

ENGLISH & CHINESE Hakka Tung Blossom Festival wood-oil tree tung tree

客家桐花祭 木油桐 油桐樹

Taipei Taoyu

l - Apri

al Festiv ssom MaracTh lo B g un Hakk

Tai

Hsinch

Miaoli chung

Chang

g tseein h g i s m

blosso Tung an w in Tai

an

u

Nanto

u

hua

areas

5 14 1 2 13 1 0 1 1 29 3 9 10 7 28 2 8 6 52 6 7 24 2 4 5 2 23

Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010 23

EVENT

Taipei Int’l Flora Expo Taiwan’s Capital Is Gearing Up for Its Next Mega-Event Locations n In te

rcha

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圓山

交流

ns d

R N.

shan N . Rd

ng he Minzu E. Rd

Xinsheng Park Area 新生公園區 民族東路

松江路 Songjiang Rd

Fine Arts Park Area 美術公園區

新生北路

Minzu W. Rd 民族西路

中山北 路三段

MRT YuanShan Station 捷運圓山站

Dajia Riverside Park Area 大佳河濱公園區

道

YuanShan Park Area 圓山公園區

Xi

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承德 路

Last year the Taipei Cit y Government successfully staged the biggest international spor ts event in the histor y of the city, the 2009 Deaf lympics. Not resting on those laurels, Taipei is now again deep in preparation for the next grand international happening, the Taipei Int’l Flora Expo which is expected to draw millions of visitors.

By Kurt Weidner

T

aipei has come a long, long way from being just a big and busy city, where people work hard and not much attention is paid to the environment, to becoming a convenient and “cozy” city where living and traveling is enjoyable and concerted efforts are made to constantly improve the environment. The Taipei Int’l Flora Expo is a continuation of the government’s successful measures to make the city a better place to live and visit. Over the last two decades, the appearance of Taipei has changed remarkably. Many major and minor transportation projects have been initiated, such as the construction of a mass commuter network (the MRT or Mass Rapid Transit system, now being expanded), moving of the main city-center railway line underground, demolishing of old bridges, replacing of old tiles and cement on all sidewalks with new, sturdy tiles, creation of pedestrianonly areas by the closing of streets to motor vehicles, and establishment of a wide-ranging network of bicycle paths.

24 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

These have made moving about the metropolis much more convenient.

To complement these infrastructural improvements, the city government’s focus is now on making Taipei more beautiful. To achieve this, many parks have received thorough facelifts and millions of flowers have been planted in green spaces and along major roads to add color to an often predominantly grey cityscape. The organizing of several festivals centered on flowers and blooms has been another big part of the government’s efforts to showcase the floral beauty of the city. The residents of Taipei love their flowers, and thousands will go to favorite outdoor spots to gaze at cherry blossoms, azaleas, calla lilies, chrysanthemums, roses, orchids, and lotus flowers when these gems are in full bloom at different times of the year.

Going a step further, in order to present the beauty of Taiwan’s flowers and the island’s thriving horticulture industry not only to local flower lovers but also on an international stage, Taipei will host the Taipei Int’l Flora

Expo from November 6, 2010 to April 25, 2011, an event sanctioned by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH). Eight million visitors, including up to 800,000 from abroad, are expected to converge on the city for this flower extravaganza, which will be focus on four main themes: Gardening Art, Culture & Art, Environment & Ecology, and Advanced Technologies.

Eight million visitors are expected to converge on the city for this flower extravaganza Four major park areas, Yuanshan Park, Fine Arts Park, Xinsheng Park, and Dajia Riverside Park, covering more than 90 hectares in total, have been set aside as venues for the expo and are currently being transformed to accommodate a total of 14 exhibition

Photos / Operational Headquarters, 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition; Ellen Yeh

pavilions and a host of other facilities.

During the construction of all new buildings, environmental concerns are being taken into consideration.

The greenest building will be the Pavilion of the Future inside Xinsheng Park, which will showcase gardening technology with an eco-friendly focus, energy conservation, waste reduction, and health protection. Also on display at this pavilion will be new varieties of flowers defining the trends of the future in the world of gardening.

Another futuristic sight, and surely one of the top attractions during the expo, will be the Pavilion of Dreams.

With the help of modern sensor technologies, visitors will be able to learn about nature in informative and interactive ways.

Apart from the many different exhibitions presented during the expo, the rich cultural program and numerous special activities will also attract large numbers of visitors to the event. Over its six-month duration, there will be more than 6,000 performances by local and

foreign artists. The International Art of Flower Contest, to be held inside the EXPO Dome, will be another major highlight. Participants from around 50 countries will present outstanding works of flower art.

Still more than eight months away at the time of writing, ticket sales have already begun, and early birds are in for a treat. Before the end of this March day-tickets are available at NT$200 (instead of the full price of NT$300) and from April 1 through August 31 these tickets go for NT$250. If you buy the Taipei Int’l Flora Expo Mascot Memorial Tickets (a set contains 12 day-tickets) before March 31, you pay NT$3,300 (instead of the full price of NT$3,600) and receive two additional day-tickets for free. From April 1 to August 31 you pay NT$3,300 and receive one additional ticket.

Tickets are available online at www. ticket.com.tw/dm-en9835.asp, and can also be bought at convenience stores of the FamilyMart, HiLife, and OK Mart chains.

For flower lovers from Taiwan and abroad the Taipei Int’l Flora Expo can’t arrive soon enough, and residents of the city are eager to see how the event’s new venues will add yet more luster to the growing beauty of Taiwan’s capital. For the latest on the expo, visit the official website at www.2010taipeiexpo.tw.

2010臺北國際花卉博覽會 官網：www.2010taipeiexpo.tw 售票網：ticket.2010taipeiexpo.tw E-mail：ea-2010expo@mail.taipei.gov.tw

ENGLISH & CHINESE EXPO Dome International Art of Flower Contest Pavilion of Dreams Pavilion of the Future Taipei Int’l Flora Expo

Travel in Taiwan

爭艷館 國際花卉大賽 夢想館 未來館 臺北國際花卉博覽會

March • April 2010 25

FOOD

Left: Stir-fried mussels of Sanye Restaurant

Far left: Little silver fish

Bottom left: Fresh lobster

Bottom right: Fish roe

A Taste of Traditional Taiwan on Taipei’s Doorstep

By Mark Caltonhill

An Afternoon of Seafood on the North Coast Visitors to today’s capital, Taipei, need not travel so far to get a taste of the conventional life of Taiwan’s people and their longstanding relationship with the sea. The island’s north coast, 40 kilometers of fresh air and serene views stretching from Danshui in the west to Keelung in the east, is dotted with small fishing harbors that offer an introduction to Taiwan’s past and present, as well as fine, fresh maritime cuisine.

26 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

Photos / Ellen Yeh

B

oats that bounce lightly on the waves as they depart will return laden hours or even days later.

Locals and visitors alike watch as crabs, lobsters, shellfish, squid and octopi, and fish in all shapes, sizes, and colors are landed on the quayside.

They then retreat indoors at nearby restaurants to select the freshest fare, cooked according to time-revered recipes, before watching yet more boats, bedecked with lights, head out for night fishing.

Conveniently accessible by MRT, Danshui is extremely popular with day-trip visitors from Taipei. Others take a short train journey to Keelung, where the Miaokou Night Market is famous for its wide choice of snacks. For those with their own transport, however, or for those willing to invest a little time for the bus or money for a taxi, the coastal villages of Wanli Township offer a closer and more intimate experience.

There are many harbor villages such as Yeliu and Guihou nestling in coves just northwest of Keelung.

Guihou, which translates as “Turtles’ Roar,” has a tiny beach were turtles used to come ashore to lay their eggs.

Today it has a couple of dozen seafood restaurants, many offering panoramic views over the small harbor. Sanming Meishi (“Three Mings Fine Fare”) is not only typical, but is also, according to proprietor Zhang Ming-fa, the original restaurant in the village.

He started it twenty-plus years ago with brothers Zhang Ming-chun and Zhang Ming-yi – hence the name – when they returned home after learning their trade by working in Taipei restaurants such as the well-known seafood-buffet chain restaurant Hai Pa Wang.

Originally catering to local clientele, the brothers sought a fusion of

Crab claws

Giant sea snail

Selected seafood dishes of Sanye Restaurant

traditional Taiwanese seafood dishes and the more upmarket Japanese cuisine.

Then, as now, the restaurant’s signature dish was flying-fish roe sushi, which Zhang says he still offers at the original price of NT$120 per plate.

Similarly good value is given with the raw oysters at NT$150 per plate, edible seaweed that is also NT$150, and shrimps (“alive until they enter the pot”) at NT$200. A more substantial meal might include lobster or crab, some members of the squid/cuttlefish family, a vegetable or egg dish, fried beef with mango (one of Sanming’s summer specialties) and, definitely, a whole fish. Fish and lobster are traditionally selected by the client from tanks of live exhibits, and are sold by liang (a weight

unit equivalent to 37.5g) or at a set price per fish.

As many of the ingredients as possible are locally caught, Zhang says.

With his familiarity with the harbor, and especially with relatives still fishing from there, he claims he can get the best value for his customers while still keeping prices low.

Five of the village’s restaurants, in fact, are run by immediate family members, and yet more are owned by other relatives. “We’re not really in competition with each other,” Zhang explains. “What’s good for one is good for all. We all have an interest in maintaining Guihou’s reputation for providing good food at reasonable prices.”

Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010 27

FOOD COOK IT YOURSELF

Step 1. ﹥

Step 2. ﹥ Step 3. ﹥

The Lin sisters of Sanye restaurant in Yeliu offer Travel in Taiwan readers the following traditional recipe for cooking clams: Ingredients: 1 plateful of clams ( 海瓜子 ); 1 tbsp grated ginger ( 薑 ); 1 tbsp sliced chili ( 辣椒 ); 1 tbsp diced garlic ( 蒜頭 ); 1 tbsp sliced green onion ( 青蔥 ); 3 sprigs basil ( 九層塔 ); soy sauce ( 醬油 ); light soy sauce for steamed fish ( 蒸魚醬油 ); black vinegar ( 烏醋 ); rice wine ( 米酒 ); vegetable oil ( 植物油 ).

Step 1.

Boil the clams in water until they open. Discard any that do not open (it means they were dead before cooking and could be contaminated), then wash in cold water to remove any sand released.

Heat the oil in a wok to a high temperature, add the ginger, chili, garlic and onion to “ explode the fragrance ” ( 爆香 ), then add soy sauces, vinegar and rice wine in appropriate measures. Stir.

Step 2.

Heat the oil in a wok to a high temperature, then add the ginger, chili, garlic and onion to “explode the fragrance” ( 爆香 ), then add soy sauces, vinegar and rice wine in appropriate measures. Stir.

Step 3.

Add the precooked clams and stir until hot and well mixed.

Step 4.

Add basil and serve.

< Step 4.

DIY

Zhang’s niece recently opened Guihou’s first coffee shop on Sanming’s third floor, thus making the operation a multi-generation family affair.

A similar situation exists at nearby Yeliu, which translates as “Wild Willows.” One of the largest restaurants on the main square here is called Jianxiang Four Sisters Seafood Restaurant, and around the corner are the small seafood restaurants Fish Village Live Seafood Restaurant and the curiously named Sanye Live Seafood Restaurant. It turns out that the lastnamed business was started by a couple surnamed Lin, and since Lin means “wood” and the restaurant is run by three of their daughters it was named Sanye, the “Three Leaves.”

28 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

Started, like a great many of Taiwan’s restaurants, as a stall selling inexpensive snacks, Sanye has grown over 40 years into a well-established two-branch operation serving individual diners and large groups for banquets.

It does a fine business catering to the hordes of hungry tourists who visit nearby Yeliu Geopark to see its weird and wonderful rock formations (see box).

The Lin family, now in its third generation of cooks, has persisted with the dishes that established its reputation.

These include such house specials as sashimi and fish fin head – actually the part connecting the shark’s fin to its body – which the Lins say is nice and chewy as it has only cartilage, not bone. Other signature dishes are eel,

clams – especially Ruditapes variegatus, nicknamed “marine melon seeds” (see box) – and other large-sized shellfish.

Sanye is particularly famous, however, for crab. This is because the men of the Lin family are crab fishermen (the women run the restaurants), so the crabs, like many of the fish, are caught by the men, fresher than fresh, and the pick of the catch.

With each of these dishes costing around NT$200-300 per plate, a meal of half a dozen dishes for four or more people costs just NT$300-400 per person. The freshest seafood, great views, and a thick slice of local culture for just a little over US$10; what could be better than that?

Guihou Fishing Port

Yeliu

Info SANMING MEISHI 三明美食

ADD: 64-5 Yu-ao Rd., Guihou Village, Wanli

Township, Taipei County

台北縣萬里鄉龜吼村漁澳路 64-5號

TEL: (02) 2492- 4932 SANYE LIVE SEAFOOD RESTAURANT 三葉活海鮮

ADD: 19, Alley 31 Jinshan S. Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei City 台北市大安區金山南路2段31巷19 號 TEL: (02) 2 39 6 - 8111

Photos / Ellen Yeh

JIANXIANG FOUR SISTERS SEAFOOD RESTAURANT 四姐妹海產店

Yeliu Geopark is one of Taiwan’s top tourist spots, attracting more than one million visitors last year. A 1.7-kilometer-long spit of land sticking out into the Pacific, its limestone rocks have been eroded into dramatic forms by the action of sea, rain, and wind over millions of years.

Depending on their supposed likenesses, the formations have been given such nicknames as “mushroom,” “tofu,” “candle,” “fairy shoe,” and “ice-cream” rocks. Most famous is the Queen’s Head rock, which does indeed resemble a woman’s head with a crown, some say Queen Nefertiti.

A great tourist event occurs at Yeliu during the Lantern Festival, which ends the traditional Chinese New Year, when many of the village’s residents leap into the harbor’s cold waters with palanquins bearing statues of the seafarers’ protective deity Mazu. Not surprisingly, this is followed by a sumptuous, warming seafood banquet served to thousands of guests, hosted by the county magistrate.

ADD: 160 Gangdong Rd., Yeliu Village, Wanli Township, Taipei County 台北縣萬里鄉野柳村港東路160 號 TEL: (02) 2492-16 02 FISH VILLAGE LIVE SEAFOOD RESTAURANT 魚村活海鮮

ADD: 74-6 Gangdong Rd., Yeliu Village, Wanli Township, Taipei County 台北縣萬里鄉野柳村港東路74-6號 TEL: (02) 2492-10 4 6

ENGLISH & CHINESE Danshui

淡水

fish fin head

魚翅頭

Guihou Hai Pa Wang Keelung

龜吼

liang

兩

Lin Lugang "marine melon seeds" Mazu Miaokou Night Market

林

Sanye

三葉

Tainan Wanli Township Yeliu Yeliu Geopark Zhang Ming-chun Zhang Ming-fa Zhang Ming-yi

台南

海霸王 基隆

鹿港 海瓜子 媽祖 廟口夜市

萬里鄉 野柳 野柳地質公園 張明春 張明發 張明義

Touched by Taiwan

Coming as Leaving as ,

Stranger Family An Unforgettable Homestay Experience with a Local Family

By Matthew Davidoff

I am in a refrigerator the size of a one-car garage, packing small containers of tofu together (six in each crate) and loading them into a white minivan. The refrigerator interior is just above freezing, but the night air is a sweltering 30 degrees Celsius; my body is confused by the constant changes in temperature, but I am content. The past week has been non-stop fun, including mountain climbing, surfing, and almost dying from “wasabi poisoning,” but nothing can compare to the fun I am having now.

Photos / Matthew Daviddoff; Vision Int'l

While working alongside Willy and James (my Taiwanese brothers) and Baba (my Taiwanese father), I feel like I’m part of the family. I pause to think of all the moments, the comical and awkward and mind-blowing moments, that have led up to this.

30 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

"Ice cream spring rolls"

The whole family and their new foreign member

Day 1 I got off the train in the city of Yilan, inland near the northeast coast, and was quickly greeted by three young Taiwanese people – Miranda (twenty-something), Willy (early teens), and James (late teens). For the next week and a half I found myself floating in a total mess of confusion, culture shock, awkward moments, and valuable life lessons.

I was directed to sit shotgun in a white minivan next to my new mother. Attached to the dashboard of the van was a small, clay Buddha statue and a box of tissues. Each seat was covered with a cloth doily, and the back window had several stuffed animals hanging from suction cups.

With the air-conditioner blasting we drove to my new home, where I was introduced to Pipi (a yellow lab), who licked my face. I was given pink and red Hello Kitty slippers and given a tour of the house. The toilet had a built-in bidet and butt-warmer, and next to it was a small garbage pail that looked like a cartoon dog.

The inside of the house was incredible – white marble floors, an intricately carved wooden couch with silken cushions, and art depicting Buddhist deities that seemed to crowd every wall, every corner. The house was so traditionally Chinese that the DVD player, flat-screen TV, and Panasonic air-conditioner almost seemed out of place.

I sat on the couch, watching Doraemon cartoons, while we waited for Baba (Dad) to come home. After about an hour, he walked in the door and gave me a firm handshake. I responded with all the Chinese I knew: “ni hao (hello), xie xie (thank you).”

Without smiling, Baba started speaking to me in a language that could have been Taiwanese or Chinese.

Miranda came over at once and spoke for him: “He wants to know why you’re thanking him.”

“I only know two words in Chinese, so I thought I’d say both of them.”

Baba smiled and started to laugh. He gave me a warm hug, and with that everyone smiled and laughed. Then we all got ready to go out for my first traditional Chinese dinner. The meal was delicious; course after course of seafood, fried noodles, meat dishes, etc. I was nervous and knew I’d do something to screw up: Eat an ornamental flower, thinking it was a carrot. Pour sesame oil into a glass and drink it. Use the salad chopsticks for my main course.

A whole fish arrived at the table and Willy immediately used his chopsticks to jerk an eye out. He offered it to me, and I laughed, assuming it was a joke. Miranda assured me that the honored guest is always offered the eye. I was skeptical, but out of politeness gulped it down and forced a smile.

A steamed shrimp dish then arrived. I followed everyone’s lead, and poured soy sauce into the “petri dish” provided me. Then I watched in horror as they all took thumb-sized scoops of wasabi to mix in with the soy sauce.

Hoping to fit in, I added what might have been a kilo of wasabi to my soy sauce, creating a clay-like substance, and dipped a shrimp into it. Seconds after eating my first wasabi-covered shrimp, a green haze wafted over my eyes and then worked its way into my ears, sinuses, and cranium. I lost all feeling in my head and limbs and was sure I was going to die, or at least fall off my chair. I somehow survived, declined the rest of the shrimp, and waited for dessert, an overflowing plate of fresh fruit. No eyes, no wasabi, just fruit!

We went home and I slept like a baby.

Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010 31

Touched by Taiwan

Day 2 On this day I was awakened at 6 am, to eat fried vegetables in rice and drink hot soymilk. I thought of myself as a trooper then. We got into the white minivan and drove to the base of a mountain, then slowly strolled up it, stopping occasionally for pictures and to eat small honey cakes or pineapple pastries. Miranda taught me to say zao an (good morning), and I practiced on everyone who passed by. There were several waterfalls and lookout points offering great views of the Lanyang Plain. At the top of the mountain, Baba found a vendor and bought me my favorite Taiwanese food, something akin to an icecream spring roll, thin rice-paper wrapped around taroflavored ice cream, complemented with peanut shavings and…cilantro! We hiked down the mountain, drove home

for a nap, and then went out for teppanyaki (Japanese-style grilled meat and vegetables). After that, we went home and watched Chinese TV before bed.

Day 3 We got up early and had fried noodles for breakfast.

While my Chinese was improving (I could now say four or five words), I didn’t know how to say “pancakes and syrup please,” so I stuck with the noodles. We got into the van and drove about an hour to the famous harbor at Suao.

This port town was bustling with tourists and fishermen; everywhere I looked, fresh seafood was for sale. We got all kinds of goodies (fried squid, soft-shelled crab, and more ice-cream spring rolls), and then went to a stand that smelled of – at least to me – seared garbage. Willy

Stinky tofu

Scenic spot in Yilan

Photos / Matthew Daviddoff; Vision Int'l

Bird’s eye view of the Lanyang Plain

32 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

Surfing at a beach in Yilan

Yilan coast

insisted that I try some of the infamous stinky tofu (a true Taiwan delicacy, a soft dried tofu fermented in a specially made vegetable and fish brine). I apprehensively took a bite, resisted the urge to throw up, and swore I’d never eat stinky anything again. We left the market and took a walk on a rocky beach.

Here Baba tried to bond with me, which was thoughtful but quite difficult without a translator immediately available. He looked out at the sea and started to speak to me in Chinese. I responded with the only appropriate Chinese words I knew: qu youyong (go swimming). He looked disappointed, and I felt I’d failed my test. After Miranda translated, I learned that he’d actually said, “The sea is really peaceful.” It was, and this was a much more appropriate thing to say than “go swimming.”

With that, we got back into the van and headed south on the Suhua (Suao to Hualien) Highway. This winding coast- and cliff-hugging road is known for its incredible scenery, serving up breathtaking ocean views and terrifying twists and turns. The views really were remarkable, as were the sharp curves and steep cliffs! I am not easily scared of heights, so I was thrilled to be up so high above the crashing waves of the Pacific, though I did fear my stinky tofu would come back again. We eventually stopped to get a coffee, sat overlooking the ocean and Taiwan’s jagged coastline, and then turned our vehicle around and headed home.

Day 4 On this day I got to sleep in (till 8:30 am), and was pleasantly surprised to have a bacon, cheese, and egg omelet! It was actually called dan bing and was eaten with thick soy sauce using chopsticks. Fantastic! I repeated the words hao chi (delicious) about 200 times, hoping that

they’d take the hint and get me one every day. We took a short trip to the coastal town of Toucheng, where we visited a beautiful temple, and then headed to a close-by beach called Wushigang. Here we found a nice spot on the sand and basked in the morning sun before renting surfboards and hitting the waves! So far during the week I’d been dead last at ping pong, basketball, eating wasabi, and using chopsticks, so I welcomed the chance to show my Taiwanese brothers how Californians do it! We had a blast, catching waves and playing around in the water.

Day 5 A typhoon came this day. I expected to see water buffalo flying through the air or uprooted trees crashing through windows, but in the end this one amounted to a lot of rain and wind...that’s it. My family used the unexpected “vacation” to do two things: eat and sleep.

We woke up early for breakfast and then all took naps. We woke up for lunch and then…took naps. The house started stirring again at about 6 pm. Grandma came over and Baba went out to pick up some pizzas. After a round of seafood and kimchi pizza, Baba cracked a bottle of what Taiwan folk simply call kaoliang (Taiwan sorghum liquor).

Within thirty minutes we were all laughing and everyone’s face (including Grandma’s) was bright red.

With the help of Miranda, Baba used this quality time to have a long chat with me. He was curious about my culture and my family in the States, about my future plans and, perhaps most of all, about how I felt in Taiwan and how I felt in his home. I told him the truth; that I’d loved all the sights they had shown me and was thoroughly impressed by the variety of recreational activities offered in the county of Yilan, but that I had been even more Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010 33

Touched by Taiwan

Friends for life

Statue of a buddhist monk

impressed by him and his family. Though I was a stranger in a new culture, and though I could barely communicate at times, I felt truly welcome and I felt truly loved here.

Baba told me I was always welcome, and he asked me to study Chinese so we could better know each other in the future. He also invited me to help him pack the tofu the next day. He said I had started off a guest, but now I was family, and family members worked together. I wanted to cry, I wanted to hug him, but I could only reply as best I could: “Ni hao, xie xie.”

Day 6 This was my last day in Yilan, and though the typhoon had mostly passed it was still raining. We went to the movies and then to a local department store. Baba bought me a Chinese-English dictionary, and with that investment I knew I’d be required to show results in time. We then returned home and got ready to go to the wedding of a family friend. I had no formal attire, but was told the wedding was casual. As we pulled up at the wedding venue, I realized that “casual” was a gross understatement!

It was held inside a “circus tent” set up on the side of a road. We sat down and chatted while waiting for the food to come. For the next two hours, new dishes came and came and came! The fried beef, fresh sashimi, and lobster tail were all delicious, and the fish-head soup, crocodile (!), and fried bees (!) were all…surprising.

As we drove home I couldn’t help but smile, thinking of my cultural adventures and great experiences in Yilan. We arrived at the house, Pipi licked my face, and Baba barked: “Stop playing with the dog, we’ve got tofu to pack!”

This is all taken from my journal, written in the summer of 2006. I had come to Taiwan through a cultural-exchange/volunteer teaching program. One of 34 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

the benefits offered was a week with a homestay family. I’d arrived with no real interest in Taiwan or Chinese culture, but staying with this family changed my views. Weeks after leaving Yilan and going back to my home in Taichung, I signed up for Chinese lessons and have been studying ever since. At the time I joked about Baba being my Taiwanese father, Willy being my brother, etc., but at this point in time I honestly feel that way. I still return to Yilan once or twice a year, where I am always greeted with welcoming hugs and warm hearts…as any son would wish to be treated!

ENGLISH & CHINESE

dan bing douhua hao chi kaoliang

蛋餅

Lanyang Plain

蘭陽平原

ni hao qu youyong

你好

stinky tofu Suao Toucheng Wushigang

臭豆腐

xie xie

謝謝

Yilan

宜蘭

zao an

早安

豆花 好吃 高梁

去游泳 蘇澳 頭城 烏石港

Come to Toucheng Farm,

Fall in Love

with Yilan’s Tranquil Beauty

You can go to Taroko to embrace Hualien’s beauty, or you can go to storyrich Anping District to admire Tainan’s long history. But if you want to experience the tranquil charm of Yilan, then Toucheng Farm is certainly your best choice.

Located on Yilan’s shoreline, Toucheng Farm makes use of the natural ecology and pristine forests native to the area. The farm was planned to provide a realistic rural farm experience for people living in metropolitan areas, a chance to really get to know and enjoy the tranquil landscapes and leisurely comforts that are so hard to come by in the city.

Come to Toucheng Farm: Experience a Green Life The opening of the Xueshan Tunnel has made trips from Taipei to Yilan more practical for many people. A lot of people who work in Taipei have even chosen to settle down in Yilan during their time away from work in the big city. This shows that Yilan has already become a harbor of refuge from the tension of city life.

Do you feel drained? Have a short stay at Toucheng Farm for a few days, and experience the joys of life that exist outside of work!

The farm was specifically set up in a large area so that it could be split into different segments to provide both adults and children with the most convenient way to experience true farm life. The farm is divided into a rice paddy cultural area, a petting zoo, an orchard, a vegetable garden, and a barbecue area, and visitors can find their own personal style of country life by choosing from the different activities that match their interests.

Feeding at the Petting Zoo Most of the various farm animals at the petting zoo are raised free-range and run around the farm freely. These cute animals let visitors get close enough to pet and appreciate them, and they can be fed tree leaves that have fallen on the ground.

Visitors can also experience the delights of rural life by collecting fresh chicken eggs and cleaning pig pens.

Planting Together in the Rice Paddy Culture Area “Plow in the spring, weed in the summer, collect in the autumn, store in the winter.” Roll up your pants and don your bamboo hat, and you can experience toiling in the fields first-hand. The farm even features several meticulously collected old-fashioned farming tools for visitors to try, including grain drying machines and stone mills, to give visitors a better understanding of the long rice paddy culture from throughout Taiwan’s history.

Add: 125, Gengxin Rd., Toucheng Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣頭城鎮更新路 125 號 ) Tel: (03) 977-2222, 977-2000 Website: www. tcfarm.com.tw

MY MYLOCAL LOCALFRIENDS FRIENDS

Life in the Small Seaside Town of Wanggong Revolves around Oysters

When Ugly Becomes Art

By Wesley Holzer

Oyster farmer Lin Dong-xin

Museum director Yu Ji

Teacher Lu Cui-fen

Next time you bite into an oyster omelet at the night market, stop for a moment and consider your oyster source. Oysters are a common and popular food across Taiwan, north to south, found in night markets and seafood restaurants, atop noodles, and at the bottom of hot pots. What few people realize is that the extraordinary numbers of oysters consumed around this island come primarily from just a few oyster-farming communities in central and southern Taiwan, where oysters are not just an industry but a way of life.

36 March â&#x20AC;˘ April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

Left: Oyster sculptures at the Wanggong Art Museum

immigrant spouses, the disabled, and older people who are unemployed – come and make oyster-shell art with us.”

Yu was convinced by his wife to turn oyster shells into something beautiful and beneficial for his community

Photos/ Ellen Yeh

I

f you want to find out where all those oysters come from and how they are cultivated and processed, the town of Wanggong in central Taiwan’s Changhua County is the place to go. It’s a 20-minute drive from Changhua City along country roads, passing old traditional houses and timeless communities, to Wanggong.

I met up in the town with Mr. Yu Ji, director of the remarkable Wanggong Oyster Art Museum – the centerpiece of Wanggong’s local oyster culture.

“What can you make with oyster shells?” Yu asked rhetorically before leading the way into the museum. “An oyster shell is a very ugly thing, and it’s not worth a lot of money.” But as he spoke, he approached a set of several half-meter-tall sculptures, carefully shaped into the detailed likenesses of old men talking, laughing, and arguing.

“The old people of the countryside,” Yu explained. The museum’s People Series collection, made up of faces of homemade clay, seamlessly integrated bodies, and clothing of oyster shell, are among Yu the artist’s earliest pieces of oystershell art. He has successfully turned the

unremarkable oyster shell into valuable cultural resource, with stunning beauty on display in his detailed work.

Yu explained that he started with this unique craft in 2003. A native of Wanggong, he graduated from the theater department of National Taiwan University of Arts in Banqiao, just outside Taipei, alongside Oscarwinning director Ang Lee, and later spent three years living in New York. Upon returning to the Taiwan countryside in 1996, Yu saw that Wanggong “had serious problems with unemployment and did not have any cultural resources.” He was convinced by his wife to turn oyster shells, an ordinary part of the Wanggong landscape, into something beautiful and beneficial for his community. In 2003 he established the Oyster Art Culture Association and started to create models for sculptures made of oyster shells, which he then used to teach people of the community how to produce souvenirs unique to Wanggong. “We are very grateful to be able to have some of the disadvantaged people in our community – including

In 2006 the Wanggong Oyster Art Museum and a surrounding plaza were opened. The site draws both general tourists and, just as importantly, people on educational field-trips to Wanggong’s culture- and resourcerich shores. Not far from the museum, oyster farms stretch to the horizon, and scenic trails lead through dense stands of mangroves. Inside the museum, the ingenious works of art emphasize the importance and beauty of our natural world.

What makes oyster art special compared to other forms of creative sculpting is its focus on the environment. Yu explained that the oyster shells that make up the bulk of the pieces are the leftovers from Wanggong’s locally produced food

oysters, and the clay used in each piece is also handmade, with oyster-shell powder a main ingredient. Driftwood found on the local shores is also sometimes used, for example as perches for the birds in the Migratory Birds Series of sculptures, the main items on display at the museum. These lifelike miniatures made of oyster shell and clay showcase various bird species that come to Taiwan to roost during Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010 37

Extracting oysters

MY LOCAL FRIENDS

the year, bringing to the forefront of visitors’ attention a diversity of species that includes white egrets, black-winged stilts, and black-faced spoonbills. aking in the impressive body of artwork on display is only part of the museum experience. After proudly introducing me to his collection, Director Yu urged me to go try it myself – make an ordinary oyster shell into an extraordinary Wanggong keepsake.

The DIY area of the museum had all the supplies needed to begin making my very own black-faced spoonbill, for the reasonable price of NT$150. Luckily, a skilled teacher was at hand to teach me the basics. Ms. Lu Cui-fen is an immigrant spouse from Vietnam who, thanks to Mr. Yu and the museum, found a job as an artisan of oyster-shell artwork. Lu, who goes by the nickname A-fen, introduced the building blocks for my spoonbill: a hard base made with oyster-shell powder for a stand, a pliable metal wire for a skeleton, white and black clay for a neck and head, glue to hold it all together and, of course, a cleaned oyster shell for a body – the very same materials that the oyster-shell artisans use for their own projects.

A-fen told me that black-faced spoonbills are migratory birds that spend the winter in the county of Tainan in southern Taiwan, with some wintering elsewhere around the island.

This endangered species was on the brink of extinction fifteen years ago, but thanks to the successful protection of the birds’ habitats the current total population is estimated to be over 2,000. The imitation spoonbill that I was about to make wouldn’t increase the number out in the wild, but at least it might contribute to increasing public awareness.

A-fen walked me and my clumsy hands through each step of the crafting process with the patience of a true

T

38 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

teacher. “Put some glue on the oyster shell….That’s a little too much, let’s start over….Roll the clay flat….Here, try again….Let me help.” By the end of the arts-and-crafts session, A-fen had managed to help me make something that more-or-less resembled a blackfaced spoonbill – if you looked at it from the right angle. “It’s not about skill; you just need to be creative,” she had said to another DIY student sitting next to me. In that same nurturing tone she encouraged me to add a creative flair, and in the end my endangered spoonbill friend was toting stylish sunglasses and an expensive camera – soon to become a unique eco-friendly gift. he cleaned oyster shell I used for my spoonbill looked and smelled nothing like the oysters in the hands of the old people outside the museum. The

T

dark, pungent oysters being extracted outside were as fresh as possible, coming straight from the shoreline adjacent to nearby Wanggong Fishing Harbor.

Director Yu introduced us to one of Wanggong’s oyster farmers, Mr. Lin Dong-xin, who is also a volunteer guide for visitor tours around the local oyster fields. Lin, clad in rubber gloves, rain boots, and a thick jacket, told me it was low tide now, the perfect time to visit the oyster farms.

While many oyster farms use aquatic tanks or ponds separated from the ocean, Wanggong’s oysters are strung up on racks for up to a year offshore while they grow, a method that makes the meat firmer. Lin explained that since the oysters are grown in seawater, farmers have to wait for low tide each day before they enter the oyster fields on their tieniu, a three-

wheeled cross between a scooter and a tractor, to collect the day’s harvest.

When low tide ends, water rushes in from all directions at the same time, meaning the entire kilometer-long stretch of oyster fields floods with water within minutes. Oyster farming sounded like tough work, but Lin was enthusiastic about me trying my hand at it. He showed me how to collect matured oysters and dig for clams with a pitchfork, and he even offered a few taste samples of the raw oysters we’d collected that day. Despite the extremely difficult nature of his work, the friendly oyster farmer led the way with a smile and positive attitude.

telephone. Like the oyster shells it produces, Wanggong is remarkable for its indomitable resilience and constant self-renewal, and a unique flavor that makes visitors yearn for more.

Oyster field

Three-wheeled tieniu

Photos/ Ellen Yeh

Despite the extremely difficult nature of his work, the friendly oyster farmer led the way with a smile Lin finished his lesson by explaining what happens to Wanggong’s used oyster shells. About half of them, he said, are crushed into multi-function oyster-shell paste, while most of the other half are strung back up to allow clusters of oysters to mature on the shells, a very renewable resource.

The remainder is used by Yu and his oyster-art association in their artwork.

I thanked Lin and, as the tidal waters began to slowly rise, the farmers packed up the day’s haul of oysters and drove off in their three-wheeled tieniu.

Before leaving Wanggong I had to, of course, make a stop at a local eatery to try the local specialty, a thick oyster omelet, which turned out to be very different from the oyster omelets I have tried in various night markets around Taiwan, and far more delicious. The sun setting, I stopped at Aiyuan Bed and Breakfast, a few kilometers east of Wanggong in the village of Caohu, for the night, then left for the historic town of Lugang, just a short ride to the north, the next day. Staring at the expansive wood ceiling of my spacious room, I couldn’t help but think that the nowbustling Wanggong has come a long way since Director Yu’s youth, when there was just one communal village

ENGLISH & CHINESE Ang Lee Caohu Changhua County Lin Dong-xin Lu Cuifen (A-fen) Migratory Birds Series National Taiwan University of Arts Oyster Art Culture Association People Series

李安

Tieniu

鐵牛

Wanggong Wanggong Fishing Harbor Yu Ji

王功

草湖 彰化縣 林東信 盧翠芬 (阿芬) 候鳥系列 國立臺灣藝術 大學 蚵藝文化協會 人物系列

王功漁港 余季

WANGGONG OYSTER ART MUSEUM 王功蚵藝文化館

ADD : 1 Wanggong Yugang Rd., Fangyuan

Township, Changhua County (彰化縣芳苑鄉王功漁港路1號) TEL : (04) 893-6657 www.ork.org.tw AIYUAN BED AND BREAKFAST 愛園民宿

ADD : 7-1, Caoyi Duan, Erxi Rd., Caohu Village,

Fangyuan Township, Changhua County (彰化縣芳苑鄉草湖村二溪路草一段7-1號) TEL : 0933-180-237, (04) 893-4567

NEW PERSPECTIVES

Passport to an Ancient Capital Sightseeing in Tainan

Taiwan’s southern city of Tainan is rich in culture, cuisine, and history, and is a must for any visitor to Taiwan. With so many old temples, historical sites, and mouthwatering delicacies to sample, it can be tough sorting out just where to go, how to get there, and where to stay. However, thanks to the good people at the Tainan City Tour Association you don’t need a multitude of maps, guidebooks, and brochures. All you need is the Tainan City Tour Passport. By Jay Acton

40 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

karaoke parlors, and there’s even a free session with a local fortune-teller.

Perhaps most important, the passport contains coupons for a one-night stay in one of more than 40 hotels in Tainan and the surrounding area. The NT$999 passport can be bought at Family Mart convenience stores around Taiwan, at

the Tainan Train Station, and online at www.tnta.org.tw (Chinese).

With our passports in hand, and cashing in NT$100 worth of coupons, we board a 7 am Ubus inter-city coach at the new Taipei Bus Station, just to the north of Taipei Railway Station.

At around 11 am the bus pulls up

Photos / Xie-cheng Hou

T

he Tainan City Tour Passport is a 136-page pocket-sized book filled with great ideas for places to visit, photos, maps, tickets for historical sites, and a whole lot of coupons. The coupons can be used for big discounts at a range of places, including restaurants, shops, spas, and

Above: The Tainan City Tour Passport is filled with great ideas for places to visit, photos, maps, tickets, and lot of coupons; right: Mangrove Green Tunnel

Visitors can take a raft ride on the beautiful canal, with mangrove trees meeting overhead to form a green tunnel at the Tainan Train Station, where we are met by none other than the director of the Tainan City Tour Association, Mr. You Yi-feng. Mr. You has a passion for the history and culture of his native Tainan, and is kind enough to offer to share some of his knowledge of the city and its surroundings.

Photos / Sunny Su

Our first stop is the Mangrove Green Tunnel, which is part of the Sicao Wildlife Protection Area. This is an old canal previously used by cargo boats to access the salt stored across the river at what is now known as Anping Tree House. Here, visitors can use tickets in their passports to take a raft ride along part of the beautiful canal, with the mangrove trees meeting overhead to form a green tunnel. As we drift slowly

down the canal taking photographs of the picturesque scenery, the local guide informs us of the history of the canal and points out the wildlife. Birds from a variety of species nest in the mangroves, and the muddy canal banks teem with crabs.

It’s now lunchtime, and I’m rather excited, as I’ve heard from almost every Taiwanese person I’ve met that Tainan is synonymous with delicious food. We pull up at a restaurant with the unassuming name of Chou’s Shrimp Rolls. This is a multi-story establishment with a relaxed yet classy feel. Sunshine fills the place, which is full of Sunday diners enjoying good food and company. Mr. Zhou Zhi-feng, the son of the original owner, leads us upstairs and chats with

us about the history of the restaurant, showing us photos of its early days in the nearby market some 60 years ago and of its time in the current, larger facility.

Alongside the shrimp rolls a vast array of other sumptuous dishes are also available, many unique to Tainan, including the slightly creepy Coffin Board.

This consists of thick pieces of hollowedout fried bread filled with creamy corn soup. The fried-bread lid is placed back over the top, giving the dish the appearance of a coffin. Given the general avoidance of things associated with death in Chinese culture, I am somewhat surprised at the popularity of this snack.

But that’s before I try it. I realize that in Taiwan gastronomic satisfaction trumps all other considerations.

Above: Refreshing and sweet blackbean tofu pudding; right: renting a motor scooter is a convenient option for exploring the city

Travel in Taiwan March • April 2010 41

NEW PERSPECTIVES

Anping Tree House offers a magnificent scene of a historical ruin inhabited by dozens of trees Above: Anping Tree House; left: Anping Fort was built by the Dutch some 400 years ago

We leave Chou’s Shrimp Rolls with a full belly and a full smile. Mr. You then surprises us by saying he wants to take us to a nearby tofu-pudding shop.

Not sure if we can manage another bite, we hesitatingly assent, and soon find ourselves at Mao’s Anping Black Bean Jelly. The owner, “Ah Mao”, is a former soldier, and in his shop front he proudly displays photos of himself clad in his military uniform, complete with ribbons and medals. He now owns four shops selling his special black-bean tofu pudding, of which he happily serves us some. My fears of an over-full stomach melt away as the refreshing, sweet pudding goes down a treat. We also try some of the free black-bean tea after being told of the health benefits. It too

goes down well.

Tainan is certainly living up to its reputation.

Next we pay a visit to Anping Tree House. This was formerly the salt storehouse accessed via the canal we were on earlier in the day. The salt has been moved out and trees have now moved in. Mr. You relates how local and migratory birds would congregate on the roof of the old storehouse and drop seeds. After the storehouse was abandoned the seeds were able to sprout and grow into various kinds of trees. The result is a magnificent scene of a historical ruin inhabited by dozens of trees. They grow through doorways and old windows and, most bizarrely, from the roof. Walkways take visitors

up to the level of the roof to see this startling sight, while on ground level roots dangle from banyan trees like the long beards of old men.

We leave Anping Tree House and take a short stroll to Anping Fort. The fort itself, built by the Dutch during their occupation of the area almost 400 years ago and named Fort Zeelandia, is now gone save for part of one wall.

The area has been transformed into a cultural park, with space for cultural performances and a museum detailing the history of the fort, especially the victory of Chinese hero Koxinga over the Dutch and their forced departure from Taiwan.

Adjacent to Anping Fort is the wildly popular Yanping Old Street.

At Qigu there are 20-meterhigh piles of salt, amassed from surrounding salt fields

42 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

Photos / Xie-cheng Hou

From left: On top of one of Qigu’s salt mountains; Tainan’s famous “coffin boards”; at Yanping Old Street you can buy fried hollow buns and other specialties

Above: During the winter, a large number

Photos / Sunny Su, Taiwan Tourism Bureau

of the rare black-faced spoonbills stay at Qigu, northwest of Tainan City

This narrow street is filled with vendors selling local treats such as fried hollow buns, or offering local handicrafts fashioned from bamboo and other materials. It’s really busy and a great place to watch people, young and old, as they meander past. We see a stall selling traditional Taiwanese “hamburgers.”

These are quite different from their Western counterparts, and in Tainan they contain a local delicacy, duck.

From here we take bus to a beach on the outside of Anping Harbor where we are lucky enough to catch a glorious sunset over the Taiwan Strait.

The next morning we are up relatively early to enjoy the complimentary breakfast at our hotel, the Jia Hsin Garden House, before

meeting Mr. You to do some birding.

We drive for twenty minutes out of the city to Qigu and the bird-watching station run by the Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation Association. The blackfaced spoonbill is an endangered species, with only about 2,000 birds in existence worldwide. Nearly half of these birds spend the winter on the mudflats of the Zengwen River estuary. Through a telescope we spot a group of the spoonbills standing in a line hundreds of meters away.

We then drive on to the Qigu Salt Mountains, where our passports once again give us a big discount on the already modest entrance fee. These are 20-meter-high piles of salt, amassed from surrounding salt fields before the

Travel in Taiwan March • April 2010 43

Confucius Temple

NEW PERSPECTIVES

salt industry went into decline. Visitors can climb up a mountain and look out over the surrounding salt fields. You can also try salty coffee and salty popsicles with imaginative flavors such as walnut and egg. Both taste a lot better than they sound.

Having downed a cup of salty coffee, we say farewell to the mounds of salt and head back to Tainan City, where we hit some temples and historic sites.

We visit the Chikan Tower first, one of Tainan’s most famous landmarks—a large mound on top of which are two temple-style buildings built during the Qing Dynasty. The mound itself contains the remains, exposed in a few spots, of a fort built by the Dutch in 1653. The tower buildings contain

various sculptures and artworks from different periods, and fronting the mound are nine stone tortoises from the Qing imperial era carrying nine carved royal-message stele.

We then move on to the tranquil Confucius Temple, dating back to 1665, with its various halls and shrines dedicated to the humanist matters Confucius was concerned with, such as fidelity and filial piety. We could spend hours sitting and contemplating the Confucian ideals here, but since it’s getting late we move on to our final stop on this trip, the Sen Maw Restaurant. This restaurant has been around since 1969, and has an intriguing rustic interior. The proprietor, Mr. Su, relates some of the history of

the place and recommends we try the wha gwei (commonly used Taiwanese pronunciation). This is a rice-paste and pork dish served in a kind of jelly. It tastes great and, impressed, we go on to order the wha gwei hotpot as well as the popular fish-ball soup.

Once again our stomachs are more than satisfied, and we take our leave and head for the High Speed Rail station.

We regret that we are leaving so soon. It really feels that as much as we have seen and done, we have only scratched the surface. Mr. You confirms that Tainan doesn’t divulge her secrets so readily.

We agree to return, and express our heartfelt gratitude for a truly memorable tour of this remarkable ancient capital.

Mangrove Green Tunnel 紅樹林綠色隧道 七股 Qigu 七股鹽山 Qigu Salt Mountains 四草野生動物保護區 Sicao Wildlife Protection Area 蘇文彥 Su Wen-yan 台南 Tainan Tainan City Tour Passport 府城觀光護照 Tainan City Tour Association 台南市觀光協會

Taipei Bus Station Ubus

臺北轉運站

wha gwei

碗粿

Yanping Old Street You Yi-feng Zengwen River Zhou Zhi-feng

延平老街

ENGLISH & CHINESE 阿茂 Ah Mao 安平古堡 Anping Fort 安平港 Anping Harbor 安平樹屋 Anping Tree House Black-faced Spoonbill 黑面琵鷺保育學會 Conservation Association 赤崁樓 Chikan Tower 棺材板 Coffin Board 孔廟 Confucius Temple

統聯客運

尤鎰鋒 曾文溪 周志峯

CHOU’S SHRIMP ROLLS 周氏蝦捲

ADD: 408-1 Anping Rd., Tainan City (台南市安平路 408之1號) TEL: (0 6) 28 0 -130 4 www.chous.com.tw

MAO’S ANPING BLACK BEAN JELLY

JIA HSIN GARDEN HOUSE

茂記安平黑豆花大王

ADD: 227 Hai-an Rd., Sec. 3, Tainan City 台南市海安路三段227號 TEL: (0 6) 358 -218 8 www.jiahsin.com.tw

ADD: 851 Minquan Rd., Sec. 4,

Tainan City

台南市民權路 4段851號

TEL: (0 6) 391-1373

44 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

家新大飯店

SEN MAW RICE FOOD RESTAURANT 森茂碗粿 ADD: 317 Kaishan Rd., Tainan City (台南市開山路317號) TEL: (0 6) 214 -3389 www.senmaw.com.tw

Photos / Sunny Su

Info

POP CULTURE

W

ith your first few steps outside MRT Ximen Station, a 12-floor building with a tube-shaped front revealing moving escalators will surely catch your eye. The building is home to the Zhonghua branch of the Cashbox Partyworld KTV chain, and I can guarantee that there is, indeed, always a party going on inside. Locals visit this tower of karaoke rooms twentyfour hours a day to celebrate birthdays, enjoy the array of buffet food, or simply hang out when there is nothing else to do in the middle of the night. One can choose both Chinese and English songs to sing along to, and the lyrics are accompanied by the artists’ music videos if available. In addition to the buffet, there is also the option of individual dishes and various types of alcohol available, also consumed in the privacy of your own karaoke room.

If food is the priority, Ximending will not disappoint the average visitor with its exotic selection of theme restaurants.

The Modern Toilet Restaurant is currently all the rage, with a decor and menu inspired by the bathroom. Everything from the chairs to the sinks resembles decorative toilet seats, while the dishes are served in miniature Turkish toilets (aka squatty potties).

The restaurant even goes so far as to serve soft chocolate ice-cream on these toilet-shaped plates!

Just as innovative as the restaurants are, of course, the fashions. Stalls and clothing stores line the streets

46 March • April 2010

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of Ximending, creating an outdoor mall and a never-ending fashion show in which passersby inadvertently participate. During the colder months of the year, bright wool scarves and printed hats with pom-poms can be found everywhere. However, the hats that caught my attention on my latest visit looked more like stuffed animals than clothing items. The tops of these hats resembled the

among younger females these days is fake eyelashes. One can choose from the most natural-looking lashes to stage lashes that resemble peacock feathers, or are decorated with glitter and fake diamonds. I know some Taiwanese girls who will not leave their house before applying this beauty product, and I myself have been influenced enough that I have worn them on more than one occasion. Tall

A Taste of Local Pop Culture: What’s In Over at

XIMENDING If you ever find yourself curious about the latest trends and hotspots of the youth culture in Taiwan, you need look no further than Ximending, which is just one stop on the MRT Bannan Line from Taipei Main Station. This old Taipei neighborhood is the home of hip venues that manifest what’s hot and what’s not among Taiwanese youth, and the frontline for many of this island’s ever-changing fashions.

By Francesca Chang

heads of pandas, tigers, bears, and even wolves. While the main part sits on the top of your head, two earflaps extend all the way to your hands and contain pockets to keep your hands warm.

Just as exaggerated, or kuazhang as the locals say, are the girls’ jewelry and cosmetics.

Oversized earrings, rings, and necklaces with “bling-bling” are now in style. Glitter nail polish that shines and sparkles is popular as well. Yet perhaps the most commonly seen fashion statement

boots paired with colored, striped, printed, and even fishnet leggings are also, for the moment, a fashion staple for Taiwanese girls.

For both guys and girls, thick and brightly-colored framed glasses are a must-have. For those who don’t need to wear glasses, these frames are even sold without lenses throughout Ximending. And most interestingly for the foreign tourist, clothing with printed words of nonsensical English is desired and worn as a fashion statement.

In addition to eating and shopping, you can also find

entertainment at the many cinemas, bookstores, and arcades in the area. A favorite pastime includes taking “sticky pictures” at the photo booths near and around the arcades. After capturing memorable pictures with friends, customers can digitally decorate these pictures before printing them and sticking them on their belongings.

In terms of celebrity culture, you need not spend an excessive amount of cash to see a pop idol or two in person. In fact, on my last visit I had the privilege of watching Hawaiian-born singer Khalil Fong perform right outside the Ximending Eslite bookstore outlet. In Taiwan it is common for music artists to hold outdoor concerts and signings, and many do so in the Ximending pedestrian area. These concerts are open to the public, but be ready to purchase the artist’s album if you want to get an autograph afterwards.

From fashion to food to hangout spots, Ximending is the “one-stop wonder” that will both keep you entertained and open your eyes to Taiwan’s colorful pop culture.

Info CASHBOX PARTYWORLD 錢櫃PARTYWORLD

ADD: 55 Zhonghua Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei City (台北市中華路一段55號) TEL: (02) 2361-9898

w w w.c ashb ox p ar t y.co m (Chines e)

MODERN TOILET RESTAURANT 便所主題餐廳

ADD: 2F, 7, Lane 50, Xining S. Rd., Taipei City (台北市西寧南路50 巷7號2樓) TEL: (02) 8 8 61- 438 4

w w w. mo der ntoil et .co m .t w (Chines e)

ENGLISH & CHINESE Khalil Fong Eslite bookstore

方大同

kuazhang

誇張

Ximending Zhonghua branch

西門町

誠品書店

中華分店

Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010 47

PLACES TO STAY

People staying in Taipei often believe that a truly relaxing getaway from the city would require a long trip to the central mountains or to the well-known beach town of Kending (at the southern tip of the island), or even launching out on blue waters to visit one of the unspoiled offshore islands. These locations are all definitely worth the time, but sometimes we just have a day or two to “schedule in” some sunbathing, nature wandering, or other form of relaxation.

Luckily, there are a few alternatives close to Taipei that will save you time and money but require no compromise in terms of quality, beauty, and fun.

By Matthew Davidof f

Places to

Laze Around Lower-key Accommodations with a Homey Feel

48 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

Photos / Wen-Jen Fan; B& B Miss CrocOdile; Leader Village Taroko

This page: La Casa

This page: B & B CroCodile

T

ucked into the northern tip of the island is the small township of Sanzhi. Though it’s less than an hour from Taipei City, its beautiful views of mountain and ocean, pristine air, and slow-paced lifestyle will leave you in another state of mind entirely.

Among other things, Sanzhi offers: nature walks or bicycle rides through rice fields and dense forest, close proximity to Baishawan and Qianshuiwan (two of the best beaches on the north coast), and easy daytrips to many great locations along the north coast and northeast coast. This rural township is sprinkled with quaint cafés, several locally-owned bed and breakfasts (in Taiwan commonly known as “homestays” or minsu), and even a phenomenal pizzeria! On a recent weekend, I went on an exploration of the township and stopped by some of its homestays.

One place especially B & B Miss worth mentioning is B CrocOdile & B Miss CrocOdile.

The name puzzled me at first, so I asked

the owner about it. Mrs. Wang, who is also a children’s art teacher, explained that when creating this guesthouse she thought of an eco-resort one might find in Africa. This inn is enclosed by a small patio on which guests can enjoy a coffee or laze around on a nice day.

Walking in and scanning the main foyer, I couldn’t help but notice the detail and artistic sense on exhibit in every corner of the house: the decorations and knick-knacks, the matching of paint colors with bedspreads, the large murals covering the walls, and even the light fixtures. This homestay has three floors and three rooms. Each room has a small TV and a double bed and, most importantly, a breathtaking view of rice paddies, vibrant green meadows, and the shimmering sea in the distance.

Mrs. Wang is understandably proud of her quaint little bed and breakfast, and can’t help but brag that every pastel-colored, Ikea-inspired room has its own individual flair, its own personal style. The owner and her husband are both accomplished artists, and their works can be seen throughout the house.

I couldn’t help but notice the detail and artistic sense on exhibit in every corner of the house.

Her inn has even been used as a set for several TV shows, giving merit to the hard work she’s put in.

If the attention given to good service is even a fraction of the attention given to cleanliness and style, then there’s no doubt, that any guest will be in good hands at B & B Miss CrocOdile.

Just a block or two away from Miss CrocOdile is La Casa, La another delightful homestay, Casa run by a fantastic woman.

The outside walls of La Casa exude personality and color – southern Mexico meets Santorini. Cute pictures of cats that complement the shining sun, golden flowers, and crisp, blue sea are displayed on the front wall. Before entering, I already knew I was in for a treat.

A woman introducing herself as Charlene let me in, and I asked if she

Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010 49

PLACES TO STAY as a La C 的 家 嘴嘴

Add: 34 Zhibo Rd., Sanzhi Township,

Taipei County

台北縣三芝鄉芝柏路34號

台北縣三芝鄉芝柏山莊觀海街3號

Tel: 0931-131-383, 0919-319-493 (Charlene)

Tel: (0 2 ) 2 6 3 6 -3 4 66 ,

Add: 3 Guanhai St., Zhibo Community,

Sanzhi Township, Taipei County

0 9 3 2 -9 4 7 -4 7 6 (M r s. Wa n g / 王 老 師 )

B& B

M is

可洛

s Cr

可呆

ocO

民宿

d i le

www .mis scr (Chin ocodile .com ese)

: a/ Blog m/la-cas o c . ahoo log.y hinese) b y m (C tw.

Add: 231-1 Fushi Village,

Xiulin Township, Hualien County 花 蓮 縣 秀 林 鄉 富 世 村 2 31-1號

Tel: (03) 861-0111

Leader Vill 立德布洛

age Taro ko

灣山月村

www.leade otel.com blw/leaderh rvillage/ /

was the owner. She chuckled and said “Yes, my ‘business partner’ Regina and I run this minsu together.” She introduced me to some of the other “guests,” several cats who were sunbathing on the patio.

Inside La Casa I finally met Regina, an aging cocker spaniel, asleep on the couch. La Casa feels nothing like an inn, or a bed and breakfast, or even like a youth hostel. It feels like a cozy little house inhabited by artists or university students. While I was there salsa music was playing and Charlene was relaxing, having breakfast with some of her guests.

The living room is crowded with books, DVDs, board games, and CDs ranging from funk to ’80s rock to Broadway show tunes. From the walls (one has a mural of crashing waves on white sand), to the ceilings (painted blue in parts, with white clouds), to the furniture (covered in sarongs and tiedyed sheets), La Casa is just…pleasant; it’s refreshing and comforting. It had me thinking: I don’t want to spend a weekend here, I want to move in!

50 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

Charlene showed me around the house, explaining that when she decided to rent it the place was completely run down and worthless, but with the help of friends she nursed it back to life, repairing and repainting walls, working on the plumbing and electrical wiring, etc. The rooms are beautiful, large and airy, each unique and each filled with hard work and loving attention to detail.

Charlene is modest, and was quick to shake her head at my many

It had me thinking: I don’t want to spend a weekend here, I want to move in! compliments. But her hard work is evident, as is her artistic talent. She is patient and talks with her hands, explaining that La Casa is not about tourism or vacationing as much as it is about creating a familiar atmosphere where like-minded people and new friends can constantly come and go and feel comfortable. Though Sanzhi offers an array of recreational activities, Charlene explained that a lot of her

guests end up spending their trip hanging around the house, reading, napping, and enjoying the tranquil atmosphere. As I left, I couldn’t help but feel jealous of the guests who were staying there.

Both Miss CrocOdile and La Casa are within walking distance of local cafés and restaurants, as well as hiking trails. Room rates (for both) range from NT$2,000 to NT$3,000 per night, including complementary breakfast and free bus-station pickup.

Sanzhi is a wonderful laid-back place, slowly being built up by people who are passionate about a new kind of tourism in Taiwan with an emphasis on people and relationships and a true desire to share their unique lifestyles.

Both of the women I met (as well as various other local business owners) are proud of the hard work they’ve put in and excited with the opportunity of helping others enjoy the remarkable culture and beauty of the area.

Sanzhi can be accessed by taking an MRT train to Danshui Station and then catching a bus headed for the town

Photos / Wen-Jen Fan; B& B Miss CrocOdile; Leader Village Taroko

This page: Leader Village

of Jinshan (90 minutes to two hours from downtown Taipei). If driving on your own, head north from Taipei past Danshui and then follow the coastal highway to Sanzhi (about one hour from Taipei).

For those looking for more adventure and a chance to get to the wild side of Taiwan, an excellent choice is Taroko Gorge, the main attraction of Taroko National Park. Taroko is arguably the best-known tourist destination in Taiwan, and its beauty rivals America’s Grand Canyon. This marble-walled gorge is heaven for trekkers, campers, and even plain-Jane sightseers.

Though most travelers choose to stay in the nearby coastal city of Hualien, staying in the park is a great option; this will offer you a much more natural experience, letting you enjoy the local wildlife and the mesmerizing, starry night sky.

If this sounds good to you, look no further than Leader Village Taroko.

This aboriginal-style Leader facility offers log-cabin Village Taroko rooms, helping guests to

feel “rustic” while still enjoying all the amenities they could ask for. Nestled in the lush mountains, visitors will enjoy the peaceful quiet in the evening and wake up surrounded by mountains, trees, and abundant wildlife.

Members of the staff here are polite and hospitable, and are passionate about sharing their expertise on the gorge. They’re happy to help plan hikes or day-trips, to tell you which areas are not to be missed, and to let you know which may be off-limits.

The rooms are immaculate, all offering beautiful views and patios to enjoy a morning coffee or pass a quiet evening. Room prices start at NT$3,100 for two people. The facility also offers an array of packages (including meals) for people staying multiple nights and for larger parties. Free pickup from Hualien airport or railway station can be arranged.

Getting to Hualien (the gateway to Taroko) is convenient with the Taroko Express train, which will get you from Taipei to Hualien in less than two hours. From there, Taroko is about an

hour’s drive.

When exploring Taiwan, the possibilities are almost endless.

This is a little island packed with surprises around every corner.

And while Taiwan is definitely not short on chic hotels and cushy resorts, there is also something to be said for the personal feel and laid-back atmosphere in lower-key accommodations. Travelers who take the time to meet the locals always get more for their buck, and these accommodations will provide both ample opportunity to make new friends and to make new discoveries.

ENGLISH & CHINESE Baishawan Danshui Hualien Jinshan Kending Liwu River minsu Qianshuiwan Sanzhi Taroko Gorge Taroko National Park

Travel in Taiwan

白沙灣 淡水 花蓮 金山 墾丁 立霧溪 民宿 淺水灣 三芝 太魯閣峽谷 太魯閣國家公園

March • April 2010 51

SHOPPING

Found!

Great Taiwan Sources for “Famous Food” Cakes and Pastries

T

here is a fascination in Taiwan, and all of Asia, with eating, the emphasis on ingredients with tastes that are as close to the field as possible. Snacking is a passion, and each little village and town will lay claim to its own unique contributions to the culinary world, its own “famous foods.” Sweet cakes and pastries are favorite items, with what are called “cakes” most often bite-sized morsels rather than the family-sized creations of the West.

Traditional cakes and pastries are characterized by flaky crusts, fluffy innards, and outsides often a bit crispy, with heavy use of items associated with farm living such as egg yolks, taro, red beans, mung-beans, and so on. The taro and beans will be made into a paste and lightly sweetened, but the taste of the good earth is still there, and bakers place great emphasis on getting the ingredients from the field to your palate as quickly as possible and with as little adulteration as possible. Today’s consumer enjoys variety, and sellers endlessly roll out new treats, but you’ll find these are primarily based on traditional varieties with some tailoring

52 March • April 2010

Travel in Taiwan

done to suit current tastes and lifestyles. Following, we’ll first head out into farm country, to the pristine areas of Yilan and Hualien counties on the east coast, dropping by a well-known bakery in each area and check out its "famous foods" before heading back to Taipei.

I-Lan Cake Company – Thin Tastes Good When the Yilan County government decided to focus on tourism as the core of the county’s economic development, Master Liu Deng-hui of I-Lan Cake Company decided to develop a unique Yilan-based pastry. His renowned handmade I-Lan Cake has emerged as perhaps Yilan’s best-known signature product, a favorite with tourists. It is in fact a biscuit, the world’s thinnest at just 0.1 cm thick, crispy, transparent, and delicious. The shop’s best-selling product is the 15-pack I-Lan Cake family gift set, with biscuit flavors including the county’s popular Sanxing onion, sesame seed, maple sugar, milk, cheese, and even barbecue.

Photos / I-Lan Cake Company;Hualien County Cakes ;Kong Kee Pastry Shop;Nancy Cake

By Chris Lockwood

inform customers they use no preservatives, no artificial coloring, and minimal sugar, utilizing instead naturally sweet ingredients. On display is a wide range of taste experiences.

These include the shop’s unique renditions of pineapple cakes, mung-bean cakes, honey cakes, an organic fruit cake, and catchy-name creations such as “Emperor Qin Cake” and “3Q President Cake” (“3Q” is pronounced “san Q,” which sounds like “thank you,” and “Q” is local slang term meaning “chewy”). All Kong Kee items make great gifts, especially because they are presented in wonderfully artistic gift boxes.

Nancy Cake – A Taste of American Flair Nancy Cake in no way fits the familiar Taiwan cake and pastry mold. Owner Nancy Lin produces designer cakes in the Western fashion, having lived, learned her trade, and operated a bakery in the US. She decided to come back to Taiwan after the Tourism Bureau brought her over for demonstrations.

Her creations have caused quite a stir, notably her made-toorder erotic cakes, but she’ll make most anything you desire and takes great pride in producing treats that look pretty darn close to the real thing; she’s made a McDonald’s burger and an IBM notebook, among many other objets d’art. Beyond cakes, Nancy Cake also makes delicious home-style designer cookies. A wide range of gift-box selections is on display.

ENGLISH & CHINESE

Hualien County Cakes – Ever “Taste” a County?

Its name synonymous with quality, Hualien County Cakes differs from other cake shops in the area by offering a wide diversity of choice rather than specializing in a single item. This is one of the most popular cake and pastry shops in the city of Hualien, offering old-style cookies and other baked goods in addition to cakes. The shop’s signature “county cakes,” labelled simply “Fresh Cake” in English on their pretty boxes, have brown cane sugar as the main ingredient.

Cut a slice and you’ll see numerous sweet long veins of brown streaking one side to the other. Also recommended is the delectable walnut cake, featuring softened nuts and raisins.

All the shop’s major treats are available in attractive gift boxes.

3Q President Cake cake Emperor Qin Cake Hualien Liu Deng-hui Ximending Yilan

3Q總統餅 蛋糕 御品秦皇酥 花蓮 劉鐙徽 西門町 宜蘭

I-Lan Cake Company (宜蘭餅食品公司) Add: 130, Chunjing Rd., Sec. 2, Luodong Township, Yilan County (宜蘭縣 羅東鎮純精路2段130號)

Tel: (02) 954-9881 Website: www.i-cake.com.tw/front/bin/home.phtml (Chinese)

Hualien County Cakes (花蓮縣餅) Add: 1 Zhonghua Rd., Hualien City (花蓮市中華路1號) Tel: (03) 831-2889 Website: www.hling.com.tw/highres.html

Kong Kee Pastry Shop (港記酥皇店) Add: 6-2 Hanzhong St., Taipei ( 台北市漢中街 6 號之 2) Tel: (02) 2375-1967 Websites: www.twkongkee.com.tw/pages/?Ipg=33

Kong Kee Pastry Shop – A Bit of Hong “Kong” in “Kong” Kee

Nancy Cake (南西創意造型蛋糕)

Located in the Ximending area of Taipei, Kong Kee is run by kindly folks from Hong Kong. The owners proudly

Tel: (02) 2781-5122 Websites: www.nancycake.com.tw

Add: 5, Lane 2, Alley 345, Renai Rd., Taipei

( 台北市仁愛路四段 345 巷 2 弄 5 號 )

Travel in Taiwan

March • April 2010 53

Advertisement

HOTEL INFORMATION

Hotels of Taiwan

V

isitors to Taiwan have a wide range of choice when it comes

to accommodation. From five-star luxury hotels that meet the highest international standards, to affordable business hotels, to hot-spring and beach resort hotels, to privately-run homestays located in the countryside there is a place to stay that satisfies every traveler’s needs. What all hotels of Taiwan – small and big, expensive and affordable – have in common is that serve and hospitality are always of the highest standards.

The room rates in the following list have been checked for each hotel, but

No. of Rooms: 487 (Suites: 57) Room Rates:

Single/DBL NT$ 5,700 – 11,000

Suite NT$ 15,000 – 28,000 President: Johnson Chiang Desk Personnel Speak: English, French, Spanish, and Japanese Restaurants: Western, Cantonese, Northern China Style Dumplings, tea house, coffee shop Special Features: Grand Ballroom, conference rooms for 399 people, 10 breakout rooms, business center, fitness center, sauna, Olympic-size swimming pool, tennis courts, billiards

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41 Chung Shan (Zhongshan) N. Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei City, 104

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11F, 495 Guangfu S. Rd., Xinyi District, Taipei City 110

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Tel: 02.8780.8000 Fax: 02.8780.5000 E-mail: pbc.taipei@msa.hinet.net

NT$ 7,000 NT$ 8,000 NT$ 9,000 NT$ 10,000 NT$ 16,000

(All rates are subject to 10% service charge)

Restaurants: La Fusion Restaurant,

La Fusion Bakery, Hanazono Japanese Restaurant, La Fusion Bar, La Fusion Deli

Special Features:

Special Features: Business center, luxury executive floor, multifunctional room, Internet service, 32-inch plasma TV, garden terrace, bar, fitness club, outdoor pool, sauna, spa, aromatherapy, car park

Fitness Center, Business Center, Conference & Dining Facilities; (Rooms Facilities) 32” LCD TV/Pay Broadband Internet Access/ Multi Channel Satellite TV with Domestic and Foreign Programming/En-suite Shower and Bath/TOTO Washlet

83 Civic Boulevard, Sec. 3, Taipei City, 104 104台北市市民大道三段8 3號

1, Zhonghua Rd. Sec. 2, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City 10065

Tel: 02.8772.8800 Fax: 02.8772.1010 E-mail: info@miramargarden.com.tw

Tel: 886.2.2314.6611 Fa x: 886.2.2314.5511 E-mail: fo@taipeigarden.com.tw

www.miramargarden.com.tw

www.taipeigarden.com.tw

54

Desk Personnel Speak:

Tel: 02.2523.8000 Fax: 02.2523.2828

TAIPEI GARDEN HOTEL

Single NT$ 11,000 Double NT$ 11,500 Suite NT$ 16,500 ~ 99,000

No. of Rooms: 67 rooms, 28 offices,

4 meeting rooms Room Rates:

Superior Room NT$ 5,200+10% Executive Single NT$ 5,600+10%

Executive Twin NT$ 6,200+10% Excellency Room NT$ 7,200+10%

104台北市中山北路二段41號

Japanese, English, Chinese

Restaurants: Rain Forest Café, Garden Terrace, Lounge 81

2010_03-04_飯店名錄.indd

太平洋商務中心台北會館 Taipei 台 北

Tel: 886.2.2886.8888 Fax: 886.2.2885.2885

Desk Personnel Speak:

Desk Personnel Speak: English, Japanese, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese

March • April 2010

Room Rates:

PACIFIC BUSINESS CENTER TAIPEI

110 台北市信義 區 光復 南路 49 5號 11樓

No. of Rooms: 242 Room Rates:

General Manager: Linda Chu

No. of Rooms: 538

10 4 61台北市中山北 路 四段1號

MIRAMAR GARDEN TAIPEI

Taipei 台 北

台北晶華酒店

1 Chong shan N. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City, 10461 R.O.C

Room rates at the hotels apply.

No. of Rooms: 203 Room Rates:

Deluxe Room

Business Room Executive Deluxe Room

Boss Suite

Premier Suite

Taipei 台 北

圓山大飯店

are subject to change without notice.

美麗信花園酒店

GRAND FORMOSA REGENT TAIPEI

THE GRAND HOTEL

10 0 6 5台北市中正 區中 華路二 段 1號

CAESAR PARK HOTEL TAIPEI 台北凱撒大飯店

Taipei 台 北

No. of Rooms: 406 Room Rates:

Superior Room Deluxe Room Family Room Deluxe Suite Executive Suite Caesar Suite Extra Bed

NT$ 8,200 NT$ 9,000 NT$ 9,000 NT$ 13,000 NT$ 15,000 NT$ 50,000 NT$ 1,000

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Desk Personnel Speak:

Chinese, English, Japanese

Restaurants: Checkers, Dynasty Restaurant, CAESAR Mall Special Features: Banquet/Conference Room, Business Centre, Health Club, CAESAR Spa, Roof Garden, Safe Deposit Box, Valet Parking, Valet Dry Cleaning, Laundry, Room Service, Internet Service

COSMOS HOTEL 天成大飯店

Taipei 台 北

No. of Rooms: 226 Room Rates:

Superior Single NT$ 3,200 ~ 3,500 Deluxe Single NT$ 4,000 ~ 5,000 Superior Twin NT$ 4,000 Deluxe Triple NT$ 4,500

Deluxe Twin NT$ 4,800 ~ 5,000 Deluxe Suite NT$ 7,000 ~ 10,000 Family Room NT$ 4,300

Desk Personnel Speak: Chinese, Japanese, English, Cantonese Restaurants: Shanghainese,

Cantonese, Taiwanese snacks, Jiangzhe cuisine, Gelato Café, coffee shop

Special Features: Conference rooms,

flower shop, barber shop, souvenir shop, parking area 43, Chunghsiao (Zhongxiao) W. Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei City, 100

38 Chunghsiao W. Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei City, 100 100台北市忠孝西路一段3 8號

(MRT Taipei Main Station, Exit 3) 100台北市忠孝東路 一段4 3號 (台北捷運總站3號出口)

Tel: 02.2311.5151 Fax: 02.2331.9944 E-mail: info_tpe@caesarpark.com.t w

Tel: 02.2361.7856 Fa x: 02.2311.8921 Reser vation Hotline: 02.2311.8901 Reser vation Fa x: 02.2311.8902 E-mail: cosmos@cosmos-hotel.com.tw

taipei.caesarpark.com.tw

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Travel in Taiwan

2010/02/25

下午 12:28:04

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HOTEL INFORMATION

GLORIA PRINCE HOTEL TAIPEI 華 泰 王 子大 飯 店

Taipei 台 北

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Suite NT$ 9,500~20,000 Desk Personnel Speak: Chinese, English, Japanese Restaurants: La Fontaine (Western), Chiou Hwa (Chinese)

SUNWORLD DYNASTY HOTEL TAIPEI Taipei 台 北

王朝大酒店

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Desk Personnel Speak: Chinese, Japanese, English

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369 Lin-sen (Linsen) N. Rd., Taipei City, 104 104台北市林森北路3 69號

Tel: 02.2581.8111

Restaurants: Le Parc Café, Magnolia Court,

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皇家四季飯店集團

Taipei 台 北

SEASONS HOTEL CLASSIC

NO. OF ROOMS: 64 ROOM RATES: NT$ 5,000 ~ 8,000

SEASONS HOTEL ROYAL NO. OF ROOMS: 49

ROOM RATES: NT$ 5,500 ~ 9,500

SEASONS HOTEL HOT SPRING/VENUS HOT SPRING HOUSE NO. OF ROOMS: 30/32 ROOM RATES: NT$ 8,000 ~ 11,000/NT$ 3,500 (All rates are subject to 10% service charge)

Desk Personnel Speak:

Chinese, English, Japanese

Special Features: L'OCCITANE Bath &

Shower amenities, Italian Jacuzzi bathtub (Classic & Royal), complimentary in-room Internet access/ all TV channels, complimentary Internet/coffee/ tea/instant noodles service at lounge area, free shuttle bus to MRT Stations

326/330 Nanjing W. Rd., Taipei City 103 (Seasons Hotel Classic/Royal) 台北市南京西路326/330號 (經典館/皇家館) 26, Zhongshan Rd., Beitou, Taipei City 112 (Seasons Hotel Hot Spring) 台北市北投區中山路26號 Reservation Hotline: 886.2. 2558.6488 E-mail: rsvn@taiwanseasonshotel.com

www.taiwanseasonshotel.com

No. of Rooms: 160

SINJHUANG CHATEAU DE CHINE HOTEL 新莊翰品酒店

Taipei 台北

Single Room NT$ Deluxe Single Room NT$ Deluxe Twin Room NT$ Suite Room NT$

3,800 4,000 4,200 5,600

Desk Personnel Speak:

English, Japanese, Chinese

Restaurants: Golden Ear Restaurant (Western semi buffet); Hong Kong Restaurant (Cantonese food) Special Features: Business Center, meeting rooms, airport transfer service, parking lot, laundry service, free Internet access, LCD TV, DVD player, personal safety box, mini bar, private bathroom with separate shower & bath tub, hair dryer

Standard Room Superior Room Superior Triple Room Superior Family Room Deluxe Room Deluxe Triple Room Deluxe Family Room Haiyatt Executive Suite Fortune Executive Suite

55

NT$ 3,400 NT$ 3,700 NT$ 4,600 NT$ 5,800 NT$ 4,300 NT$ 6,000 NT$ 7,200 NT$ 9,000 NT$ 10,800

Desk Personnel Speak:

English, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Taiwanese.

Restaurants: Buffet breakfast, English-style afternoon tea, Western roof garden restaurant Special Features: Business center,

meeting rooms, gym, car park, multifunctional banquet hall, wireless broadband Internet access, limousine service between hotel and airport / high-speed rail station 62 Chongqing N. Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei City, 103

186 Songjiang Rd., Taipei City,104 104台北市松江路18 6號

103台北市重 慶北路一段62號

Tel: 02.2541.5511 Fax: 02.2531.3831 Reservation Hotline: 02.2541.6888 E-mail: galahtl@ms18.hinet.net

Tel: 02.2555.1122 Fax: 02.2556.6217 Reservation Hotline: 02.2559.0723 Reservation Fax: 02.2559.0720 E-mail: info@fortunehaiyatthotel.com

www.galahotel.com.tw

www.fortunehaiyatthotel.com

SOUTH GARDEN HOTELS AND RESORTS 南方莊園渡假飯店

Jhongli 中 壢

ONSEN PAPAWAQA Miaoli 苗 栗

泰安觀止

No. of Rooms: 145 Room Rates: Superior Single Room NT$ 5,800

Superior Twin Room NT$ 6,000 Business Single Room NT$ 6,600 Deluxe Single Room NT$ 6,800

Deluxe Twin Room NT$ 7,000 Superior Family Room NT$ 7,200 Deluxe Family Room NT$ 7,600

Executive Suite NT$ 12,000 Chateau de Chine Suite NT$ 20,000 General Manager: Willis Lin Desk Personnel Speak: English,Chinese, Japanese Special Features:Conference/banquet hall accommodating up to 200 people, gym, sauna, recreation, VIP lounge, business center, free Internet access, laundry service, intelligent room control system, limousine rental, and pick up service

No. of Rooms: 111 Room Rates:

Special Features: Hot Spring & Kurhaus

room, open-air hot-spring pool, private hot-spring pools, open-air swimming pool, SPA treatment, multi-functional entertainment room, gym, WII game, car park, hiking trails

82, Jhongzheng Rd., Sinjhuang City, Taipei County 24243, Taiwan 24 24 3 台北 縣 新 莊 市中正 路 8 2 號 Tel: 02.8994.1234 Fax: 02.8994.3000

8 Shuzih Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County320

58 Yuandun, Jinshuei Village, Tai-an Township, Miaoli County 苗栗縣泰安鄉錦水村圓墩58號

Tel: 037.941.777 FA X: 037.941.952 E-mail: ser vice@papawaga.com

www.chateaudechine.com

E-mail: ser vice@southgarden.com.t w

www.southgarden.com.tw

www.papawaqa.com.tw

Superior Room Deluxe Room Superior Family Scenic Room Corner Room Deluxe Family Garden Room Family Suite South Suite

NO. OF ROOMS: 68 ROOM RATES:

NT$ 6,800 NT$ 7,200 NT$ 7,800 NT$ 7,800 NT$ 8,800 NT$ 9,000 NT$ 9,200 NT$ 12,000 NT$ 28,000

Guanxing Room Guanyue Room Guanzhi Room Guanyun Room Guanshui Room Guanzhi Suite Guanri Suite Guanshan Suite

NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$

6,600 7,500 8,500 9,900 13,500 10,000 11,000 13,500

Q U N S H A N V ILLA

Desk Personnel Speak:

Restaurants: The South, The Garden, Cheers Bar, The Avignon Banquet Hall, Nice Conference Center

Special Features: Restaurant, meeting

English, Japanese, Chinese

Center, Recreation Center, Hot Spring & Sauna Center, ecological park, 200 free parking spaces, shuttle service to airport and high-speed rail station, broadband Internet access

320桃園縣中壢市樹籽路8號

Tel: 886.3.420.2122 Fax: 886.3.420.7736

Guanwu Room NT$ 12,000 Guanwu Suite NT$ 15,000 Guanwu Suite NT$ 18,000

Travel in Taiwan

2010_03-04_飯店名錄.indd

Taipei 台 北

福君海悅大飯店 No. of Rooms: 200 Room Rates:

Room Rates:

台北市敦化北路100號

www.gloriahotel.com

FORTUNE HYATT HOTEL

Taipei 台 北

慶泰大飯店

100 Dun Hua North Road, Taipei Taiwan R.O.C.

Fax: 02.2581.5811, 2568-2924

SEASONS HOTEL GROUP

TAIPEI GALA HOTEL

March • April 2010

2010/02/25

下午 12:28:28

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HOTEL INFORMATION

FLEUR DE CHINE HOTEL 雲品酒店

Sun Moon Lake 日月潭

No. of Rooms: 211 Room Rates: Mountain View King Room NT$ 11,500 ~ 12,500

Mountain View Two Queen Room NT$ 11,500 ~ 12,500

Zen Mountain View Room NT$ 11,500 ~ 12,500

Lake View King Room NT$ 13,000 ~ 14,000 Lake View Two Queen Room NT$ 13,000 ~ 14,000

Washiki Lake View Room NT$ 13,000 ~ 14,000

Royal Lake View Suite NT$ 16,000 ~ 17,000

Governor Lake View Suite NT$ 18,000

Summit Lake View Suite NT$ 88,000 120,000

Penthouse Suite NT$

General Manager: Wayne Ho Desk Personnel Speak: English,Chinese, Japanese Special Features:270∘Panorama Lake

View Sky Lounge, Mountain Mist Spring, Zen House, Water World, aromatherapy, pythoncidere walk, children’s playground, outdoor circular concourse, pet room, boutique, gym, business center, banquet/conference hall, wireless broadband internet services, intelligent room control system, balconies with scenic views, individual hot-spring pools in room, pickup from HSR station

ALISHAN HOUSE 阿里山賓館

HUALIEN CITY CLASSIC RESORT HOTEL Chiayi 嘉 義

花蓮 經 典假日飯 店

No. of Rooms: 35

No. of Rooms: 79

Room Rates:

Room Rates:

(Prices above not including 10% Service Charge)

Scenery Suite NT$ 6,600 Honey Suite NT$ 6,600 Fragrant Suite NT$ 8,600 Superior Suite NT$ 9,500 VIP Suite NT$ 12,000

General Manager: Mr. Jen-Shing Chen Desk Personnel Speak:

Chinese, English, Japanese

Restaurants: Chinese, Café, Courtyard Special Features:

Broadband Internet access in guestrooms, business center, Souvenir Shop, Gazebo, 1950’s dance hall, foot massage

16 Chunlin Village, Alishan Township, Chiayi County, 605

Hualien 花 蓮

Standard Room Superior Twin Superior Triple Superior Double Twin Superior Suite Classic Suite

NT$ 4,000 NT$ 4,200 NT$ 4,800 NT$ 5,600 NT$ 6,000 NT$ 10,000

Desk Personnel Speak:

Chinese, English, Japanese

Restaurants:Chinese, Western, and International cuisine, afternoon tea Special Features:1/2F public area with

unlimited Internet access, broadband Internet access in guestrooms, notebooks available at meeting room, free self-help coffee and tea, free parking, central location (5-min. walk to railway station), pick-up service, projector and screen available at conference room, newspapers and magazines, LCD screen TV-sets

Tel: 049.285.5500 Fax: 049.285.6600

E-mail: office@alishanhouse.com.tw

www.fleurdechinehotel.com

www.alishanhouse.com.tw

www.classichotel.com.tw

5 5 5 4 6 南 投 縣 魚 池 鄉日月潭中正 路2 3 號

605嘉義縣阿里山鄉香林村16號 ALISHAN Tel: 05.267.9811 Fax: 05.267.9596 TAIPEI Tel: 02.2563.5259 Fax: 02.2536.5563

蘭城晶英酒店

Yilan 宜 蘭

NO. OF ROOMS: 193 ROOM RATES:

139 Guolian 5th Rd., Hualien City, 970 970 花蓮市國聯五路139號 Tel: 03.835.9966 Fax: 03.835.9977 Reservation: 03.833.6066 E-mail: service@classichotel.com.tw

23, Zhongzheng Rd., Sun Moon Lake, Yuchi Township, Nantou County 55546

SILKS PLACE YILAN

Lan Zone Holiday Zone Sky Villa Zone Boutique Zone Corner Zone

NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$

9,600 13,600~30,000 13,600~40,000 14,000~30,000 22,000~80,000

(Hotel rooms divided into five specialized zones using the concept of “a hotel within a hotel”) (All rates are subject to 10% service charge)

DESK PERSONNEL SPEAK:

English, Japanese, Chinese

RESTAURANTS:

Mix Gourmet Buffet Restaurant, The Lounge, Red Lantern Chinese Restaurant

Special Features: International Ballroom, Multi-functional Meeting Rooms, Conference Service Center, Events Management Service Center, Power Fitness Club, Wellspring Spa, Outdoor Garden, Safe Deposit, Valet Parking, Laundry Service, Free Internet Access

36 Minquan Rd., Sec. 2 Yilan City, 260 260宜蘭市民權路二段36號

Tel: 03.935.1000 Fax: 03.935.4000 E-mail: rsvn@silksplace-yilan.com.tw

www.silksplace-yilan.com.tw

ISSN:18177964

GPN:2009305475

200 NTD