Travel in Taiwan (No.50, 2012 3/4)

No. 50, 2012

Quick Trip To YilAn Illustrator Page Tsou Cafés and Teashops in Taipei “Bombing the Dragon” in Miaoli Music 4 Fun Tourist Factory

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FOOD JOURNEY

Gukeng Coffee

THE BEST BIKE ROUTES

Kaohsiung City

NATURAL TREASURES

Birding in the Southwest

The Official Bimonthly English Magazine of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau.

Advertisement Website: ht tp: //t aiwan. net .t w

Welcome to Taiwan!

Dear Traveler, Welcome to Taiwan in the spring! With the warming sun comes a growing thirst for travel adventure, which we satisf y with one of our most geographically expansive issues in quite some time, taking you on trips of great variation to an impressive number of regions.

In our Feature section we f irst visit the northeast’s Yilan County. Our goal is to show you how easy it is to take one- and two-day trips from Taipei by focusing on the wellknown Jiaoxi hot-springs area. We end the section with an introduction of short guided bus tours to four different regions around the island.

Back in Taipei, we take you on a whirlw ind tour of the city ’s unique cafés and teashops and then move out again, down the island’s west side. We stop in at a tourism factory in Taoyuan County for a unique music experience; tourist factories have become ever more popular and numerous in recent years, and this one reveals to you what makes pianos tick. It’s then on to the small city of Miaoli in hilly Miaoli County, where during the annual Bombing the Dragon festival dancing dragons prowl temple plazas and streets, absorbing f irecracker hits in bewildering number. This is a good thing, for the more “bomb” blasts the greater the good fortune created.

We stay in the hills, f urther down-island, in our article on tasty Gukeng cof fee.

Gukeng Township, in Yunlin County, is one of Taiwan’s few coffee-growing areas, and the pretty plantations are dotted with comf y, big-view cafés. Making a trip here even more precious is the fact that local tourist demand is so high that it’s a rare experience indeed to f ind Gukeng coffee sold outside the area.

The Southwest Coast National Scenic Area is a prime destination for birdwatchers, with the star attraction the protected Black-faced Spoonbill, a migratory species that comes here in large numbers. In this part of Taiwan you’ll also be able to tick numerous other lovely avian inhabitants off your spotter’s list.

We end up in the big city of Kaohsiung in the far south for another popular form of outdoor recreation, bicycling. The city’s pleasant bike-trail network takes you from seaside to lakeside, with a sparkling array of scenic attractions, natural and people-created, along the way.

I hope we have placed enough on your plate to satisf y your travel appetite. Have fun and enjoy your time in Taiwan!

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

CONTENTS

MAR ~ APR 2012

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PUBLISHER Janice Seh-Jen Lai EdItIng ConSULtantS

PRodUCER Vision Int l Publ. Co., Ltd. addRESS Rm. 5, 10F, 2 Fuxing N. Rd., Taipei, 104 Taiwan

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tel: 886-2-2711-5403 Fax: 886-2-2721-2790 E-mail: vision@tit.com.tw gEnERaL ManagER Wendy L. C. Yen dEPUty gEnERaL ManagER Frank K. Yen EdItoR In CHIEf Johannes Twellmann EngLISH EdItoRS Rick Charette, Richard Saunders dIRECtoR of PLannIng & EdItIng dEPt Joe Lee ManagIng EdItoR Sunny Su EdItoRS Ming-Jing Yin, Vivian Liu, Gemma Cheng ContRIBUtoRS Rick Charette, Owain Mckimm, Steven Crook, Jennifer Turek, Joe Henley, Kurt Weidner PHotogRaPHERS Sunny Su, Maggie Song, Bobby Wu aRt dIRECtoR Sting Chen dESIgnERS Ivy Chen, Maggie Song, Karen Pan, Eve Chiang adMInIStRatIvE dEPt Hui-chun Tsai, Nai-jen Liu, Xiou Mieng Jiang advERtISIng HotLInE + 886-2-2721-5412

PUBLISHIng oRganIzatIon

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International Division, Taiwan Tourism Bureau Add: 9F, 290 Zhongxiao E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei, 10694, Taiwan Tel: 886-2-2717-3737 Fax: 886-2-2771-7036 E-mail: tbroc@tbroc.gov.tw Website: http://taiwan.net.tw

台 灣 觀 光 雙 月 刊 Travel in Taiwan Bimonthly March/April, 2012 Tourism Bureau, MOTC First published in Jan./Feb., 2004 ISSN: 18177964 GPN: 2009305475 Price: NT$200 www.tit.com.tw/vision/index.htm Copyright © 2012 Tourism Bureau. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form without written permission is prohibited.

MagazInE IS SoLd at:

1. Wu-Nan Culture Plaza, 600, Junfu 7th Rd., Beitun District, Taichung City 40642 Tel: 886-4-2437-8010 http://www.wunanbooks.com.tw/ 2. National Bookstore, 2F, 59, Lane 76, Ruiguang Rd., Neihu District, Taipei City 10485 Tel: 886-2-2796-3638#223 http://www.govbooks.com.tw/

Where you can pick up a copy of Travel in Taiwan abroad

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Lanyang Museum, one of the new landmarks of Yilan County. (Photo: Shih Ming-cheng)

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 Kaohsiung 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

This magazine is printed on FSC certified paper. Any product with the FSC logo on it comes from a forest that has been responsibly maintained and harvested in a sustainable manner.

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feaTure 10

36

Little Friends on Tour

Quick Trip to Yilan

— Main — Buy — Stay

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MY PHOTO TOUr — Taking Toy Figures on a Trip to Shilin

Pastoral Greens & Ocean Blues – Yilan County; Connected to Taipei, But a World Apart Gifts from Land and Sea – Things to Buy on a Trip to Yilan The Lap of Luxury, in the Lap of Mother Nature

naTUral TreaSUreS 38 Winter Time is Birding Time!

Bus Tours — Five Great Bus Tour Options – How to Explore Taiwan Conveniently if Time is Limited

1 Publisher’s Note 35 4 News & Events around Taiwan 46 6 Concerts, Exhibitions, and Happenings

Where Is This?

Festivals and Events

— In Search of the Black-Faced Spoonbill and other Water Birds

FeSTival 42

Bombing the Dragon in Miaoli — Hakka Spring Festival

TOUriSM

8 Events & Activities in National Scenic Areas

THe BeST BiKinG rOUTeS 26

From Lakeside to Seaside

TOUriSM FaCTOrieS 47 Music 4 Fun — Taking a Closer Look at the Inner Parts of a Musical Instrument

— Cycling through Kaohsiung

FOOD JOUrneY 22

Fresh Nutty Flavors — Tasting Taiwan’s Very Own Coffee at Gukeng

enJOYMenT 32

A Tasty Tour of Taipei Treats — Visiting Unique Cafés and Teashops in the City

arT 50

Page Tsou: Past and Present — A Taiwanese Artist Pursues His True Passion

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Travel in Taiwan

History

E WS & EVEN TS A ROU N D TA I WA N

Shilin Residence Main Hall Open to Visitors

In late January this year, the main hall of the Chiang Kai-shek Shilin Residence in Taipei was opened to the public, almost fully lifting the veil of mystery long surrounding this building. Visitors interested in the life of the late President, notably tour groups from mainland China, are drawn to the facility. The first floor and the garden area, open to the public since early 2011, have so far attracted 250,000 visitors. The residence is a 10-min. walk from MRT Shilin Station.

Another former Chiang Kai-shek residence, Grass Mountain Chateau in Yangmingshan National Park, was reopened at the end of 2011. It had suffered extensive damage in a 2007 fire.

Airlines

Domestic-Flight Tickets at 7-Eleven

TransAsia Airways, a Taiwanese airline, now sells tickets for domestic flights through 7-Eleven’s ibon platform. The airline serves all major airports in Taiwan and also offers flights to mainland China and other destinations in the region.

Public Transport

Two Kaohsiung Subway Stops among World’s Most Beautiful

Formosa Boulevard Station and Central Park Station, part of Kaohsiung’s KMRT metro system, were recently listed (in second and fourth place) among the most beautiful subway stops in the world by the BootsnAll website (www. bootsnall.com). Formosa Boulevard Station is a major tourist attraction because of its “Dome of Light,” a huge colored-glass installation created

by Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata, which tells the story of life. Designed by British architect Richard Rogers, the Central Park Station surprises with a spacious entrance area featuring grass-covered slopes and yellow windmills shaped liked sunflowers on the outside of the escalators, along with cascading water in the middle. Learn more about Kaohsiung’s MRT system at www.krtco.com.tw.

History

MRT

Guo Family Estate in Neihu

The Guo Family Estate in Taipei’s Neihu District, home of the first Neihu Village mayor during the 1895~1945 Japanese colonial era, has recently been opened to the public after extensive renovations (free entry; open Tue~Sun 10am~noon, 2pm~5pm; follow signs starting at Lane 267 of Wende Rd.). Built in 1919, the old building features Baroque-style embellishments, red brick, washed terrazzo, earthen sculptures, and colored decorative tile.

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Travel in Taiwan

Taipei MRT Bicycles on Taipei Metro On weekends and holidays bicycles are permitted on the Taipei Metro (MRT) system, and the number of stations allowing bicycle access to the system has recently been increased to 67 (90% of all stations; easily identified by bicycle icons on MRT route maps). Single-journey tickets for cyclists (with one bike) are priced NT$80 and can be bought at the service counters inside stations allowing access.

Folding bikes folded into compact form can be carried on the metro system any day of the week, without special charge.

Public Transport

Bookstores

Sun Moon Lake and Xitou Bus Connection Visiting both of these premier tourist destinations in central Taiwan has now become even more convenient for travelers relying on public transport. Scenic Sun Moon Lake and Xitou, the latter known for its lush bamboo groves, have been connected to Taichung by separate Taiwan Tourist Shuttle routes (more info at www.taiwantrip.com.tw) for some time now, but until recently there was no public-bus connection between the two. This has changed, and there are now six bus services each day between the areas. One-way tickets are priced NT$80; buses need 90 minutes for the 60km trip, stopping on the way at Zhushan, Jiji, and Shuili. For schedules, contact Yuanlin (www.ylbus.com.tw) or Nantou (www.ntbus.com.tw) bus companies.

Taipei Bookstore Recognized for Beauty According to entertainment website Flavorwire.com, a small bookstore in Taipei’s east district is among the world’s 20 most beautiful. VVG Something (13, Alley 40, Lane 181, Sec. 4, Zhongxiao E. Rd.), located in a small alley, has the feel of a living room, with old wooden furniture, art objects, and antiques filling the space. A wide range of coffee-table books is placed on a large table in the center of the shop, waiting to be browsed.

Travel Guide Taiwan for Culture Vultures The new downloadable travel guide Taiwan for Culture Vultures , written by long-time Taiwan resident Steven Crook, is aimed at visitors intrigued by Taiwan's fascinating blend of cutting-edge modernity and centuries-old tradition. The guide (available for iPhones and iPads at appshopper.com/travel/taiwan-forculture-vultures ) features 95 places of interest, including museums, temples, churches, parks, and other landmarks.

There's plenty for those who want to learn about and appreciate traditional arts and crafts.

The guide is a handy travel companion with in-depth descriptions of each site, clear instructions on how to reach each location by car or public transportation, and convenient links taking you to background information.

A tourist walking on a boardwalk near a body of water. She’s getting her camera ready to capture some stunning mountain and lake scenery. Can you guess where she is? Hint: This is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Taiwan. Find the answer on page 35.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK! We, the producers of Travel in Taiwan, wish to improve our magazine with each issue and give you the best possible help when planning – or carrying out – your next trip to Taiwan. Tell us what you think by filling out our short online questionnaire at www.tit.com.tw/survey/ travelintaiwan.html. Senders of the first ten completed questionnaires for each issue will receive three free issues of Travel in Taiwan. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

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Travel in Taiwan

Jan. 19 ~ May 6

oncerts, s, n o i t i b i h x E a nd s g n i n e p p a H

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Watch Me Move: The Animation Show 百年動畫展 If you like animation, you don’t want to miss this show, an exhibition that reveals how animation has had a major impact on global culture over the last 150 years. Shown are over 170 works from the animated film industry, including iconic clips as well as lesser-known films. Also on display are puppets, stage sets, storyboard drawings, wire-frame visualizations, and background images. Watch Me Move explores the relationship between animation and film and offers timely insight into the genre as a cultural phenomenon.

Taipei Arena Taiwan has a diverse cultural scene, with art venues ranging from international-caliber concert halls and theaters to makeshift stages on temple plazas. Among Taiwan’s museums is the world-famous National Palace Museum as well as many smaller museums dedicated to different art forms and aspects of Taiwanese culture. Here is a brief selection of upcoming happenings. For more information, please visit the websites of the listed venues.

Jan. 17 ~ Apr. 15 National Taiwan Museum

Impressions of Taiwan Railway in 1970s 鐵道印象•1970s 影像特展 Many a visitor to Taiwan will use the Taiwan railway system to get around the island. It is convenient and clean, efficient and reliable and, most of the time, on time. If you want to learn more about the history of the system, this exhibition will show you how things were in the 1970s, when Taiwan’s economic miracle moved into full swing, with the railways playing a major facilitating role. On display are some 60 photos of steam trains, along with period models of trains, locomotives, and railway stations, including the last remaining roundhouse in use in central Taiwan’s Changhua City.

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Travel in Taiwan

Mar. 30 ~ Apr. 7

AMeiZING World Tour Live 張惠妹AMeiZING世界巡迴演唱會 Though she has, in recent years, somehow paced herself a bit, appearing less often on stage and in public than a decade ago, 39-year-old Zhang Hui-mei (“A-Mei”) is still, for many, Taiwan's undisputed mando-pop queen, with challengers to her throne few and far between. Proving wrong all those who think she is ready for retirement, A-Mei kicked off her AMeiZING World Tour earlier this year with stops in Singapore and Atlantic City. Next up is Taipei, with seven concerts scheduled and tickets in high demand. Her fans can’t wait to see her back on stage, where the energetic and passionate singing star always gives her all.

Jan. 10 ~ Mar. 25

National Palace Museum

Western Mythology and Legends – A Special Exhibition from the Louvre Museum 西方神話與傳說—羅浮宮珍藏展 Two of the world’s greatest museums, the National Palace Museum in Taipei and the Louvre Museum in Paris, have teamed up to bring to Taiwan works

by Western artists on the theme of ancient Greek mythology. A hundred prized pieces from the Louvre Museum, as well as from six other premier institutions in France, are being shown, including ancient Greek pottery, a wall fresco from ancient Pompeii, and precious paintings and sculptures from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries created by masters such as François Boucher, Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and Antonio Canova. For more info, visit http://mediasphere.tw.

Feb. 18 ~ May 13

Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Journey through Jiangnan: A Pivotal Moment in Chen Cheng-po's Artistic Quest 行過江南—陳澄波藝術探索歷程

Venues Taipei Taipei Zhongshan Hall （台北中山堂）

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

Tel: (02) 2381-3137 www.csh.taipei.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: Ximen

Taipei International Convention Center （台北國際會議中心）

Add: 1, Xinyi Rd., Sec.5, Taipei City ( 台北市信義 路五段 1 號 )

Tel: (02) 2725-5200, ext. 3517, 3518 www.ticc.com.tw Nearest MRT Station: Taipei City Hall

National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall（國立中正紀念堂）

In 1926, well-known Taiwanese painter Chen Cheng-po (1895-1947) was the first artist from Taiwan to have a painting (Streets of Chiayi ) featured in Japan's prestigious Imperial Art Exhibition. Chen was a pioneer of modern art in Taiwan, and he devoted his life to education and the development of human culture in his homeland.

After graduating from the Western Painting Department of the Tokyo Art School, he took teaching positions at the Shanghai Art School and Changming School of Art in China, and began to integrate classic Chinese styles into his work in an effort to discover a new way to express the essence of the East. The main works on display in this exhibition are from Chen Cheng-po's Shanghai teaching period, including paintings of figures, nudes, and scenery, as well as valuable ink-painting gifts given by his friends along with related documents among which are works being presented to the public for the first time.

National Concert Hall Feb. 11 ~ Apr. 15

Add: 21 Zhongshan S. Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市中山南 路 21 號 )

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）

Add: 49 Nanhai Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市 南 海路 4 9 號 )

Taipei Fine Arts Museum （台北市立美術館）

Add: 181 Zhongshan N. Rd., Sec. 3, Taipei City ( 台北市中山北 路 3 段 181 號 )

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

Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei（台北當代藝術館） Add: 39 Chang-an W. Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市長 安 西 路 3 9 號 )

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

National Taiwan Science Education Center（台灣科學教育館） Add: 189 Shishang Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市 士商路 189 號 ) Tel: (02) 6610-1234 www.ntsec.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: Shilin

National Taiwan University Sports Center（台大綜合體育館） Add: 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei City ( 臺北市羅斯福路四段一號 ) Tel: (02) 3366-5959 Website: ntusportscenter.ntu.edu.tw

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

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

Tel: (02) 2361-0270 www.nmh.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial Hall

National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts（國立台灣美術館）

National Palace Museum

( 台中市五權 西 路 一段 2 號 )

（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

National Taiwan Museum （國立臺灣博物館）

Add: 2 Wuquan W. Rd., Sec. 1, Taichung City Tel: (04) 2372-3552 www.ntmofa.gov.tw

Tainan Tainan City Cultural Center （台南市立文化中心）

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

Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

Add: 2 Xiangyang Rd., Taipei City

Wonderland: New Contemporary Art from Australia 魔境-澳洲當代新藝術展

( 台北市 襄 陽 路二號 )

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

Kaohsiung

Featuring 45 artworks created by 24 artists and several production teams, this exhibition expresses the dynamic processes now being used to rethink Australia’s identity and its place in the Asia-Pacific region. This is an unusual cross-section showcase of media, art forms, and processes, including found objects sitting next to hand-made sculptures, documentary video next to abstract moving images, and paintings next to interactive installations. In the richly illustrated catalogue created for the exhibition, 22 prominent art critics introduce the historical and cultural contexts within which the artists have evolved their practices.

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 ( 台北市松 壽路 3 號 )

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

National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall （國立國父紀念館）

Add: 505 Ren-ai Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City ( 台北市仁 愛 路 四 段 5 0 5 號 )

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

Taipei Arena（台北小巨蛋） Add: 2 Nanjing E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City ( 台北市 南 京 東 路 4 段 2 號 )

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

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

Add: 67 Wufu 1st Rd., Kaohsiung City ( 高 雄 市五福 一路 67 號 )

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

Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts（高雄市立美術館） Add: 80 Meishuguan Rd., Kaohsiung City ( 高 雄 市美 術館 路 8 0 號 )

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

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

Add: 272 Zhongzheng 4th Rd., Kaohsiung City ( 高 雄 市中正四 路 27 2 號 )

Tel: (07) 531-2560 http://163.32.121.205/ Nearest KMRT Station: City Council

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Travel in Taiwan

TOURISM

Special Events:

What’s On in Taiwan’s National Scenic Areas

By Rick Charette

has so much variation that you can look at it as an island made up of many smaller “islands” of natural and cultural uniqueness, a mosaic in which each local destination is unlike all the others, each a small world unto its own. And to this mosaic is added the distinctiveness of Taiwan’s many smaller offshore islands as well.

Great news for the traveler is that a good deal of this land is contained within national parks and national scenic areas (“NSAs”) which, of course, are each a world apart f rom all the others though not so far as the crow f lies, considering Taiwan’s overall size. The Tourism Bureau administers the 13 NSAs, and the administration of each creates a special menu of events each year that best captures the unique personality of that area.

Some highl ight an NSA’s one-of-a-k ind character ist ics while joining in on nat ional or internat ional happenings, such as Ta iwan’s L antern Fest ival celebrat ions, New

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Travel in Taiwan

Year ’s Eve par t ies (Tr i-Mounta in NSA, Sun Moon L ake NSA), and “f irst sunr ise of the year” celebrat ions (Nor theast & Y ilan Coast NSA, which has a concer t, and East Coast NSA). Others are NSA-specif ic and could be staged nowhere else in the world, such as the Blue Fin Tuna Cultural Fest ival in Dapeng Bay NSA or the br ill iant Al ishan Sunr ise Impression Concer t in high-mounta in Al ishan NSA.

Here are just a few of the many events organized

by NSAs: The Taiwan Hot Spring & Fine-Cuisine Carnival runs f rom October through January, celebrating the blessing of Taiwan with scores of hot-spring locations and the local passion for mineral-spring bathing and good food. Hot-spring resorts, restaurants, and other related businesses in NSAs and other areas present a wide range of special offers, including stay-and-dine offers, special theme menus focused on local produce, organized tours to places of interest, and much more.

Photos/ Vision lnt'l, Tourism Bureau

Taiwan

NATIONAL SCENIC AREAS Each September, the 10,000 People Sun Moon Lake Traverse takes place in the central mountains (Sun Moon Lake NSA), at one of the prettiest lakes you’ll ever come across – or swim across – surrounded by mountain peaks.

There are in fact more than 10,000 swimmers, and this is the only time when swimming is allowed here. This is a crosslake “tour” rather than a competition, slow swimming is the rule, and swimmers f rom around the world participate.

There can be few more soothing experiences than listening to live music on a wide sandy beach, accompanied by the rhythm of lapping, or crashing, ocean waves, silky sun setting in the distance, endless sea before you. The North Coast Ocean Music Festival happens on two days in July (North Coast & Guanyinshan NSA), with one evening and one bay dedicated to classical music, another day and another bay dedicated to rock ‘n’ roll.

The Alishan Firef ly Season – Stepping Out with Alishan’s Firef lies runs f rom the end of March through June (Alishan NSA). Alishan is famous for its alpine forest railway and scenic sunrises, and for its beautif ul and pristine natural environment. A key symbol of its rich ecology is the many f iref lies lighting up the night; 25 of Taiwan’s 56 species are

found here. In early summer, nature lovers can choose f rom a variety of nature tours, including trips to ma jor f iref ly areas, combined with exploration of the local Tsou tribe culture and accommodation in local homestays.

About 400,000 people come to the bustling port of Donggang in south Taiwan each year for the Blue Fin Tuna Cultural Festival, which begins in early May and ends in late June (Dapeng Bay NSA). Donggang, south of Kaohsiung City, is the heart of Taiwan’s bluef in tuna-f ishing industry. Northern Bluef in Tuna gather off Taiwan’s southern tip around the end of May to spawn, and are at their fattest; Taiwan’s catch is the world’s largest. This festival introduces Donggang’s “three culinary treasures,” bluef in tuna, sakura shrimp, and escolar (oilf ish) roe, along with local scenic tourist attractions, with special bicycle outings and excursions to Little Liuqiu, a tiny coral island.

As you can see, there is something for all personalities.

What kind of traveler are you? For more information about Taiwan’s NSAs, visit info.taiwan.net.tw/NSA2006/0717/ index.html (click on the name of an NSA on the map to be redirected to that NSA’s off icial website).

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Travel in Taiwan

FEATURE

Pastoral Greens & Ocean Blues Yilan County; Connected to Taipei, But a World Apart

In Taipei on business or other travel, got an extra day or more to explore, want out of the city to see what else Taiwan has to offer, too busy to handle everything yourself, and looking for an attractive and interesting place to get to and back from quick?

Travel in Taiwan has the answer: Visit Yilan County! By Rick Charette

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Travel in Taiwan

YILAN

Photo/ Wen-jen Fan

Lanyang Museum

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Travel in Taiwan

FEATURE

Pavilion at Wufengqi Falls

Let’s assume you want somebody else to handle everything for you: planning, driving, insurance, even providing a guide. Click on “Travel Suggestions” on the Tourism Bureau’s main website page (English version) and then on “Tour Bus.” This will lead you to the “Taiwan Tour Bus” site (www.taiwantourbus.com). The Tourism Bureau works with local travel f irms to develop package tours to all Taiwan hotspots, including single-day and multi-day outings to Yilan; you get picked up in Taipei and dropped off af ter.

Note that the f irms are also willing to tailor packages when possible.

Perhaps you’d like a little more independence of movement? Can do. We suggest the Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi

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as your base, for a number of reasons: It’s in a lovely sylvan setting, it’s in the famed Jiaoxi hot-springs area and is a f irst-class hot-spring resort, it’s in north Yilan near numerous tourist sites I’d like to recommend, it offers guided tours to (or transport to/f rom) these and other sites, and you’ll get picked up at Jiaoxi’s railway station or inter-city bus station (or stations in Yilan City, your choice). To f ind out how to take a train or inter-city bus, click “Getting Around” on the Tourism Bureau main page. (For details on the hotel, see our “Feature – Stay” article on page 16.)

Recently Travel in Taiwan conducted a two-day Jiaoxi/ Hotel Royal dry-run visit with your needs in mind. What follows are highlight spots we think you’d most like.

Nature Explorations We set off f rom the hotel lobby at 7am for a guided walk to nearby Wufengqi Falls, higher up in the quickly narrowing valley. The trip takes about 2 hours. There are actually three cascading waterfalls, the tallest and uppermost 42m high (closed for safety reasons at time of writing). A walkway with some English signage follows the waterway, dotted with picturesque Chinese-style pavilions.

There’s lots of bird life, and this day we spotted numerous brilliant Formosan blue magpies.

Just down-valley f rom the hotel is the dead-end access road to Paoma (Running Horse) Historic Trail, a branch of a Qing Dynasty Yilan-Wulai-Taipei-Tamsui pioneer trail.

Photos/ Bobby Wu, Tourism Bureau

Here’s

what I would do if I were you. First, go to the Taiwan Tour ism Bureau website (www.taiwan.net.tw) to get the basics on Yilan. You’ll learn it is not far southeast of Taipei, and is roughly triangular in shape, with mountain massifs f raming the Yilan/Lanyang Plain on two sides and the Pacif ic pushing against the third.

The county is small, 63km wide and 74km long. It was long relatively isolated f rom Taipei, reached in modern times by a roundabout rail journey or by a two-hour-plus motor-vehicle drive over rugged mountains or along rugged, zigzagging coast. Today the drive is just 40 minutes, thanks to Freeway No. 5, which shoots right through the mountains. Its 2006 opening has brought a tourist boom. The county remains quite bucolic, relying heavily on farming, f ishing, and tourism, has few conurbations, and little heav y industry.

YILAN The “Running Horse” refers to Japaneseera mounted-off icer patrols. The 1.5km paved road moves up the massif face above Jiaoxi and Yilan Plain; locals take daily walks here, enjoying the great views. They’re even better along the easy-grade trail, which f irst moves into the massif along a steep valley and then makes its way to the massif ’s top and riveting panoramas. Give yourself 3 hours, including the access road.

A boat tour to iconic Guishan (Turtle Mountain) Island from Wushi Harbor is a unique experience. The harbor is by majestic Lanyang Museum, which we’ll visit later on. The eco-preserve island is known for its volcanic activities, and there are military and fishing-village ruins. If you are lucky you can also enjoy whale/dolphin-watching during the trip to or from the island. You must apply one week ahead; your travel firm or hotel can help (for the Chinese form, visit kueishan. necoast-nsa.gov.tw).

Cultural Attractions The young Lanyang Museum (www.l ym.gov.tw) is one of my favorite museums in Taiwan, housed in one of my favorite works of architecture on the island. The structure seems to shoot out of the ground just like the area’s great natural sculptures of stratif ied rock. Inside, the open-

Yilan’s Lanyang Plain with Turtle Island in the background

Yilan Count y remains quite bucolic, rel ying heavil y on farming, fishing, and tourism, has f ew conurbations, and little heav y industr y concept f loors are staggered, cascading like the tiered-rock formations of the coast. The museum explores the heart of Yilan’s people, telling the stor y of its indigenous peoples, pioneers, and modern-day inhabitants, the local geology, farming and f ishing traditions, and the biology of local land and sea.

Twenty-some minutes south of Jiaoxi, at the base of the mountains that overlook the town, is the King Car Whisky Distillery (www.kavalanwhisk y.

com), where the KAVALAN series is craf ted. The grounds here are green, expansive, and immaculate. English guided tours are available, with a 50/50 chance they’ll be led by the lovely, knowledgeable Joanie Tseng, f rom the distillery’s global P.R. team, who studied in England. You start with informative English signboards, view the giant vats, see the whiskies aging in thousands of Jack Daniel’s bourbon casks and oloroso sherry casks, and f inish at the elegant King Car Whisky Castle sampling the line.

King Car Whisky Distillery

Whisky tasting at King Car Whisky Distillery

Lanyang Museum

Lanyang Museum

Please drink responsibly

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FEATURE

Temple Mouth Seafood Restaurant dish Dining at Formosa Pearl restaurant

The trappings are museum-qualit y exquisite, almost ever ything antique, including many of your utensils. The specialt y is seasonal-catch sea food Fish BBQ at Formosa Pearl

Sashimi platter prepared by Formosa Pearl

Culinary Journeys

The Zen Garden Fusion Cuisine restaurant at Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi, with its broad mountain view and sunken Japanese garden, is run by chef Joe Huang, who grew up just a short walk away and loves being back in Yilan. He’s taking the restaurant toward f ully organic, everything Yilan-sourced, working with local farmers and buying himself at local ports. His f usion creations are imaginative – and delicious – and the sushi bar is source of a wonderf ul sensory tour.

Taiwan folk love driving to the coast and eating at seaside port-town seafood restaurants. These are of ten very simply decorated; the key is ingredient freshness, your soon-to-be food swimming in tanks at the entrance. You choose. There are good places at busy, colorf ul Wushi Harbor, beside the Lanyang Museum, but on this trip we tried the Temple Mouth Seafood Restaurant, on the coastal highway about 10 minutes

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north of the harbor, af ter three separate word-of-mouth recommendations. These people were right; the food is hearty and tasty, the f loor-to-ceiling back-wall glass giving pastelblue views of breakers below and Guishan Island beyond. My favorite dish? The meaty crab in miso soup with beancurd.

Though I’ve just placed many an information morsel on your Yilan-travel plate, I’ve lef t far, far more in the kitchen; forest recreation areas, recreational farms, cultural parks, historical sites, eco-preserves, religious sites and celebrations....

Browse through the Tourism Bureau website to learn more.

FORMOSA PEARL ( 掌上明珠)

Add : 102 , Sec. 2 , Dafu Rd., Meicheng Village, Zhuangwei Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣壯圍鄉美城村大福路二段 102 號 ) Tel : ( 03 ) 930 - 8988 Website : www.formosapearl.com KING CAR WHISKY DISTILLERY (金車威士忌酒廠 )

Add : 326 , Sec. 2 , Yuanshan Rd., Yuanshan Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣員山鄉員山路 2 段 326 號 ) Tel : ( 03 ) 922 - 9000 Website : www.kavalanwhisky.com LANYANG MUSEUM ( 蘭陽博物館 )

Add : 750 , Sec. 3 , Qingyun Rd., Toucheng Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣頭城鎮青雲路三段 750 號 ) Tel: ( 03 ) 977 - 9700 Website : www.lym.gov.tw TEMPLE MOUTH SEAFOOD RESTAURANT ( 廟口海產小吃 )

Add : 212 , Sec. 5 , Binhai Rd., Daxi Borough, Toucheng Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣頭城鎮大溪里濱海路五段 212 號 ) (At 123 . 7 km mark on Provincial Highway No. 2 ) Tel : ( 03 ) 978 - 2038 ENGLISH & CHINESE

Guishan Island Joanie Tseng Joe Huang Lin Wen-juan Paoma Historic Trail Wufengqi Falls Wushi Harbor

龜山島 曾鐘誼 黃欽洲 林彣娟 跑馬古道 五峰旗瀑布 烏石港

Photos/ Bobby Wu, Aska Chi

Most of Yilan’s high-end, luxurious dining spots are in its hotels, but Formosa Pearl (www.f ormosapearl.com) is changing things. The dream-made-true of Lin Wen-juan and her husband, the two-story wood-theme restaurant is set in the middle of the plain amidst rice paddies. The trappings are museumquality exquisite, almost everything antique, including many of your utensils. The specialty is seasonal-catch seafood, the menu changing every few months. My favorite selection is the sashimi platter, featuring all-local marine delicacies, some unavailable in Taipei.

BUY

Please drink responsibly

from Land and Sea Gifts Things to Buy on a Trip to Yilan

When thinking of unique gift and souvenir items that best capture the Yilan County character, think of the precious gems from field and blue waters that nature has bestowed. By Rick Charette

These

must suggest just one offering it is Solist, f inished in oloroso gems take many forms. Let’s start with sherry casks, dark and wonderf ully textured (walnut, spices, upscale expressions. The gif t shop at the 5-star almond, vanilla). Note that the distillery's gif t shop/tasting Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi stocks only the best of the best from center supplies convenient sampler sets.

Yilan’s artists and artisans. Many of the hotel’s international guests reveal that the favorite line is hand-craf ted jewelry All of Taiwan’s local areas have their mingchan or “famous made with local coral, followed by a colorful glass-art line products.” Yilan’s are unusually numerous, the ma jority made with local materials, featuring dragons, lions, and edible. Large tourist-oriented shops simply titled mingchan other classic Chinese f igures. Also popular are two ceramicin Chinese are easily found, and art lines made with Yilan clay: one Among Yilan’s famous products are oxusually come in clusters. You’ ll a whimsical series of small seated tongue crisps, preserved kumquats, dried f ind a cluster in downtown Buddhas, the other f ish-shaped Jiaoxi on Sec. 4, Jiaoxi Rd., in platter and cup sets. Next in line are pig liver, dry and salty smoked duck, f ront of Jiaoxi Railway Station, artisanal samples of local produce Sanxing spring onion, and Yilan cake and others in f ront of Yilan in attractive packaging, including City ’s railway station and inter-city bus stations. Among the Yilan-produced teas and a modern version of the traditional most famous of the famous products, brightly packaged for millet wine of the local indigenous peoples. The cloudy wine is gif t presentation, all made w ith the quality produce that silky delicious, with a pleasing hint of sweetness. the Yilan earth and saltwater provides: ox-tongue crisps, preserved kumquats, dried pig liver, dr y and salty smoked The young King Car KAVALAN Whisky Distillery is in duck, Sanxing spring onion, and “the world’s thinnest cake,“ Yilan specif ically because of the clean waters and other called the Yilan cake. pristine natural elements. The KAVALAN line has won many top international honors in recent years, in Scotland, the U.S., and England. These whiskies are sold only in Taiwan (though ENGLISH & CHINESE a ma jor international push is coming), making them rare and 名產 mingchan much appreciated gif ts for spirits lovers. I happen to be a 三星 Sanxing great whisky enthusiast (“too great,” says my wife), and if I 宜蘭餅 Yilan cake

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FEATURE

Outdoor pool at Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi

The Lap of Luxury, in the Lap of Mother Nature If you’ve decided to spend a little time in Yilan County, especially north Yilan, there are numerous accommodation choices offering you luxury and style, hot-spring bathing and fine cuisine, and much more. Among your best options are the Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi and the Evergreen Resort Hotel. By Rick Charette

First,

The exterior has a modern, art deco theme, but the rooms and many other facilities at this hot-spring resort have a decided Japanese minimalist look. Traditional Japanese yukata bathrobe attire is provided, and many guests move about the hotel in this comfortable clothing, even at meals, the hotel having a cozy hidden-away-f rom-the-world feel.

There are many international travelers; Royal Chiao Hsi lays the entire on my last visit about 5% were Westerners, almost all moving about in county at your feet, doing their Japanese costumes. everything but holding your hand

The Royal Chiao Hsi, just outside the hot-springs town of Jiaoxi and its cluster of hot-spring hotels, is the area’s only 5-star facility. It sits at the mouth of a narrow, steep-sided valley that leads to the Wufengqi Falls, a key county attraction. The mouth is above the Lanyang Plain, not level with it, providing inspiring bird’s-eye views of plain, coast, and far-off Guishan (Turtle Mountain) Island f rom the high-ceilinged, glass-wall View Western Restaurant, east-side rooms, and various outdoor pools.

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Each room has a stone mineral-bath tub, looking out over valley or plain, and the Japanese-theme indoor/outdoor spa complex set out before the View restaurant is tiered, like a cascading waterfall. There’s a f ull range of exercise and game facilities, and a regular schedule of classes for DIY craf ts and other f un – some of my crew on my last visit attended a yoga

Photos/ Bobby Wu

if you’re the type who spends a lot of time inside the hotel, luxurious Royal Chiao Hsi has everything needed to keep you happy and purring contentedly. Second, if you’re the type who spends maximum time outside exploring, the management lays the entire county at your feet, doing everything but holding your hand.

STAY

Japanese-style service

Tatami room with mountain view

session at 10pm while I was in the reception area watching the regular 9pm cultural-arts show, that night featuring Bei jing opera. Next day I played a round of “golf” at the hotel’s mini-course, a Japanese-invented version with fairways and holes with croquet-type mallets used. Tons of f un.

If you’re intent on getting out and exploring Yilan’s other treasures, the hotel offers guided walks to nearby Wufengqi Falls, arranges half/f ull-day tours, and will drive you to any location in Yilan County, picking you up af ter (including, of course, all the attractions visited in our main Feature article).

Note as well that the Jiaoxi Golf Course is nearby.

Another

f ine accommodation choice is the Evergreen Resort Hotel (Jiaosi).

While the boutique-style Royal Chiao Hsi seeks to blend in with its green environs, the Evergreen, in the town’s heart, is a large, bold statement of grandeur, towering above all else save for its close-in mountain backdrop. The rooms are Japanese, Western, or a mix of both, and all have stone hot-spring tubs.

Get a room on a higher f loor to ensure unobstructed views of the mountain line behind and/or the plain and sea before.

By far this hotel’s best feature, in my view, is the sprawling roof top spa and swimming pool complex, where you might well

Modern-design lobby

decide to spend entire days. It’s almost as big as a soccer pitch, and is open-concept though there is a glass dividing wall in the middle and half is covered from rain and sun, with all pools within sight of each other save for the isolated men’s and women’s nude-bathing hot-spring pools in the sauna complex.

Don’t miss the colorful, soothing herbal, persimmon, and orchid bathing pools. In the middle of the roof is a chic, comfortable open-fronted wood-theme bar that is fully stocked with Western brand names and has sports on a big mounted screen.

Heaven, you’ll feel, at just-below mountaintop height.

Apart from the two hotels described above, there are many more excellent accommodation options in Yilan County.

For a complete list, visit eng.taiwan.net.tw and check under “Accommodation.”

HOTEL ROYAL CHIAO HSI ( 礁溪老爺大酒店 )

Add : 69 , Wufeng Rd., Dazhong Village, Jiaoxi Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣礁溪鄉大忠村 五峰路 69 號 ) Tel : ( 03 ) 988 - 6288 Website : www.hrjhotel.com.tw EVERGREEN RESORT HOTEL (JIAOSI) ( 長榮鳳凰酒店 ( 礁溪 ))

Add : 77 , Jiankang Rd., Jiaoxi Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣礁溪鄉健康路 77 號 ) Tel : ( 03 ) 910 - 0988 Website : www.evergreen-hotels.com

Rooftop spa and swimming pool complex at Evergreen Resort Hotel (Jiaosi)

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FEATURE

Five Great Bus Tour Options How to Explore Taiwan Conveniently if Time Is Limited Taiwan may not be one of the biggest places found on your world map, but knowledgeable long-term foreign residents enthuse about the tremendous variation of its natural and people-created environments. By Rick Charette

Northeast Coast

you’re on the island and looking to get out of the city and explore a little, taking advantage of that f ree day or two, just about every tourist spot in the land is quickly accessible to you. Your answer is the Taiwan Tour Bus ser vice (www.taiwantourbus.com.tw), run by bus-tour outf its vetted by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. The f irms handle everything, including insurance. Here’s a selected Englishlanguage tour sampler for you, with Taipei your launch point and pickup/drop-off at ma jor hotels and public facilities such as Taipei Railway Station.

North – Wulai A prime attraction for many foreign visitors is the cultures of Taiwan’s many indigenous peoples. Wulai, 30 minutes south of central Taipei, is the northernmost settlement of the Atayal, Taiwan’s northernmost tribe. Situated in a deep gorge, Wulai it is also a hot-spring resort.

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On this half-day tour, offered each af ternoon by two f irms, you take a ride on an old logging-industry mini-railway, see soaring Wulai Waterfall, and take in indigenous-culture displays and a song-and-dance performance.

Northeast – Jiufen and Jinguashi There are both half-day and f ull-day tours to these two picturesque former mining towns clinging to high slopes off the coast, not far southeast of Keelung City. Jiufen’s heyday was the 1890s~1930s, and today its quaint, of ten steep streets Jiufen are populated with touristoriented food-sellers, eateries, and teahouses. Jinguashi’s Gold Ecological Park is a history buff ’s delight, where you can visit old Japanese-built heritage buildings and enjoy a mine-tunnel experience. This was also site of the infamous WW II Kinkaseki POW camp, where Allied soldiers were forced to work the mines.

Photos/ Tourism Bureau

If

BUS TOURS Central – Sun Moon Lake

Taroko Gorge

Taiwan’s vetted bus-tour enterprises offer so many options that not all are listed on the Taiwan Tour Bus website. What you do is go to their individual websites. For example, the main website lists a one-day outing to famed Sun Moon Lake in the central mountains, with Taichung City pickup, but go to the Edison Travel Service website (www.edison.com.tw) and you’ll see that all tours are in English, and it has a two-day Taipei-launch Sun Moon Lake excursion. You stay overnight at a lakeside hotel, visit such iconic attractions as imposing Wenwu Temple and Ci’en Pagoda, and ride the long, thrilling cable-car “ropeway” to nearby Formosan Aboriginal Sun Moon Lake Culture Village.

Wulai

Sun Moon Lake

East – Taroko Gorge The Taiwan Tour Bus website lists a number of single-day excursions to fabulous Taroko Gorge, Taiwan’s premier natural wonder. All the usual travelwriting superlatives – “magnif icent,” “awe-inspiring,” “incredible” – are f ully justif ied in describing this marvel, where 250-million-year-old marble-rich walls at times soar up a thousand feet Taroko Gorge along the main (lower) gorge, which stretches 19km. For the Taipei-launch tours you are f lown to Hualien City, take a bus to/f rom the gorge, and come back via a picturesque coast-and-valley train ride, with bus drop-off. In the gorge, you visit such dramatic sites as the Eternal Spring Shrine, Swallow Grotto, and Tunnel of Nine Turns.

South – Kenting and Kaohsiung Sunny Kenting National Park, sometimes characterized as Taiwan’s California/Big Sur, takes in much of the island’s south-tip peninsula.

Kaohsiung, a history-rich harbor metropolis, is Taiwan’s second largest city. The Taiwan Tour Bus website offers a number of single-day Kenting tours starting on the peninsula (no English guide); on Edison’s site you’ll f ind a two-day Taipei-launch tour, during which you ride the island’s impressive High Speed Rail. Trip highlights include Kenting’s world-class biodiversity and the f irst-rate National Museum of Kaohsiung Marine Biology and Aquarium.

A f inal note of advice: If possible, avoid weekend/holiday travel, when all tourist sites are markedly busier.

Love River in Kaohsiung

ENGLISH & CHINESE

Atayal Tribe Ci'en Pagoda Eternal Spring Shrine Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village Gold Ecological Park Jinguashi Jiufen Kenting National Park National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium Sun Moon Lake Swallow Grotto Taroko Gorge Tunnel of Nine Turns Wenwu Temple Wulai Wulai Waterfall

泰雅族 慈恩塔 長春祠 九族文化村 黃金博物園區 金瓜石 九份 墾丁國家公園 國立海洋生物博物館 日月潭 燕子口 太魯閣峽谷 九曲洞 文武廟 烏來 烏來瀑布

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Cof fee farmer and cof fee shop owner Liu Qing-song

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Photo/ Bobby Wu

FOOD JOURNEY

COFFEE

Fresh Nutty Flav rs

T asting T aiwan’s Very Own Coffee at Gukeng Taiwan is a country known f or its world-class teas. Few people outside the country, however, are aware that coff ee is cultivated here too, albeit on a much smaller scale. If you want to learn f irst-hand about home-grown coff ee while sipping a cup or two, your best bet is the township of Gukeng in southern Taiwan. By Owain Mckimm

The

sun has set over the Huashan area in Gukeng Township, and the coffee shops dotting the winding mountain road are lit up with neon signs and fairy lights. It is a cool January evening in the hills of southern Taiwan, and we are at the Red Cherry High Quality Café, owned by coffee expert Dai Jun-ming, sitting outside listening to the grind and crackle of one of his small roasting machines. It has been a long day, with more cups of coffee than I’d usually drink in a week, but the smell of roasting beans emanating f rom the roaster has something deep and alchemic about it, making me think just one more cup might be a good idea, even if it means not sleeping for a few days.

Photos/ Maggie Song, Sunny Su

Gukeng coffee is known for its smooth, mild taste, low acidity, and a lightness which allows for a f resh nutty f lavor to emerge. The beans grown here are of the Arabica variety and, according to one farmer we had spoken to earlier in the day, have characteristics similar to Brazilian and Kenyan coffee. Dai explains, though, that the amount of roasting also noticeably affects the f lavor. Af ter a few minutes in the roaster the coffee beans start to audibly “pop,” and Dai says that at this point he can accurately judge the quality and characteristics of the beans (he has won international awards for his roasting skills), and knows just how much more roasting is needed for optimum f lavor.

Coffee trees were f irst planted in Gukeng in the early 1930s by the Japanese, who ruled Taiwan f rom 1895 to 1945, and before long around 600 hectares were dedicated to growing coffee, with most of the produce being sold as a luxury item in Japan.

In the latter half of the last century, however, the coffee trade in Gukeng waned. Coffee was just too expensive for the local market, and the international one proved too competitive for the shrinking number of coffee farmers.

“Just before the year 2000, there were only about three coffee shops selling coffee in Huashan and only one in Hebaoshan, Gukeng’s other main coffee-growing area,” says Dai. “In 2003 we had the f irst ever Taiwan International Coffee Festival here, but few knew about it. The next year, though, the organizers stepped up their advertising

lIS T

Coffee cherries have very little flesh, and though sweet to the taste, the flesh only provides a brief diversion before hitting the sizable coffee bean campaign, and a commercial for Mr. Brown Coffee (a popular Taiwan canned-coffee brand) was also shot here. Af ter that things just exploded.” The 2004 coffee festival earned the township f ive times more money than the f irst, and by 2008 the number of visitors attending the festival had quadrupled.

Though the number f luctuates, Dai estimates that there are now over 90 coffee shops in Huashan alone, though not all of them grow their own coffee beans.

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FOOD JOURNEY

Earlier

“When I was a child, there was no real candy for us to eat around here, so we would go and steal cof fee cherries and eat them because they ’re so sweet, and there were cof fee trees ever y where,” Liu said. “We’d take the beans and dr y them in the sun, wait until our parents went to work and then roast them in a big cooking pot on the stove. We’d crush the beans w ith a millstone, and put the grounds in a teapot, add some sugar, then drink the cof fee out of a rice bowl.” Liu said the reason he sw itched f rom tea grow ing to cof fee grow ing was because of these early childhood memories. Af ter our cof fee, Liu took us down to v isit his plantation.

“The trees start to f lower around February, and continue f lowering until about May,” he explained. Af ter pollination, the coffee cherry takes 6-8 months to grow, fatten and ripen.

On the day of our visit, Liu’s coffee trees had a mixture of green, unripe cherries and ripe ones of a deep red. He picked a red one for us to taste. Coffee cherries have very little f lesh, and though sweet to the taste, the f lesh only provides a brief diversion before hitting the sizable coffee bean. Because of the staggered nature of the f lowering the cherries ripen at different times, so they must be picked painstakingly by hand. Af ter picking, the beans are squeezed out of the cherry and put into a tub to ferment overnight.

This breaks down the slippery pulp that still clings to the beans. Af ter fermentation they are washed and then dried in the sun for a week – though it can sometimes take up to half a month depending on the weather. When the water content of the beans has dropped to around 12% they are put through a machine to remove the dry outer layer of parchment. Liu can identif y just how much moisture is in a bean by judging its color – a skill that he assured me comes with experience.

The beans are then ready to be roasted.

“In Taiwan, cof fee grows best at altitudes between 400m and 1300m,” he said. “In Gukeng we are lucky that the climate is ver y similar to Jamaica’s Blue Mountain area, where their famous cof fee is grown. The one dif ference is that our soil doesn’t have the same volcanic composition as theirs does, and so our cof fee tends to be less chocolaty.”

Liu har vests his cof fee between December and March. The higher the altitude, the later the cof fee cherries tend to ripen; Liu’s plantation is at an altitude of 700m, but on a farm only 300m below his the har vesting starts around September.

Liu explained that even though Gukeng coffee is famous in Taiwan, you’ll be hard pressed to f ind it sold anywhere other than the local coffee shops. This is because most of the land in Gukeng is used to plant more prof itable betelnut trees. Many farmers even plant betel-nut trees on coffeegrowing land to protect the sun-shy coffee trees f rom direct sunlight. Liu estimates that there’s only around 80 hectares of coffee-growing land in all of Gukeng Township (out of an island-wide total of around 1,000 hectares). Furthermore, Taiwanese coffee counts for less than a tenth of all coffee drunk in Taiwan, and Gukeng’s for only a f raction of that.

in the day we had v isited Liu Qingsong, the owner of Key Café, who has 1.4 hectares of cof fee grow ing on the slope below his cof fee shop. We sat on Liu’s veranda overlooking the Yunlin County plains – a v iew that, when night falls, is quite spectacular – and en joyed a cup of his f reshly roasted cof fee. Liu was a tea farmer for 17 years before trading his tea bushes for cof fee trees in 1999.

Photos/ Maggie Song

The smell of roasting beans emanating f rom the roaster has something deep and alchemic about it

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COFFEE

After

visiting Liu we stopped for lunch at the Sun and Moonshine Café, where the owner, Lai Song-zhi, suggested that we try his coffee hotpot – a Gukeng twist on the popular Taiwanese dish. For the broth he mixes espresso with soy sauce, sugar, and cornf lower, adds water and a few freshly roasted coffee beans, f ills your pot with the mixture, provides you with a heat source, vegetables and meat, and away you go. He also suggested we add some of his Gukeng coffee liqueur, which gave the dish an additional kick – as if the amount of caffeine already in it wasn’t suff icient!

Cof fee exp er t Dai Jun -ming

SUN & MOONSHINE CAFÉ (山妍慕夏莊園咖啡 )

In the evening, as we ref lect on the day’s events at the Red Cherry High Quality Café, we suddenly realize the hour is late. Some of the coffee shops here stay open until 2am to allow visitors to feast on the night views, but for us there’s a long drive back to Taipei ahead. Happily, however, af ter a full day sampling the best of Gukeng coffee we won’t have to worry about falling asleep at the wheel!

Add : 55 - 1 , Huashan Village, Gukeng Township, Yunlin County ( 雲林縣古坑鄉華山村 55 - 1 號 ) Tel : ( 05 ) 590 - 0111

GETTING THERE:

WEIYENA COMPOUND RESTAURANT (維野納複合式餐飲 )

From Taipei, take a train to the town of Douliu, then transfer to a Taisi Bus Co. bus headed for Shiqiao and get off at Huashan bus stop. There are only two buses each day, one at 7 : 30 am and one at 3 pm. Alternatively, get a taxi at Douliu (about NT$ 400 from Douliu to Huashan; drivers usually charge NT$ 2 , 000 for a half day).

If you drive yourself, take National Highway No. 1 to Yunlin System Interchange, then take Provincial Highway No. 78 east and exit at Gukeng Interchange, getting on Provincial Highway No. 3 and then changing to County Highway No. 210 to Huashan.

KEY CAFÉ ( 重點咖啡 )

Add : 1 , Huashan Village, Gukeng Township, Yunlin County ( 雲林縣古坑鄉華山村 1 號 ) Tel : ( 05 ) 590 - 0130 RED CHERRY HIGH QUALITY CAFÉ (紅果精品咖啡 )

Add : 35 - 2 , Huashan Village, Gukeng Township, Yunlin County ( 雲林縣古坑鄉華山村 35 - 2 號 ) Tel : ( 05 ) 590 - 1799 Add : No 1 - 6 , Taoyuan Rd, Huashan Village, Gukeng Township, Yunlin County ( 雲林縣古坑鄉華山桃源路 1 - 6 號 ) Tel : ( 05 ) 590 - 0203 ENGLISH & CHINESE

Dai Jun-ming Gukeng Township Douliu Hebaoshan Huashan

戴圳明 古坑鄉 斗六 荷苞山 華山

Lai Song-zhi Liu Qing-song Shiqiao Taisi Bus Co.

賴松志 劉慶松 石橋 台西客運

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Travel in Taiwan

THE BEST BIKE ROUTES

From Lakeside to Seaside From Lakeside to Seaside Cycling through Kaohsiung

Taiwan’s second-largest city prides itself on being a cycler-friendly metropolis. An extensive network of dedicated bikeways and a wide variety of attractions along these paths make Kaohsiung a place worth exploring on two wheels. By Steven Crook

Cycling through Kaohsiung Taiwan’s second-largest city prides itself of being a cycler-friendly metropolis. An extensive network of dedicated bikeways and a wide variety of attractions along these paths make Kaohsiung a place worth exploring on two wheels. By Steven Crook

Bikeway along Love River

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Travel in Taiwan

Photo/ Maggie Song

KAOHSIUNG

27

Travel in Taiwan

THE BEST BIKE ROUTES

The

cleaning-and-greening of Kaohsiung has been one of Taiwan's great success stories of the past 20 years. Formerly a bastion of steel-making, shipbuilding, and other heavy industries, this city has leapt up the livability rankings thanks to sterling environmental protection efforts and ma jor investments in public transportation, sporting, and recreational facilities.

Cycling from one side of the urban core to the other no longer means enduring exhaust fumes and inconsiderate drivers. Thanks to an ever-growing network of bike trails (501km as of late 2011), pedal-power has become the best way to explore a city which, for all its skyscrapers and malls, has preserved a good amount of its fascinating past.

Following the merger of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County in late 2010, the municipality now stretches all the way from the ocean to the southern slopes of Yushan (Jade Mountain), Taiwan's highest mountain. Some districts of greater Kaohsiung – rural Meinong, for example – are worthwhile cycling destinations in their own right. However, for this article Travel in Taiwan will stay in the urban core and tackle some of the routes described on the city government's informative and multilingual website Kaohsiung Travel Online (htt p://khh.travel /en/theme /Bike.aspx).

Entrance of Dragon Pagoda

Starting

f rom Lotus Lake in Zuoying District, we pedaled southward along Love River, all the way to the True Love Ferry Pier – a distance of 31.2km – and then on to the Former British Consular Residence, a 132-year-old landmark that overlooks the mouth of Kaohsiung's busy harbor.

The bicycles we used were rented f rom a station along Kaohsiung City Government's C-Bike network (www.c-bike.com.tw).

Lotus Lake has been drawing tourists for decades, and arriving on a typical winter morning – which in south Taiwan means gentle sunshine and comfortable temperatures – it wasn't hard to see why. This 42-hectare body of water is perfectly complemented by nearby hills, but it's the surrounding religious architecture which makes it truly special. If a criticism can be made, it's that there aren't many lotuses in Lotus Lake!

Af ter renting our bikes at the rental station on the eastern shore, we headed to the lake’s northern end to visit the Confucius Temple. It's said to be the largest Conf ucian shrine in Taiwan, and if you have a particular interest in the sage and his disciples, you'll learn a lot f rom the information panels here.

Heading south along the western shore, we made Yuandi Temple our next stop. But instead of going inside, we headed out along the nearby pier toward Lotus Lake's most striking landmark, a 22m-high statue of the Lord of the North Lake's . He's believed to take a special interest in the well-being of butchers, sailors, and children, and to keep his followers safe f rom f ire.

Bikeway at Lotus Lake

Pier-2 Art Center

28 28

Travel in Taiwan Travel in Taiwan

KAOHSIUNG

Qiming Temple is just 400 meters away, and as I got close I was struck by how colorf ul it is, even by the ebullient standards of Taiwan's folk temples. Inside, a memorable statue of the general-become-god Guan Gong holds center stage. He's depicted with a dark red face, a f ull beard, and an unforgiving countenance. The pedestrian bridge here leads to the Spring and Autumn Pavilions and then on to Wuli Pavilion, the closest you can get to the middle of the lake without swimming or boarding a boat.

The lake's single most popular attraction is in its southwestern corner, near the wall and gate that are all that remains of the old prefectural capital of Fengshan. The seven-story Dragon and Tiger Pagodas are reached via a zigzag walkway, the sharp changes in direction intended to throw visiting evil spirits off track. The towers themselves are guarded by a huge blue-and-green dragon and crouching

tiger at the base. Buddhists believe that going in through the dragon’s throat and emerging via the tiger’s mouth brings good luck; we did just that, before taking a quick look at Zhen Fushe, a long-closed Earth God shrine notable for its aged, delicate door-god paintings. The tiny temple, located at the intersection of Beizitou St. and Shengli Rd., is a national historic site.

Then

it was along the southern shore of Lotus Lake and over the ra ilway l ine on a br idge built especially for cycl ists. Turning lef t on the other side would have brought us to the Protogenic Plants Garden.

This park boasts an extensive collection of indigenous f lora and is a must-see for anyone interested in botany.

We turned r ight, followed the ra ilway l ine, and then turned lef t onto X inzhuang 1st Rd. Af ter a bout 20 minutes follow ing this road and then X inzhuangzi Rd., we turned r ight onto the bike path r unning beside Love R iver. The tree-shaded path here, along the nor thern sect ion of the r iver, leads through resident ial areas and a number of communit y parks. The scener y changes signif icantly f ur ther south, along the middle sect ion of the r iver, where you can f ind three d ist inct ive sites.

The seven-story Dragon and Tiger Pagodas are reached via a zigzag walkway, the sharp changes in direction intended to throw visiting evil spirits off track Lord of the North Pole

Public art at Pier-2 Art Center

Dragon and Tiger Pagodas

Guan Gong

Guangrong Pier

Public art at Love River

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Travel in Taiwan

Photos/ Maggie Song, Sunny Su

In the modest shrine directly beneath the base, we found the snake and turtle icons which symbolize the god's faithf ul servants. The former is especially lifelike; it's sometimes mistaken by foreign visitors for a living serpent, perhaps because it's kept in a glass case beside which worshipers leave real eggs as offerings.

THE BEST BIKE ROUTES The f irst of these, if you're coming from the is a Lovenorth, River Bikeway park area called Heart of Love River, at the intersection of Bo’ai 1st and Tongmeng 2nd roads. This stirring conf luence of shining water and gleaming steel is an ecological-architectural attraction that's particularly impressive at night.

Less than 1km downstream, Kaohsiung Hakka Culture Park has a bilingual museum and a theater; get a Chinesespeaker to call (07) 313-7878 for details on the daily shows. At the time of writing, the museum was closed for renovation, but it should reopen in mid-March. Do go inside if you can; expect to spend an hour poring over the fascinating collection of old-style agricultural tools, f urniture, household utensils, and ritual items.

Anyone with an interest in industrial heritage will thrill at the sight of Zhongdu Tangrong Brick Kiln and its twin octagonal smokestacks. Between 1899 and 1992 this kiln produced up to three million bricks and tiles per month.

Located on the corner of Zhonghuaheng and Tongmeng 3rd roads, it's now an open-air museum open to the public.

Reaching

Photos/ Maggie Song

the mouth of Love River, we turned west and began exploring Hamasen, part of Yancheng District. Hamasen – the name is a Taiwanese version of the Japanese toponym – developed rapidly during the Japanese colonial era (1895~1945) because of its proximity to Kaohsiung's harbor. As a result of the city's center of gravity shif ting to the north and east in recent decades, the neighborhood has retained much of its old character.

Several of Hamasen's disused warehouses have been put to new uses. One that used to store bananas before they were shipped to Japan is now a popular venue for wedding parties. Another now houses Pier-2 Art Center ( pier-2.khcc. gov.tw), a space where artists create and display their works.

Train buffs will like the new Takao Railway Museum (takao. railway.tw), located beside what used to be Kaohsiung Harbor Railway Station.

Xiziwan, on the coast just north of Kaohsiung Harbor, is dominated by a steep ridge that forms part of Shoushan, a small mountain crisscrossed by hiking trails and famous for its lively troupes of Formosan Rock Macaques. Our f inal stop, the Former British Consular Residence (www.britishconsulate.com.tw), is atop this ridge, and can be reached either by cycling around the small f ishing harbor on Kaohsiung Harbor’s north side or taking the tunnel that leads to the main campus of National Sun Yat-sen University.

The off icial home of the British empire's diplomatic representative in south Taiwan between 1879 and 1897, the residence is a spacious single-story redbrick dwelling with superb views of the harbor and the Taiwan Strait. The restaurant/bar/coffee shop here is an excellent place to wind up any Kaohsiung tour, and af ter more than 35km of pedaling, we felt we deserved our ref reshments.

Fortunately, we didn't have to go all the way back to Lotus Pond to give back the bicycles, as C-Bike bicycles can be returned to any of the 50 off icial rental points. All of

Sunset at Xiziwan

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KAOHSIUNG

HSR Zuoying Station Confucius Temple Lotus Lake

Bike Rental Station

Dragon and Tiger Pagodas

Protogenic Plants Garden X 1s inzh t R ua d. ng

KMRT Ecological District Station Xinzh

uangzi

Kaohsiung

Rd.

Heart of Love River

Kaohsiung Hakka Culture Park Shoushan

Zhongdu Tangrong Brick Kiln

Love River

C-Bike bicycles can be returned to any of the 50 official rental points; all of these stations are fully automated and function 24/7

Xiziwan

KMRT Sizihwan Station Pier-2 Art Center

Former British Consular Residence

Bike Rental Station

Kaohsiung Harbor

these stations are f ully automated and f unction 24/7. If you run into problems, there's a station with helpf ul staff at True Love Pier (open 10am-9pm daily).

The C-Bike system has other advantages, too. Twenty of the bike-hire stations are ad jacent to KMRT stations; others are at museums, parks, and other locations f requented by tourists. The instructions are in both Chinese and English.

You can pay by credit card or Kaohsiung I Pass Card; get one of the latter if you're going to be in town for a while, as they can also be used to pay for bus and KMRT rides. However you pay, the f irst hour is f ree; af ter that, each 30-minute period costs NT$20 if you're using a credit card, NT$10 if you've an I Pass Card.

The C-Bike website lists rental-station locations and other details. The green-and-white bikes are suitable even for taller individuals (I am 181 cm, and found my ride quite comfortable once I'd ad justed the seat). The bikes come equipped with baskets, but no locks or helmets are provided.

If you want to rent a bike suitable for longer distances, rougher surfaces, or a larger body, try the Giant Bicycle Store at the western end of Qingnian 2nd Road, near the mouth of Love River; tel: (07) 241-3040, open 10am–9.30pm daily.

Whether your approach to bicycling is slow and ever so easy or with a bit of sweat-inducing exercise in mind, you're bound to have a great time in Kaohsiung.

True Love Ferry Pier

Fisherman’s Wharf

Qijin Island

ENGLISH & CHINESE

Confucius Temple Dragon and Tiger Pagodas Earth God Fengshan Former British Consular Residence Guan Gong Hamasen Heart of Love River Kaohsiung Hakka Culture Park Lord of the North Pole Lotus Lake Love River Meinong National Sun Yat-sen University Pier- 2 Art Center Protogenic Plants Garden Qiming Temple Shoushan Spring and Autumn Pavilions Takao Railway Museum True Love Ferry Pier Wuli Pavilion Xiziwan Yuandi Temple Yancheng District Yushan Zhen Fushe Zhongdu Tangrong Brick Kiln Zuoying District

孔廟 龍虎塔 土地公 鳳山 打狗英國領事館 關公 哈瑪星 愛河之心 高雄市新客家文化園 北極大帝 蓮池潭 愛河 美濃 國立中山大學 駁二藝術特區 原生植物園 啟明堂 壽山 春秋閣 打狗鐵道故事館 真愛碼頭 五里亭 西子灣 元帝廟 鹽埕區 玉山 鎮福社 中都唐榮磚窯廠 左營區

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Travel in Taiwan

ENJOYMENT

Visiting Unique Cafés and Teashops in the City Whatever you might be craving, it is never too far away in Taipei, a city of ultra-convenience. Each corner here presents novel sights, sounds, and smells, and the many one-of-a-kind cafés and teashops are an integral part of experiencing the city. By Jennif er Turek

Tea

has always been an intrinsic element of Taiwan’s culture; teashops continue to be popular, although the younger generation is passionate about coffee and cafés seem to have popped up on every block in recent years. As hot drinks are readily available just about anywhere you go in the city, perhaps your toughest choice is simply deciding where to fulfill your desires. If you are seeking to sample some fine tea from the island’s mountain areas or the best in imported coffees, indulge in decadent desserts, and enjoy quality light meals that are inexpensive, look no further than the numerous establishments serving tea and coffee.

2010 for the strikingly delicate design of these cans. The cans are available for purchase, as are smaller containers of loose tea.

In addition, Le Salon offers resplendent gif t boxes and earthenware teapot travel sets that make great souvenirs. The boxes have been designed by the owner of the tea shop, who has spent a lot of time studying the art of dessert-making in France. The shop's special lighting highlights cookies, cakes, quiches, chocolates, macaroons, and a shiny glass counter with rows of other delicious, mouthwatering items. The distinctive design of the Strawberry Queen (NT$180), specially made in the shape of a heart for Valentine's Day, is most impressive, but every dessert looks so tasty it is hard to choose just one.

Fortunately, a variety of combinations are available starting at NT$1,080 for two.

Located in the heart of Taipei, down a narrow lane in a thriving tourist area centered on Yongkang Street, is the young Le Salon, a unique shop of understated décor Le Salon has twelve tables on two narrow f loors. The rich, bursting with French-style desserts and dark f urniture and mauve purple walls, the latter f ree of art chic Italian chocolates complemented with or other decorations, create a peacef ul and classy minimalist naturally grown Taiwan teas. ambiance. Fresh greenery covers one end of each room, while One of the many warm and friendly servers, strikingly dressed the other end features a bright window allowing leisurely viewing of the bustling lane out f ront. in all-black attire, immediately presents you with a dainty ceramic cup of steaming tea to sample while you are browsing the floor-to-ceiling menu of the forty to fifty varieties available.

The individually bagged teas are kept in long, black tin cans that are plain yet elegant, and that are distinctively labeled in every color of the rainbow. The Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP) honored Le Salon with its Good Design Award in

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LE SALON (小茶栽堂)

Add : 8 , Lane 4 , Yongkang St., Taipei City ( 台北市永 康街 4 巷 8 號 ) Tel : (02 ) 2395 -1558

Ga rden ia The heav enly gu rt Ice Oolong Tea Yo e St ra w berr y Crea m and th Pa st ry and Bl ac k Oolong Gi nger Tea.

Photos/ Maggie Song

s M y f avor ite

COFFEE & TEA

O'Sweet,

another centrally located establishment, is only a f ive-minute stroll f rom MRT Zhongxiao Dunhua Station. In a pleasant, exciting shopping area, it opens in the late af ternoon. It is an inviting place to plunk down your bags and relax with some delicious food treats and a rejuvenating cup of hot coffee.

The shop has an extensive menu with an abundance of light snacks, including eight different tortilla options, twelve types of focaccia sandwich, waff les, and several salad choices. Along with a wide selection of coffees, teas, sorbets, and juices, there are classic desserts such as cheesecakes, brownies, and ice cream.

The one-of-a-kind Caketail (NT$220) is what makes O'Sweet stand out f rom the other cafés in the immediate area. In three easy steps, you can create your very own dessert, with endless possibilities. Start by choosing one of six f lavors of chiffon cake, add three f ruits f rom the plethora available, then select one sauce and one f lavor of ice cream to top it off. The selection process doesn't end there, however, as you choose either an elegant martini glass, a tall wine glass, or a sparkling champagne f lute to hold your masterpiece.

intricately carved f ruits f rom the cake and the sauce to ensure a f lawless appearance for your work of art.

Deciding on the ingredients for a Caketail can be almost impossible, but thankf ully the shop makes things easier for you by creating set pieces that have become old favorites with regulars. One is the Hawaii Fall in Love, which contains vanilla chiffon cake, banana, pineapple, kiwi, strawberry, custard sauce, and vanilla ice cream. O'Sweet's newest creation is the Fairy Tale Paradise, with vanilla chiffon cake, strawberry jelly, panna cotta, melon, banana, vanilla ice cream, chocolate cookie, cotton candy, custard sauce, and cream.

O'Sweet's dining area has seating for 45 and a delightf ully simple decor. Af ter three successf ul years, a new location will open this April in the Xinyi District, in the same building as the eslite bookstore.

The one-of-a-kind Caketail is what makes O'Sweet stand out. In three easy steps, you can create your very own dessert, with endless possibilities The lively wait staff, clad in sparkling-white dress shirts with sleeves rolled up to their elbows, black vests, and fashionable fedoras, are patient and helpf ul during the decision-making process.

Observing these artistes craf ting your visually enticing Caketail is almost as good as eating it.

These master dessert-makers take care to keep the

O'SWEET ( 元甜 )

Add : 45 , Lane 51 , Sec. 1 , Da'an Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市大 安 路 1 段 51巷 45 號 ) Tel : (02 ) 8771-7812

M y f avo r ites

Wa rm, sw eet apple tea a nd m v ery ow n y Ca keta il m a sterpiece .

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Travel in Taiwan

ENJOYMENT

r ites M y f avo v a riety el, w it h a ag to Ch il i B nd the T he Toma cheeses, a m a re c e d a of homem rr y tea. rm Mu lbe sw eet, w a

With

Taipei 101 towering above, Good Cho's, located in the middle of what formerly was one of the numerous military dependents’ communities built in Taipei af ter the Chinese Civil War (and saved f rom demolition), is constantly packed with patrons and has been so ever since its opening just over one year ago. The place has acquired an exceptional reputation, and is especially popular with local artists.

per serving. All ingredients used, except the f lour, are f rom Taiwan, with the delicious f ruits purchased directly f rom farmers around the island.

There are also bagel sandwiches, crisp salads, homemade sweets, f resh yogurts, cookies, scones, coffees, teas, juices, and beers. The bagel menu changes daily, so be sure to drop in more than once. Note, however, that Good Cho’s is so popular it is a good idea to make reservations a few weeks in advance if possible if you want to guarantee yourself a table.

This warm, family-style café, with a décor in which wood is prominent, has indoor seating for nearly 100 guests; yet not one set of tables and chairs is the same, giving the room a very homey feeling. There is an open-concept kitchen and prep area, allowing visitors to view staff at work. Many customers come specif ically to watch how Good Cho’s popular bagels are prepared. For those on the move, bagels to go are offered.

Planning a f ull day or a lazy af ternoon around a visit to Good Cho's is an excellent idea, as there is no shortage of things to do in the surrounding area. There are plenty of books and magazines to read at the café, along with the entertainment of observing the artsy Taipei scene and the crowds of faithf ul regulars.

Good Cho's creates bagels in ten to twelve f lavors each day, such as red bean, mulberry, and banana chocolate, ranging f rom NT$30 to NT$60 each. Freshly made cream cheese is available in a variety of tastes, starting at NT$20

Good Cho's features f urniture and f ittings made f rom recycled materials. It also has a guitar shop with handmade instruments as well as a display area with continually changing art exhibits.

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Travel in Taiwan

Photos/ Maggie Song

GOOD CHO'S ( 好丘)

Add : 54 Songqin St., Taipei City ( 台北市 松 勤 街 54 號 ) Tel : (02 ) 2758 - 2607 Websi te : w w w.streetvoice.com / goodchos

Photo/ Tourism Bureau

WHAT’S WHEREGOING IS THIS? ON?

Sun Moon Lake

This is the answer to the question on page 5. Did you guess right? Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan is a truly photogenic place, and walking along the shore is just one of many ways to take in its charming beauty.

You can also circle the lake by bike or bus, go on a boat cruise, or see the lake f rom high above when taking the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway cable car. More about Sun Moon Lake at www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw.

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Travel in Taiwan

MY PHOTO TOUR

Little Friends r u o T on in Taking Toy Figures on a Trip to Shil

"What now ?"

ro Taipei Met Riding the

36

Travel in Taiwan

Residence of CKS Shilin en rd ga se ro e At th

is coming!" ne, the train li in y od b ry "Eve

TOY FIGURES

ting relaxing day-ou eat place for a gr a is e nc de esi CKS Shilin R

Encounter with stinky tofu at Shilin Nigh t Market

"Smells so nice!"

"Where to go next?"

It

Exploring a park of many mysteries

"Say

CHE

Photos/ Maggie Song

n f igures or your ow ng your kids ’ toy ki ta , ea of id d ly ea sil st a ing them, in m ight sound like on a tr ip and us t) ar he at lot g a un s g or yo su rprise, it’ (if you are youn ls. Bu t su rprise, de mo o ot ph ur in The best th g mpan ions, as yo ph ic chal lenges. ra hu ma n tr av el co og ot ph us ro e and ts you wi th nu me es you ca n achiev of f un and presen -le vel perspec tiv nd ou gr ue tle iq lit un e e th ch is th big when abou t th is approa appear ing real ly ly en dd su s ng di of su rroun the vi su al ef fect ua tions. in “real-world” sit f igures are pl aced very took a bu nch of Trav el in Taiw an y, da ry ua br ei, and Fe ip y Ta ra in Di st ric t in On a ch ill y and a tour of Sh ili n on es ur e ig f y to for its wide ra ng and la rger tin y, m id-si zed, , wh ich is know n rk pa ce en . sid et Re t Ma rk e CK S Sh ili n d the Sh ili n Nigh shot photos at th in the di st ric t, an s ion at st T MR rs, of beau tif ul f lowe so did we. to en joy it, and ed em se ws llo fe l The smal

ESE

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Travel in Taiwan

NATURAL TREASURES

s I e m i T r e t n i W ! e m i T g n i B ird

Bird s er Water ri ng th o d n a lov ely bird du is nbill o th o g in Sp tt o d e sp c ck - Fa unity , and of the Bla birding comm s h n’ c a r a iw e a S r . By Steven C rook T f n o I the darling lov er s each y ea

ture bill is t f or many na -f aced S poon h g ck li la h B ig h re r ra u e o h T is an eco-t on the island y a st r te in w it s

Bi r d

at the s -w a t c h in g

coa st outhwe s t

Taiwan,

f irst-time v isitors are sure to notice as soon as they leave the airpor t, is crowded w ith buildings and people. But what they may not real ize is that the island also has a vast and var ied bird population. Spend time in any city park and you’ ll spot f locks of Eurasian Tree Sparrows. Throughout the rural lowlands, L ight-vented Bul buls are a common sight.

A l ist compiled in 2011 by the Chinese Wild Bird Federation (w w w.bird.org.t w), Taiwan’s leading birding group, gives a clear picture of the countr y ’s av ian treasures. If vagrants (birds who’ve lost their way, or been blown of f course by typhoons) and exotics accidentally introduced are counted, a total of 589 species were spotted in Taiwan and its outly ing islands. By compar ison, the

38

Travel in Taiwan

k -f a

ced

S po

on b

ill

number for South Korea, three times the size of Taiwan, is 492. Moreover, Taiwan’s total includes 22 species which are endemic, meaning they can be found nowhere else on Ear th, as well as 61 endemic sub-species. South Korea has no endemics.

Many of Taiwan’s most attractive birds are temporar y residents that follow the East Asian-Australasian Fly way to the island. Fly ways are the routes taken by birds as they migrate when the seasons change. As w inter approaches in the Nor thern Hemisphere, mill ions of birds head south f rom Russia, Alaska, Korea, and Japan in search of warmer weather and more plentif ul food. Some go as far as New Zealand; others f ind Taiwan to their l iking, and stay on the island for the duration of the cool season.

Photos/ Maggie Song, Southwest Coast Nat. Scenic Area Admin.

Bl a c

BIRDS

The Black-faced Spoonbill has become one of Taiwan’s star avians, due in part to its handsome appearance and the endearing way in which it feeds

One

bird that falls into the second categor y is the Black-faced Spoonbill. Even though it’s a migrant, it has become one of Taiwan’s star avians.

This is due in part to its handsome appearance and the endearing way in which it feeds, sweeping its over-sized beak through swallow water in search of small f ish and

We

headed straight to the Northern Levee Wetland. There, in less than two hours, we notched up more than 20 species, including three of Taiwan’s f ive egret species, a Great Cormorant, at least one Black Coot, several Spotbill Ducks, Green-winged Teals, Northern Shovellers, more than one Northern Pintail, and a solitary Sacred Ibis.

other tasty morsels.

There’s another reason why the people of Taiwan have taken such a great interest in this bird. It’s an endangered species, there being only around 2,000 Blackfaced Spoonbills in the world. Each year, between midSeptember and May, around three-quarters of the global population hunkers down in Taiwan’s Southwest Coast National Scenic Area (SWCNSA; www.swcoast-nsa.gov. tw).

Eager to see spoonbills and other feathered beauties, Travel in Taiwan set of f one recent w inter’s morning for the scenic area. Our f irst stop was Aogu Wetland Forest Park in the northwestern corner of Chiayi County.

An area of reclaimed land intended for agriculture, parts of Aogu became swampy as long ago as the 1970s, while others were recently af forested. This combination of wet and dr y land is an ideal habitat for water birds and the crabs, shrimp, and other creatures they feed on.

The park, which was established in 2009, covers 664 hectares. Bilingual signs and maps help f irst-time visitors f ind their way around.

Some 228 bird species have been recorded in Aogu, w ith w inter and early spring being the best time of year for “listing” – adding species to the list ever y serious birder keeps of all the avian species he has identif ied w ith absolute certainty during his lifetime.

A personal highlight occurred while we were crouched behind a blind (the park has many such screens, designed so humans can view birds without scaring them off), when a Kentish Plover dashed daintily across the mud just a few meters f rom where we were hiding.

We could appreciate the plover and many other birds with nothing more than the naked eye. But to make the most of Aogu’s wildlife, you’ll need decent binoculars or, even better, a spotting scope (a tripod-mounted telescope offering greater magnif ication).

To reach the birdwatching sites mentioned in this article you’ll also need your own wheels, or someone able to both drive and guide you around.

Our guides – a SWCNSA staffer and one of the scenic area’s most knowledgeable volunteers – went on to point out two impressive sights. One was a cluster of 100 or so Western Curlews.

These large, mottled gray-brown waders are notable for long, thin beaks which curve downward. Further away, a band of Pied Avocets huddled together, all facing away f rom the wind. Also waders, they have dove-shaped black-and-white bodies and bills which turn up.

We then spotted a single Black-faced Spoonbill, which I took as a good omen for the rest of the day. The fact that in the end we saw just one of these birds in Aogu was explained a few days later, when I read in the newspaper that only a small proportion of the 1,399 Black-faced Spoonbills counted in Taiwan on Christmas Eve 2011 were in Chiayi County. The vast ma jority were in Tainan, which is where we were heading later in the day.

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Travel in Taiwan

NATURAL TREASURES

A G re a t Cor mor

The

the

A personal highlight occurred when a Kentish Plover dashed daintily across the mud just a few meters from where we were hiding

town of Budai in Chiayi County’s southwest is synonymous with seafood. On weekends thousands of outsiders come here to buy or eat f ish, oysters, and other delectables pulled f rom the ocean. It’s also a good place for birdwatching, if you know where to go.

work sculpting salt into the shape of a dragon in honor of the Year of the Dragon, which began on January 23, 2012. The ponds are still used to produce small quantities of salt for educational purposes, and an information board explains the process in detail.

Our guides drove us through a f lat landscape of abandoned salt pans and f ish farms near Budai’s junior high school, explaining that Common Mynas are year-round residents, while Saunders’s Gulls are f requent wintertime visitors.

Then

We saw a few Black-faced Spoonbills, but far more arresting was the dense crowd of Black-winged Stilts. I tried to count them, and reckoned there were around 300. In the past I’d seen plenty of these pink-legged birds in fallow rice f ields near my home, but never in such numbers.

Birdwatching and eating seafood aren’t the only reasons to spend time on Taiwan’s southwestern coast. Until just a few years ago, the region’s abundant sunshine was used to produce salt, and the SWCNSA has preserved remnants of this old-time industry.

At Jingzaijiao, a windswept hamlet in Tainan’s Beimen District just off Provincial Highway No. 61 (a north-south expressway that’s also handy for reaching just about any part of the scenic area), we toured the 190-year-old tilebottomed evaporation ponds. A team of artists was hard at

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it was back in the van to resume our search for spoonbills. We had saved the most promising location for last. Tainan’s Qigu District, like Jingzai jiao and Budai, has been shaped by the salt-making and aquaculture industries. Plans to develop heavy industry in the 1990s met with f ierce opposition when the likely impact on the district’s water-bird population became known, and in 1998 the Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation Association (www. b f sa.org.tw) was established.

In recent years eco-tourism has taken off, and the 300-hectare Black-faced Spoonbill Reserve is now one of the focal points of Taijiang National Park (www.t jnp.gov.tw), Taiwan’s newest national park. If you don’t know much about the birds, I recommend spending at least half an hour reading about them at the Black-faced Spoonbill Ecology Exhibition Hall (closed Mondays; admission f ree; tel: (06) 788-1180), which you’ll pass as you approach the reserve f rom the main road. A sign at the entrance displays the number of spoonbills seen in the reserve that day (289 on the day we visited).

Photos/ Maggie Song, Southwest Coast Nat. Scenic Area Admin.

m igr s of d n a Th o u s iwan i n Ta r e t n wi

end ds s p r i b a t o ry

an t

Ken tis

BIRDS

h Pl o v er

Hukou Wetlands Aogu Wetlands Taiwan Straits

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Budai Visitor Center

Western Coastal Expressway

Haomeiliao Nature Reser ve

Southwest Coast NSA Admin.

Jingzai jiao Tile-paved Salt Fields

Black-faced Spoonbill Ecology Exhibition Hall

to a key s i ent g q u i p m in g ou t in e d o h o c t G wa b i r df un Inside the hall there’s an abundance of information.

You’ll learn how Black-faced Spoonbills differ f rom the world’s f ive other spoonbill species, and how they change physically as they mature. Surprisingly, they start out with black feathers and brown bills. Some don’t become f ully white until their sixth year. During the breeding season, both male and female spoonbills sport golden feathers on their breasts. They neither swim nor dive, because the webbing on their feet is too small.

The mounted spoonbills you’ll see inside aren’t models. Whenever researchers come across a dead bird, they study it caref ully to determine the cause of death.

A few then benef it f rom the skills of a taxidermist and enjoy a second life, as it were, inside the exhibition hall.

A

short drive seaward brought us to the f irst birdwatching platform. During spoonbill season, national park volunteers are usually on hand to help visitors spot the spoonbills, which may be a kilometer or two away in the middle of the lagoon. With their help, we got our spotting scopes correctly positioned and could see what we’d come for: a f lock of Black-faced Spoonbills, huddled together, waiting for night to fall so they could begin feeding. The image was indistinct due to the distance, and a little blurry because sharp winds shook the scope.

Black-faced Spoonbill Reser ve Tai jiang National Park

On the one hand I felt satisf ied – Mission Accompl ished!

On the other, I could now understand why birders return to the same spot again and again, even when the weather is unfavorable, just so they can get a better look at a particular species. Over the past few years I’ve dabbled in birdwatching, and know why so many people become hooked on this healthy, inexpensive, and utterly relaxing hobby. In fact, I’m already planning my next tr ip to the west coast, binoculars and f ield guide book in hand.

ENGLISH & CHINESE

Aogu Wetland Forest Park Beimen District Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation Association Black-faced Spoonbill Ecology Exhibition Hall Black-faced Spoonbill Reserve Budai Chinese Wild Bird Federation Jingzaijiao Northern Levee Wetland Qigu District Southwest Coast National Scenic Area Taijiang National Park

鰲鼓溼地森林園區 北門區 黑面琵鷺保育學會 黑面琵鷺生態展示館 黑面琵鷺保護區 布袋 中華鳥會 井仔腳 北堤濕地 七股區 雲嘉南濱海國家風景區 台江國家公園

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FESTIVAL

The Miaoli Bombing the Dragon Festival

The large-headed dragon came toward me, dancing, prancing, and writhing, tilted its head in inspection this side and that, fluttered its tremendous eyelids as if making a final statement – and blew up. By Rick Charette

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MIAOLII

No,

I the spectator was not the one who was “bombed,” as in not seeing straight. It was the dragon that had been literally “bombed” with f irecrackers, during the 2012 Miaoli Bombing the Dragon festival (www. miaoli2012bombingthedragon.com; Chinese).

This is a traditional Hakka festival that happens in the small, predominantly Hakka city of Miaoli, in hilly Miaoli County. The Hakka are one of Taiwan’s key minorities. The festival, one of the 12 most important Hakka events of the year, is centered on the annual Lantern Festival, which takes place on the 15th day of the f irst lunar month. The city government took over and expanded the festival over a decade ago, and this year it ran nine days, f inishing February 8.

I made it to the city for three of four key dates, the four focused on these showcase events: the Dragon Eye-Dotting Ceremony/Dragon Dance Competition, Folk Parade Night, Bombing the Dragon Night, and Dragon Incineration Ceremony.

Day

One for me, January 31, was Dragon Eye-Dotting Ceremony/Dragon Dance Competition day. This is a morning/ af ternoon spectacle held before Yuqing Temple.

To start, almost 20 long, serpentine dragons were stretched out, in line, f illing the plaza, troupe members beside, thousands of buzzing spectators packing the perimeter. As things proceeded, I was continually approached by helpf ul support personnel, anxious that the visiting foreigner understood what was happening.

As eyes were dotted the dragons’ heads and bodies began to twitch and shake. They were now alive. As my new f riend explained that “The masters will now paint the body dots, each granted an auspicious name such as ‘gathering wealth’ and ‘source of fortune,’” it all happened, at high-decibel level so all could hear.

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Travel in Taiwan

Photo/ Maggie Song

“Dragon masters will now dot the eyes to bring them to life, making them divine,” a f riendly tourism off icial told me. “This invites the gods to come dwell within. If lef t unpainted, evil spirits can easily enter. The ‘paint’ used is blood taken f rom a rooster’s crown (as this was said, it happened on the main stage). Red is the Chinese culture’s most auspicious color. The blood is mixed with cinnabar and rice wine.”

FESTIVAL The competition then began, teams showing their skills one by one over three hours, with a number exhibiting quite extraordinary imagination and acrobatic skill. As I watched, a policeman approached and, smiling, volunteered that “Other places have dancing dragons, but only in Miaoli do we bomb them. We Hakka believe the more vigorous the dance and the more hits the dragon takes, the greater the luck and prosperity in the coming year for those who get close. In fact, we believe this festival protects the whole county. Notice the dragons’ joints – each has an auspicious number, with 9, 11, and 15 the luckiest. And the fabric covering the Miaolibamboo f rame is always some combination of red, green, blue, silver, and gold, representing nature’s f ive elements.”

At competition’s end, the three winners paraded separately around the plaza, stepping over huge piles of f irecrackers, troupe members sometimes disappearing completely in the blasts. This was not true “bombing,” for the dragons had to be preserved for the festival’s other big days. I later got to talk to the leader of the winning team, an engaging young fellow named Qiu Jun-yuan.

“All troupes today were f rom Miaoli City,” he said. “We start practicing in earnest about a month ahead, a few hours daily if possible. Most troupes are associated with temples, and are like boys’ clubs, the temples encouraging healthy recreation. Our troupe is private, with a private benefactor.

Usually an old-time troupe member will be a part-time teacher, for f ree. You have to be young because the work is so hard, and sometimes we’re on streets and in businesses for hours. Today we won NT$30,000, and by winning we’ll get more and higher commissions in the coming days f rom big businesses and other groups, to perform privately, because this proves our dragon is most divine and powerf ul. We’ll also get more commissions elsewhere in the region, mostly in Hakka areas.”

highlights a f ireworks show, more dragon bombings, a dragon f loat with the dragon itself a dazzling pyrotechnics platform, and a grand stage show featuring pop and folk-art performances.

The last night, Feb. 8, offered the Dragon Incineration Ceremony before Wu Wenchang Temple. There were more dragon bombings, naturally, then teams thanked their dragons, lay them atop great piles of spirit money, piled more atop, and sent the dragons back to the heavens in holy infernos.

Beyond all the colorf ul f un described above, there are numerous other attractions as well, among them DIY dragoncreation sessions, Hakka food fairs and product bazaars, and an exhibit on the Bombing the Dragon phenomenon.

On

both my Day Two and Three I bumped into another new Miaoli f riend, a local professor, who like the others was thrilled to know that foreigners know of and are interested in the festival and Hakka life, and spent time explaining things to me. “There are many things to know,” he said. “For example, the Chinese dragon lives in the skies, so the f irecracker blasts represent lightning, their sound thunder, the smoke clouds. When incinerated, the smoke curling upwards represents the curling dragon returning heavenwards. And did you know (I didn’t), that our dragonbombing tradition only really took off 50 years ago? A local fabric mill owned by today’s Shin Kong Group invited troupes in, locked the gates, and pummelled them for luck. Af ter that, more and more big businesses joined in.”

If you were looking for proof of the Miaoli dragons’ powers, look no f urther. Shin Kong has since become one of Taiwan’s most powerf ul enterprises. See you next year.

The venue for Bombing the Dragon Night was Riverside Park. This is a monster pyrotechnics-focused party, its

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Travel in Taiwan

Photos/ Maggie Song, Miaoli city office

My

Day Two and Day Three were consecutive, Folk Parade Night and Bombing the Dragon Night, on Feb. 4 and 5, respectively, two days before the Lantern Festival and on Lantern Festival Eve. On Folk Parade Night a “f irecracker dragon” slithering over 2km through the streets was lit to kick things off, then a “real” dragon over 130 meters long paraded the city, joined by drum troupes, lion troupes, marching bands… and the dragon-dance troupes, the dragons dipping in and out of buildings, occupants giving troupes red envelopes containing cash in thanks for their blessings.

At designated spots the dragons gathered and were bombed, f irecrackers in stupendous number stuffed into their mouths and around their heads.

MIAOLI

ENGLISH & CHINESE

火旁 龍之夜 Bombing the Dragon Night Dragon Eye-Dotting Ceremony/ Dragon Dance Competition 祥龍點睛 / 舞龍競賽 民俗踩街 Folk Parade Night 客家人 Hakka People 化龍返天 Dragon Incineration Ceremony 苗栗 火旁 龍 Miaoli Bombing the Dragon 邱俊源 Qiu Jun-yuan 河濱公園 Riverside Park 新光集團 Shin Kong Group 五文昌廟 Wu Wenchang Temple 玉清宮 Yuqing Temple

Crossing borders, crossing cultures, in far-off places A quiet oasis in a busy city Brings the comfort and peace of home

Photos/ Maggie Song, Miaoli city office

Searching the Warmth of Home when Far Away

UPCOMING Festivals and Events from March to May Until MAR 18

Yangmingshan Flower Festival

APR 4 ~ APR 8

陽明山花季 Location: Yangming Park ( 陽明公園 ); 26, Sec. 2, Hushan Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市湖山路 2 段 26 號 ) Tel: (02) 2861-6533, 2861-3388 Website: 2012yms.com.tw

Spring Scream 春天吶喊 Location: South Point Campground, Eluanbi, Kenting National Park ( 墾丁國家公園鵝鑾鼻最南點露營區 ) Tel: (04) 2298-5258 Website: www.springscream.com

MAR 7 ~ JUN 20

APR 16 ~ MAY 24

Location: Bao'an Temple (61, Hami St., Taipei City/ 臺北市哈密街 61 號 ) Tel: (02) 2595-1676 Website: www.baoan.org.tw

Location: Xiying Rainbow Bridge & Guanyin Pavilion, Magong City, Penghu County ( 澎湖縣馬公市觀音亭西瀛虹橋 ) Tel: (06) 921-6521 Website: www.penghu.gov.tw

Baosheng Cultural Festival 大龍峒保生文化祭

Penghu Fireworks Festival 澎湖海上花火節

MAR 23 ~ APR 29

Until APR 30

Location: Zhuzihu, Yangmingshan ( 陽明山竹子湖 ) Tel: (02) 2720-8889 ext. 6586 Website: www.ymsnp.gov.tw

大甲媽祖國際觀光文化節 Location: Greater Taichung Area ( 大台中地區 ) Tel: (04) 2676-3522 Website: www.dajiamazu.org.tw

Zhuzihu Calla-Lily Festival 竹子湖海芋季

MAR 31 ~ MAY 20

Yilan Green Expo 宜蘭縣綠博會 Location: Wulaokeng Area ( 武荖坑風景區 ); 75 Wulaokeng Rd., Su'ao Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣蘇澳鎮武荖坑路 75 號 ) Tel: (03) 987-2403 Website: www.e-land.gov.tw

Dajia Mazu International Festival

APR ~ MAY

Hakka Tung Blossom Festival 客家桐花季 Locations: Hilly areas of Northern, Central, and Eastern Taiwan Tel: (02) 8789-4567 ext. 743 Website: http://tung.hakka.gov.tw

For more information on upcoming festivals and events, visit the website of the Tourism Bureau at http://eng.taiwan.net.tw and click on “Festivals” or call the 24-hour toll-free Travel Information Hotline at 0800-011765.

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TOURISM FACTORIES

Music 4 Fun

A piano factory in Taoyuan County’s Daxi Township is among the growing number of tourist factories around Taiwan, and now allows visitors to learn about piano production and the mechanics that make the instrument work. Travel in Taiwan made the short trip from Taipei to f ind out more. By Kurt Weidner you come across a new upright piano in Taiwan it has, with almost 100% certainty, been assembled in a certain factory that is a 40-minute drive southwest of Taipei City.

Since the only other producer of pianos in Taiwan, Yamaha, closed its local business in 2009, Tong Ho Musical Wooden Works Co., Ltd. has been the sole domestic company supplying musicians with pianos that are not imported. Keeping the production line running over the past two decades has been quite a challenge, with sales numbers declining ever since the “golden 1980s” when Tong Ho sold up to 700 pianos a month.

The present number is about 150. In an attempt to stimulate business and create an additional source of income, f ive years ago the then 40-year-old company decided to open the plant up for visitors. Af ter a year of preparations, the doors of the Music 4 Fun Tong Ho Music Experience Museum were swung open.

The factory/museum is located just 15 minutes by foot from Daxi’s Old Street, the town’s main tourist draw. Even before entering through the main gate, the sound of piano music

emanating from loudspeakers f ills the air, setting the tone for a highly educational tour that is all about pianos and music.

“Opening the doors of the factory for visitors,” explains Chen Wei-hong, the plant’s manager and vice-director, “is an attempt to create an interest in music in general, and the piano in particular, among the younger generation. Children are nowadays more interested in playing video games than learning a musical instrument, and it is therefore important to introduce them to music at an early age. Only with this interest established will we be able to sell more pianos in the future”.

It is therefore not surprising that the tourist factory is primarily geared toward entertaining visiting families and school classes, with the f irst mainly coming on weekends and the latter during the week. Visitors who do not belong to one of these groups are nevertheless welcome too, and everyone who’s interested in music will f ind a tour of the plant highly interesting, and perhaps even eye-opening.

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Travel in Taiwan

Photo/ Sunny Su

If

TOURISM FACTORIES

Environmental Music Area

Music 4 Fun offers half-day and f ull-day tours (NT$200 and NT$400, respectively). On our visit we opted for the half-day tour, which includes a session on DIY assembly of musical instruments, a tour of two exhibit rooms where you learn a great deal about the piano, a visit to a hall housing simple devices for creating sound (or better, noise) built with recycled waste materials, and a tour of the factory’s assembly.

The

DIY session is especially geared to kids. You are shown how to put together a harmonica by screwing the different parts together with tiny screws, and you learn how the different parts of a recorder are put together. The most interesting part about the harmonica assembly is learning how the reed plate at the core of the instrument works – sound is created by blowing wind into the holes to make the reeds vibrate.

The DIY session is conducted on the f irst f loor.

Af terwards, we went up to the display hall on the second f loor. If you have ever wondered what a piano looks like on the inside and how the sound is created, you’ll f ind all the answers here. The pianos and piano components arranged around the two large rooms here have been dissected in every possible way to let you see inside and help you comprehend the surprisingly complicated mechanics.

In the f irst room, you will learn that spruce f rom Alaska is used for the soundboard, how the keyboard is glued

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together, how the hammers hit the strings, what material the hammers are made of, what’s happening inside the piano when pressing the pedals, and much more. The second room has displays of piano peripherals, including humidity sensors, a device that turns a piano into an electrical instrument (allowing musicians to play on at night without disturbing their neighbors), and a fancy system that slows down the fall of the “fall” (the keyboard cover).

Filled in with all the details about the piano, visitors – especially the younger ones – are delighted with the next part of the factory tour. In the “Environmental Music Area,” located inside a hall opposite the exhibition building, you can make sound to your heart’s content on simple devices made with recycled trash by factory workers. The title “Music Area” is a bit misleading, because if you visit this hall at the same time as a 30-strong class of elementary students, the “music” created by hammering on metal surfaces and plastic buckets is more like an assault on your ears, the piano music f rom the aforementioned outside loudspeakers completely drowned out.

Have f un, and don’t say you weren’t warned.

The last part of the tour – and in our view the best – is the visit to the assembly hall, where you’ll see 20~30 pianos being assembled by a dozen workers. Following a designated path through the hall, you look right over the shoulders of the workers, watching how they put together keys and hammers, strings and boards, pedals and covers.

At one end of the hall you witness how the sound for each piano is f ine-tuned before the instrument is shipped out.

Photos/ Sunny Su

Piano Display Hall

PIANO Other Places of Interest in the Area The town of Daxi is best known for it’s Old Street (Heping Road), lined with old shophouses, many sporting Baroquestyle facades, an indication of the town’s thriving commerce in times gone by. There are numerous shops and eateries here, where you can sample local specialties such as dried beancurd and rice cooked in bamboo tubes.

At the western end of town is the small Zhongzheng Park, f rom which you enjoy great views over the Dahan River. A path below the park, by the river, leads to the photogenic river-spanning Daxi Bridge. A nice place to enjoy a cup of coffee while taking in the river views is the terrace at Daxi Artist Villa, housed in what was once a summer retreat of late President Chiang Kai-shek.

For more about tourist factories around Taiwan, visit taiwanplace21.org /en/index.htm.

MUSIC 4 FUN TONG HO MUSIC EXPERIENCE MUSEUM (MUSIC 4 FUN 東和音樂體驗館 )

Daxi Old Street

ENGLISH & CHINESE

Dahan River Daxi Daxi Artist Villa Daxi Bridge Heping Road Old Street Tong Ho Musical Wooden Works Co., Ltd. Zhongzheng Park

大漢溪 大溪 大溪藝文之家 大溪橋 和平路 老街 東和樂器木業股份有限公司 中正公園

Add: 226 Xinyi Rd., Daxi Township, Taoyuan County ( 桃園縣大溪鎮信義路 226 號 ) Tel: ( 03 ) 388 - 2215 ~ 7 Website: www.music 4 fun.com.tw (Chinese) Fee: Half-day tour NT$ 200 /pers., incl. DIY assembly of harmonica or recorder ( 40 min.) and tour of Piano Exhibition Area ( 40 min.), Environmental Music Area ( 40 min.), and factory ’ s assembly line ( 30 min.)

Reservation by phone one week in advance necessary.

HOW TO GET THERE:

Photos/ Maggie Song

Self-drive: National Highway No. 3 (Second Northern Freeway) to Daxi Interchange → Yuanlin Rd. ( 員林路 ), Jieshou Rd. ( 介壽路 ), Wuling Bridge ( 武嶺橋 ) to Daxi ( 大溪 ) → Xinyi Rd. ( 信義路 ) to factory Public transport: Take a train to Taoyuan City and take a Taoyuan Bus Co. ( 桃源客運 ) bus to town of Daxi from there.

The factory is within walking distance from central Daxi.

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ART

Page Tsou: Past and Present A Taiwanese Artist Pursues His True Passion

After returning from studies in London and winning awards for his illustrations, Taiwanese artist Page Tsou has become a recognized member of the local art scene. Among his acclaimed works is a series of unusual portraits depicting the back of the head. By Joe Henley was slightly less than a decade ago that a joviallooking, bespectacled, newly minted teacher stood in f ront of a classroom of primary-school children. To the impressionable young kids he repeated the of theard mantra “follow your dreams,” only to realize that he was not truly following his own. Determined not to waste any more time on anything unrelated to his true passion, Page Tsou decided then and there to throw himself headlong into the art world. He has remained steadfast in his vision and true to his path ever since.

Tsou grew up in sprawl ing, suburban Ta ichung in central Ta iwan. The cit y is now regarded as one of the island’s ar t ist ic enclaves, but was not qu ite so cosmopol itan dur ing the ar tist’s formative years. The son of a factory owner, Tsou early on found he enjoyed drawing, and he realized that if he was going to be noticed in school his right-brain talents were key.

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“If you were ver y naught y, or not a ver y good st udent, the teachers would always ignore you. That's how I felt,” he says, recall ing early academic missteps pr ior to receiv ing some recognition at his school af ter receiving an art award. “Once I won the award, everybody noticed me. That's why I started to insist on drawing.”

In junior high Tsou continued to hone his skills; there he was exposed to watercolor and traditional Chinese ink painting, which would later weigh in heavily as he developed his own unique style. His parents, however, may have inadvertently contributed another element that found its way into Tsou’s work by insisting that he embark on a more conventional and stable career path.

At their behest, Tsou enrolled in National Chiayi University’s Teachers College, where he also continued drawing and painting.

It was there that the vintage tones so prevalent in Tsou’s work began to creep in, thanks to the rather retro surroundings that def ined the small countryside city of Chiayi at the time. Tsou,

Illustrations/ Page Tsou

It

PAGE TSOU

“London is a city that is very old and very modern – they mix very well. So I think I chose the right place to study” ever eager to f ind more sources of inspiration, seemed to zero in on it in the unlikeliest of places.

“Once, by chance, I picked up a wooden box for sof t drinks. It was very vintage, and I loved to collect this kind of stuff. This inf luenced my work a lot, especially the tones, the colors. I also started to collect some f urniture f rom the f if ties and sixties. I really like the style of the sixties.”

Following

his four years at the teachers college, Tsou indeed became a teacher, but came up against the fact that the teaching of art was reserved for senior members of his school’s staff.

He was instead put in charge of a regular class. Tsou soon felt the pressure of shaping the f utures of young gradeschool children who were just beginning to form their own personalities; he taught for one year, but realized it wasn’t for him.

familiar. Like any good artist, Tsou conveyed his emotions through his art; one of the pieces he created during this period was Chips and F ishes, a series of drawings depicting, amongst other things, a school of f ish riding on one of London’s famed double-decker buses. The colors leap straight out of the palette of the 1970s, and the satirical take on the sometimes alienating feel of big cities is impossible to miss.

However, Tsou wouldn’t let himself become consumed by invading feelings of melancholy and self-doubt. He knew that becoming an artist isn’t something one achieves in the course of a single school year. He decided to take one more shot at giving himself the right schooling, and entered another master’s degree program, in illustration, at London’s Royal College of Art. He w ished to return to his true childhood love of draw ing, and began to enter and w in competitions for the f irst time. Tsou was keenly aware that this would be vital for his success when he eventually returned to his homeland.

“When you teach children, you always tell them, 'You should pursue your dream.' And you will think, what about yourself? Especially at that age – it's when many people talk about dreams. I was so young. I didn't want to give up my dream.”

Af ter completing his compulsory term of military service, during which he had ample time to contemplate his f uture as he stood guard in f ront of his base in complete silence for hours on end, Tsou decided that in order to get proper training as an artist he would have to travel to one of the centers of the global art community – London. There, he began by getting a master’s degree in graphic design f rom Kingston University, and discovered that the juxtaposition of past and present in London jived well with his aesthetic disposition towards blending old and new.

“London is a city that is very old and very modern – they mix very well. So I think I chose the right place to study,” he says of his early days in the English capital.

Time

passed quickly in London for Tsou, and at the conclusion of his year of study there he felt curiously unf ulf illed. His new surroundings, once f resh and exciting, had begun to feel slightly cold and a bit too

Chips and F ishes is a series of drawings depicting, amongst other things, a school of f ish riding on one of London’s famed double-decker buses

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Travel in Taiwan

ART Story of Snow White with a Taiwanese twist

When his two years at the Royal College of Art were up, Tsou embarked on a three-year stint as a freelance artist in London, and also staged his first solo exhibitions. Showing a flair for the original from the outset, his initial exhibition was put on in a barber shop, with his works adorning the ceiling and walls as the barbers and stylists working at the shop plied their trade clad in uniforms that were also of Tsou’s own design. For Tsou, it was a way of making his art more accessible, and becoming part of the community.

“I quite like street art,” Tsou comments. ”And I felt that if I had an exhibition in the barber shop it was more like I was going into the community. People are more relaxed and welcoming there, I felt. That environment made the right feeling about my work.

That's why I staged my first solo show in a barber shop, not in a gallery. I felt it was more fun that way.”

Still,

Tsou would eventually feel the pull of his native Taiwan calling him back, and he has now been working in a studio in Taipei for just under a year.

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Rather than struggling to redef ine himself af ter returning following six long years away, Tsou has hit the ground running, and is f inally enjoying the success that he spent so many years cultivating. His off ice is draped in prints by inf luential graphic designer and f ilmmaker Saul Bass, a movie poster for A Clockwork Orange, record covers from the likes of Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, and the Beatles, and old London street signs, and also features a decades-old typewriter and adding machine – all pointing to the love of vintage styles that is so readily apparent in his artwork. By day, the soothing strains of reggae music play on his stereo, and at night he switches over to smooth jazz.

Photos/ Diabolo Dance Illustrations/ Page TsouTheatre

“I knew this was my last chance to face the future,” he says.

“I worked very hard, and I knew one day I would come back (to Taiwan). People generally cannot understand if your work is good quality or bad quality – but they understand if you have won awards or not.”

PAGE TSOU This is all part of fostering the right creative environment, a vital part of Tsou’s work process. His projects vary widely and are all about opening himself, and the viewers of his works, to new perspectives and possibilities. A perfect example is his project entitled T he And 2010, a series of portraits focusing not on the face, but on the back of the head. Tsou explains his decision to take traditional portraits in a whole new direction.

message about the journey to becoming an artist, much like his methods and style, is simple yet profound.

“If you walk f rom Taipei to Taichung, it's far. But it's possible, as long as you are headed in the right direction. If your thinking is always positive, one day you will achieve your goal. You need to keep going.”

For more about Page Tsou, visit www.pagetsou.com.

“I don't care about the back of the head. I just care about why I had never noticed this before. I've drawn about 3,000 portraits, and I realized that in 20 years of drawing I've never drawn the back of the head. So I realized there must be something hiding there. I started to draw to f ind the answer.”

Taking an unexplored tack on a familiar subject is quite simply Tsou’s creative raison d’etre – a theme he revisits constantly. In his Disne y illustrations, he took the story of Snow White and gave it a Taiwanese twist, putting the stereotypical conical farmer hats on the heads of the seven dwarves, who play traditional Taiwanese instruments, and also including red lanterns and some favorite local foods, all rendered in his distinctive vintage style.

Fans

of Tsou now have even more to celebrate, as the f irst few months of 2012 have seen the tireless artist release three different picture books, working with publishers both in Taiwan and abroad. He has also contributed original prints for display in the approximately 100 rooms of a soon-to-be-opened hotel geared toward young travelers in Taipei’s trendy Ximending district. It is all sweet vindication for a man, now 33, who summoned the conviction to map out his own route to success and recognition in the art world.

Now, when he tells the younger generation of artists to follow their dreams, he can do so from a position of experience. His

Edison Travel Service specializes in Taiwan tours and offers cheaper hotel room rates and car rental services with drivers .

Edison welcomes contact with other travel services around the world.

Exhibition in a London barber shop

“I've drawn about 3,000 portraits, and I realized that in 20 years of drawing I've never drawn the back of the head.

So I realized there must be something hiding there” ENGLISH & CHINESE

Page Tsou National Chiayi University Teachers College Ximending

鄒駿昇 國立嘉義大學 師範學院 西門町

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54

112台北市北投區幽雅路11號

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11 Youya Rd., Beitou District, Taipei City, 112, Taiwan

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PACIFIC BUSINESS CENTER HOTEL 太平洋商旅

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Travel in Taiwan

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5,600 6,200 6,600 7,000 7,400 8,400 20,000

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55

Travel in Taiwan

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56

Travel in Taiwan

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

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CHATEAU DE CHINE HOTEL KAOHSIUNG 翰品酒店高雄

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Multi-functional meeting room, banquet hall, business center, wedding planning center, gym, free use of wired/wireless Internet, silent refrigerator, electronic safe, personal bathrobe/slippers, free cable TV, free use of laundry room, all-new TV-sets

Multifunctional banquet and meeting facilities, business center, male and female saunas, rental facilities for cars and bicycles, lounge bar, children’s games room, fitness center, chess room, outdoor swimming pool, green eco-pond, free transport to railway station and airport.

43 Daren Rd., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City

No.2, Yongxing Rd., Hualien City, Hualien County 97060

Dim Sum, Lounge Bar

8 03高雄市鹽埕區大仁路4 3號

97060花蓮市永興路2號

Tel: 07.521.7388 Fax: 07.521.7068

Tel: 03.823.5388 Fax: 03.822.1185

kaohsiung.chateaudechine.com

hualien.chateaudechine.com

Time to Shop Time to Shop Time to Shop www.taiwan.net.tw

TTB Time to Shop.indd 1

www.taiwan.net.tw

Shoppers love Taiwan. From the designer boutiques of Dunhua to the gadget stores of Computer Lane, the island’s full of great places to indulge your passion.

And thanks to our proud tradition Shoppers love Taiwan.

From of craftsmanship you can alsothe stock designer boutiques of Dunhua up on happy memories of your trip. to the gadget stores of Computer Lane, the island’s full of great places to indulge your passion.

Shoppers love Taiwan.

From the And thanks to our tradition designer boutiquesproud of Dunhua of craftsmanship you can also stock to the gadget stores of Computer up on happy memories of your Lane, the island’s full of great trip. places to indulge your passion.

And thanks to our proud tradition of craftsmanship you can also stock up on happy memories of your trip.

Paper lanterns painted by hand.

Beautiful woodcarvings. Stunning glass art. There’s even a weekend jade market filled with ornate trinkets made from the mythical green stone. Or visit the charming Paper lanterns paintedand by hand.

Maokong Tea Gardens give Beautiful woodcarvings. friends a taste of Taiwan’sStunning magic. glass art. There’s even a weekend jade market filled with ornate trinkets made from the by mythical Paper lanterns painted hand. green stone.

Or visit the Beautiful woodcarvings.charming Stunning Maokong Tea Gardens give glass art. There’s even aand weekend friends a taste of Taiwan’s magic. jade market filled with ornate trinkets made from the mythical green stone. Or visit the charming Maokong Tea Gardens and give friends a taste of Taiwan’s magic.

ISSN:18177964

GPN:2009305475

200 NTD

07/07/2011 14:54