Travel in Taiwan (No.60, 2013 11/12)

1112

No. 60, 2013

/

High-Mountain Delights

Qingjing and Mt. Hehuan TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS Beitou Hot-Spring District

BACKPACK BUS TOURS Trip to Xitou

FOOD JOURNEY

Water CaltropS in Tainan BMX Fun in Northern Taiwan Wannian Festival in Kaohsiung Hiking to Jialuo Lake Bulau Bulau Village in Yilan

iPad App Download the Travel in Taiwan iPad App for an even better reading experience!

- More and clearer photos and media content!

- Smooth and easy browsing!

- Links to Google maps and Youtube clips!

Download the iPad app from Apple’s App Store by searching for “Travel in Taiwan”!

Welcome to Taiwan!

Dear Traveler, Two words that bring joy to the heart of every person with a love of travel are “road trip!” In this issue of Travel in Taiwan we take f ull advantage of late autumn’s cooler temperatures to hit the road on adventures using a variety of locomotion tools – car, bus, metro, bicycle, and feet – sometimes used in isolation, sometimes in combination.

In our Feature section we go on a car trip up, up, up into the soaring central mountains, to the Mt. Hehuan area, where we then hit the high-mountain trails. On the way we spend time in Wushe town, populated mainly by members of the Sediq tribe, and Qing jing Farm, a place of alpine pastures, sheep, horse-riding shows, easy trails, and grand mountain views.

As always in our Feature section, we also provide ideas on where to stay, where/what to eat, and what to buy.

We stay in the central mountains in our Hiking department for a two-day trek to Yilan County’s Jialuo Lake, which is in fact a collection of some 20 lakes, capping the deep-mountain excursion with a hike up Mt. Jialuo (2,320m). Then, in Indigenous Villages, it’s down to Yilan’s lower elevations for a visit to Bulau Bulau Aboriginal Village, an Atayal-tribe settlement where residents seek to recapture the traditional lifestyle of their ancestors. Tourists are welcome, and are taken on an educational hike and walkabout.

This issue’s Backpack Bus Trip adventure is to the mountainous region of Xitou in Nantou County, riding the hop-on hop-of f Taiwan Tourist Shuttle buses. Stops include a lantern factory, tea-plantation area, nature education area, and “Monster Village.”

Our Top Ten Tourist Towns section features a Taipei Metro jaunt out to the Taipei suburb of Beitou for a Beitou hot-spring resort area walkabout. Taiwan’s oldest such resort, with a century-plus history, this is an enclave of heritage buildings, museums, mineral-water soaks, and pleasing vistas. We invite you to engage in somewhat more vigorous activity in our Active Fun article, introducing f irst-rate BMX biking facilities in north Taiwan.

Taiwan road trips have f lavor and character a world apar t f rom those you’ve experienced back home, but you wind up at the same end-point – lifelong memories, fondly recalled. Have f un.

David W. J. Hsieh Director General Tourism Bureau, MOTC, R.O.C.

CONTENTS November ~ December 2013

10 ,

PUBLISHER David W. J. Hsieh Editing Consultant

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

Where you can pick up a copy of Travel in Taiwan

Wayne Hsi-Lin Liu

TEL: 886-2-2711-5403 Fax: 886-2-2721-2790 E-MAIL: editor@v-media.com.tw endy L. C. Yen General Manager W rank K. Yen Deputy General Manager F Editor in Chief Johannes Twellmann English Editor Rick Charette DIRECTOR OF PLANNING & EDITING DEPT Joe Lee MANAGING EDITOR Gemma Cheng EDITORS Sunny Su, Ming-Jing Yin, Chloe Chu, Nickey Liu CONTRIBUTORS Rick Charette, Stuart Dawson, Steven Crook, Owain Mckimm, Joe Henley, Cheryl Robbins, Rich Matheson, Hanré Malherbe PHOTOGRAPHERS Jen Guo-Chen, Maggie Song, Sting Chen ART DIRECTOR Sting Chen DESIGNERS Fred Cheng, Maggie Song, Eve Chiang, Karen Pan ui-chun Tsai, Nai-jen Liu, Xiou Mieng Jiang Administrative Dept H 86-2-2721-5412 Advertising Hotline 8

Abroad

Publishing Organization

Taiwan Tourism Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications CONTACT

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 The Official Bimonthly English Magazine of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau (Advertisement) November/December, 2013 Tourism Bureau, MOTC First published Jan./Feb., 2004 ISSN: 18177964 GPN: 2009305475 Price: NT$200 www.tit.com.tw/vision/index.htm Copyright @ 2013 Tourism Bureau. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form without written permission is prohibited.

MAGAZINE IS SOLD AT:

1. Wu-Nan Culture Plaza, 6, Zhongshan Rd., Central Dist., Taichung City 40043 886-4-2226-0330 http://www.wunanbooks.com.tw/ 2. N ational Bookstore, 1F., No.209, Songjiang Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City 10485 886-2-2518-0207 http://www.govbooks.com.tw/

Offices of the Tourism Bureau in Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Frankfurt; Taiwan Representative Offices; Overseas Offices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs; Overseas Offices of the Central News Agency; onboard China Airlines, EVA Air and other selected international airways; selected travel agencies in Asia, North America, and Europe; and other organizations 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

ONLINE

26

Read the online version of Travel in Taiwan at www.zinio.com . Log in and search for "Travel in Taiwan." Or visit www.tit.com.tw/ vision/index.htm

Sunrise at Kenanguan near Mt. Hehuan (photo by Jen Guo-Chen)

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.

This magazine was printed with soy ink.

Soybean is said to be more environmentally friendly than petroleum-based ink and to make it easier to recycle paper.

FEATURE 10 Qingjing & Mt. Hehuan — Main — Stay/Eat/Buy

Climbing Up to the Roof of Taiwan: A Wushe to Mt. Hehuan Highway Excursion Wushe/Qingjing/Mt. Hehuan – High-Mountain Stay/Eat/Buy Pleasures

1 Publisher’s Note 4 Taiwan Tourism Events 6 News & Events around Taiwan 8 Concerts, Exhibitions, and Happenings

21 Meeting Tourists 32 Fun with Chinese 54 Daily Life

TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS 22

The Hot Springs of Beitou — A Place of Warmth, History, and Mist-ery

HIKING 26

Jialuo Lake — Entering a World Apart

SPLENDID FESTIVALS

28

28 Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival

— A Great Fire Lion Visits Temples around Lotus Pond

MUSIC TOURS 34

The Sound of Drums — Visiting a Traditional Drum Maker in Xinzhuang

BACKPACK BUS TRIP 38

34

Through the Mountain Mist — Taking a Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Bus to Xitou

INDIGENOUS VILLAGES 42

Bulau Bulau Aboriginal Village — Reviving the Traditional Lifestyle of the Atayal Tribe

FOOD JOURNEY 46

A Strange Fruit — Visiting a Water Caltrop Farm in Tainan

ACTIVE FUN 50

BMXing in Nangang — Having Fun and Meeting a Local Legend at the Extreme Sports Training Center

38 3

Travel in Taiwan

TAIWAN TOURISM EVENTS

Festivals

The Taiwan annual

around Taiwan Food, Flowers, and Lots of Festival Fun

Nov.

1

23

festival calendar is filled with exciting events. Visit timefortaiwan.tw/cal_en to see which festivals are taking place the next time you visit this culturally fertile island. The following festivals, all taking place before the end of this year, will give you the chance to learn about Hakka cuisine in Miaoli, take part in organized bicycle rides, surf the waves along the coast of Taitung County, take in the f loral beauty of Taichung, watch marching bands in the streets of Chiayi, and run a marathon in Taipei. And this is just a small selection of the events taking place over the coming months!

Miaoli Hakka Food Festival ( 客家美食活動 - 客家粄仔節 ) Locations: Miaoli City, behind Miaoli Railway Station, Miaoli County ( 苗栗縣苗栗市後火車站 ) Tel: (037) 331-910 Each year the Miaoli Hakka Food Festival highlights the best of Hakka cuisine. The Hakka people in Taiwan are descendants of Hakka from mainland China, who began immigrating to Taiwan in the 16th century. There are about 4.6 million Hakka living in Taiwan today, comprising about 20% of the total population. Many Hakka live in the hilly northwestern counties of Hsinchu and Miaoli. During the festival you can learn about fine cuisine, snack foods, restaurants, gift options, and local produce. The festival’s wideranging program features various food-related activities, such as food preparation classes and cooking competitions, as well as a rich array of Hakka performing arts.

Nov.

4

9

17

Nov.

13

17

Taiwan Cycling Festival ( 臺灣自行車節 )

Taiwan Open of Surfing ( 臺灣國際衝浪公開賽暨東浪嘉年華 )

Location: Qixingtan, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣七星潭 ) Tel: (02) 2349-1748 Website: http://taiwanbike.tw

Locations: Taitung County, Donghe Township, Jinzun Harbor ( 金樽漁港臺東縣東河鄉 ) Tel: 089-324-902 Website: www.taiwanopenofsurfing.com

Held from November 9th to November 17th, the Taiwan Cycling Festival has three main events. During the competitive Taiwan KOM Challenge, professional riders will start at Hualien’s Qixingtan on the Pacific coast and climb all the way up to Wuling on a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, 3,275 meters above sea level. This is an extremely challenging ride. The second event is a 9-day/8-night round-theisland ride undertaken by seven groups, each starting from a different location. The third event is the Sun Moon Lake Come! Bikeday, a ride open to all, taking cyclists around the scenic lake in the central Taiwan mountains. Various governments and national scenic area administrations around Taiwan also organize their own bicycle events as part of this festival.

This year’s Taiwan Open of Surfing, staged on the southeastern coast of Taiwan at Taitung County’s Jinzun Harbor, will include a competition rated as a 1-star event by the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP). The rating shows that Taitung is internationally recognized as a great location for surfing, with quality conditions. Water temperatures during the event are expected to be a pleasant 20~24 degrees Celsius, with left- and right-hand beach breaks giving surfers different options for showing off their skills.

Surfers from Taiwan and abroad compete in various divisions, with the top prize for the ASP Men’s 1-star event set at US$15,000.

Travel in Taiwan

NOVEMBER~DECEMBER

Nov.

Dec.

Sea of Flowers in Xinshe ( 新社花海 )

Location: Xinshe District, Taichung City ( 臺中市新社區 ) Tel: (04) 2228-9111, 2581-1311 Website: http://flowersea.coa.gov.tw/traffic.php Each year, Xinshe District in central Taiwan’s Taichung City attracts hundreds of thousands of flower lovers, who come to enjoy vast fields of flowers, in Chinese often called a “sea of flowers.” The festival, which goes on for about a month, is a great showcase for local agricultural products and cuisine. There are special-theme exhibitions highlighting aspects of the local agricultural sector, stands where visitors can sample local specialties, and entertaining live stage performances. Tours to recreational farms are offered, and visitors are encouraged to stay at one of the many guesthouses in the area.

mid

End

Dec. Chiayi City International Band Festival ( 嘉義市國際管樂節 ) Location: Cultural Affairs Bureau of Chiayi City Concert Hall, 275, Zhongxiao Rd., Chiayi City ( 嘉義市政府文化局音樂廳嘉義市忠孝路 275 號 ), Culture Park ( 文化公園 ), Zhongzheng Park ( 中正公園 ), Chiayi City Cultural Affairs Bureau Outdoor Plaza ( 文化局廣場 ) Website: http://cabcy.ehosting.com.tw/web/band/ This festival, staged each year since 1993, features marching bands from around Taiwan and abroad (last year one band from Russia and one from Japan took part) in a grand parade through the streets of Chiayi in southern Taiwan. Thousand of spectators line the streets to watch big brass bands and marching drummers, all dressed in colorful uniforms and festive costumes. Apart from the street parade, there are a large number of indoor and outdoor concerts at venues around the city, including outdoor stages at Chiayi Cultural Park and Zhongzheng Park.

DEc. Taipei Fubon Marathon ( 臺北富邦馬拉松 )

15

Location: Plaza in front of Taipei City Hall, 1, Shifu Rd., Xinyi District, Taipei City ( 臺北市市民廣場臺北市信義區市府路 1 號 ) Tel: (02) 258-55659 Website: www.sportsnet.org.tw/20121216_fubon/race_detail.php?race_no=20121216 Street running has gained much in popularity in Taiwan in recent years, and the number of annual running events as well as participants in those events has been increasing steadily.

One of the most prominent annual runs in Taiwan is the Taipei Marathon, which each year attracts more than 100,000 runners. The race starts and ends at Taipei City Hall in the eastern city district of Xinyi, and runners of the full marathon will circle a large portion of downtown Taipei. Races include a full marathon (42.195km), half marathon (21km), 9km run, fun run (3km), and children’s run (2km).

Travel in Taiwan

5

WHAT'S UP

News & Events around Taiwan

Green Island Lighthouse

Tourist Sites

Lighthouses Opened to Tourists

MRT Daan Park Station

Transportation

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications recently announced the opening of two lighthouses to tourists – Baishajia Lighthouse in Taoyuan County and Green Island Lighthouse in Taitung County. Baishajia Lighthouse, located in Guanyin Township on the northwest coast, was built in the late 19th century, and is at 37 meters Taiwan’s second-tallest lighthouse (the tallest lighthouse is Mudouyu Lighthouse on Mudouyu Island, Penghu County; 39.9 meters). The lighthouse on Green Island, off the coast of southeastern Taiwan, is 33 meters high and was erected in 1938. Interestingly, the construction of the latter was financed with funds donated by members of the US public to the American Red Cross in response to the sinking of an American luxury ocean liner on a Green Island reef in 1937. There are a total of 35 lighthouses in Taiwan, of which eight are open to the public. The ministry plans to have half of Taiwan’s lighthouses opened to tourists within the next three years.

New MRT Xinyi Line The long-awaited Xinyi Line of Taipei's MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) System, or Taipei Metro, will be in operation before the end of the year. The new line will connect the northern city district of Beitou, best known for its hot springs, with the modern eastern district, home to the Taipei 101 skyscraper and Taipei World Trade Center as well as numerous large department stores and hotels, on a single line. The establishment of this new line will mean that trains starting at Beitou Station will no longer proceed to the current terminal station, Taipower Building Station, instead proceeding to the terminus on the Xinyi Line, Xiangshan Station. The current Xiaonanmen Line, which connects Ximen and CKS Memorial Hall stations, will be extended by two stops to Taipower Building Station. Find more info about the Taipei Metro system at: http://english.trtc.com.tw.

Transportation

Direct Taipei-Fujian Ferry Link Travelers now have a new option for getting from Taipei to mainland China’s Fujian Province.

The high-speed ferry Haixia, which also carries passengers and cargo four times a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) between Taichung in central Taiwan and Pingtan in Fujian Province, now also runs twice a week (Wednesday, Saturday) from New Taipei City’s Port of Taipei in Bali District to Pingtan. The trip takes about three hours, and costs NT$3,200 (return ticket NT$6,300).

The Haixia is the world's fastest ship of its kind, with a maximum speed of 96 nautical mph and a capacity of 782 passengers.

6

Travel in Taiwan

Museum

Red Dot Museum Taipei Since 1955, the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany has awarded product designers from around the world the Red Dot Design Award, with winning products exhibited in Essen’s Red Dot Design Museum.

The museum has about 2,000 exhibits, presenting a complete range of contemporary product design. In 2005 a second Red Dot Museum was opened in Singapore, and this year a third has been established in Taipei. This museum is located inside Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and showcases a large collection of Red Dot Design Award products, from jewelry and household items to furniture and vehicles. For more information about Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and the new museum, visit www.songshanculturalpark.org.

Hotels

New Arrivals in 2013 Reloading Hotel

The tourism industry in Taiwan is flourishing, and new hotels are opened frequently.

Here are some of the hotels recently added to the local hospitality scene. Fleurlis Hotel (www.fleurlis.com.tw ) is in central Hsinchu City, located close to the railway station.

The hotel has 72 guestrooms, with room rates starting at NT$9,000. Reloading Hotel (www.reloading-hotel.com ) is a small backpacker-friendly hotel in central Taichung City.

Located close to Electronics Street, the hotel features a unique circuit-board theme. It has 47 rooms, with rates starting at NT$1,800. Two Hotel Cozzi (www.hotelcozzi.com ) facilities have been opened in Taipei this year, one on Minsheng East Road and the other on Zhongxiao East Road. Both are modern and chic, with an emphasis on providing a warm and convenient accommodation option. Room rates start at NT$4,600 (Minsheng) and NT$6,000 (Zhongxiao). The Hoya Resort Hualien (www.hoyaresort.com.tw ), located in Hualien City, is a modern hotel catering to tourists visiting eastern Taiwan. It has 189 guestrooms, with rates starting at NT$4,600. For a comprehensive list of accommodation options in Taiwan, visit http://eng.taiwan.net.tw and click on “Accommodation.”

Website

Smart Tourism Taiwan Directed by Taiwan’s Board of Science and Technology under the auspices of the Executive Yuan, Smart Tourism Taiwan (www.vztaiwan.com ) is a helpful website providing information about Taiwan that helps visitors plan their tours with itinerary-planning tools that can be synced across smartphones, Google calendars, and web browsers. The website provides introductions to a wide range of tourist attractions, and gives visitors myriad ideas for tours, dining, and shopping.

Travel in Taiwan

E-Magazine App Travel in Taiwan is also available as an e-magazine edition in the Apple Newsstand. iPad users can now enjoy more content, and a convenient interactive reading experience. The e-magazine contains more images than the print version, some of which can be shown in full-screen mode, and also has multimedia content such as audio and video clips. The user-friendly interface allows for convenient navigation through the magazine. Download the magazine free of cost from the app store and read it on you mobile device wherever you go!

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK! We, the producers of Travel in Taiwan , wish to improve our magazine with each issue and give you the best possible help when planning – or carrying out – your next trip to Taiwan. Tell us what you think by filling out our short online questionnaire at v-media.com.tw/survey/travelintaiwan.html . Senders of the first 10 completed questionnaires for each issue will receive three free issues of Travel in Taiwan . Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Travel in Taiwan

7

CULTURE SCENE

Concerts, Exhibitions, and Happenings

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

December 27 ~ 29 National Theater

Yao Shu-fen: Wings of Desire & Ho Hsiaomei: My Dear 姚淑芬《蒼穹下》& 何曉玫《親愛的》 Wings of Desire is based on the film Der Himmel über Berlin , directed by acclaimed German director Wim Wenders. Internationally renowned choreographer Yao Shu-fen has collaborated with German opera director Thilo Reinhardt to assimilate Wenders’ points of view while inspecting her own inner being and exploring the interactions between city, nature, and human beings. With the help of holographic technology, dancers’ figures interweave and overlap, implying the clustering of people. Paper is the main theme in Ho Hsiao-mei’s work My Dear, which is built on stories depicted using Chinese paper-cutting. Dancers wander between the worlds of unreality and reality in order to explore the meaning of love, hatred, anger, and persistence.

December 6 National Concert Hall

Letters from Argentina 來自阿根廷的信 Lalo Schifrin, Argentine pianist and composer, is best known for his film and TV scores, such as for Mission: Impossible and Rush Hour . He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations. In this musical feast, Letters from Argentina , Schifrin combines tango and Argentinean folk music with classical music to create a fresh, new sound reminiscent of his homeland, Argentina.

The celebrated violinist Lin Cho-liang will lead a group of internationally distinguished soloists to portray this musical tango journey.

8

Travel in Taiwan

November 19 ~ January 5 Parking Lot at TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall

Cirque du Soleil: OVO 太陽劇團：蟲林森巴 The famous Cirque du Soleil, the largest theatrical producer in the world, is coming to Taiwan. For nearly two months local audiences will have the chance to watch OVO , the company’s 25th production, featuring a dazzling array of acrobatic surprises, including a stunning and extremely difficult f lying trapeze act with performers f lying as high as 14 meters. The name “OVO,” Portuguese for “egg,” was chosen as symbol for the show’s theme, a colorful ecosystem teeming with lively insects. Dressed like insects, the world-class acrobats complete breathtaking feats that seem to defy the limits of what is humanly possible. More about the show at www.cirquedusoleil.com.tw.

Until February 10 National Palace Museum

Leonardo - Mona Lisa – The Myths 蒙娜麗莎五百年：達文西傳奇 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is the world's most famous portrait painting, and has an iconic presence in Western cultural history. Her appearance not only signifies the full f lowering of the Renaissance, but also heralds the coming of the new age of humanism. Throughout the past 500 years, her image has constantly been imitated, borrowed, and interpreted by artists. This exhibition, shown earlier this year at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, has four parts: “About Leonardo da Vinci,” which traces the art of da Vinci and his followers; “About Mona Lisa,” which presents a series of paintings inspired by and derived from the Mona Lisa; “Leonardo and Mona Lisa in the Modern World,” which looks at avant-garde artists' creative takes on the Mona Lisa; and “Models and Inventions,” which displays da Vinci's far-ranging talents and experimental spirit. The exhibition allows visitors to investigate da Vinci’s challenging, enigmatic life, better understand key issues in art history and contemporary culture, and travel back 500 years to enjoy a banquet of classical art while traveling from the Renaissance to the present day.

January 3 ~ 5, 2014 Taipei International Convention Center

Barbie Live 芭比夢想音樂劇 A dream come true for Barbie-lovers!

A real-life Barbie, together with Ken and their friends, perform live on stage in this dance-inspired musical, a production filled with energetic contemporary song and dance. Set on an all-pink Hollywood soundstage, Barbie is shooting her latest film with her best friend and co-star Teresa.

When Teresa doubts herself, Barbie uses the lessons learned from her Princess movies – Swan Lake, Princess and the Popstar, and Mariposa & The Fairy Princess – to teach Teresa to be brave, believe in herself, and embrace the power of true friendship.

Until January 5 National Taiwan Science Education Center

3D Trick Arts Exhibition Part III – Kitarou 奇幻不思議 3D 幻視系列 - 鬼太郎特展 At many art exhibitions, you are not allowed to take photos or get close to the art on display, let alone play with it. Not so at this exhibition. On the contrary, visitors are encouraged to bring their cameras and take photos of friends and family incorporating the artwork.

The idea is to pose in a way that the illusion of real persons interacting with the cartoon characters of the paintings is created. On display are more than 20 large-scale hand-painted artworks, depicting the popular Japanese cartoon character Kitarou and all sorts of animation monsters. Posing in front of and interacting with these cartoon characters brings great fun for the whole family.

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

Imminent Sounds: Falls and Crossings 迫聲音－音像裝置展 This is the second collaborative exhibition between the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and the Grame National Center of Musical Creation in Lyon, France. Imminent Sounds presents seventeen video and installation works by around twenty artists invited from the United States, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Colombia, and Chile, including video pioneer Bill Viola, music-video master Thierry de Mey, and Grame founder Pierre Alain Jaffrennou. Works for the exhibition were selected around the themes of Falls and Crossings. Programmed in conjunction with the exhibition, performances and forums will be presented that reflect Grame’s many years of experience developing new-media art.

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) 2552-3721 www.mocataipei.org.tw Nearest MRT Station: Zhongshan

TWTC Nangang Exhibiton Hall （台北世貿中心南港展覽館）

Add: 1, Jingmao 2nd Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市經貿二路 1 號 )

Tel: (02) 2343-1100 www.cksmh.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial Hall

Tel: (02) 2725-5200 www.twtcnangang.com.tw Nearest MRT Station: Nangang Exhibition Hall

National Concert Hall（國家音樂聽） National Theater（國家戲劇院）

National Taiwan Science Education Center

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 )

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

National Palace Museum

（國立臺灣科學教育館）

Add: 189 Shishan Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市士商路 189 號 ) Tel: (02) 6610-1234 Website: www.ntsec.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: Shilin

Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts （關渡美術館）

Add: 1 Xueyuan Rd., Beitou District, Taipei City ( 台北市北投區學園路 1 號 ) Tel: (02) 2896-1000 ext. 2432 Website: www.kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw Nearest MRT Station: Guandu

（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 Xiangyang Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市 襄 陽 路 2 號 )

Until January 5 Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Taipei Fine Arts Museum （台北市立美術館）

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

Novel Hall（新舞臺） Add: 3 Songshou Rd., Taipei City ( 台北市松 壽路 3 號 )

Tel: (02) 2722-4302 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/en 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.

Taichung National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts（國立台灣美術館） Add: 2 Wuquan W. Rd., Sec. 1, Taichung City ( 台中市五權 西 路 一段 2 號 )

Tel: (04) 2372-3552 www.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 )

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

Kaohsiung 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

Travel in Taiwan

9

FEATURE

Sky High Text: Rick Charette

Climbing Up to the Roof of Taiwan: A Wushe to Mt. Hehuan Excursion

Photos: Jen Guo-chen

On a three-day adventure along the Central Cross-Island Highway in the Nantou County section of the soaring Central Mountain Range, I visit Wushe, an indigenous town best known for being at the center of the last great uprising against the Japanese during the 1895-1945 Japanese colonial period; enjoy the eagle-view scenery and ranch experience at mountainside-hugging Qingjing Farm; revel in the grand experience of being at eye level with scores of peaks above 3,000 meters at Wuling, Taiwan’s highest paved-road point; hike and walk high-mountain trails; lose myself in a sunrise perched on a spot over 3,200 meters up; feast on the culinary inventions of mainland China’s Baiyi people; visit a Baiyi settlement; watch Taiwan’s Sediq tribe members weave cloth the traditional way; watch thrilling horse-riding acrobatics performed by an outer Mongolian troupe; visit local museums, …

Let’s be off, you say? OK, time to launch.

Tak ing in the amazing scener y at Mt. Hehuan

10

Travel in Taiwan

QINGJING/MT. HEHUAN to Lishan/Taroko Gorge Mt. Shimen Trail Mt. Hehuan

Kenanguan Songxue Lou

Wuling

Bowang New Village Lu Mama Restaurant Qingjing Farm Qingjing Guest House

Qingjing Community Development Association Sunshine Vacation Villa

Yunnan Fengqing Xiu Hua Studio Wushe Mona Rudao Memorial Park

Nantou County Museum of Natural History

Wanda Reservoir

to Puli

Travel in Taiwan

11

FEATURE

DAY 1 We’re self-driving. My four-person adventure group takes National Freeway No. 3 from Taipei to just past central Taichung, then switches to picturesque National Freeway No. 6 to enter the mountains, reaching its end at Puli town. The much-tunneled No. 6 is, in sections, raised dramatically high above valley floors. We leave pretty Puli Basin to start the steep ascent into the central mountains along Provincial Highway No. 14, reaching Wushe town in 25 minutes. The full trip has taken less than three hours.

Wushe is a Sediq-tribe community. Long lumped together with the Atayal tribe, the Sediq were officially recognized as an independent group in 2008. Though “Wushe” means “foggy community,” it is known for crystal-clear alpine air, along with a grand bloom of wild cherry and plum blossoms in early spring.

On the town’s lower edge, beside the highway, is Mona Rudao Memorial Park. Towards the end of the Sediq uprising against the Japanese in 1930 (see box), leader Mona Rudao committed suicide while hiding in a cave, refusing to be taken prisoner. In 1981 this memorial park was created and his remains transferred here. It is a quiet place of tall, shady coniferous trees, entered via an elegant white gateway.

Wanda Reser voir near Wushe

The Wushe Incident

Statue of Mona Rudao

12

Travel in Taiwan

On October 27, 1930, Mona Rudao, the son of a local chieftain, and over 300 Sediq warriors ambushed Japanese officials and family members attending a sports meet at the local elementary school. The attack was in retaliation for ongoing language and cultural repression, demands for forced labor, and recent insults. After days of fighting, with Japanese reinforcements expected from the lowlands, the rebels retreated to the higher mountains and fought on for two months, hiding in caves to escape air bombing. The Japanese eventually resorted to poison gas, and many tribal members, sick and on the point of starvation, chose suicide over surrender. Approximately 2,000 Sediq died in the fighting, 200 Japanese. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (2011), Taiwan’s first epic film about local indigenous history, is centered on the Wushe Incident.

Directly across the highway from the memorial park is the entrance to stained-timber stairs set amidst tall, aromatic coniferous trees that bring you to and – literally – through Wushe Elementary School, to the Nantou County Museum of Natural History (Tues ~ Sun, 9 am ~ 5 pm) on the far side, down more steps beyond the playground. On the way we stopped for posed shots with a bust of Chiang Kai-shek that, whimsically, has the generalissimo sporting Sediq facial tattoos and bright-red warrior garb.

The simple museum has rotating exhibits on the first level (on Taiwan’s butterflies when we visited), and a permanent exhibit on Taiwan’s indigenous peoples on the basement level, including a display on the 1930 uprising. We much enjoyed a multimedia installation that magically puts you in old photographs in Sediq warrior or maiden costume, and I particularly enjoyed a display on the ingenious traditional traps and nets used to catch small game and fish. There is English information on both levels, and an English-speaking guide can be arranged.

Wushe is perched high above pretty Wanda Reservoir, which is surrounded by abrupt mountain escarpments and has the reflectiveness of an emerald-green mirror. Your photos will

QINGJING/MT. HEHUAN

Green Green Grassland at Qingjing Farm

DAY 2 have the look of a lyrical Chinese shanshui landscape painting, especially with the rustic awning-covered fishing rafts that dot the surface. One and all can fish from the shore, but only natives are allowed fishing on the water.

From Wushe (elevation 1,150m), we drove up, up, up to Qingjing Farm (1,750m). The twisting highway – there is a split at Wushe, and we were now on the 14A – moves along the long, steep ridge of a massive mountain spur that goes all the way to the Wuling Pass (3,275 meters) at Mt. Hehuan. The views are, as you have already imagined, quite dramatic, and at numerous points you look down into deep valleys.

Qingjing Farm bills itself as “Little Switzerland.” The reasons are clear. The major attraction is the Green Green Grassland (NT$160 for adults, NT$200 on weekends and holidays; 8 am to 4 pm, 5 pm on weekend and holidays), where sheep munch on rolling mountaintop pastureland. All about are tall-peak alpine panoramas. The sheep and the skills needed to tend them were introduced decades back by government-hired Australian ranchers. You can buy feed to give the animals, and there are regular sheep-shearing and sheep-dog shows. Note that pet dogs are not allowed in this area, because they might disturb the sheep; there are pet-care services at both the north and south gates.

A highlight when we visited this section was the horseacrobatics show put on by a very talented, colorfully dressed troupe from Mongolia. Most amazing of many amazing feats was one rider shooting arrows at a target with deadly accuracy, sometimes turned to face backwards, as he galloped headlong in circles. Onlookers nearest the target leaned away instinctively, but he never came close to missing. Seeing the demonstration, I could well imagine the power of the attacks in days of yore by his ancestors, on horseback and in the hundreds and thousands.

The second big draw at the farm is the Small Swiss Garden (NT$120; 9 am to 9 pm), a landscaped area tucked away amidst tall coniferous trees which overflows with bright alpine flowers and is dotted with small replicas of windmills and other

E xhibits inside the Nantou Count y Museum of Natural Histor y

Travel in Taiwan

13

FEATURE

Sheep herding show at Qingjing Farm

Feeding a sheep

European touches. Ducks, geese, and turtles swim in the large pond in the middle. There are periodic water-fountain displays, and a romantic – and popular – water-and-light show at night.

The farm’s administrators have set up a number of for-the-mostpart short and easy trails that let you experience the facility from different angles. On this day we tackled three: the 499 Steps Trail, 1,800 meters long, featuring the 499 steps of a long, attractive treeshaded wooden staircase stretched along some of the farm’s cashcrop orchards; the Cryptomeria Trail, 750 meters, which takes you through a mature, pleasantly fragrant stand of the evergreens planted long ago by the Japanese and around behind the Small Swiss Garden; and the Tea Garden Trail, 800 meters, which takes you into the slope-hugging tea fields behind the Qingjing Guest House.

14

Travel in Taiwan

Qingjing Farm is fun for families

QINGJING/MT. HEHUAN

DAY 3 The climb from Qingjing to Highway 14A’s highest point, at Wuling, takes about an hour. You leave almost all manmade structures behind; all permanent dwellings seem to be far below you. There are a number of scenic places to stop, with good English posted telling you what you’re seeing.

Mongolian horse riding show at Qingjing Farm

T hree first- generation Baiyi living at Bowang New V illage

Qingjing’s Baiyi Community Beyond its superb mountain vistas and bucolic alpine farmland experience, Qingjing is also known for its vibrant Baiyi community. The Baiyi or Dai people are from China’s Yunnan Province. When the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 and the ROC government evacuated to Taiwan, many Kuomintang soldiers were left behind in border districts in China’s southwest. In 1961 a group from Yunnan was airlifted to Taiwan; the majority of their wives were from various Yunnan minorities, the greatest number Baiyi. In light of the rugged high-mountain conditions, most couples settling around Qingjing Farm were childless. Many second-generation community members, many of these in their 50s, now run restaurants and homestays/inns that give tourists a look into their lives. Second-generation member Ms. Li Cong-xiu took us on a tour of small, colorful, single-street Bowang New Village, one of the original 1961 settlements, which welcomes all visitors and has an intriguing collection of old photos and info (Chinese) in the Qingjing Community Development Association hall. If interested in a tour, call her at 0952-218966 (she speaks Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, and Baiyi).

At Wuling Pass (3,275 m), you’ve cleared forest cover and are amongst a sea of waving high-mountain bamboo sprinkled with pine and, in winter, the occasional dusting of snow. Just above, not more than a few hundred feet, is a world of bare rock. Mt. Hehuan’s east peak is right on top of you, the road running over its neck and down its back toward Taroko Gorge on the east coast. Laid out to the right of the east peak is what seems like a scale model of ridges and peaks running far toward the island’s south, a who’s who of topographical stars lined up – Qilai Ridge, Mt. Nenggao, Mt. Jade in miniature far at the end. All are now at eye-level, and you feel you can reach out and touch them all.

You make the drive in the dead of night to catch the sunrise. You won’t be alone. People park along the highway around Wuling, or head up along the Mt. Hehuan area’s many popular trails – to the east peak, the main peak, etc.

Before the big show, the number of stars in the clear skies is incredible, and the many shooting stars provide thrills. We went past Wuling Pass, descending down the other side of the Hehuanshan massif about 10 minutes to Kenanguan.

This is a highway pass blown right out of the mountains by the Japanese and then later expanded by the ROC government; “Kenanguan” means “Conquering Difficulty Pass.” You stare down into a deep, dark valley, and off over soaring peaks. This is also one of many great area spots to watch ethereal “seas of clouds” roll into valleys below you like slow tsunamis.

Sunrise at Kenanguan near Mt. Hehuan

Travel in Taiwan

15

FEATURE

Mountain scener y at Wuling

16

Travel in Taiwan

QINGJING/MT. HEHUAN

T he Central Cross-island Highway

After the sunrise, we headed a short distance back west along the highway, toward Wuling Pass, and parked in the small lot across from the easy 800-meter Mt. Shimen Trail. Though our hike was just 30 minutes or so, we ended up atop one of Taiwan’s 100 famous peaks above 3,000 meters high, at 3,237 meters, surrounded by low, slope-hugging juniper, prickly highmountain bamboo and abundant Yushan azalea and red hairy azalea, and colorful birds such as Formosan laughing thrush and vinaceus rosefinch.

The weather in Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area (http://recreation.forest.gov.tw ) is highly variable, so bring both warm clothing and raingear. Heavy fogs often roll in in the afternoon.

Check the Central Weather Bureau website (www. cwb.gov.tw ) ahead of time. Note also that information on guided tours is available from the newly opened Hehuanshan Villa Visitor Center, located highway-side near the Mt. Shimen Trail trailhead.

Getting There & Getting Around The E-Go tourist-bus company (www.e-go.com.tw ; Chinese) has daily departures from Taipei Railway Station and other points on Taiwan’s west side to Wushe and on to Qingjing. From there you can choose from their tourbus outings to Wushe, around Qingjing Farm, to Mt. Hehuan, and other area spots. There are sunrise and sunset Mt. Hehuan outings. You can also check out the Qingjing-Hehuan Sightseeing Commentary Limousine service (www. travelbus.com.tw ; Chinese), which operates bright-red sightseeing buses.

English and Chinese

Mona Rudao Mem. Park

Atayal 泰雅

莫那魯道紀念公園

Baiyi 擺夷

Mt. Hehuan 合歡山

Bowang New Village 博望新村

Mt. Shimen Trail 石門山步道

Central Weather Bureau 中央氣象局

Puli 埔里

Cryptomeria Trail 柳杉步道

Qilai Ridge 奇萊稜脊

499 Steps Trail 步步高升步道

Sediq 賽德克

Green Green Grassland 青青草原

Small Swiss Garden 小瑞士花園

Hehuanshan Villa Visitor Center

Tea Garden Trail 茶園步道

合歡山莊遊客中心

Wanda Reservoir 萬大水庫

Kenanguan 克難關

Wuling 武嶺

Li Cong-xiu 李從秀

Wushe 霧社

Fun at Mt. Hehuan Nantou County Museum of Natural History ( 仁愛高農自然史教育館 ) Add: 27, Shannong Lane, Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村山農巷 27 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-1103 Qingjing Farm ( 清境農場 ) Add: 170, Renhe Rd., Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村仁和路 170 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-2748 Website: www.cing jing.gov.tw Qingjing Community Development Association ( 清境社區發展協會 ) Add: 42, Bowang Lane, Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村博望巷 42 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-3876 Website: community.cja.org.tw (Chinese)

Travel in Taiwan

17

FEATURE

Wushe/Qingjing/Mt. Hehuan

High-Mountain Stay/Eat/Buy Pleasures Where to Stay

Sunshine Vacation V illa (lef t); Songxue Lou (ab ove) Text: Rick Charette

Photos: Jen Guo-chen

There has been a tourism explosion in the Wushe/ Qingjing/Mt. Hehuan region in the past decade-plus, and many people will include at least two of these three destinations in any overnight outing to the central mountain region of Taiwan. Your Stay/Eat/ Buy options are many, and are of high quality.

Most accommodations are in the Qingjing Farm area, where there are now over 140 minsu or homestays. The term “minsu” is almost universally used, but as explained to me by Qingjing Farm authorities, a true minsu has seven or fewer guest rooms and the owner/operators must live on the premises. Most of the facilities that do not qualify are better described as inns, or B&Bs My favorite Qingjing overnight getaway is the classy Sunshine Vacation Villa, an inn with Swiss-style building exteriors. Its rooms, restaurant/gift shop, and café are in different buildings, which seem to hang over the valley below, the long Qilai Ridge in all its grandeur spread out yonder. The rooms are comfy, airy, and tastefully appointed, and the restaurant serves first-rate Baiyi cuisine (more on this later), but it’s the café I think about upon returning home, eclectically yet tastefully decorated in Western style with fireplace, its floor-to-ceiling windows making you feel you’re floating outward above the valley. (Rooms start at NT$2,460.)

Another fine choice is Yunnan Fengqing (“Yunnan Style”), run by Jiang Shao-lu and his wife. A quirky place brimming with personality, I’ll call it a hybrid homestay/inn. There are three buildings. Of the 15 guest rooms, 14 are in a building with an air of what I’ll call “European classicism with Baiyi/Mr. Jiang characteristics.” The couple lives on the main floor of a rustic two-story wood building, with the attractive, homey restaurant on the second floor.

Big windows and extensive use of big pieces of scrap-timber and driftwood cedar in furniture/decorations are the big themes here. Both husband and wife are second-generation Qingjing Baiyi, both cook, and the Baiyi food here is tasty.

The great draw at Yunnan Fengqing, however, is the wonderful, whimsical birdhouse/treehouse room. Built with a healthy dose of scrap timber and driftwood, Jiang says it is his architectural paean to his Yunnan brethren, who build their high-mountain structures high and narrow to maximize agricultural space. (Rooms start at NT$2,310 .)

The venerable Songxue Lou (“Pine Snow Lodge”) is a quiet place just off the highway on the east slope of Mt. Hehuan’s east peak, popular with hikers and bikers. Cycling has become very popular in Taiwan in the past decade, and tackling Mt. Hehuan (i.e., on the highway) has become de rigeuer for the most dedicated. The 36 rooms are roomy and spartan, with simple furnishings and much space for hiking/cycling gear, bikes, etc. The lodge façade and common areas have been renovated, and are quite attractive. The bright, open restaurant serves simple, hearty, inexpensive Chinese fare. Like other area accommodations, recreation facilities are pretty much non-existent – you’re supposed to be outside enjoying nature’s gifts. (Rooms start at NT$2,440 .)

18

Travel in Taiwan

STAY/EAT/BUY

Where to Eat I’ve visited Qingjing six times, and very much enjoy the zesty Baiyi fare, with many dishes featuring heavy seasoning. Many of the traditional herbs and spices used are not commonly used elsewhere in Taiwan, and are either imported or grown in local household gardens.

Birdhouse at Yunnan Fengqing Inside the birdhouse

Topping my restaurant list is Lu Mama, beside the highway just below Bowang New Village. On this trip I had the privilege of visiting with founder “Mother Lu,” whose compelling personal story includes dodging Communist soldiers before escaping from Yunnan to Taiwan, then severe hardship and homesickness while opening up the Qingjing land. From her restaurant’s menu, I specially recommend the crispy spiced mountain fish, which is cut in half, smothered in seasonings inside, put back together and quick-fried, and a dessert treat not found in many local Baiyi restaurants, fried triangles of red glutinous-rice paste with peanut powder and sesame seed, dipped in honey and/or coconut shreds. Delicious!

Second of my top Baiyi three is the Sunshine Vacation Villa restaurant. Especially interesting is the dish featuring pork-head skin slices. The skin is roasted, blackened sections scraped off, and the meat sliced and served with chili pepper and peanut.

At the Yunnan Fengqing restaurant, try the spiced pork slices with finely chopped tomato, onion, and garlic, delectably complemented with rice vinegar, lemon juice, and huajiao (Sichuan flower pepper). The Baiyi also use this as a condiment.

Area restaurants almost invariably have great views, but wood-built Talowan’s is different. (“Talowan” means “welcome” in the native Sediq language.) It sits high up looking straight down the long, mountainbracketed, emerald-green Wanda Reservoir. Sit outside on a roofed deck or on a patio with large-umbrella shading. The menu is a Chinese/indigenous mix; most popular is the hotpot with fresh mountain fishhead and mountain produce, but to me, nothing here beats the melt-in-your-mouth whole chicken, steeped in six herbs 3-4 days then baked in a special wood-fired oven.

Hotpot with fish head prepared at Talowan

At Songxue Lou

Delicious fish prepared at Yunnan Fengqing

Yunnan sp ecialties prepared at Lu Mama

Travel in Taiwan

19

FEATURE

What to Buy An iconic Qingjing Farm image is woolly sheep and goats, and when visiting you can buy a number of different sheep/goat-theme items. In the lobby of the farm-run Qingjing Guest House, buy aromatic fresh-baked bread and silky-smooth popsicles and ice cream made with goat milk.

Kids also like the cute sheep-theme DIY windmill chimes and figurines.

At the Ville de la France shop, beside the Qingjing Farm Tourist Center, buy tasty, flaky, handmade danjuan (“egg rolls,” a sweet treat – not the fried egg rolls you know from Chinese restaurants) and creamy pudding made with goat milk.

Chen Xiu-hua, owner of Xiu Hua Studio on the highway just above Wushe village, makes indigenous fabrics the traditional way, and creates/sells (cash only) both the beautiful traditional-style attire of Taiwan’s various tribes and appealing traditionalpattern, modern-styling items such as bags, purses, and even high-heel shoes. Her awardwinning Li Du Lu Mu designer-label creations are also sold elsewhere (visit http://theme. otop.tw/renai/p38.html and http://www.otop.tw/feature/104941.html; Chinese ).

Cute sheep figurines

STAY Qingjing Guest House ( 清境農場國民賓館 ) Add: 25, Dingyuan New Village, Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村定遠新村 25 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-2748 Website: hotel.ching jing.com.tw Songxue Lou ( 松雪樓 ) Add: 33, Guanyuan, Fushi Village, Xiulin Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣秀林鄉富世村關原 33 號 ) Tel: (04) 2522-9696 Website: tsfs.forest.gov.tw (Chinese)

Bag and purses by Xiu Hua Studio Chen Xin-hua at work

Sunshine Vacation Villa ( 見晴花園渡假山莊 ) Add: 18-1, Dingyuan New Village, Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村定遠新村 18-1 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-3162 Website: www.sunshine-villa.com.tw (Chinese) Yunnan Fengqing ( 雲南風情渡假山莊 ) Add: 50-1, Rongguang Lane, Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村榮光巷 50-1 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-3577 Website: www.yunnan.com.tw (Chinese)

EAT Lu Mama ( 魯媽媽 ) Add: 210-2-1, Renhe Rd., Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村仁和路 210-2-1 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-3876 Website: www.lumama.com.tw (Chinese)

English and Chinese Chen Xiu-hua 陳秀花 danjuan 蛋捲 huajiao 花椒 Jiang Shao-lu 江紹陸 Qing jing Farm Tourist Center 清境農場遊客服務中心 Ville de la France 法國小鎮

20

Travel in Taiwan

Talowan Restaurant ( 塔洛彎景觀餐廳 ) Add: 25-1, Xinyi Lane, Renhe Rd., Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村仁和路信義巷 25-1 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-3839

BUY Xiu Hua Studio ( 秀花工作室 ) Add: 77-1, Xinyi Lane, Datong Village, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣仁愛鄉大同村信義巷 77-1 號 ) Tel: (049) 280-1885

SHILIN MEETING NIGHT TOURISTS MARKET Travel in Taiwan: Where do you like it best in Taipei?

Alex: I am particularly fond of the area around MRT Dongmen Station. There are many restaurants along Yongkang Street, and it is a very pleasant neighborhood.

Travel in Taiwan: What do you think about Songshan Cultural and Creative Park?

At Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, one of Taipei’s new and thriving cultural centers, Travel in Taiwan asked foreigners about their travel and living experiences in Taiwan.

Alex: I like that old areas and buildings are being preserved and made useful again. The idea of preservation for the sake of culture and history is great. Taipei’s cityscape is a real mix of old and new.

Alex, from Wisconsin, USA

Alex: I would first recommend visitors go to Elephant Mountain, just south of Taipei 101, do a bit of hiking, and look over the whole city from up high. Then I would recommend going to the coastal town of Tamsui north of Taipei, and enjoy the seafood and sunsets.

Finally, back in the city, a night-market visit, maybe in the Longshan Temple area or in Shilin.

Travel in Taiwan: You’ve lived here for a number of years.

What do you think of Taipei as a city?

Alex: I think it is a very interesting place. The city changes and grows rapidly. For example, the MRT system keeps growing, and new large malls are opened almost every year it seems. This building right here, the Eslite Spectrum Songyan Store, is a good example.

Travel in Taiwan: Can you recommend three places to go to in Taipei?

Ruud and Pieter, from the Netherlands Travel in Taiwan: What are your initial impressions of Taiwan?

Ruud: Oh, it’s so very different from any country I have been to so far. Everything is strange and unusual – for example the food smells in the streets – in a good way.

Pieter: I am not quite sure what foods to pick, because I am not familiar with many of the things on offer here. We’ve already tried some exotic foods, like dried pork blood on a stick.

Travel in Taiwan: When did you arrive in Taiwan, and how long will you stay?

Ruud: We just arrived a few days ago. This is our first visit. I will be studying for a semester at National Taipei University of Technology in Taipei.

Pieter: And I will be studying for one semester at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung. We both study business administration, and we will try to take some Chinese language classes too.

Travel in Taiwan: Where will you be going next?

Pieter: Taipei 101. It’s right over there. You can’t miss it. Ha, ha!

Travel in Taiwan

21

TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS

The Hot Springs of Beitou

A Place of Warmth, History, and Mist-ery

Beitou’s G eothermal Valley

Beitou Museum

Hot-spring bathing

22

Travel in Taiwan

BEITOU

Text: Rick Charette

Photos: Vision Int'l

The Beitou hot-spring district, now long enclosed within the borders of Taipei City, was voted one of Taiwan’s “Top 10 Tourist Towns” in a nationwide poll and expert survey concluded last year. Travel in Taiwan recently spent an afternoon with Yang Yeh, well-known Taiwan mapmaker, resident of Beitou since childhood, and expert on its history and culture.

Beitou Hot Spring Museum

Travel in Taiwan

23

TOP TEN TOURIST TOWNS

To get to

the hotspring area, which percolates with resort hotels, public baths, and tourist attractions, take the Taipei Metro (“MRT”) to Xinbeitou Station. On exiting, you’ll see a long, narrow, valley directly ahead, sloping upward toward the high hills and peaks of the Yangmingshan massif looming behind. This valley was carved by the Beitou Stream, a hot-spring stream that gurgles and steams. It runs through long, narrow Beitou Park, which takes up the center of the lower part of the valley.

The metro station is, says Yang, the best place to launch a day-tour of the hotspring enclave, because the area’s history as a resort was also launched here. The Japanese developed the valley during their 1895-1945 period of colonial rule over Taiwan, and built a large and lovely wooden railway station in 1916 on a spot right beside today’s metro station to serve as the terminus on a spur line specially built to deliver soakers from a then much smaller Taipei.

Old-time Beitou residents are very happy these days, says Yang, because government officials recently announced that the station, relocated to Taiwan Folk Village in Changhua County in 1992, is being returned to Taipei, and will be reerected in small Qixing Park beside the metro station by 2016.

The entrance

to Beitou Park is just across the street from the metro station. There are a number of small Beitou Stream waterfalls within the park. “Early on, before many facilities were developed, Japanese nationals would come here and soak in the pools below the falls – naked, in the Japanese fashion. This caused quite a stir with locals, and Japanese officials thought it best to stop the practice, to maintain Japanese dignity and esteem.”

(Today only foot-soaking is allowed in the stream.) Small inns and baths began to pop up.

24

Travel in Taiwan

One of the earliest, a simple bathhouse called Longnaitang, is still in operation beside the park (244 Guangming Road). It was built in 1907, has separate male/female pools, and today requires swimwear. Two other places from the Japanese era are also still in business. The Yitsun Hotel, originally a private guesthouse for Japanese military officers, includes Sun Yat-sen among its famous guests (140 Wenquan Road). The pretty wood-built Whispering Pine Inn, built in 1934, is further up the valley, above the park (21 Youya Road).

In Yang’s view, of the many attractions in the hot-spring area, manmade and natural, the Beitou Hot Spring Museum (beitoumuseum.taipei. gov.tw ), located just inside the park at its lower end, is a must-visit. This lovely Victorian-style building of red brick and white stucco originally housed the Beitou Public Baths, Taiwan’s first public bath and long East Asia’s largest hotspring public bath. A Romanesque pool and columns have been restored, as has the original large, breezy tatami resting room, and there are many intriguing artifacts and info displays. Says Yang: “A highlight for me at the museum is the fine collection of black & white photos and documentary footage of Beitou and Taipei’s riverside areas in the Japanese period, which is great for visualizing what everything used to look like as you tour the area.”

Higher up in the park you’ll come to Plum Garden. This is an attractive Japanese-style villa made of timber, with Western elements, that was built in the 1930s. It was the summer home of the esteemed politico and calligrapher Yu You-ren from 1949 to 1964. Inside the heritage home is a visitor information center, and there are displays on Yu’s calligraphy as well as the villa’s distinctive architecture and decorative elements. “The villa was originally built for the use of Japanese military officers,” says Yang, “and the basement has an air-

raid shelter built with reinforced concrete during WW II. The external wall is a battlement-shaped structure, as if the Japanese expected the Americans to one day come fighting up the valley.”

G eothermal Valley

In a very

small side valley near the top of the park is Geothermal Valley, Beitou Stream’s sulfur-water source, popularly called Hell Valley. This is the heart of the hot-springs area. A deep, rockstrewn depression created by a volcanic burst long ago, it’s filled with what’s more a lake than a pool, the sulfurous waters bubbling and spitting, the steam sometimes filling the entire little valley on cool days.

These are the Yangmingshan massif’s hottest waters, at about 100 degrees Celsius. Yang says that the Ketagalan called the mist- and steam-filled hotsprings area ‘Patauw,’ meaning ‘witch’ or ‘sorceress,’ and considered the enclave sacred. The Chinese place name ‘Beitou’ is a bastardization of the original name.

Resort Area Origins “The native people who originally lived in this area, the Ketagalan, had no history of hot-spring soaking,” says Yang Yeh. “Neither did the Taiwanese, whose ancestors had come from China in the previous few centuries. The Japanese wanted to develop Beitou’s springs primarily for use by the military – for officers and injured servicemen, to help in their recuperation. The place really began to boom with the transport of many injured in the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. Beitou Park, opened in 1913 along with the Beitou Public Baths, today home to the Beitou Hot Spring Museum, was sculpted in classical European style. After the Japanese left at the end of WW II it was returned to a more natural look.”

BEITOU At the top of the valley on Youya Road is the lovely Beitou Museum (www. beitoumuseum.org.tw ; formerly known as the Taiwan Folk Art Museum), housed in a former Japanese hot-spring inn built in 1921 that served as an imperial officers’ club and once entertained kamikaze pilots on their final nights of mortality. The complex is among Taiwan’s largest examples of Japanese wood-built architecture, measuring about 2,500 square meters. Built in Chinese Tang Dynasty style, it was renovated top to bottom 2002~2007, and is a work of art in itself.

tell the tale, though under house arrest, and lived here while the home he lived in longest while under the Kuomintang’s care, elsewhere in Beitou and not open to the public, was built.

During the Japanese era, the aesthetically magnetic complex of Japanese-built wooden structures served as a hot-spring inn, officers’ club, and short-stay R&R retreat for kamikaze pilots. It is now run as a teahouse/ restaurant/spa enterprise.

The museum has Beitou-theme exhibits on early Taiwan life and culture.

Beitou was once a key area in Taiwan ceramics production, with well-suited mineral-rich earth, and the museum has many compelling high-end works, with historical background provided. Yang recommends the black & white photos from the area’s Japanese colonial-period heyday, when the developed valley looked nothing like it does today.

Beside the museum is the Marshal Zen Garden (www.sgarden.com.tw ), also called the Shann Garden. This was, says Yang, for a time the home of the “Young Marshal,” Zhang Xue-liang, a Manchurian warlord best known for kidnapping Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in 1936. He lived to

Getting There To get to the hot-spring resort area, take the Taipei Metro to Xinbeitou Station. To get around, consider taking one of the regular Beitou Museum shuttle buses (free) from the station to the museum, at the valley’s top, which will allow you to walk downhill during your exploration.

English and Chinese Beitou 北投 Beitou Hot Spring Museum 北投溫泉博物館 Beitou Museum 北投文物館 Beitou Park 北投公園 Beitou Public Baths 北投溫泉浴場 Beitou Stream 北投溪 Geothermal Valley 地熱谷 Guangming Road 光明路 Jiufen 九份 Ketagalan 凱達格蘭 Longnaitang 瀧乃湯 Marshal Zen Garden 少帥禪園 Plum Garden 梅庭 Qixing Park 七星公園 Taiwan Folk Village 台灣民俗村 Wellcome Supermarket 頂好超市 Wenquan Road 溫泉路 Whispering Pine Inn 吟松閣 Yangmingshan 陽明山 Yang Yeh 楊燁 Yitsun Hotel 逸村大飯店 Youya Road 幽雅路 Yu You-ren 于右任 Zhang Xue-liang 張學良

Beitou Museum

Marshal Zen Garden

Off the Beaten Track: A Special Yang Yeh Recommendation Travel in Taiwan: Do you have any special “insider’s touring tips” that our readers should know about?

Yang: Indeed I do. Virtually all tourists move through Beitou Park. For a time-capsule glimpse into old-time Beitou living, however, ascend the old, narrow stairway beside the Wellcome Supermarket near the park’s entrance and explore the community on the slopeland parallel to the park, along Wenquan (Hot Springs) Road. There are many old residences and other heritage architectural elements here that went up in the period after WW II. The ambience is akin to that in Jiufen (another of the Taiwan Top 10 Tourist Towns, an old gold-mining town on a mountainside overlooking the Pacific). Just where Wenquan Road comes down just above Beitou Park is a lovely old hillside church.

Travel in Taiwan

25

HIKING

Text and Photos: Stuart Dawson

Jialuo Lake is not just one lake, but a collection of some 20-plus lakes situated in the northern reaches of the Central Mountain Range in northeastern Taiwan. Visiting the lake involves a fantastic 2-day camping and hiking trip that takes you deep into the mountains.

26

Travel in Taiwan

JIALUO LAKE

The lakes

were well known during the 18951945 Japanese colonial era, when the area was developed for logging, but then apparently almost forgotten until 1999, when a man-made fire burnt down some 50 hectares of surrounding forest and the exposed lakes were rediscovered.

Lush forest

The hike begins off an old forestry road that once was used for logging, just above the small indigenous village of Siji, which is located along Provincial Highway No. 7A in Yilan County.

The forestry road is normally passable by motorbike; but on my most recent visit, in May 2013, only travel on foot was possible, adding a couple of hours to the hike.

At the end of the road is a small stream and waterfall. My fellow hikers and I stopped there for lunch, taking advantage of the water supply to make some coffee and fill up canteens.

While the water is clean and clear, it can’t be drunk unless it has been boiled or treated with chlorine.

Giant c ypress

The trail proper begins just 100 meters beyond the spot where we lunched, and is easy to find. Next to the trailhead is a giant red cypress that is at least 70 meters tall. The tree towered above us, and we all strained our necks trying to see the top! I always find it amazing that in places like Jialuo Lake and Alishan, where there was so much logging in the past, the odd giant tree such as this one was left intact. It’s almost as if the tree was so huge that no one dared cut it down.

Although the hike up from the trailhead is a tough, relentless uphill slog, it takes you through a gorgeous pine forest. The floor of the forest is covered with large ferns, making the scene especially beautiful. As we headed up ever higher, the clouds that had been threatening to rain on us instead began to part, and we were treated to beams of ethereal light breaking through the forest canopy.

Dwar f bamboo path

As we

carried on walking the ferns began to disappear, replaced by sturdy dwarf bamboo –which meant we were nearing the top. After four hours of hiking we finally climbed over a crest, finishing the hardest part of the hike.

From this point, it’s like you’ve entered a completely different world. The trail is totally surrounded by two-meter-high silver grass. In places, if the person in front of you gets more than a couple of meters ahead he/she completely disappears from view! Many branches shoot off the main trail – the area is riddled with trails – so care needs to be taken to avoid becoming lost.

In amongst the silver grass, you can also see hundreds of white, dead trees, killed in the 1999 forest fire.

Pressing on, we crossed another ridge and passed several smaller lakes, all the time in ankle-deep mud, before finally arriving at Jialuo Lake in the late afternoon. It seems the hike is gaining in popularity, as there were at least 20 tents already set up by the lakeside. We decided to camp on ground a little higher and further away in the hope it would be a little quieter.

The next morning we woke to brilliant blue skies. There wasn’t the slightest breeze, so the reflections on the lake were perfect, a photographer’s dream. After spending a while exploring the lake, we packed up and started back.

Along the way, half of our group decided on a detour in order to climb to the top of nearby Mt. Jialuo (2,320m). It is a challenging climb; the path is steep and the bamboo is so thick that in places you need to get on all fours to crawl through it. Soaking wet from the dew-covered bamboo, we arrived at the peak to be greeted by a spectacular sea of clouds sitting over Yilan far, far below us. The half of the group that didn’t come with us had really missed out!

Camping near the lake

Practical Info

English and Chinese

A mountain entry permit is required for the hike, and can be applied for on the spot at the police station in Siji village. It can get very muddy, so gaiters are a good idea. Also, the thick silver grass is very sharp; wearing long sleeves and trousers reduces the risk of cuts and scratches.

Alishan 阿里山 Jialuo Lake 加羅湖 Mt. Jialuo 加羅山 Siji 四季

Travel in Taiwan

27

SPLENDID FESTIVALS

Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival A Great Fire Lion Visits Temples around Lotus Pond

Text: Steven Crook

Photos: Rich Matheson

These days Zuoying, a Kaohsiung suburb, is best known for Lotus Pond and the colorful temples that surround this pretty body of water. But back in the 17th century, just after Koxinga expelled the Dutch East India Company from Taiwan, it was the military and administrative headquarters of Wannian County and thus a place of considerable importance.

Today the toponym lives on in various forms, as “Zuoying District” and in the names of the district’s major mass-transportation hub and a large naval base, as well as in the names of happenings such as the annual Kaohsiung Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival, evoking the glory of the past.

The lion is set ablaze at the very end of the festival so as to carry the wishes of the faithful up to heaven

Great Wannian Fire Lion

28

Travel in Taiwan

KAOHSIUNG

There are times

when people on this island put their smartphones down and their 21st-century concerns and ambitions aside, and a much older Taiwan bursts into the foreground. The final day of the Kaohsiung Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival was one such occasion.

My friends and I were positioned in front of Zuoying's Chenghuang Temple, enjoying a form of entertainment that has hardly changed in hundreds of years. Lion dancers, accompanied by drum-beating and gong-thumping musicians, teased children, opened gaping jaws and snapped them shut inches from spectators' faces, and threw candies into the crowd.

But the professional and amateur zhentou troupes that perform these and other acts aren't slavish in their adherence to tradition. Modern twists on old forms include Techno San Taizi or Techno Prince performances. Another example followed the lion dancers on this day. Five young men, dressed to resemble the key characters in Journey to the West , danced disco-style to pop music. Even if you've never heard of this classic Chinese novel, you may well know a bit about the story (based on the adventures of a seventh-century Chinese monk who traveled to India to study Buddhist scriptures) because it inspired a Japanese TV series shown throughout the English-speaking world under the title Monkey.

A few minutes later came the real star of the show – the Great Wannian Fire Lion. This effigy, cute yet dignified, is far larger than a real lion. But for a yellow underbelly, it was covered with red tinsel “fur.” Red, of course, is an auspicious color in Chinese culture.

Dragon and T iger Pagodas

The lion is set ablaze at the very end of the festival so as to carry the wishes of the faithful up to heaven, and is therefore designed to burn well. There's a very real risk of premature destruction, however, because thousands of firecrackers are detonated beneath and around it as it is paraded through Zuoying's streets prior to its sacrifice. I wasn't surprised to see a man following behind with a small tank of water and a handheld sprayer, ready to put out any fires.

The modern

Wannian Folklore Festival dates from 2001, when the Kaohsiung City Government's Civil Affairs Bureau began coordinating and sponsoring traditional events in Zuoying District. Since 2005 the central government's Tourism Bureau has been lending a hand, and the festival – always held in midor late October – has grown steadily in popularity.

The Fire Lion has its origins in rites traditionally conducted at Ciji Temple, a house of worship that overlooks Lotus Pond's southwestern corner. In these ceremonies, the lion was believed to serve as a mount for Baosheng Dadi, a medicine deity. He's far from the most important god in the expansive Chinese folk pantheon, but his career is worth reviewing. Baosheng Dadi, which means “life-protecting emperor,” is an honorific title given to Wu Ben, a healer who lived in China’s Fujian province. It’s said he once brought a skeleton back to life, and following his death in AD 1036 he was credited with successful posthumous interventions in hopeless cases – clearly an exceptional physician who deserves reverence!

For the first eight days of this nine-day-long festival, the Fire Lion tours temples and other area landmarks, going as far afield as Kaizhang Shengwang Temple. This shrine is located in Kaohsiung City's Fengshan District, some 8 km southeast of Lotus Pond.

As part of

the festival, the historical links between Zuoying and Fengshan were explained during a low-key event called “Grandpa Tales Telling.” Beneath a banyan tree near the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas – probably Lotus Pond's single most famous sight – a knowledgeable gentleman outlined the area’s rich past. A crucial episode was the seizing of Zuoying in early 1787 by a force participating in a major rebellion led by a man named Lin Shuang-wen. This spelled the end of Zuoying as a political center, because the imperial court in Beijing responded by moving the county magistrate's office to what's now called Fengshan. There it stayed until Kaohsiung County was merged with Kaohsiung City at the end of 2010.

After sampling the food and getting a taste of events that happened long ago, join a session of Gongpaocheng, a spectacle not to be missed. Though an English translation of the name

Travel in Taiwan

29

SPLENDID FESTIVALS

Burning of the Fire Lion

Revelers at the Dragon and T iger Pagodas

– “attacking the city wall with firecrackers” – makes it sound like an act of vandalism, it's actually a game of skill in which participants hurl lit fireworks at dollhouse-sized paper models of Zuoying's old city gates. These are suspended about headheight, and filled with firecrackers. Make sure your friends have their cameras ready, because if you succeed in getting a firework through the opening at the front, the gate is sure to explode in a shower of sparks.

sleeve in front of his face, and in that split second it seems as if the previous full-face makeup is removed and a totally different color-and-pattern scheme has been applied.

It's said that soldiers stationed in Zuoying back in the 19th century played this game to kill time, and also to sharpen the throwing skills they'd need if they had to fight. If you want to play, register in advance through the festival's website or in person at one of the information centers. There's also a team event; in 2012, first prize was NT$20,000 cash.

Fans of the

performing arts are spoiled for choice, as the festival always includes pop concerts, drumming, Taiwanese opera performances, plus choral and instrumental acts, all of which are free. The schedule for the secondary stage at the Confucius Temple included enka (popular Japanese ballads) and bellydancing. What would the Great Sage think?

The festival also gave Kaohsiung residents a chance to see a form of Chinese opera seldom seen in Taiwan, Sichuan Facechanging Opera, during which changes in mood are conveyed by use of an amazing technique. An actor waves his cape or

30

Travel in Taiwan

This being

Taiwan, the festival naturally has a culinary angle. In fact, it has two. Vendors on the western side of Lotus Pond sell everything from hot dogs to stinky tofu. Other interesting eating options can be found at the lakeside temples, which give away traditional snacks such as ong-ku-koe (Taiwanese pronunciation) and tangyuan . The former is a turtle-shaped rice-based cake which symbolizes good luck and longevity. The latter is a popular dessert consisting of little balls made with rice flour and filled with sesame paste, crushed peanuts and sugar, or something else sweet.

Note also that, since 1949, Zuoying has been home to many Chinese mainlanders, who came in the great exodus across the Taiwan Strait at the end of the Chinese Civil War, making this neighborhood perhaps the best in the metropolis for authentic mainland delicacies.

As you can see, you’ll have much to see and do at Lotus Lake and in the surrounding district during the Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival. Be sure to arrive with an empty stomach, plenty of space on your camera's memory card, and a wish to pin on the Fire Lion!

KAOHSIUNG The festival always includes concerts, drumming, Taiwanese opera, and other performing arts

Lotus Pond is easy to reach. If you're coming from another city, you may want to take a Taiwan High Speed Rail train to Kaohsiung's THSR Zuoying Station and then take a Red 51 bus. The TRA (regular railway) station closest to Lotus Pond is “old” Zuoying Station (not to be confused with New Zuoying Station, part of the same complex containing the HSR station). From it, you can walk to Lotus Pond in less than 10 minutes.

Other attractions in the area include the North Gate of Zuoying Old City and two sites that will appeal to ecotourists. Zhouzai Wetland Park is where the Pheasant-tailed jacana, a rare wading bird, was first sighted in Taiwan; the species has returned following restoration of the environment. Also within walking distance of Lotus Pond is the 4.66-hectare Protogenic Plants Garden, which has a collection of indigenous plants and trees that nature-lovers will find engrossing.

English and Chinese Baosheng Dadi 保生大帝 Chenghuang Temple 城隍廟 Ciji Temple 慈濟宮 Confucius Temple 孔廟 Dragon and Tiger Pagodas 龍虎塔 Fengshan District 鳳山區 Gongpaocheng 攻炮城 "Grandpa Tales Telling" 阿公來講古 Great Wannian Fire Lion 萬年季迓火獅 Journey to the West 西遊記 Kaizhang Shengwang Temple 開漳聖王廟 Kaohsiung Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival 高雄左營萬年季

Koxinga 鄭成功 Lin Shuang-wen 林爽文 Lotus Pond 蓮池潭 North Gate of Zuoying Old City 左營舊城 ong-ku-koe 紅龜粿 Protogenic Plants Garden 原生植物園 Sichuan Face-changing Opera 川劇變臉 Techno San Taizi 電音三太子 tangyuan 湯圓 Wannian County 萬年縣 Wu Ben 吳本 zhentou 陣頭 Zhouzai Wetland Park 洲仔濕地公園 Zuoying 左營

On the second floor there are private rooms where coffee, ice treats, and desserts are served.

ing to Taiwan, visiting For many tourists com ice a must. Eating mango Smoothie House is happy. ne ryo eve kes ma simply is a joy and

Mango ice is one of the most popular refreshing foods during the summer months in Taiwan. Try the mixed mango shaved ice, made with fresh mango, strawberry, and kiwi, a sublime combination of ice and superb fruit flavor! This is the best-selling item on the menu.

1F, 15 Yongkang St., Taipei City The ice treats of Smoothie House are made with fragrant aiwen mango cultivated in Taiwan. This type of mango has a firm texture and is very juicy. The fruit meat melts in your mouth and creates an amazing sweet and sour sensation. No one seems to be able to resist this unbelievable treat.

Groups are welcome. Looking for cooperating travel agencies

and representatives Contact: service@smoothie.com.tw

Tel: +886-2-2341-8555

2F, 15 Yongkang St., Da'an District, Taipei City Tel: +886-2-2395-8770 Longmen Shop: 52 Guo’ai St., Sanchong District, New Taipei City Tel: +886-2-2972-0758 Beitou Shop: 294 Zhonghe St., Beitou District, Taipei City Tel: +886-2-2894-5511

Travel in Taiwan 31 Smoothie House Chang'an Branch ~ Breakfast Shop Add: 55 Chang'an W. Rd., Taipei City Tel: +886-2-2552-3250

FUN WITH CHINESE

Doors,

Open & Closed

men

Photo: Maggie Song

The Chinese

character 門 (men ), meaning “door,” is one of the easier ones to learn. It is easy to write, it is symmetrical, and it looks a bit like a pair of swing doors, the kind of which you would see in a saloon in the old American west.

kai

This character is part of quite a few other characters directly or indirectly related to doors. Two particularly useful characters to learn are 開 (kai ), which means “open, and 關 (guan ), meaning “close.” In Taiwan daily life, chances are that you will come across these two characters frequently – when operating life’s many electrical devices, for example.

Should you forget which is which, just remember that 關 is a bit more complicated to write.

If you combine the character for “open” with 心 (xin ), meaning “heart,” you get 開 心 (kaixin ), which means “happy” – i.e., to open your heart to others means happiness.

If, however, you combine the character for “close” and “heart” you get 關心 (guanxin ), which means not “sad” but “to care/be concerned about.” A usage example is 我關心 你 (wo guanxin ni ), meaning “I care about you,” with 我 (wo ) meaning “I” and 你 (ni ) meaning “you.” The character you get when you put a heart inside a door, 悶 (men ), is quite graphic, and has the meaning “depressed,” “bored,” “stifling,” or “smothering.”

Another graphic door-related character is 閂 (shuan ). Can you guess its meaning?

Answer: A “bolt” or “latch.” The horizontal stroke in the middle does indeed look a bit like a door latch, don’t you think?

32

Travel in Taiwan

guan

MUSIC TOURS

The Sound of

Drums

Visiting a Traditional Drum Maker in Xinzhuang Text: Owain Mckimm

Photos: Sting Chen

Big drums are an important part of traditional temple festivals in Taiwan, and also feature prominently in the performances of a number of acclaimed local drum troupes. If you happen to see one of these big and often bright-red drums while in Taiwan, chances are that it was made by Wang Xi-kun, one of only a few local masters who still produce drums in the traditional way.

Master drum maker

Wang Xikun, his face beaded with sweat, greets us at the large, open storefront of the Xiang Ren He Drum Workshop in the district of Xinzhuang, New Taipei City. Walls of freshly painted drums, stacked three high, segment the workshop. Half-finished drums bound with ropes rest on raised platforms, apprentices prowling around them tightening and adjusting the bonds. Electric fans hum and blow breezes from every direction, making little difference to the temperature of this furnace of human endeavor. Though the road outside the workshop blares with the modern sound of car engines, the patter and boom inside, as Wang tests one of his drums, makes everything seem somehow ancient, somehow archaic – these hand-made drums and their creator are an anachronism on this busy Xinzhuang street.

During the Japanese colonization of Taiwan (1895-1945), the street that is now known as Xinzhuang Old Street was a hive of theatrical activity, and as many as nine theater troupes specializing in puppet theater were based there. Their puppet operas were often of a military theme – of great battles, marching armies, and glaive-wielding heroes – and of course, where there’s war there must also be drums. So began Xinzhuang’s entwinement with the drum-making industry. In the mid1920s, a young carpenter with a penchant for traditional opera named Wang Gui-zhi (the father of Wang Xi-kun) set up a drum workshop in the area and began providing drums to the theater troupes, as well as to the temples that abounded on the streets of Xinzhuang and the neighboring boroughs of Taishan and Sanchong.

34

Travel in Taiwan

Over the years, however, Xinzhuang has changed. Decades of industrialization and, recently, the opening of a new metro line have propelled the area to the forefront of development.

Yet peering into Master Wang’s workshop, you’d be hardpressed to admit that times have moved on. There are a few giveaways: Those with a keen eye for wood will notice that the drums are now made of rosewood rather than the Chinese cedar commonly used in the past, mechanical jacks raise the drums to tighten the hides – a job that once fell to burly men – and Wang’s apprentices wear high-street specs with trendy thick frames.

These appear, however, as mere glitches in an otherwise perfect time capsule. Wang’s industry is, like the art of drumming itself, something beautiful yet primal, and he remains resolute amidst the surrounding onslaught of modernity. Yet though the methods remain the same, the customers that commission Wang’s work are changing. The last twenty years have seen the rise of several drum troupes, such as the Grammy-nominated Ten Drum Art Percussion Group and the meditative, mountain-based U-Theatre, which have gained an added sense of grassroots authenticity by using Wang’s tailor-made drums. And in the last three or four years orders from drum-fitness groups, which use drumming as a way to shed calories, have introduced Wang’s drums to a completely new 21stcentury audience.

DRUMS

Temples,

nevertheless, remain Wang’s bread and butter. Taiwanese temples require drums for two important purposes – as part of the “morning bell, evening drum” set suspended inside every temple, and as key instruments in the zhentou or battle-array formation squads that perform at temple celebrations and festivals. For anyone who has attended these temple celebrations, or even been within hearing distance of one, the noise, incredible color, and seeming pandemonium (to the uninitiated) is not something quickly forgotten, and the battle-array troupes in particular are a sight to behold. Costumed performers take on the roles of folk gods such as Lords Seven and Eight – who escort the spirits of the dead to the afterlife – or the mythical Eight Generals – expellers of plague and evil spirits – and teeter back and forth in their flamboyant, oversized apparel. Holding it all together amid the chaos is the beat of the drum. Indeed, whether used to drive lion dancers into an animalistic frenzy or to set the pace for a Taoist priest to chant scripture, the beat of a drum underlines many traditional rituals of Taiwan. At a great many events the inquisitive would find that it is Wang who has created the tools that perpetuate this beat.

And he does so resolutely, the old-fashioned way.

Drum maker Wang Xi-kun

Wang’s industry is something beautiful yet primal, and he remains resolute amidst the surrounding onslaught of modernity

70 -year- old drum made by master Wang’s father

“There are three basic elements to consider when making a drum,” explains Wang. The first is the drumskin, which, under Wang’s watch, is almost exclusively made from water-buffalo hide – the older and more grizzled the animal the better. “Tenyear-old buffalo produce the best hide for making drumskin,” says Wang. “The older the buffalo, the tougher and more durable the skin is. In the past, when buffalo used to work the fields, their skin would be even tougher.” Nowadays, very few water buffalo are bred and none at all are used to plough the fields, so getting one’s hands on good, gnarled buffalo hide is not an easy task. As a result, many drum makers are resorting to ox hide as a replacement. But Wang insists on using only the best buffalo hide. He takes us over to an ornate temple drum in the exhibition center next to his workshop. The skin on one side of the drum is corn-yellow, with a fine, smooth texture – ox hide. The skin on the other side is coarse, with a hint of stubble, and is speckled grey-beige – water buffalo. Wang hits one side with the palm of his hand; then he hits the other.

The contrast is obvious even to a layman. “Finer skin gives a milder, mellower sound, while coarser skin is more dominant, more powerful.”

While acquiring high-quality skin may be a headache, turning it into high-quality drumskin is the equivalent of a New Year’s Day hangover. It’s gory, exhausting, foul-smelling work. Once the section of hide has been chosen and roughly cut to size, the thick, black buffalo hair must be removed.

Wang explains that the traditional way to remove the hair is by shaving it off by hand; the modern way is to dip the hide in a chemical bath. Wang, unsurprisingly, prefers the traditional route, as immersing the hide in chemicals affects the quality of the skin and, in the long run, produces drumskin which splits more easily and produces inferior sound. Wang then shaves the skin to just a quarter of a centimeter thick, using only his judgment as a guide, before letting it dry for a week in the sun.

Travel in Taiwan

35

MUSIC TOURS Master Wang’s tools

“The second thing to consider when making a drum is the wood used to make the shell,” says Wang. “The wood can take up to a year to prepare, and it can’t be rushed. If you use wood that isn’t ready, it will seriously affect the sound and quality of the drum.”

The wood is carved in the form of curved staves, not bent like those of a wine barrel, and dried in a special room for approximately 40 days, then further dried at room temperature for 6-8 months. The staves are then pieced together to form the drum shell.

The most important part of the process, according to Wang, comes last – binding the drum. Wang and his apprentices place the drum shell on a platform supported by four jacks. The outer part of the drumskin is threaded with thick hemp ropes and bound to a circular steel railing below the platform. As the platform is raised, the ropes tighten and the drumskin is pulled taut over the top of the shell. An almighty crack, like that of a whip, rings out through the workshop as the skin edges over the rim. Wang stops for a moment and checks for any anomalies.

He orders an apprentice to raise one of the jacks a tad – another crack as the drumskin equalizes. Wang then tests the sound, hammering the drumskin with two wooden batons. Next, the drum is lowered, and an apprentice clambers on top of the drumskin and begins to leisurely dance what looks like an Irish jig. “This is called ‘trampling the drum,’” Wang explains, as we

Measuring the shell

36

Travel in Taiwan

look on open-mouthed. “It’s done in order to develop elasticity in the skin. If you don’t perform this step, after about two years the drumskin will go slack, and you’ll get nothing but a dampened, muffled sound.” This process is repeated several times over a number of days, until the sound is just the way Wang wants it.

Making drums

that stand the test of time is obviously important to Wang. One of his proudest possessions is a gorgeous crimson temple drum decorated with pink and blue chrysanthemums, rolling pastel clouds, and a pale-green Chinese dragon. The drum is over 70 years old, and was made

by Wang’s father. Wang instructs us to stand next to the drum.

Though he hasn’t struck it yet, one can still feel vibrations coming from within, like a storm brewing in the belly of this old beast. Wang hits it with an open palm, and the sound emitted is deep and sonorous, fading after a few seconds. “A good drum won’t become dull or muted as the years go by,” he explains. “As a drum ages, its potential should slowly emerge. It’s only after many years that the sound of a drum reaches its peak.”

Visitors to Taiwan have no shortage of opportunities to hear traditional drum music. Ten Drum Cultural Village in Tainan

Trampling the drum

Testing the sound

DRUMS Ju Percussion Group

“A good drum won’t become dull or muted as the years go by. As a drum ages, its potential should slowly emerge” Xiang Ren He Drum Workshop ( 响仁和鐘鼓廠 ) Add: 171, Zhongzheng Rd., Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City ( 新北市新莊區中正路 171 號 ) Tel: (02) 2992-7402 Getting there: The workshop is a 5-minute walk from MRT Xinzhuang Station, Exit 2.

has performances twice daily by the acclaimed Ten Drum Percussion Art Group (www.ten-hsieh.com.tw/e-culture/show. html ). Alternatively, U-Theatre (http://utheatre.glis.ntnu.edu.tw ) and Ju Percussion Group (www.jpg.org.tw ) perform regularly around Taiwan and also abroad. In addition, Xinzhuang plays host to the International Drum-Art Festival in May and June each year. To see how the drums are made, you can visit Master Wang and the collection of drums he has on show at a display hall next to his workshop. Wang requests that large groups book a week in advance.

English and Chinese Eight Generals 八家將 Ju Percussion Group 朱宗慶打擊樂團 Laoquan Mountain 老泉山 Lords Seven and Eight 七爺八爺 Muzha 木柵 Sanchong 三重 Taishan 泰山 Ten Drum Art Percussion Group 十鼓擊樂團 Ten Drum Culture Village 十鼓文化村 U-Theatre 優人神鼓 Wang Gui-zhi 王桂枝 Wang Xi-kun 王錫坤 Xinzhuang 新莊 Xinzhuang Old Street 新莊老街 Xinzhuang International Drum-Art Festival 新莊國際鼓藝節 zhentou 陣頭

Travel in Taiwan

37

BACKPACK BUS TRIP

Through the Mountain Mist

Having fun at Xitou

Taking a Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Bus to Xitou Text: Joe Henley

Photos: Maggie Song

The mountainous region of Xitou in Nantou County is less than an hour from downtown Taichung when taking a Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus. Though not far geographically from the metropolitan hustle of the big city, quiet Xitou could not be more distant from any form of urban monotony. The area gives you a taste of Taiwan's central mountains as well as a glimpse into the region’s history.

Lugu Township Office Zhushan Industrial Zone

Kwong Hing

Xitou

Nei Hu Elementray School Nei Hu

Chu-Xiang

Bay pit

Le Midi Hotel

Takeyama Interchange THRS Taichung Station

Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus

Daqing Station Taichung Gancheng Bus Station

Taichung Railway Station Minxing Park

38

Travel in Taiwan

The Xitou shuttle

buses leave from both the Taichung Railway Station and the Taiwan High Speed Rail Taichung Station at Wuri, and run south through Nantou County, passing through the town of Zhushan, known for bamboo products, and the tea-growing region of Lugu before reaching Xitou, a popular forest recreation area.

XITOU

Stop II

/ Fonghuanggu Bird and Ecology Park

Though not directly on the shuttle-bus route, my next stop, Fonghuanggu Bird and Ecology Park, was nonetheless easy to reach by taking a taxi from Zhushan (30 min. / NT$500 one way; you can also take Yuanlin Bus No. 6717, which only costs you NT$83 but will take almost an hour). Part sanctuary, part zoo, and part research center, the park offers stunning views of Mt. Fenghuang, which belongs to the Alishan Mountain Range.

A husband-and-wife volunteer guide team led me around the park, teaching me about the various plant and bird species we passed, paying special attention to those native to Taiwan, such as the Swinhoe's Pheasant. The true stars of the park are the parrots, which take the stage several times a day in their own show, which is equal parts educational and entertaining. I was introduced to Xiao-Bai, a mischievous blue-eyed cockatoo, and his somewhat grumpy counterpart Mei-Mei, a blue-and-yellow macaw whose nasty disposition was brightened with nothing more than a few sunflower seeds.

Stop I

/ Evershine Lantern Factory

Once again (similar to previous Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus trips done for Travel in Taiwan ), I was off on the shuttle bus with a stack of missions to complete. My first stop: the Evershine Lantern Factory in the Zhushan Industrial Zone.

Don't let the “Industrial Zone” in the name throw you. It's more a quaint collection of artisan warehouse workshops than the dusty, dirty grid of smoke-spewing factories the name might bring to mind. As for Evershine, it's a former umbrella factory that began churning out lanterns in 1960 for everything from celebrations, festivals, and weddings to funerals. Visitors learn about the history of lantern usage and what the various lantern designs mean, with English tours available.

There is also an open workshop, where a team of five expert lantern makers produce between two and three hundred lanterns per day, doing everything from making the flexible bamboo frames to cutting the cotton cloth that will be slid over them. My mission here was mercifully less difficult than this exacting task. I was handed a completed lantern and simply had to paint a flower on it, along with the Chinese characters for “I Love Taiwan.” Though it came out something like a pre-schooler's art project (with all due respect to any preschoolers who may be reading this), I was nonetheless pleased with my work, and with a new souvenir to take home headed on to stop number two.

"I Love Taiwan" lantern

But oh, yes, my next mission. Parting ways with Xiao-Bai, who had taken up residence on my arm for a good long while as he ate seeds from my palm, I was off in search of Taiwan's national bird, the Formosan Blue Magpie. With the help of my guides I was able to locate my majestic quarry, spying the trademark dark-blue hindfeathers of the “long-tailed mountain lady.”

Don't blink!

Formosan Blue Magpie

Travel in Taiwan

39

BACKPACK BUS TRIP

Stop III

/ Lugu

Back on the shuttle route again. The next stop, the township of Lugu, is a place known for its many tea plantations and teahouses. I strode from the bus stop over to Hong's Tea House – Chun Ya Tang Tea World, where I received a crash course in tea etiquette and tasting.

My instructor, the kindly Mrs. Wu Mei-na, walked me through a basic “Art of Tea 101” session that is available to anyone who wants to stop by. Basics include filling the pot a quarter of the way up with tea leaves, heating the water to a lower temperature, around 95 degrees Celsius, for a thinner taste, and higher for a thicker taste, and using the proper brewing time, 50 seconds for the first pour, going up in increments of about 10 seconds for every subsequent round.

And don't forget the proper serving form – elders first, and if everyone is around the same age, right to left.

With these basics out of the way, it was time to put my newfound expertise to the test – a taste test. Three kinds of oolong tea were placed before me, and I was to determine which of the three was the smooth dongding variety I had sampled earlier in my visit – for which Lugu is best known – a tea said to aid digestion, best enjoyed on a full stomach. I also had to match each cup with the different types of leaves that had been placed in three separate bowls. Much to my surprise, and thanks to Mrs. Wu's expert teaching, I was able to get all three correct, and after one or two more quick cups of oolong it was time to be on my way again.

Stop IV

operation during the 1895~1945 colonial era, during which almost all the native Taiwanese cedar was cut down. The Japanese cedar planted in its stead have since been allowed to reach up toward the sky without the threat of the saw, and the Taiwanese variety is starting to make a modest comeback.

The showpiece of the park is the aptly named Sacred Tree, a 2,800-year-old red cypress that has survived no less than three lightning strikes, spared the blade due to the fact that a fungus left it hollow and unusable.

Another highlight, and the subject of my mission for this stop, is the Skywalk, 220-meter-long walkway built sevenstories-high above the forest floor. It was originally built for visitors to observe canopy life from above; but since its construction in 2004, the surrounding trees have actually grown past it. Unfortunately, the Skywalk was closed for maintenance during my visit, so a picture taken with me standing beside it will have to do.

Stop V

/ Monster Village

Conveniently located right next door to Xitou Nature Education Area is Monster Village, a quirky collection of shops and restaurants tied together with a Disney-esque horror theme.

Even the food is “monstrous,” with snacks including tang yuan (boiled balls of glutinous rice flour) made to look like eyeballs, and “biting cat buns,” so named for their use of a stinging nettle found in the Xitou area, Urtica thunbergiana , commonly called “biting cat” in Taiwan. The plant, if handled, produces an itching sensation similar to poison ivy, but is perfectly edible after it's cooked.

/ Xitou Nature Education Area

Next up was a place well-known to tourists in Taiwan, to the tune of about a million of them per year, Xitou Nature Education Area. This park was the site of a Japanese logging

Speaking of which, my mission was to try this ominously named treat, and it didn't take long to find the bakery that was the village's first shop, opened decades ago. On the way I

Let's bite a biting cat bun

Let's have some fine Lugu dongding

XITOU passed by the village mascots, Bado and Kumar, representatives of black bear and clouded leopard species native to Taiwan (the latter now extinct), and also took in a performance by an indigenous music troupe.

Evershine Lantern Factory ( 光遠燈籠觀光工廠 ) Add: 11, Yanping 2nd Rd., Zhushan Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣竹山鎮延平二路 11 號 ) Tel: (049) 264-2394 Website: www.ever-shine.com.tw

The village provides a free performance area for musicians, and shows are held every day of the week. The biting cat buns, I'm pleased to say, were delicious, as were the biting cat pineapple cakes. Feel free to try some the next time you find yourself in Xitou. And say hello to Bado and Kumar for me.

Fonghuanggu Bird and Ecology Park ( 鳳凰谷鳥園 ) Add: 1-9, Renyi Rd., Fenghuang Village, Lugu Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣鹿谷鄉鳳凰村仁義路 1-9 號 ) Tel: (049) 275-3100 Website: fhk.nmns.edu.tw

English and Chinese Alishan Mountain Range 阿里山山脈 "biting cat buns" 咬人貓麵包 dongding 凍頂 "long-tailed mountain lady" 長尾山娘 Lugu 鹿谷 Mt. Fenghuang 鳳凰山 Sacred Tree 神木

tang yuan 湯圓 Wu Mei-na 吳美娜 Wuri 烏日 Xitou 溪頭 Zhushan 竹山 Zhushan Industrial Zone 竹山工業區

Hong’ s Tea House – Chun Ya Tang Tea World ( 宏記茶業 – 春雅堂名茶 ) Add: 88-9, Xingchan Rd., Lugu Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣鹿谷鄉興產路 88-9 號 ) Tel: (049) 275-5798 Xitou Nature Education Area ( 溪頭自然教育園區 ) Add: 9, Senlin Lane, Lugu Township, Nantou County ( 南投縣鹿谷鄉森林巷 9 號 ) Tel: (049) 261-2111 Website: www.exfo.ntu.edu.tw/sitou/eng/01about/ Monster Village ( 妖怪村 ) Add: 2-3, Xingchan Rd., Lugu Township, Nantou County ( 南投鹿谷鄉興產路 2 之 3 號 ) Tel: (049) 261-2376 Website: www.mingshan.com.tw (Chinese)

Burnt Charcoal Korean BBQ Restaurant

Contemporary Korean Cuisine We serve traditional Korean cuisine in a modern yet cozy setting and provide excellent service for a unique Korean dining experience.

Reservation Hotline: (02) 2775-5005

Address: 73, Lane 72, Guangfu S. Rd., Taipei City(台北市光復南路72巷73號)

Travel in Taiwan 41 Website: www.burntcharcoal.com

INDIGENOUS VILLAGES

Bulau Bulau Aboriginal Village Reviving the Traditional Lifestyle of the Atayal Tribe

Traditional huts at Bulau Bulau V illage Text: Cheryl Robbins

Photos: Sunny Su

In the hills above Hanxi Village in Datong Township of Yilan County in northeast Taiwan is Bulau Bulau Aboriginal Village. The residents of Bulau Bulau are from the indigenous Atayal tribe, and in their language “bulau bulau” means to “go for a stroll” or to “take things easy.”

Although the place

is called an indigenous village, it differs from most indigenous communities in that it is not an administrative unit. There are no elected representatives, schools, or police. Instead, this is a group of several families with adjoining plots of land who came together to try and recapture the traditional lifestyle of their ancestors. The idea for this community started to come to fruition eight years ago under the leadership of Wilang (Pan Jin-cheng). Wilang’s wife is from the Atayal tribe, and one of those with land here. Though enjoying a successful career in Taipei, Wilang found himself wanting to live a quieter, more meaningful life.

In the beginning, things were difficult. Yilan County has abundant rainfall, which can make it difficult to grow some crops. After a period of trial and error, however, the group began to grow most of what it needed, including bamboo, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes, plus millet, corn, and other grains. Based on a design created by Wilang, the residents built homes using modern methods and natural materials such as stone and wood to blend in with the hillside landscape.

They also built more traditional-style buildings using bamboo.

Once the residents had their homes and food, the next step was to create economic opportunity. They learned woodcarving techniques and began to make their own furniture and plates, not only for their own use, but also to sell. A weaving workshop was set up to produce woven items for sale and to allow the elderly women proficient in this traditional art form to pass on their knowledge to the younger generation.

42

Travel in Taiwan

YILAN

The community’s

residents have opened their doors to the public but, concerned with the need to maintain a balance with nature, the number of guests is restricted to 30 per day. To further minimize impact and to provide safe transport along the narrow, winding local roads, four-wheel drives were acquired. Guests are either picked up in the parking lot next to the Hanxi Village police station or are instructed to walk across the adjacent Hanxi Suspension Bridge, to be picked up on the other side. The Hanxi Suspension Bridge is the longest cable suspension bridge in Yilan County, measuring more than 300 meters, and is brightly decorated with Atayal-tribe motifs.

One of the first things that you will notice when meeting the guides who take you on a tour of the community is that they dress in traditional Atayal attire. Before going into the community proper they will explain the process for growing mushrooms at a mushroom farm. From there, if the weather is cooperative they will take you on a short uphill hike, with strategic resting points where they explain the use of traditional-style Atayal traps that are in place along the sides of the trail. Just before reaching the community, you are taught the traditional Atayal greeting “lokah su.”

V illage resident

Shooting prac tice Weaving work shop

As you enter the community’s main activity area, you will see a traditional Atayal watchtower. Scattered around the watchtower, on a grassy knoll, are replicas of wild boar. These will be used for archery practice later in the day.

Next to the main dining area is a fire pit. Here, each guest is handed a skewer on which is placed either a piece of pork pickled in millet wine or a large mushroom. Guests cook their food over an open fire and wash it down with the first of what may be many cups of millet wine. At Bulau Bulau it is possible to sample millet wine from the top, middle, and bottom of the fermentation vat. The differences lie in the transparency and the kick. So be careful to pace yourself, especially if you plan to drive home after the day is done.

Cook ing food over an open fire

Guests cook their food over an open fire and wash it down with the first of what may be many cups of millet wine After the welcome, it is time for a visit to the open kitchen where the many courses that will be served throughout the afternoon are prepared. The counters are stacked with fresh ingredients. The next stop is the men’s house. This is where woodcarving is done, and where bamboo eating utensils such as cups and chopsticks are made.

The tour then continues in an area where there are traditional-style bamboo buildings and where the millet wine is produced. After this, it is a short walk downhill to where the community raises chickens.

Just beyond this is a stairway leading to the women’s house. This is the community’s weaving workshop. Visitors can watch women at work on traditional-style and more modern manual looms, and listen to an explanation of traditional weaving techniques.

V illage k itchen

Travel in Taiwan

43

INDIGENOUS VILLAGES

After the tour,

it is time to sample some fusion cuisine.

As certain crops are harvested at certain times of the year, the menu changes from season to season. The appetizer usually consists of three small portions of different dishes served on a long tray.

These can include pickled tomatoes and marinated home-grown vegetables.

The next course is usually another appetizer, such as sweet potato served with ginger and rose salt. This may be followed by grilled fish coated in salt, served with millet dumplings and a stew of pork with potatoes, carrots, leeks, and mushrooms. There is still a main course to enjoy, which can be grilled chicken, pork, or lamb shank. Vegetarians have their own menu, with items such as fried rice and millet dumplings prepared with pumpkin rather than pork.

Between courses there is entertainment. Guests can enjoy listening to traditional indigenous songs, and have the opportunity to learn a few dance steps. After the meal, the fun continues with a dance circle and the opportunity to test your skills with a bow and arrow. The time goes by surprisingly fast, and at around 4 p.m. it is time to say goodbye and board the four-wheel drives for the ride back down the hill.

After the meal, the fun continues with a dance circle and the opportunity to test your skills with a bow and arrow Reservations are required to visit Bulau Bulau. The community currently accepts reservations for Tuesday~Saturday visits. This is sometimes reduced to four days a week, to allow the land and the people who live on it to rest.

The easiest way to make a reservation, if you can read Chinese, is to submit a form on the community’s website (www.bulaubulau.com ). Once the form is submitted, you will receive an e-mail with map and directions to the Hanxi Village police station and instructions on how to remit the required 10% deposit.

The balance is to be paid at the end of the day’s activities. The cost per person, including transportation to and from the Hanxi Village police station, food, drink, tour, and activities, is NT$2,200 per person, and guests must be at least 16 years of age. Another point to note is that Bulau Bulau does not currently have any accommodations. Those who would like to stay in the area overnight will find guesthouses in Hanxi Village.

If you have difficulty completing the reservation process in Chinese, Bulau Bulau can provide English service by e-mail or phone.

Getting There By car: From National Freeway No. 5, which connects Taipei City and Yilan County, get off at the Wujie/Luodong exit and head toward Luodong on County Road No. 191A. At Wujie Road, turn right and connect to County Road No. 196. At Zhongzheng North Road, turn left. This will eventually turn into Zhongzheng Road. Then turn left onto Zhongshan Road (Prov. Hwy No. 7C). Stay on this road until you come to Meihua Road/Yilan Township Road No. 33. Connect to Yilan Township Road No. 33 and follow it until you reach the Hanxi Village police station.

By train: From the Luodong Railway Station, you can take a taxi to the Hanxi Village police station.

The cost is around NT$350. About 50 meters from the front of the train station is a stop for the Kuo Kuang Motor Transport route 1795 bus. The bus to the Hanxi Village police station only comes once every one or two hours, and the latest bus you can catch here to arrive on time at the police station departs at 9:30 a.m.

Bulau Bulau Aboriginal Village ( 不老部落落腳宿 ) Add: 46, Huaxing Lane, Hanxi Village, Datong Township, Yilan County ( 宜蘭縣大同鄉寒溪村華興巷 46 號 ) Tel: 0919-090-061, (03) 961-4198 Website: www.bulaubulau.com (Chinese) English and Chinese Atayal tribe 泰雅族 Datong Township 大同鄉 Hanxi Suspension Bridge 寒溪吊橋 Hanxi Village 寒溪村 Pan Jin-cheng 潘今晟

44

Travel in Taiwan

FOOD JOURNEY Text and Photos: Rich Matheson

The water caltrop (Trapa bicornis ) is an aquatic plant with a fruit strangely shaped like Dali's moustache – although it is more often likened to the shape of a bull's horns. The fruit is alternately called ling nut, horn nut, bat nut, devil pod, and, in Chinese, ling jiao . On a recent trip to southern Taiwan, Travel in Taiwan found out more about this exotic fruit, the seed of which is edible.

Caltrop farmers of Guantian, Tainan

46

Travel in Taiwan

WATER CALTROPS You can see farmers in hip waders harvesting the fruit; others will be squatting in small canoes to harvest fields too deep to wade through

A strangely shaped fruit indeed

Native to parts

of Eurasia and China, there is evidence that the water caltrop has been cultivated for three thousand years. The genus Trapa was once found in North America, but disappeared prior to the Pleistocene. The fruit, rarely found in the West, becomes a ubiquitous part of southern Taiwan's landscape from September through December, when stands sporting signs with its distinct taurine shape line the roads.

Throughout Tainan's Guantian District, during water-caltrop season you can see farmers in hip waders harvesting the fruit. Others will be squatting in small canoes to harvest fields too deep to wade through. This traditional method was originally employed when water caltrop was grown in deeper waterways and natural wetlands rather than in dedicated paddies.

Li Wen-yu,

of the Guantian District Farmers' Association, explains to us that the ling nut was introduced to Taiwan during the time when

Ming Dynasty loyalist and military leader Koxinga (1624~1662) had his headquarters in the Tainan area. At that time, Guantian was dotted with muddy pools created after the excavation of clay used in the area's brick kilns. The area offered easy access to water, and the clay soil was ideal for water caltrop. Guantian long enjoyed a virtual monopoly in Taiwan’s water-caltrop market, until about a decade ago when farmers in other areas, mainly Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, began cultivating water caltrop as well. There followed a few difficult years for Guantian farmers as market prices fell, but the situation has improved in the last several years, spurred in part by the introduction of organic cultivation.

Yang Cong-gui, chief of operations for the Friendly Earth Organic Alliance, a cooperative of farmers who share the dream of turning Taiwan into an organic paradise, kindly agreed to show Travel in Taiwan around his Guantian-based operation.

When Yang was only 18 he decided he wanted to be an organic farmer, but he had to wait until he was 37 and after he

Famer tending to his deep -water f ield

had ended a career in technology before embarking on his dream. He established a lab/classroom consisting of six pools for research. Following two years of studying the local eco-system and critically weighing matters of ecology and habitat, Friendly Earth was founded in 2010. Yang says the public must be educated not only on the cost to human health from the harmful chemicals used in agriculture, but also on the environmental costs caused by regular farming.

Guantian has 350 hectares of watercaltrop paddies, of which about 3-4% are cultivated organically, without the use of chemicals. In 2011, Friendly Earth had seven organic farmers and 3 hectares of organic fields. The following year there were 15 organic farmers, harvesting 8 hectares. Today, 30 work 17 hectares.

Mr. Yang stresses that the most important quality his organic farmers possess is their “heart.” According to him, only about 5% of Taiwan’s farmers meet government standards on the

Travel in Taiwan

47

FOOD JOURNEY

The smell is telling. A fragrant ling nut will taste good, a pungent one will not, and one with no smell will be tasteless

safe use of chemicals, the non-use of chemicals, or organic farming. With both regulations and law enforcement leaving much to be desired, he says, when it comes to organic farming the most important factor is the farmers’ personal desire and commitment to creating the best product they are capable of while being as careful with area ecology as their knowledge enables.

Among its various initiatives, Friendly Earth championed successful efforts to protect the pheasant-tailed jacana. Guantian's caltrop paddies are the main breeding grounds for these waders, and the use of chemicals in agriculture was causing the population of this rare and valuable bird to dwindle.

Today there is a healthy population.

From the first

to fourth months each year, caltrop seedlings are grown in successively larger tubs of water, and around the Dragon Boat Festival, which is generally in June, the plants are transplanted to the water-filled paddies. Three months later the harvest begins, usually starting in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival around September, and lasting through to December. In the final month of the year, rice is planted,

48

Travel in Taiwan

and after the rice harvest in the next year, the field is baked in the sun to prepare for the next water-caltrop planting. Crops are rotated, and each field is left fallow for a year every 2-3 years.

After our chat with Mr. Yang, we carry on to a caltrop field where a busload of schoolchildren is learning about their renowned local crop. Local farmer Xu Yu-can is explaining harvest techniques to the children, and later gives them a chance to wade in the field and harvest the horny nuts.

During the harvest months the farmers rotate through their fields, picking each clean in turn, eventually arriving back at the field where they started. Then they start circling again.

These cycles continue until the end of the harvest – signaled by the coming of the north wind, usually mid-December.

Farmer Xu says that an ideal watercaltrop plant produces 32 harvests in its lifetime, and the highest-quality water caltrops are harvested in October – they have the finest taste.

Li Wen-yu of the Guantian District Farmers' Association explains the

association’s role in the water-caltrop harvest to Travel in Taiwan . “We first collect water caltrop fruit from the individual farmers, and the fruit is thoroughly cleaned in a large vat of water. All fruit that floats to the top is optimal for immediate consumption; these are shelled and sent to vendors or restaurants. The remaining select fruit are hand-sorted according to size, and the horns are inspected to see if the thin skin layer that covers the hard shell is damaged. Rotten fruit are disposed of.

The remaining fruit are either shipped to farmers’ markets in 20kg bags or immediately frozen to retain freshness.”

The larger fruits aren't necessarily tastier; they just look better. In fact, explains Mr. Li, you can't tell if a fruit is tasty and fresh until you have shelled it. The smell is telling, however. A fragrant ling nut will taste good, a pungent one will not, and one with no smell will be tasteless.

Water caltrops are typically prepared for consumption with a 40-minute boil.

The shells are very hard and sharp, so caltrops are often sold already shelled, for which a special knife is used. A great snack, they are filling and are said to be good for hangovers and fever.

WATER CALTROPS

In the afternoon

we visit Kai Hsuan Restaurant, where proprietor Yang Mei-e has prepared the restaurant’s popular water-caltrop set meal (book a day in advance, as the dishes take time to cook and prepare).

She states that the restaurant is well known simply because it is the only restaurant specializing in water caltrop.

That said, the food is superb.

The pork caltrop soup is seasoned with cilantro and the subtle taste of the fruit is effused with the pork's flavor.

In season, the water caltrop are fresh, direct from the farms, but with a threeday shelf life, frozen fruit are often used and can be kept for a year without losing freshness. Mrs. Yang says they use fruit

Kai Hsuan Restaurant ( 凱旋餐廳 ) Add: 41-1, Sanjieyi, Guantian District, Tainan City ( 台南市官田區三結義 41-1 號 ) Tel: (06) 579-4020

that is not too ripe nor too young, just right, otherwise the meat would be too watery or tough respectively.

The most flavorful dish we sample is deep-fried caltrop coated in a bread crumb mixture, which is crunchy, starchy, and filling. Finally we try sesame oil water caltrop with sticky rice. The caltrop in this dish brought to mind a russet potato texture; a stickier starchier version of the fruit.

Next time you see this strange horny fruit being sold on the roadside in southern Taiwan, don't pass up the opportunity – buy a bag to munch on as you drive on.

English and Chinese Friendly Earth Organic Alliance 友善大地有機聯盟 Guantian District 官田區 Li Wen-yu 李文裕

Pork caltrop soup

Deep -fried caltrop

ling jiao 菱角 Xu Yu-can 許玉燦 Yang Cong-gui 楊從貴 Yang Mei-e 楊美娥

n e d r a G s ’ e i Soph

蘇菲花園

Vegetarian Restaurant

We insist on natural ways and make all our dishes and seasonings by hand.

Every Saturday evening we have a cultural performance (music or dance).

Most of the produce used is from organic production.

Enjoy creative international cuisine (vegan) in a relaxed Southern-France-style ambience!

Add: 5-1, Lane 75, Sec. 4, Minsheng E. Rd., Taipei City (台北市民生東路四段75巷5-1號) Tel: (02) 2718-8373 Blog: http://sophie109.pixnet.net/blog (Chinese) Located close to MRT Songshan Airport Station (7 min. by foot)

Travel in Taiwan

49

ACTIVE FUN

Having Fun ga and Meetin nd Local Lege me at the Extre ing Sports Train Center

g n a g n a N in

ith regular in Taiwan, w ll e w d n a ve nues orts are ali e year at ve th f o t s o E x treme sp m ug h discipline eduled thro respec tive h c events sch a E . le ib s , wh o ily access nd heroine a s e ro that are eas e h l a ir own skills l and nation dvance the a has its loca to rt o sp he various to their dvance it . T a to put much in ll e w s ork s. u ch ba ck a social netw e n li n o and g ive m y b ted are integra disciplines

Text : HanrĂŠ

Mal herbe

Photos: Zeni

th Lin

X Jo hn Ch en g BM X le ge nd

50

Travel in Taiwan

Ha nr ĂŠ BM X ne w bi e

BMX BIKING

ost prominenardting, The three mTai wan are BM Xing, skatebo

extreme sport discipli nes in , ude dow nhi ll mount ain bik ing and rollerblad ing. Others incl e hav I r. kou par k climbing, and dirt jumping, slack lini ng, roc and e, scen the loca l rollerblad ing primarily bee n involved wit h and nhi ll mount ain bik ing scene, had encounters wit h the dow ne t the followe rs in each disc ipli have seen (and bee n told) tha ne ryo eve ing help s ficient ind ividual are like fam ily, the more pro a m the ng reg ula r out ing s, givi else improve their skil ls on the rela xed and positive feel.

l ng the outside of the tub, on leve a bowl about 6 feet deep. Alo s, rail , tacles: a multiple-li ne box ground, are var ious street obs ng (or er and intermediate-level ridi and ledges – per fect for beginn rts h young and old extreme-spo blading, skating ... the lot). Bot ys kda wee On ds. mostly on weeken practitioners visit this park – ost to yourself. you’ll likely have the park alm

Taipei Ext reme Sports On a recent day I headed to the h a Taiwanese BM X legend – Tra ining Center to meet up wit ling ted look ing for BM X riders wil Joh n Cheng. When I had star my son recommended to me (by to do an interview, the first per he t tha me d rme son, who info fellow rollerbladers) was Joh n’s petition in mai nland Chi na com a nd unfortunately had to atte .I to interview his father instead and asked if I would be wil ling arch to find out who he was. was cur ious, and did a bit of rese

place I met up wit h Joh n The second skate park, and the is e Sports Tra inin g Center. It Che ng, is the Taipei Ext rem the MRT Nangang Station on located right nex t to Exit 2 at y e (Blue Line). Nangang Rai lwa the Taipei Me tro’s Ban nan Lin the and k par g it eas y to visit this Station is also close by, ma kin . The park, in which wood is one in Pingzhen in a sing le day on l used, is bui lt in three levels the primary bui lding materia on rse cou et stre a the first level, a hill side, wit h a bui lding on iting exc e t ramp on the third. Som the second, and a 12-foot ver rts Spo that the Taiwan Ext reme rece nt news for afic ionados is e center, is plan ning a complet Association, which run s the p and ram t ver the of renovation revamp of the street cou rse and f! roo wit h a roof! Yes! A min i bowl, top ping eve ryth ing

ber of stun ning action photos Just by look ing at the vast num n around for a very long time.

I found, I was sure that he’d bee and o Bike, and Thor, he has seen Sponsored by DC shoes, Har ating mid inti His rts. in extreme spo done pretty much everything r 15 ove r, late , g over 33 people and achievements include jumpin k trac he also has an impressive motor scooters! On top of this , in ally as wel l as internationally record, competi ng bot h nation g, pin jum dirt , ipe) as vert (half-p var ious BM X discipli nes such ly bab pro are landing. Most notable big air, street (park), and flat 1, 200 N X-Games Asian Tour in his 1st-place finish on the ESP stop 3 at the ESPN X-Games on its and his 3rd-place finish in 200 the lly ecia esp – ling ionals in cyc in Taiwan. Like many profess done a fair share of motocross has he – extreme forms thereof ns has served as announcer or as wel l, and on many occasio and shows. com mentator at competitions to the inte rview wit h Joh n, I wou ld like to ch nor ther n Taiwan – bot h of whi introduce two skate parks in utif ul bea by ded oun ission, are surr are easy to find, have free adm is one t firs a dai ly basis. The scenery, and are accessible on ute yuan County. After a 40-min located in Pingzhen Cit y, Tao y Station to Zhongli Rai lway trai n ride from Taipei Rai lwa ntly bui lt skate park, which is Station, take a taxi to the rece e is basical ly a huge, long concret located inside Xinshi Park. It at p a tub, around 10 feet dee depression shaped roughly like b,” Toward the middle of the “tu one end and 5 feet at the other. a side wal l like a soap dish, is extendi ng par t-way into it from

Before we come

te can honestly say that this ska After seei ng the blue prints, I of best venues of its kind in all park wil l become one of the s litie faci ve, nges described abo Taiwan. In add ition to the cha of tal ll, wel l-stocked gym, ren and serv ices wil l include a sma tect ive gea r, parking spots for bikes, boa rds, skates, and pro ms. scooter s and car s, and bath roo shortly afte r I arrived at the e ed me and pick out a BM X (on park in Nangang. Joh n greeted t igh stra ded to use, and we hea of his own) and helmet for me ng ted showing his prowess by doi for the street cou rse. He star 9-foot qua rter pipe, and gave effortless 180 table tops on the did to the feel of a BM X. Nex t, he me tips as I was gett ing used we n the and , er ove r the fun box flawless 360 s one afte r the oth l cefu alle r, easier tricks” – gra moved on to (in his words) “sm ds on e, and acc urate “ice pick” grin back-wheel stal ls on the spin the squ are rail.

The action star ted

me to try out some stunts of By the n the time had come for that, despite growing up doi ng my own, and I have to adm it icult! did n’t expect it to be that diff dow nhi ll mount ain bik ing, I and p, ram t ver ting pumps on the I ended up doi ng some exhaus on rail r the box wit h the squ are some simple bun ny hops ove . The say BM Xing is seriously fun top of it. All in all, I have to drop and p bum e kes eve ry littl sma ll wheelba se of the bike ma thri llry eve t tha wou ld recommend feel exh ilaratingly play ful. I d! inte ppo e, for you’ll not be disa seeker try BM Xing at least onc

Travel in Taiwan

51

ACTIVE FUN

Now

Q: How

ning Cen ter Nan gan g E x trem e Sp or ts Trai

to say, sha ll we? the n, let’s hea r what Joh n had

y go to the var iou s skate parks, a trip of it. Bec ause if you onl can find amazing obstacles it feel s a little mea ningless. You e ban ks along rive rsides. In in the stra ngest places... like hug ridi ng for the sake of ridi ng, not the end you’ll feel like you’re for the sake of compet ing.”

ng BM X? and when did you star t ridi

ary school, roughly 30 yea rs “I star ted ridi ng BM X in prim was a ma nufactu rers’ ago. When I was sma ll, Taiwan at see BM X bikes in the city. Wh paradi se, so one wou ld ofte n in the sport, though, was a rea lly stimulated my inte rest gic Wheels.”

Taiwanese BM X film called Ma a Q: Who would be most likely to go along on

BM X ses sio n

wit h you ?

I go ridi ng wit h my chi ldre n, “Cu rrently, most of the time eve r, on the odd Sat urd ay hon ing our skil ls toge the r. How by other vete ran ride rs, or the I’ll be joined at the skate park als. We’ll ride till they turn off nex t generat ion of profession g din ner toge the r before headin the lights, and the n go enjoy home.” ng any where in Tai Q: If you could go ridiwo uld you visit?

wan for the nex t 7

days, wh ich spots

on the back of my car, avoid “I wou ld actu ally put my bike the mount ain s in Hu alie n or skate parks, and drive through er I see someth ing that looks Taitung cou nties, stop whe nev ke car and ride it, you know? Ma like fun, take my bike off the

52

Travel in Taiwan

BM X sce ne?

lately on the Taiwan Q: What has been happening the past? Eve nts? Demos?

Is it more alive tha n in

Xing nowadays, bec ause “One sees a lot more people BM up or gett ing renovated, which more skate parks are pop ping chi ldre n in contact wit h the obv iou sly put s more and more on ma nufactu rers, as they sport as wel l. Demos depend from one sea son to the nex t. always have, var ying in number a big inte rnational cycle trade Eve ry yea r, howeve r, the re is days packed wit h demos.” show in Nangang, which is 4 ard ing eve nts here at

you’d like to say reg Q: Is there anythingrem e Sports Tra inin g Center? the Nan gan g Ext

Association organi zes sum mer “The Taiwan Ext reme Sports free! If you have chi ldre n, camps eve ry yea r, and they are BM Xing, skateboard ing, or or are inte rested in tryi ng out 58, up. You can call (02) 2786-32 rollerblad ing, be sure to join det ails.” or visit ww w.xgame-tw.org for

BMX BIKING

the cha nce to e to say, I feel luck y to have had So the re you have it... and I hav leave all of you wit h some Taiwanese BM X lege nd! I’ll spe nd some time wit h a rea l skate parks in Taiwan: gs to remember whe n visiting practic al information and thin Pingzhen Skate Park: City, Taoyuan County 58, Zhongyuan Rd., Ping zhen ) ( 桃園縣平 鎮市中原 路 58 號

“Ice pick s” on a squa re rail

Center: Taipei Extreme Sports Training gang District, Taipei City Nan Rd., E. iao ngx 382, Sec. 7, Zho 382 號 ) ( 台北市南港區 忠孝東路 7 段 behind While at skate parks in Taiwan: , they play around, sometimes because on more crowded days Please watch out for children, y. injur us serio sions and to see, which can lead to colli obstacles, making them difficult these skate parks?

When is the best time to visit crowded in the afternoons. lly the bes t time, as it can get usua are s ning eve Morning s and ciation's Facebook page: Taiwan Extreme Sports Asso ei taip xsa. otions for www.facebook.com/c well as see photos of and prom nswered questions here, as una any ask to You’ll be able s, and so on. events, the various skate park Eng lish and Chin ese Joh n Che ng 鄭邦 中 Ping zhe n 平鎮 ning Cen ter Taip ei Extr eme Spo rts Trai 臺北 市極 限運 動訓 練中 心

Pum ps on the ver t ramp

ocia tion Taiw an Extr eme Spo rts Ass 中華民國 極限 運動 協會 Xins hi Park 新勢 公園 Zho ngli 中壢

Travel in Taiwan

53

DAILY LIFE

Good Service Asian Hospitality at Its Finest

Photos: Din Tai Fung, Tripod King

When asking

visitors to Taiwan about their travel experience here, you will often hear praise for the friendliness and helpfulness of the locals. In Taiwan, treating foreign visitors with respect and hospitality is a matter of course. This warmth and friendliness when dealing with others, often called “rén qíng wèi” ( 人情味 ) in Mandarin, is ingrained in the society and is nothing out of the ordinary for people living here.

In some cases, however, hospitality reaches new heights, and business service is of such a high quality that even locals are pleasantly surprised.

Prime examples are two well-known restaurant chains, the renowned dumpling-maker Din Tai Fung and the popular hotpot restaurant chain Tripod King. Their success, beyond the outstandingly delicious dishes served, is due to their insistence on high-quality service. At Din Tai Fung every guest is greeted and served like a VIP. Friendliness and flexibility are this restaurant chain’s stated keys to providing outstanding service.

Like Din Tai Fung, Tripod King emphasizes sincere and attentive service.

Staff members are carefully selected and trained to ensure that every single guest is welcomed and served with the proper attitude and etiquette. Apart from its exquisite mala (literally “numbing spicy”) hotpot, this restaurant chain is probably best known for something you don’t often see outside Japan – the wait staff making 90-degree bows each time they leave your table. Asian hospitality at its finest!

54

Travel in Taiwan

COSMOS HOTEL TAIPEI Taipei

Hotels of Taiwan

台北天成大飯店

Visitors to Taiwan have a wide range of choice when it comes to accommodation. From five-star luxury hotels that meet the highest international standards, to affordable business hotels, to hot-spring and beach resort hotels, to privately-run homestays located in the countryside there is a place to stay that satisfies every traveler’s needs.

What all hotels of Taiwan — small and big, expensive and affordable — have in common is that serve and hospitality are always of the highest standards.

The room rates in the following list have been checked for each hotel, but are subject to change without notice. Room rates at the hotels apply.

＊Hotel list in alphabetical order from Northern to Southern Taiwan.

HOTEL SENSE 伸適商旅

No. of Rooms: 79 Room Rates:

Taipei 台 北

Superior Room NT$

Business Room NT$

Deluxe Room NT$ Executive Deluxe Room NT$

Executive Suite NT$

Sense Suite NT$ esk Personnel Speak: D

7,500 8,500 9,500 9,000 10,000 15,000

English, Japanese, Chinese

Special Features: Business center, fitness center, meeting rooms, Club House with luxury furniture and advanced media facilities for private meetings and gatherings, wood-floored openair Sky Garden, parking tower, close to the MRT system near Zhongshan Elemen tary school MRT station and key commercial and entertainment districts.

No. of Rooms: 225 Room Rates:

SUPERIOR SINGLE SUPERIOR TWIN EXECUTIVE DELUXE DELUXE TWIN FAMILY TRIPLE DELUXE TRIPLE FAMILY QUAD DELUXE QUAD VIP ROOM JUNIOR SUITE DELUXE SUITE COSMOS SUITE

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

台北

4,500 5,000 5,200 5,500 5,600 5,800 6,200 6,800 6,800 8,000 16,800 20,000

Desk Personnel Speak: Chinese, Japanese, English, Cantonese

Restaurants: Cantonese Dimsum, Shanghai Cuisine, Buffet Breakfast, Lily Café, Ditrevi Ice Cream Shop, La Fusion Bakery

Special Features: Conference Room, Banquet Hall, Gift Shop, Barber Shop, Flower Shop, Parking Space, Gym

GLORIA PRINCE HOTEL TAIPEI

HOTEL ÉCLAT

華 泰 王子大 飯 店

怡亨酒店

Taipei 台 北

No. of Rooms: 220

No. of Rooms: 60

Room Rates: Deluxe / Single / Twin & Double NT$ 7,800~8,500

Suite NT$ 9,500~20,000

Room Rates:

Desk Personnel Speak: Chinese, English, Japanese

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

www.cosmos-hotel.com.tw

Desk Personnel Speak:

Restaurants: Rain Forest Café, Garden Terrace, Lounge 81 Special Features: Business center, Pyramid Club - luxury executive floor, multifunctional room, Internet service, 32-inch LCD TV, garden terrace, bar, fitness club, outdoor pool, sauna, spa, aromatherapy, car park

83 Civic Boulevard, Sec. 3, Taipei City, 104 477 , Linsen N. Rd., Zhongshan District, Taipei City 104

104台北市市民大道三段8 3號

10 6台10 4台北市中山區林 森 北 路 47 7號

Tel: 02.7743.1000 Fax: 02.7743.1100 E-mail: info@hotelsense.com.tw

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

www.hotelsense.com.tw

www.miramargarden.com.tw

Special Features: Member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World; strategically located in the most fashionable and prestigious district of Taipei; offers guests great convenience for business and entertainment; Wi-Fi connectivity and in-room business facilities; variety of meeting rooms providing the ideal venue for professional meetings, corporate functions, and social gatherings.

370, Sec. 1, Dunhua S. Rd., Da-an District, Taipei City 106 Tel: 02.2784.8888 Fax: 02.2784.7888 Res. Hotline: 02.2784.8118

www.gloriahotel.com

www.eclathotels.com

台北晶華酒店

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

Restaurants: Éclat Lounge, George Bar

Tel: 02.2581.8111 Fax: 02.2581.5811, 2568-2924

REGENT TAIPEI

NT$ 8,000 NT$ 9,000 NT$ 10,000 NT$ 15,000 NT$ 20,000

12,000 12,500 13,000 15,000 35,000

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

美麗信花園酒店

No. of Rooms: 203 Room Rates:

Deluxe Room

Business Room Executive Deluxe Room

Boss Suite

Premier Suite

NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$

English, Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Cantonese,

Special Features: Coffee Shop, Fitness Center, Business Center, laundry service, meeting and banquet facilities, non-smoking floor, parking lot, airport transfer service

MIRAMAR GARDEN TAIPEI

Taipei 台 北

Deluxe Room Grand Deluxe Room Premier Room Premier 9 Éclat Suite

(All rates are exclusive of 5% VAT and 10% service charge)

Restaurants: La Fontaine (Western), Chiou Hwa (Chinese)

43, Chunghsiao (Zhongxiao) W. Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei City, 100 (MRT Taipei Main Station, Exit M3) 100台北市忠孝西路一段4 3號 (捷運台北車站M3號出口)

Taipei 台 北

Taipei 台 北

106 台北市敦化南路一段370號

TAIPEI GALA HOTEL 慶泰大飯店

No. of Rooms: 538

No. of Rooms: 160

Room Rates:

Room Rates:

Taipei 台 北

Superior Room NT$ 13,600

Deluxe Room NT$ 14,600

Residence NT$ 20,800

Junior Suite NT$ 22,800

Elite Suite NT$ 26,800

Corner Suite NT$ 32,800 esk Personnel Speak: D

English, Japanese, Chinese

Restaurants: Golden Ear Restaurant (Western semi buffet); Golden Pot (Chinese Cuisine)

Restaurants:

Szechuan & Cantonese Cuisine, Japanese Cuisine, Steak House & Teppanyaki, Lounge Bar, Buffet, Café

Special Features: Executive business center, fitness center, sauna, rooftop swimming pool, SPA, ballroom and convention facilities, parking, laundry service, 24-hour room service, wireless Internet, airport transportation service

Single Room NT$ 5,800 Deluxe Single Room NT$ 6,200 Deluxe Twin Room NT$ 6,800 Suite Room NT$ 9,800

Desk Personnel Speak:

English, Japanese, Chinese

Special Features: Business Center, meeting rooms, airport transfer service, parking lot, laundry service, free Internet access, LCD TV, DVD player, personal safety box, mini bar, private bathroom with separate shower & bath tub, hair dryer

186 Songjiang Rd., Taipei City,104

No.3, Ln.39, Sec.2, Zhongshan N. Rd., Taipei City, 104

104台北市松江路18 6號 Exit 1 of MRT Xingtian Temple Station on the Luzhou Line.

Tel: 02.2523.8000 Fax: 02.2523.2828

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

www.regenttaipei.com

www.galahotel.com.tw

104台北市中山北路二段39巷3號

Travel in Taiwan

55

THE GRAND HOTEL 圓山大飯店

Taipei 台 北

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

Single/DBL NT$ 5,700 – 11,000

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

1 Chung Shan N. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City, 10461 R.O.C

TAIPEI WESTGATE HOTEL

TAICHUNG HARBOR HOTEL

ALISHAN HOUSE

永安棧

台中港酒店

阿里山賓館

No. of Rooms: 121 Room Rates:

Cozy NT$ 7,200

Deluxe NT$ 7,800

Premier NT$ 8,500

Premier City View NT$ 8,800

Dual Queen NT$ 10,800

Premier Dual Queen NT$ 11,800

Executive Suite NT$ 12,800

Grand Suite NT$ 12,800 Desk Personnel Speak: English, Chinese, Japanese Restaurants: Unwind Bar & Restaurant Special Features: Located in the heart of the energetic Ximending; 1 minute on foot to MRT Ximen Station; free wireless Internet access; fitness center; business center; laundry; meeting room; complimentary Chinese/ Western buffet breakfast; safety deposit box; express laundry service; limousine service; airport pick-up.

No.150, Sec. 1, Zhonghua Rd., Wanhua Dist., Taipei City, 108

Taichung 台 中

Superior Single

Deluxe Single

Family Twin Corner Semi-Suite

Harbor Suite Executive Suite Presidential Suite

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

5,600 6,200 7,600 8,800 10,800 12,800 38,000

D esk Personnel Speak:

Scenery Suite Room/Twin Room NT$ 6,600

Double Suite NT$ 10,000 Fragrant Suite Room/Quad Room NT$ 12,000

Superior Suite NT$ 16,000

VIP Suite NT$ 16,000

Executive Suite NT$ 26,000 Handicapped Suite(Free Space Room) NT$ 26,000

President Suite NT$ 300,000 (Prices above not including 10% Service Charge)

General Manager: Mr. Jen-Shing Chen

Restaurants: Gladden Restaurant, Fukumi-

Desk Personnel Speak:

nato Japanese Restaurant, Pier 88 Lounge Bar

Chinese, English, Japanese

Special Features:

Restaurants: Chinese, Café, Courtyard

SEA SPA, Fortune Boutique Shop, Gym, Conference Room

Special Features:

Taichung Harbor Hotel will make you feel at home with its newest and complete facilities and a tranquil environment.

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

16 Sianglin Village, Alishan Township, Chiayi County, 605

Tel: 886.2.2886.8888 Fax: 886.2.2885.2885

Tel: 02.2331.3161 Fax: 02.2388.6216 Reservation Hotline: 02.2388.1889

388, Sec. 2, Dazhi Rd.,Wuqi District, Taichung City 435

www.grand-hotel.org

www.westgatehotel.com.tw

www.tchhotel.com

Travel in Taiwan

Room Rates:

English, Japanese, Chinese

(MRT Ximen Station, Exit 6)

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.

Chiayi 嘉 義

No. of Rooms: 139

No. of Rooms: 200 Room Rates:

108台北市中華路一段150號

10 4 61台北市中山北 路 四段1號

56

Taipei 台 北

4 35台中市梧棲區大智路二段38 8號

Tel: 04.2656.8888 Fax: 04.2656.8899

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

E-mail: service@alishanhouse.com.tw

www.alishanhouse.com.tw