225: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Waiting for it...

With this Tuesday being a national holiday, 228 Peace Memorial Day 228和平紀念日 (see 228 Incident 二二八事件), a number of businesses have chosen to take Monday off as well in order to create a four-day weekend for their employees. There are four reasons why you shouldn't be too envious of this fact: 1.) I still have to teach for three hours on Monday evening; 2.) next Saturday is going to be a make-up day in return for having this Monday off, meaning I'll have to work in the morning and afternoon that day (and Amber will have to attend her kindergarten); 3.) my wife will still have to work on the 27th and 28th as her boss apparently thinks it to be a waste of time and money honoring thousands of innocent dead people; and 4.) we can't afford to go anywhere over the long weekend, by virtue of having to make do this month on a tight budget courtesy of January's two-week trip back to the United States.

So how does one have a fiscally-responsible yet still enjoyable four-day (or 3½ in my case) stretch of holidays? I'll let you know on Tuesday. As for today (Saturday), I had hoped to take my daughter to a nearby stretch of the Tányǎshén Bicycle Trail 潭雅神綠園道 in Shén​gāng 神岡 in order to give her another opportunity to get better riding at riding a bicycle. We had the bike in the trunk of the car and were nearing the parking lot for the cycling path when it started to rain, putting paid to that plan. Still, it seemed a shame to have the car and not be able to do anything, so I made a quick detour to a spot where the Taiwan High-Speed Rail 台灣高速鐵路 tracks descend to ground-level before disappearing into a tunnel. After a few minutes' wait, Amber got to experience two trains pass by her in a matter of seconds. First, a train heading north:

Followed a few minutes later by another one going in the opposite direction:

With the weather still on the dicey side, but not wanting to go home just yet, we next drove to the Taichung Airport 台中航空站. From past experience, I knew there wasn't an observation deck, but I figured Amber might like to check out the inside of the terminal. Apparently, meteorological conditions this afternoon in the Taiwan Strait 台灣海峽 were less than ideal for flying, as the various boards showed at least one canceled flight to Hong Kong, and four or five delayed flights to Makung 馬公 on Péng​hú 澎湖, Kinmen 金門 and Hong Kong. So it came as no surprise to find the terminal packed with angry and/or bored passengers waiting around for something to happen:

Amber also took a couple of pictures, which can be seen on her photo blog, as well as below:

Amber expresses relief that she isn't going anywhere by plane today!

On the way back home, we stopped off at the Tányǎshén Bicycle Trail so that I could make use of the restrooms, then decided to stretch our legs a bit before getting back in the car. The cycling path is laid out where the tracks of an old sugar railway used to lie. Amber checked out the ersatz water stop, which reminded her of Thomas the Tank Engine:

After a lesson on the principles of steam engines, it was time to go. Thus ended the first day of the long weekend. Now to figure out what to do with the rest of the free time...

When the trains hit the fan

My poor wife often has to work on Saturdays, sometimes for just the mornings, but all too often for the entire day. I must admit, however, that her loss is my gain, in that I get to spend some quality time with my daughter. Usually that means going to a park to play ball games together, or to let Amber ride her bike or frolic on the playground. This afternoon, however, we went on a short day trip, taking the train from Fengyuan (Fēng​yuán) 豐原 to Changhua (Zhāng​huà) 彰化 in order to check out the Fan-Shaped Train Garage (shàn​xíng chē​kù) 扇形車庫. Looking like something out of Thomas the Tank Engine, the garage is a sort of wheelhouse used for maintenance of train cars. Visiting the complex is free, with the only requirement being that visitors sign in at the entrance.

There were several permanently parked train engines at the garage. Amber insisted on clambering up all of them.

Amber poses in front of the turntable, which is used to direct the train cars into one of the 12 maintenance spaces in the background.

An observation deck provided an overlook of the garage:

We timed our visit well this afternoon as we had the chance to see the turntable being used to guide a couple of trains in and out of the large maintenance shed:

At one end of the fan-shaped garage were two vintage steam train engines:

Unless you're a trainspotter, the Fan-Shaped Train Garage is probably not worth a special trip (in our case, Amber likes trains, and Changhua isn't that far from where we live). However, it's free, fun for kids (especially if the turntable is in operation) and can be combined with the city's more well-known sites (such as the large Buddha statue 八卦山大佛像) to make Changhua an interesting daylong outing. All aboard!

写真

A couple of pictures taken on my way home from the pool this afternoon:

A few observations after a weekend in Taihoku

Having some business to attend to on Saturday morning in Taipei 台北, we decided to turn it into a family weekend in the big city. I arrived first, on Friday night, and checked into the Keyman's Hotel. At NT1940 ($60/￥5800) a night for a "Japanese-style" double room (in Taiwan, "Japanese-style" usually means wooden flooring and a mattress on the floor), and in a very convenient location close to Taipei's main train station, Keyman's was definitely a good choice - it also had a nice inner atrium, and breakfast was included in the room rate (Chinese-style, alas).

Pamela and Amber took the train up from Fengyuan 豐原 on Saturday morning, and I met them at Taipei Main Station 台北車站 just after 1 pm. Before going to the station, I took a walk around the area surrounding the hotel, and took this picture of the National Taiwan Museum 國立台灣博物館, dating from 1915, and one of a number of Japanese-era buildings to be found in the Zhongzheng 中正 area of Taipei. This, plus the fact that the interior of the Taipei Station building, its underground shopping malls, and the streets surrounding it outside are full of Japanese restaurants, shops selling Japanese goods and signs written in Japanese led to me observe the following: Taipei may be the power base in Taiwan for the "superior mainlanders", but deep down inside, the city wants to be nothing less than a minor-league version of Tōkyō 東京. China may be on a higher cultural plane than the southern part of Taiwan, which is supposedly where all the island's "rednecks" live (debatable), but Japan is definitely cooler. The delicious taste of irony! Oh, and having come back from a week-long stay in Fukuoka 福岡, I think I can honestly say that Taipei still has a long way to go before its dream can be realized.

After resting for a while in our hotel room, we headed out in the late afternoon, taking the MRT 台北捷運 to Longshan Temple Station 龍山寺站 in the Wanhua District 萬華區 (it didn't take Amber very long to figure out how to use the tokens - in that regard, she was much quicker than some adults!). We first visited Longshan Temple 龍山寺, Taipei's most famous temple, a fact reflected in the sheer number of people worshiping there early on a Saturday evening as the skies threatened to unleash buckets of rain (a threat which was soon carried out). Walking into the courtyard facing the Main Hall, we came across hundreds of people, many dressed in black, chanting in unison. The effect was nothing short of creepy:

Longshan Temple

The temple is certainly very colorful, and the Rear Hall was also very active, but all the incense smoke irritated Amber's eyes, so we didn't linger long.

Escaping from Longshan Temple, we walked over the start of the Huaxi Tourist Night Market (aka "Snake Alley"), which led me to make Observation No. 2: Taipei may be Taiwan's highest-class city, but it contains arguably the island's lowest-class night market. Though we were there before things had gotten into high gear, the sleaziness prevalent in some of the businesses (not to mention in some of the denizens, as well) gave me second thoughts about having Amber there. When you take into account that the market's main claim to fame is the several stalls that slaughter snakes in "shows" for the benefit of tourists, it's probably best that we didn't stick around long (the latter stalls all had signs in English and Chinese forbidding photography. No doubt their owners are aware that, in this day and age, killing animals in the name of tourism isn't considered to be as entertaining as it might have been in the past).

The shop in the photo on the top claims to sell Fengyuan-style noodles. It's a pity we didn't try our luck there. The food couldn't have been any worse than the greasy fried rice I had at a small eatery across the road from our hotel!

The rain that plagued us on Saturday evening also came down at times on Sunday (though not as hard, fortunately), which leads me to my next observation: if Taipei is ever suffering from a serious drought (which it sometimes is), the city fathers ought to pay for me to come up and visit, because almost every time I've been to Taipei over the years, the weather has been rainy! This didn't stop us from taking the MRT out to Taipei Zoo in order to see the pandas. The unfortunate pair were given to Taiwan by China last December, and Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan ("Reunification") have been dragged ever since into the muck that is Taiwanese politics. As political symbols, they are repulsive, but in the eyes of a little girl only three and a half-years old, they are just cute, and Amber eventually returned home on Sunday evening the proud owner of a panda pen and some panda stickers, not to mention a panda sucker she happily consumed just before we left the zoo in the middle of the afternoon.

Panda mania appears to have run its course, judging from the fact that we didn't have to wait in any lines before being allowed inside the special exhibition area. Nevertheless, zoo personnel didn't tolerate any lingering, and while the Tibetan bears (chuckle) were up and about this morning, the best I could do when it came to recording their images can be seen in the photo and video below:

Taipei Zoo Pandas

As for the rest of the day at the zoo, Amber was interested in the iguanas, snakes and tortoises in the reptile house (that's my girl!), but curiously immune to the appeal of penguins. She did perk up in the African animal display area (especially the giraffes and monkeys), and was also quite happy with the koalas, which we saw at the end, before returning via the MRT to Taipei Station.

The two photos above, Amber on the MRT and the view from the platform at Zhongxiao-Fuxing Station, have no relation to my final observation, which is that while Taipei may be Taiwan's cosmopolitan center, judging from the fashion tastes witnessed during our stay on Saturday and Sunday (not to mention my previous visits as well), the capital city isn't that far ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to what people are wearing, especially the young. Or to put it another way, even the dedicated followers of fashion in Fukuoka are leaps ahead of their counterparts here in terms of what is hip and stylish. I'm not passing judgment one way or the other, but I do find it curious that the southern part of Taiwan, with its legions of "Taimei" 台妹 seems to be setting the pace in this regard (I have a feeling that had we visited Tianmu 天母 or Ximending 西門町, I would've just been reminded of things I'd seen in Tōkyō years ago).

For the return trip to Fengyuan, we took our inaugural ride on Taiwan's high speed rail system 台灣高鐵, traveling from Taipei to Wurih 烏日, which counts as "Taichung" 台中 to the High Speed Rail Corporation. Having ridden the Shinkansen 新幹線 on numerous occasions in Japan, I was very curious to see what Taiwan's version was like, and I was quite impressed, both with the system, and the speed and comfort of the ride. The boarding announcements at Taipei Station felt more like what would be heard at an airport (in Japan, there is never any doubt that you are about to get on a train), but the views from the train window were very similar to what can be seen riding the Tōkaidō Shinkansen 東海道新幹線 from Tōkyō to Shin-Ōsaka 新大阪 - the same scenes of rice paddies and factories, though the boxy, concrete houses and the numerous Taoist temples (big and small) left no doubt as to what country we were in:

Taiwan High Speed Rail

Wurih is a rarity among HSR stations in that it connects to a Taiwan Railways Administration 台灣鐵路管理局 station (New Wurih 新烏日車站) - arriving at most of the other stations entails long bus rides into the respective downtown areas of the cities they serve. It was only six stops on a local train to Fengyuan, and by 6:45 we were all home. Having left my scooter parked downtown on Friday evening, I discovered that while I was away, my bike had served as a convenient rest area for a couple of people, judging from the empty tea containers on my machine. At least it was still there, and in one piece, so I should be thankful for small favors.

All in all, there are a lot worse ways to celebrate one's birthday than our trip to Taipei.

Blink and you will miss it

11 seconds of a Taiwan High Speed Rail 台灣高鐵 train whizzing by in Shengang 神岡:

Walking in the hills of Houli

I rode out to Houli 后里 on Tuesday morning to do some walking, but it took much longer than I had anticipated to get there. I had been under the impression that the Houfeng Bicycle Trail was open to scooters in the aftermath of the collapse of the Houfeng Bridge, but that didn't seem to be the case this morning. Lots of scooters were on the road, but none of them were on the cycling path. There were, however, quite a few bicyclists out, no doubt due to the pleasant weather. I therefore decided not to take the bicycle route, and so had to travel up the Tajia River 大甲渓 to get to a bridge across to the other side. The road then led up through the hills, and down to the town of Houli. I turned off before then, however, to reach an area of short hiking trails at the Fenghuang Mountain Farm, in the hills behind the Houli Race Course. The walks there aren't very strenuous, taking only about an hour to make a circuit, but on this clear day, the view from the top (of the Taichung Science Park, and beyond towards the sea) was nice:

Next, I rode past the horse ranch to what the road signs called "Pilu Temple", but which a local guidebook I have refers to as "Kunlu Temple":

"The western style building with a high rising ceiling is a Baroque pattern, which is very uncommon among temple architectures (sic)."

It is certainly different from most temples in Taiwan. There are stone steps that go up into the hill behind the building. It doesn't take long to reach the top, and there is little to see in the distance through the foliage, but the path is shaded.

The last thing I did before heading home for lunch (not to mention a shower) was to park myself next to the train tracks in the hope of getting a decent picture of a train going by. The best I could do was this shot of an express passing by on its way north:

It's the camera's fault, of course.

Taking the train to Byōritsu 苗栗へ電車に乗っている

One of the things I really enjoyed doing when I was living in Japan was riding the trains. Maybe it had to do with the fact that, growing up in California, I never had the chance to do so (Sacramento's サクラメント light rail ライトレール system went into operation after I had gone away to college at UC Davis カリフォルニア大学デービス校), but whatever the reason, I loved traveling around Japan by rail. Living in Taiwan, however, I don't get to take trains very often, as Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原 is small enough to get around on scooter, and we have the family car for longer excursions. But Amber seems to like trains, and recently I've decided she should have more opportunities to get on board them. So on this fine Sunday, we parked the car close to Fengyuan Station 豊原駅, and caught the 12:46pm local 普通, bound for the city of Miaoli 苗栗, 35 minutes away.

　

Our train as it was pulling into the station.

There weren't many passengers on the ride north to Miaoli, and Amber had a lot of fun looking out of the window. She got really excited when the train pulled into San'i (Sanyi) 三義. The opposite platform was crowded with people, many of whom began waving and smiling at Amber when they saw her looking at them through the window of our car. Our daughter must have felt like a queen!

Once in Miaoli, we looked around for a place to eat, but it wasn't easy. Usually, Taiwanese cities have very active downtown areas, but Miaoli's was dead on this Sunday. Pamela remarked that her hometown of Hsiluo (Siluo) 西螺 might be smaller, but is a lot more にぎやか than Miaoli. Eventually, we found a small hole-in-the-wall eatery that was open, and had lunch. This establishment was decorated in Snoopy スヌーピ pictures, a theme that wouldn't raise an eyebrow in Japan, which is full of unique cafes and small restaurants, the decor of which reflect the interests and passions of the owner. In Taiwan, however, such places are uncommon, at least in smaller towns and cities like Miaoli. The food was pretty standard local fare, but good.

The street pictured on the bottom is a section Miaoli's Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Road 中正路, near the train station, which should be the main drag in any Taiwanese city. Where's the traffic? Where are the people?

Following lunch, we walked over to the "Miao-lie Rolling Stock Exhibition" 鉄路博物館, a free, open-air train museum. Neither the Lonely Planet ロンリープラネット or Rough Guides books to Taiwan mention this place (let alone Miaoli), but I found out about it from my Japanese guidebook on Taiwan, 地球の歩き方台湾 ('05-'06 edition), which had this to say:

日本統治時代に使用されていた古い蒸気機関車や、最近まで使われていたディーゼル機関車にサトウキビや木村の運搬に活躍していた日本製の小型蒸気機関車など10台ほどが展示されている。

Which basically says that about 10 trains, including old steam locomotives from the Japanese colonial period, and more recent diesel trains that were used for such purposes as transporting sugar cane, are on display. I hadn't checked the guidebook closely, for it also said the museum was closed on weekends, but the gate wasn't locked, so the three of us went in for a look. Unless you're a trainspotter 鉄道ファン, or happen to live relatively close by (like we do), it's probably not worth the trip to Miaoli, but it's still an interesting museum nonetheless.

It was the middle of the afternoon by the time we returned to Miaoli Station, and we had a choice to make about the trip back to Fengyuan. I wanted to stick around for another hour in order to catch the 4:45pm local, but Pamela preferred we take the earlier 4:06 limited express ("Tzu-Ch'iang" or "Zih-Ciang" in Chinese, roughly equivalent to 特急 trains in Japan). I knew the express would be crowded, whereas we stood a good chance of sitting down on the local, but as Pamela pointed out, Fengyuan was the next stop after Miaoli on the Tzu-Chiang, so what was 28 minutes of relative discomfort? So we stood in line to buy tickets from the window, and herein lies one of two examples of how train service in Taiwan, though relatively efficient, lags behind that in Japan. Because most ticket vending machines don't accept notes (there were actually a couple of machines inside Miaoli Station that gave change for paper money, but hardly anyone was using them), it's often the case that you have to stand in a long line in order to buy tickets from a ticket window. You have to tell the worker your destination and how many tickets you need, hand over your money, then receive your tickets and change. It's much like the 緑の窓口 in Japan, except that you have to do it more often in Taiwan because there are more types of trains that require reserved seat tickets (though standing is allowed, of course).

The other complaint I have concerns time. Our train back to Fengyuan was 7 minutes late arriving in Miaoli, which is usual in Taiwan. I know that's no big deal compared to some parts of the world, but I got spoiled by Japanese trains, which are so punctual, you could almost set your watch to them. And as I feared, the Tzu-Chiang was standing-room only, but we were fortunate to stand right next to the door, which made it easy for Amber to sit down on the step, and to get off the train once we got to Fengyuan.

Some of the scenery along the route between Miaoli and Fengyuan.

Amber taking a breather on the floor, and the Tzu-Chiang getting ready to pull out of Fengyuan, on the way to its final destination 終点 in Kaohsiung (Gaosyong) 高雄.

Now to start planning where to go next...

Taiwan's Shinkansen in the news 台湾の新幹線

Max Hirsch has an article in today's Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ on Taiwan's high speed train, "Taiwan's Japan-made bullet trains end first year in red - but on track", a headline which says it all, as do the opening paragraphs:

"Taiwan's Japan-built high-speed trains have yet to become a cash-cow success, but neither are they the disaster critics had once predicted. As Taiwan marked the first year of the rail system on Jan. 5, bittersweet pride surely ranks high among its founders. The bitter sprouts from a fiscal shortfall as Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. 台湾高速鉄道 seeks to dramatically boost ridership from the current 43,000 passengers daily to at least the break-even point. But the sweet is just as palpable as Taiwan's first bullet trains, which traverse 345 km between Taipei 台北 and Kaohsiung 高雄 at the island's southern tip, run without a hitch."

There were a lot of doubts about the bullet train before, as well as soon after, it started service. I remember many of my students saying at the time that they were too scared to ride it, over fears about its safety. Hirsch recalls these sentiments:

"Over budget and 16 months behind schedule, the high-speed rail system opened for business amid intense, and often negative, media attention on Jan. 5, 2007. Multiple minor derailments in test runs two months prior to the opening supplied ammunition to critics, who conjured up images of a nightmarish pileup at 300 kph, the trains' top speed. Mixing European track technology with Japanese bullet trains, they warned, was a recipe for derailment...a troubled collaboration with Taiwan Shinkansen Engineering to forge the world's first Japanese-European bullet-train system in the world's biggest build-operate-transfer project ever. The final price tag was $15 billion. As delays and cost overruns mounted, critics panned the project as a doomed, extravagant bid to integrate incompatible technologies. But the detractors are falling silent as the system turns a corner in its first year."

And things are continuing to look up:

"Boasting an impeccable safety record so far, THSR plans to increase daily trips from 113 to 176 and post profits next year...Already, a new ticketing policy is boosting passenger traffic. In November, THSR added open seating, while reducing fares by 20 percent, for seats in three train cars, a policy that saw passenger traffic jump from 1.44 million passengers in October to 2 million in December. And so popular is the policy that THSR plans to extend it indefinitely..."

I still have my doubts about the long-term viability of the shinkansen here. I'm fascinated with the technology (I've ridden the shinkansen in Japan numerous times, from Hakata 博多 to Hachinohe 八戸, and many points in between), and I wish the project success, but I wonder if Taiwan is large enough to really need such an expensive transportation system. Could that $15 billion have been spent on something less glamorous, but more vital to daily life, such as improvements to infrastructure?

Hirsch, however, remains optimistic:

"...2 million riders monthly is a far cry from what...is the 3.6 million passengers, each paying at least 1,000 Taiwan dollars (¥3,350), that THSR needs to start settling its debts and making a profit. Nonetheless, 'THSR expects to break even in the latter half of this year,' (Ted) Chia (vice president of the THSR public affairs division) said, adding the network will run 176 daily trips by then. So even though THSR is running deep in the red, its future could be bright. This year's goals...include improving ticketing systems and inducing convenience stores to serve as ticket outlets. Local personnel are meanwhile increasing as THSR internalizes its Eastern and Western technologies...Another key goal this year...is to employ 100 Taiwanese drivers as foreign drivers dwindle. Long-term plans include developing about 92 hectares of land in five 'business districts' near the line, a business opportunity for THSR as its bullet trains drive up real estate near stations...THSR manages the land under government contract. Next year, THSR plans to break ground on a 12-km extension to the Nangang 南港 District in Taipei with operations starting in 2011. Construction of three more stations on the current line will follow..."

The Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売, by the way, has an article today on how Japan's shinkansen lines are financed ("Shinkansen plans face funding woes"), which sheds light on the different approaches to building bullet train lines in Japan and Taiwan.

Taiwan's Shinkansen in the news 台湾の新幹線

It's been one year since Taiwan's high speed rail network began operating, and the Daily Yomiuri has an article today on the milestone:

"The Taiwan High Speed Rail train, which started operating Jan. 5, 2007, connects Taipei 台北 in the north to Kaohsiung 高雄 in the south, and by the end of last year passenger numbers had exceeded 15.55 million."

Taiwan's venture into bullet trains has attracted some attention in Japan as this is the first time that Japan's shinkansen technology has been put into use outside the country (Japan also has its fair share of trainspotters). The article points out both the successes:

"...contrary to critics' expectations, there have been no major safety errors over the last year."

and the failures:

"...on a financial level, business is bad. Passenger numbers are about half the 110,000 to 120,000 customers needed each day to generate a profit. Potential patrons complain that the train's stations are too far from the city center and that fares are too high."

I would like to ride the shinkansen one of these days, but as the story indicates, the stations are not very convenient. The closest bullet train stop to Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原, for example, is in the small town of Wujih (Wurih) 烏日, outside the T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中 city limits. For us to go to T'aipei (Taibei), we would first have to take a train south to Wujih from Fengyuan, then transfer to a high-speed train for the trip north. There are shinkansen stations in Japan that are located out in the boonies, but for the most part, the connections by regular train and bus from such stops into the cities is smooth. This is most likely due to the fact that the bullet trains are part of the overall Japan Railways Group (JR). In Taiwan, the regular train service and the high speed rail are operated by separate companies in competition with each other: the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) 台湾鉄路管理局 for the former, and Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) 台湾高速鉄道 the latter. There is also the possibility that Taiwan just may be too compact for a shinkansen system to be profitable. Only time will tell.