Things to do in Wufeng when you're dead

Like hiking. A few weeks, Amber, Pamela and I visited the Wufeng Ch'ingt'ung Lin Hiking Trail 霧峰青桐林步道, located in the former township of Wufeng 霧峰, of course. I posted about our trip here. At that time, we were only able to walk a small part of the trails in the area, owing to the fact that we arrived there somewhat late in the afternoon, and that my wife isn't used to walking and my daughter can only go as far as her pre-elementary school legs can carry her. So following my morning classes today, I took the family car and made the 90-minute drive into the hills of Wufeng to see what more the trails had to offer. 

What was on offer were some clearly laid out and well-maintained paths that didn't offer much of a challenge...until I wandered off-track, not once, but twice. Though the trail was well-signposted in most places, the maps were difficult to figure out (with north pointing somewhere other than north, as is often the case with trail maps in Taiwan) and...oh, did I mention something just now about the route being well-marked? It was until I reached one key junction, where I followed the arrow leading downhill, expecting it to close the loop I was planning to walk. Instead, I found myself following a path that grew narrower and steeper until the use of ropes was required. At that point, it became obvious that I had gone the wrong way, so I turned around and headed back uphill to the junction. There, I followed another arrow pointing in a different direction. This trail took me up one ridge to a large rest area, then down and up another ridge, before continuing along a rapidly shrinking path. There were some pretty good views of the surrounding hillsides, but it was obvious I was heading the wrong way again. Returning to the original junction, I finally found the path I needed, which was unmarked, of course.

If all this sounds like an exercise in frustration, it wasn't. The errant paths described above were fun to walk, and beg further exploration, which I intend on doing. In all, I spent nearly 2½ hours traversing the trails in this part of Wufeng, working up a decent sweat and relishing the fact that most of the time I had the mountain to myself. I'll be back.

My apologies for the quality of some of the following photos. Lighting conditions were less-than-ideal in many places on the trails:

Check here for directions on how to get to the Wufeng Qingtong Lin Hiking Trail.

Rainy Sunday 雨の日曜日

Tonight as I sat down at the computer to upload some photos and update the blog, it was sounding like a war zone outside. Taiwanese don't need many excuses to set off firecrackers and shoot off fireworks, and this weekend is the Lantern Festival 元宵節/元宵. Amber got an early start last night 

 

and tonight we went up to the roof of our apartment building to watch all the pyrotechnics going on around us. But instead of going into T'aichung (Taijhong) たいちゅう 台中 to witness the celebrations, we spent a quiet afternoon in the Taichung County town of Wufeng (Wufong) 霧峰.

Upon arriving in Wufeng, we stopped for a quick lunch of goosemeat ガチョウ肉 over rice, beef noodles, a side dish of pork and ginger しょうが焼き and a bowl of oyster soupカキスープ.

As the rain had started coming down just as we were finishing lunch, we decided an indoor activity would be preferable, so we drove over to the 921 Earthquake Museum. This museum commemorates the Chi-Chi (Jiji) Earthquake 集集大地震, which struck central Taiwan on September 21, 1999, and resulted in the deaths of 2415 people. I actually arrived in Taiwan about three weeks after the quake, so I was fortunate in not having to experience the terror that Pamela, Steve and many other people I know had to go through that night (but I did feel a lot of the aftershocks).

The museum is located on the grounds of Kuangfu (Guangfu) High School, which was directly on the fault line and suffered extensive damage. Pictures of the school's running track which was uplifted as a result of the tremor are some of the most well-known images of the 921 quake.

The museum has preserved the track

The 921 museum is located in a quiet section of Wufeng, in a neighborhood of old homes, and surrounded by forested hills. Here's a picture of Amber outside the museum, and a photo of a cemetery 墓地 behind the parking lot.

The rain had let up somewhat, so after the museum we went to the grounds of the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Commission. Because in theory the government of the Republic of China is the government of the whole of China, it is only temporarily residing on the island of Taiwan, and Taiwan is a merely a province of China. That was the theory, according to the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party, which ruled Taiwan from 1949 (the end of the Chinese Civil War) to 2000 (when they lost the presidential election to Chen Shui-bian of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party). The reality, of course, is that Taiwan is a de facto sovereign state, and most people now identify themselves as "Taiwanese" instead of "Chinese". But while the KMT was in power, it maintained a separate provincial government to maintain the illusion that Taiwan was a just a province, and not a state. What this government did is a mystery, and it was basically abolished in 1998. Today, the attractive grounds in Wufeng make for a nice morning or afternoon stroll.

Like with many other relics of the KMT's rule, there's a statue of Chiang Kai-shek 蔣介石 in front of the provincial government building. While the KMT and DPP argue over the legacy of Chiang's rule, the local birds seemed to have passed their own judgement.

   

Monkey Business in Wufeng

Just over a month ago, I checked out some of the walking trails in the Wufeng Ch'ingt'ung Lin Hiking Trail 霧峰青桐林步道 area, located in Wufeng 霧峰, naturally. At that time the Terminator in me said that I would be back, and it was right, for this afternoon I paid a return visit to the area. This time I started out on a trail that looked easy at first, being a paved walkway that gently wound its way uphill. From time to time there were breaks in the tree cover that provided some views of the nearby mountains:

At one point, a spur trail broke off to right. I followed this up through the forest expecting to find a panoramic view from the top, but all that greeted me was a small stone marker engraved with the characters  三等三角點, denoting some kind of triangulation point, and a cluster of ribbons strung up by various hiking clubs:

It was after returning to the main trail that things became interesting. First, the path itself started narrowing while becoming progressively rougher, until I found myself following what seemed like a dry stream bed. There were plenty of ribbons along the way denoting the path to enlightenment, but it was obvious it had been a few days since the last hiker had come along, for I was constantly having to break up spider webs that had been strung across the trail. At one point I surprised a group of pheasants, which quickly run uphill to find safety, but the best animal encounter was soon to come: a troop of Formosan Macaques 台灣獼猴, which was busy foraging for food in the trees. The monkeys were wary, but made no attempt to run away. I spent a long time listening to them, for they were well-hidden in and among the branches, with only the occasional glimpse coming when they moved from one spot to another. Which makes for a pretty good excuse for my not getting any decent photos, and only these poor-quality videos:

After communing with the macaques, I continued along the trail, which reached a point that required the use of ropes to haul myself up:

At the top of this section, the trail joined up with the main route, which had I walked on my previous visit. However, off to my left I noticed the outlines of another path which was in somewhat rougher condition, and which seemed to run parallel to the regular trail. I opted for the "hidden" route, which turned out to be a section of trail that had been damaged by heavy rain in one section, which probably explained why when I reached the end and joined up with the main route, I had to cross over yellow crime-scene tape meant to keep hikers out! 

Covered in sweat and cobwebs, I returned to my parked scooter. Although I hadn't done much actual climbing on this day, I thoroughly enjoyed "roughing it" this afternoon, although I owe a number of spiders a lot of apologies for what I had done to their nests. The signboard by my scooter showed the routes I took this afternoon:

The red box indicating "You are here" (obvious even if you don't Chinese) was where I parked the bike. The red line is the route I started out on, with the short spur trail colored in yellow. The broken parts of the red line are where the route got rough (and where I saw the monkeys), while the first blue line (the one on the left) indicates the now-closed trail that I took to get back.

And, no, I didn't run into any giant rabbits while I was out there.

 

Trails, dude

My little one checks out the scenery at the start of the Wufeng Ch'ingt'ung Lin Hiking Trail 霧峰青桐林步道. The Kaminoge family visited the area in the late afternoon today to check the trails, or as much of one trail as we could before things started to get dark. The mountain scenery there was much more striking than that in the more accessible Tak'eng 大坑 area, so I'm planning on making the long scooter ride out to Wufeng on one of these upcoming Tuesday afternoons, and give myself more time to explore the trails.

Mother and daughter pause on the walk up from the parking lot. You can't see them in the photo, but Pamela and Amber were standing amid a thick cluster of buzzing dragonflies. We also saw a lot of butterflies today, as well as crickets, earthworms and even monkeys moving around in distant treetops.

Amber having fun jumping up and down on a short rope bridge. This was the point where we turned back before it got too dark.

A Japanese restaurant on Highway 3 國道三號. Kaiseki ryōri 懐石料理 is a traditional style of Japanese cuisine featuring many small dishes.

Seven days on Ilha Formosa

A temple in Xiluo 

Saturday

Amber and I arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport 桃園國際機場 shortly after 1500 hours. The highway bus would've been the quickest way to Fengyuan 豐原, but after nearly a month of traveling in Japan we were still in the mood for high speed rail travel, so we took the Taoyuan Metro 桃園捷運 to the Taoyuan HSR Station 高鐵桃園站, and from there caught the train to Taichung 台中:

The view from the train in the late afternoon 

Arriving at the Taichung HSR Station 台中高鐵站, where we were reunited with Shu-E, who then proceeded to drive us to her brother's house:

Our first dinner in country was Taiwanese Turkey and Rice 嘉義火雞肉飯:

Sunday

Danbing 蛋餅 for breakfast:

This day was spent catching up with my good friend Steve at his home in Taichung...:

…and concluded with dinner with his family at a hot pot 火鍋 restaurant:

A good time was had by all present:

Monday

Lunch with the wife and kid at a Taiwanese iron-plate steak restaurant. Taiwan is home to an incredible array of tasty food, but steak isn't one of them:

The street where my mother- and brother-in-law live has seen some upscale housing built along it since my last visit nearly five years ago:

With Shu-E and Amber busy with a number of adminstrative tasks, I was free for the afternoon and so went for a long walk in the heat and humidity around Fengyuan's small downtown area. The new and vastly improved Fengyuan railway station 豐原車站:

This former police station dates from the Japanese era, and was apparently converted into a restaurant that is now closed:

I used to work part-time at Global Village 地球村美日韓語-豐原校. The pay was abysmally low by the already poor English teacher salary standards prevalent in Taiwan, but the staff left me alone when it came to teaching classes, and best of all the students were all adults (with the exception of a handful of high school students):

Fengyuan Tzu Chi Temple 豐原慈濟宮-葫蘆墩媽祖:

A rather gruesome claw machine:

PACIFIC Fengyuan Store 豐原太平洋百貨:

TLC was a school where I briefly taught in late 2002, and would be one of the worst working experiences of my "professional career". It somehow remained in business in its downtown location until recently. I'm hoping the business finally (and deservedly) crashed and burned, but a small piece of paper taped to the closed shutter suggested it has relocated:

Fengyuan Miaodong Night Market 豐原廟東夜市, open every day from ten in the morning:

The "Huludun Ruins" 葫蘆墩遺址, now part of a small park called the Dunjiao Green Garden 墩腳綠園. I've never been able to piece together in what way this mound is "historic":

I was pleased to see this remarkable Japanese-era building is still standing. In its present incarnation it's a hot pot restaurant called Mi Tang 覓湯:

For dinner the family and the in-laws dined at a Teppanyaki 鉄板焼 restaurant called Rōnin 浪人:

Back at home, and lowering my standards considerably when it comes to beer:

Toasting my wife's niece, Dolphin:

Tuesday

The plan this day was to visit more relatives still living in Shu-E's hometown, but first we needed to make a stop at Daming Temple 大明宮 so my mother-in-law could implore the folk gods for their continued support:

Amber and her grandmother burn some "ghost money":

Crossing the Xiluo Bridge 西螺大橋. At nearly two kilometers, it was the longest bridge in East Asia when it opened in 1953:

Lunch after crossing the bridge into Xiluo:

With Shu-E taking her mother to the older sister's home to spend the night there, the younger sister's husband (my brother-in-law-in-law?) took Amber and I on a tour of some of the hometown sights, beginning with Xiluo Fuxing Temple 西螺福興宮:

We also visited Xiluo Guangfu Temple 西螺廣福宮, where my wife often goes to pray when she's in town:

Vats of soy sauce, a Xiluo specialty, across the road from the temple:

Yanping Old Street 延平老街. For years Xiluo resisted to the urge to turn its street of Japanese-era homes into a tourist-friendly strip of snack stands and souvenir shops, but that now appears to be falling to the wayside:

Did I mention Xiluo is known for soy sauce?:

Taiwan has long followed Japan when it comes to cute mascots:

A soy sauce-flavored ice cream. At least that was how it was presented to us. Actually, it turned out to be sweet rather than salty:

With Shu-E's brother-in-law, one of the nicest people I've had the pleasure to know in Taiwan:

Being involved in the local business community, he knew the shop owner (Xiluo is a township with a population under 45,000):

We were tasked by my wife with picking up some Xiànbĭng 餡餅 meat pies before returning to the second sister's house, but it later transpired that we had stopped off at the wrong stall:

Concluding our tour of the downtown area with a stop at the aforementioned bridge:

Dinner:

Beer was being disseminated from a kettle:

Wednesday

Before leaving Xiluo for the drive back to Fengyuan, we stopped again at the Guanfu Temple so Shu-E could beseech the gods within. The first thing I noticed after getting out of the car was this very Japanese-looking vending machine, complete with Calpis Water カルピスウォーター:

Picking up some drinks for the drive:

We stopped in Taichung for a bit of sightseeing. Audit Village 審計新村市集 was a group of old civil-servant dormitories that has been transformed into a trendy market, complete with a dope hostel:

I was taken with these modern-day condos overlooking the market, until Shu-E pointed out how much they would probably sell for (hint: not within our budget):

A 很可愛 knickknack that Amber picked up for herself in one of the shops:

Japanese-style curry for lunch at a restaurant next to the village:

Miyahara 宮原眼科 may look like something out of Harry Potter, but the building was actually an eye hospital during the Japanese period:

Now it sells many kinds of cakes and sweets in retro packaging:

Buying ice cream there is a requirement, even if it means having to wait in a long line:

Taichung Train Station 台中火车站:

Aspiring bus drivers honing their skills on a Wednesday evening at a driving school adjacent to Fengyuan Huludun Park 豐原葫蘆墩公園, where I went for a stroll following dinner at my brother-in-law's house:

Thursday

Shu-E and I are considering buying a house and retiring in Taiwan once I age out of the State Department (coming sooner than you might think). We drove out to Wufeng 霧峰 to have a look at the outside of one house listed for sale at a reasonable-for-Taiwan price, but the exterior didn't impress:

The long-abandoned dwelling attached to the house, and the sign in front indicating that property ownership in the immediate area was far from clear, were a pair of red flags:

Which was a pity, as the area where the house is located is quite green and pleasant. Nearby is the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan 921地震教育園區, where we took Amber, and where the computer graphics for one display were failing:

The museum is built on the site of an elementary school that was heavily damaged during the quake. Fortunately the quake struck in the early hours of the morning; had it occurred during class hours, the death toll would have taken a sad upturn in numbers:

A number of public schools were badly damaged in the quake, leading at least this conspiratorially-minded observer (according to my daughter) to wonder if corruption during construction also played a role:

After the museum, we stopped at the Minsheng House of Microhistory 霧峰民生故事館 to have lunch at the café there:

We had a companion during the meal

The building was once the home and clinic of a Dr. Lin, a prominent local GP:

According to the docent, 2% of Taiwan's physicians were killed in a single attack by American planes on a Japanese warship. Fortunately, Dr. Lin was not one of those present on the ship at the time:

Next door is the Wufeng Farmers' Association Winery 霧峰農會酒莊, specializing in Taiwan sake:

Our last stop was at the Democratic Times Museum 立法院民主時刻館, the former Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council, a useless layer of government meant to maintain the fiction during the Martial Law years that Taiwan was merely a province of China:

We didn't go inside the museum, but did enjoy the landscaped grounds in front:

That evening I would meet up one final time with Steve in Taichung. Getting there meant taking a train from Fengyuan. The current building is completely unrecognizable from the aging station I remember using often when I lived and worked in the area:

Arriving in Taichung, and its modern station building...:

…though at least the historic Japanese-era station building has been preserved:

Back at the in-laws' for my final night in Fengyuan:

Friday

A farewell photo with the in-laws, who have always been extremely kind and welcoming to me:

Back at Taoyuan Airport...:

…and a final lunch on the island before the flight back to China:

Counting down the time to boarding in a Hello Kitty-themed waiting lounge:

Arriving home and being greeted by the cat:

And that was that. 27 fantastic days in Japan with the daughter, followed by a further six in Taiwan with the wife and family - it isn't going to be easy having to start work on Monday, especially as I'll be on my own here in Beijing 北京 until the middle of August. At least I have Timi to keep me company until the girls return.