travel in taiwan (no.63, 2014 5/6)
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ÂTRANSCRIPT
Hualien-TaiTung Trip The easT RifT
Valley
no. 63, 20145 6
TOp Ten TOuriST TOurS rural Yilan COunTY
BaCKpaCK BuS TOurS SOuTHweST COaST TOuriST SHuTTle rOuTe
indigenous art of the paiwan Tribe
Kaohsiung’s pier-2 art Center
Hsinchu’s glass art Festival
rollerblading in Taoyuan
/
Welcome to Taiwan!Dear Traveler,
Taiwan’s long-time foreign residents know that the May-June period is one of the best times of the
year for Taiwan travel – perfectly in between the cold and wet of winter and the heat and humidity
of high summer. We thus keep you outside for most of this issue and concentrate our travels on two
lovely areas of fering rich travel rewards, the pristine east coast and the people/culture/history-rich
southwest.
In our Feature section we take you to the East Rif t Valley, a long, beautif ul valley between the
central and coastal mountain ranges, which our writer describes as a “farm-carpeted agricultural
treasure-house, pristine outdoor-adventure playground, (and) grand geology classroom.” We also tell
you about the unique places you can stay, food treats you can eat, and souvenir items you can buy.
We stay in the east in Top Ten Taiwan Tours to go to Yilan County, “a place of relaxation, living
history, and vibrant ecology,” visiting a healthy mix of attractions that includes Jiaoxi, a hot-springs
resort town, f ishing harbors with delicious seafood at harbor-side restaurants, and the tourist-f riendly
leisure farms of Hengshantou Agricultural Leisure Area. In our Hiking article we tackle Wuling
Sixiu, a group of four mountains, which among other rewards presents you with magnif icent views of
the “sea of clouds” above the Yilan Plain.
Now, over to the southwest. This issue’s Food Journey adventure serves up the plump, tasty clams
of Tainan, Taiwan’s “clam heartland,” with an educational visit to one of the region’s shellf ish farms.
Our Backpack Bus Trip features a ramble through the Tainan and Chiayi regions using the supremely
DIY-traveler-f riendly Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus service, with visits to salt f ields brimming with
history, one of Taiwan’s most magnif icent temple complexes, a seafood market in an age-old port town,
and one of the island’s oldest sugar-processing factories (with a “sugar railway” ride bonus).
We visit the urban heartland of sprawling Kaohsiung City in our Special Report, spending time
at the popular Pier-2 Art Center, a complex of 14 old, renovated Kaohsiung Harbor warehouses that
is now one of Taiwan’s great cultural-creative hubs. Then it’s up into the mountains to Sandimen, a
Paiwan Tribe enclave, in Indigenous Artists to explore the one-of-a-kind art of “Handicraf ts Lane.”
I welcome you to Taiwan, and know you will f ind everything you anticipated – plus much, much more.
David W. J. HsiehDirector General
Tourism Bureau, MOTC, R.O.C.
台 灣 觀 光 雙 月 刊Travel in TaiwanThe Official Bimonthly English Magazine of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau (Advertisement)May/June, 2014 Tourism Bureau, MOTCFirst published Jan./Feb., 2004ISSN: 18177964 GPN: 2009305475 Price: NT$200www.tit.com.tw/vision/index.htm
Copyright @ 2014 Tourism Bureau. All rights reserved.Reproduction in any form without written permission is prohibited.
PUBLISHER David W. J. HsiehEdItIng ConSULtant Wayne Hsi-Lin LiuPUBLISHIng oRganIzatIonTaiwan Tourism Bureau, Ministry ofTransportation and CommunicationsContaCtInternational Division, Taiwan Tourism Bureau Add: 9F, 290 Zhongxiao E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei, 10694, TaiwanTel: 886-2-2717-3737 Fax: 886-2-2771-7036E-mail: [email protected]: http://taiwan.net.tw
Where you can pick up a copy of Travel in Taiwan
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The East Rift Valley at Chishang, Taitung County (photo by Jen Guo-Chen)
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addRESS Rm. 5, 10F, 2 Fuxing N. Rd., Taipei, 104 Taiwan tEL: 886-2-2711-5403 Fax: 886-2-2721-2790
E-MaIL: [email protected] ManagER Frank K. YenEdItoR In CHIEf Johannes Twellmann EngLISH EdItoR Rick Charette dIRECtoR of PLannIng & EdItIng dEPt Joe LeeManagIng EdItoR Gemma Cheng EdItoRS Ming-Jing Yin, Chloe Chu, Nickey Liu ContRIBUtoRS Rick Charette, Joe Henley, Stuart Dawson, Owain Mckimm, Steven Crook, Cheryl Robbins, Hanre Malherbe, David AustinPHotogRaPHERS Jen Guo-Chen, Maggie Song aRt dIRECtoR Sting Chen dESIgnERS Fred Cheng, Maggie Song, Eve Chiang, Karen PanadMInIStRatIvE dEPt Hui-chun Tsai, Nai-jen Liu, Xiou Mieng Jiang
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. National Bookstore, 1F., No.209, Songjiang Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City 10485 886-2-2518-0207 http://www.govbooks.com.tw/
1042
May ~ June 2014
CONTENTS
Travel in Taiwan 3
feaTure10 The East Rift Valley — farm-carpeted agricultural Treasure-house, pristine outdoor-adventure playground, Grand Geology classroom
Sleeping and Eating in the Valley — Where to Stay, Where/What to eat, What to buy
1 Publisher’s Note4 Taiwan Tourism Events6 News & Events around Taiwan8 Concerts, Exhibitions, and Happenings 62 Fun with Chinese
HiKinG42 Climbing the Wuling Sixiu
— A Hike for Hikers with a Good Head for Heights
FOOD JOUrneY54 Opening Up Taiwan’s Clam Heartland
— Visiting a Shellfish Farm in Tainan
inDiGenOUS arTiSTS50 Paiwan Pottery
— Passing Down the Ancient Pottery Traditions of an Indigenous Tribe
aCTive FUn58 Rollerblading in Taiwan
— Skating in Taoyuan with an Accomplished Local Inline Skater
10
58
SPeCial rePOrT22 Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Art Center
— Urban Island of Cultural Creativity
TOP Ten Taiwan TOUrS24 Yilan County
— A Place of Relaxation, Living History, and Vibrant Ecology
SPlenDiD FeSTivalS46 2014 Hsinchu City Glass Art Carnival
— Marveling at Amazing Glass Creations at Hsinchu’s Glass Museum
50BaCKPaCK BUS TriP36 Land of Salt, Sugar, and Shrines — Taking a Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Bus to the Southwest Coast
OlD STYle/new iDeaS30 One-of-a-Kind Stamp
— A Meeting Point of Historical, Cultural, and Social Conventions
46
Pingtung BlueFin Tuna Cultural Festival (黑鮪魚文化觀光季 )Location: Donggang Township, Pingtung County ( 屏東縣東港鎮 )
Tel: (08) 732-0415
Website: www.pthg.gov.tw
If you love seafood fresh from the boat, you will love the quintessential Taiwan
experience of ordering a plate of sashimi at one of the many seafood restaurants found
at local fishing harbors. Not much time goes by between the unloading of the fish from
the boats and the uploading of the delicacies onto your plate. One of the best fishing
harbors in all Taiwan to indulge in fresh-catch cuisine is Donggang, on the southwest
coast. From April through June the town’s harbor is especially abuzz, since this is the
time when local fishermen catch large quantities of bluefin tuna off the southern coast
of Taiwan, celebrated with many bluefin-theme activities.
It’s summertime! Let’s get out there and discover the
beauty of Taiwan’s gorgeous scenery while taking part in
unforgettable events. See the butterf lies of Yangmingshan,
hang out on the beach at Fulong, see eastern Taiwan from
above by going on a hot-air balloon f light, go on an exciting
whitewater-rafting adventure down the Xiuguluan River,
feast on freshly caught bluefin tuna, and cheer for dragon-
boat teams during the Dragon Boat Festival!
Fulong International Sand Sculpture Festival (福隆國際沙雕藝術季 )Locations: Fulong, Gongliao District, New Taipei
City ( 新北市貢寮區福隆 )
Tel: (02) 2499-1115 ext. 230
Website: www.necoast-nsa.gov.tw
During the hot summer months the golden-sand beach
at Fulong, on Taiwan’s northeast coast, attracts large
numbers of beachgoers, who come to escape the often
sweltering heat of the city and enjoy sea and sun. In
May and June, large-sized sand sculptures created by
professional local and foreign sand sculptors, as well as
amateurs participating in sand-sculpture contests, turn
the beach into a grand outdoor-art exhibition venue. The
size of the sculptures and the artists’ attention to detail
are truly remarkable.
Tainan City International Dragon Boat Championships (臺南市國際龍舟錦標賽 )Location: Anping District, Tainan City (臺南市安平區 )
Tel: (06) 215-7691 ext. 226
Website: sportmap.tn.edu.tw (Chinese)
Before and during the annual Dragon Boat Festival,
held on the 5th day of the 5th month in the lunar
calendar (June 2 this year), a popular activity is the
racing of long dragon-shaped boats on waterways
around Taiwan. Races take place in many locations,
from the harbor at Keelung in the north to Kaohsiung’s
Love River in the south. In the southern city of Tainan,
the races take place on the Tainan Canal at Anping, a
city district with numerous tourist attractions. Apart
from watching the intense races between more than
150 participating teams, visitors can also witness some
of the traditional ceremonies conducted as part of the
festival celebrations.
Events in the Early SummerEnjoy the Sun, Enjoy the Great Outdoors !
May3
May3
June30
June30 May
29June
2
TAIWAN TOURISM EVENTS
4 Travel in Taiwan
23.5N Taiwan Fun on the Tropic of Cancer (2014台灣夏至 235 Sun Fair)Location: Kaohsiung Exhibition Center, Kaohsiung City
( 高雄市高雄展覽館 )
Tel: (04) 2331-2688 ext.131
Website: www.taiwan235n.tw
The Tropic of Cancer runs right through Taiwan, cutting across the central-south of the
main island and through the Penghu Islands archipelago, which floats in the Taiwan
Strait to the west of Taiwan proper. Last year, the Tourism Bureau organized the Taiwan
Fun on the Tropic of Cancer summerfest campaign with activities in cities and counties traversed by the
Tropic of Cancer, including Hualien County, Nantou County, Chiayi County and City, Yunlin County,
and Penghu County. This year, a two-day festival in Kaohsiung will highlight some of the attractions
on offer in central-south Taiwan. There will be stands serving local cuisine and a market where you
can buy local produce. You can also take in a colorful street parade and enjoy entertaining stage
performances, and will also have the chance to learn about options for traveling in this part of Taiwan.
Time for Raft Triathlon (秀姑巒溪國際泛舟鐵人三項競賽 )Location: Ruisui Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣瑞穗鄉 )
Tel: (089) 841-520 ext. 1608
Website: www.eastcoast-nsa.gov.tw
Whitewater rafting on the Xiuguluan River in eastern Taiwan has
been a popular outdoor activity for decades. Boats depart the rafting
center at Ruisui throughout the year, weather permitting, and the 20km
journey from the East Rift Valley through the Coastal Mountain Range
to the Pacific Ocean is a fun-filled adventure. Much care is taken by
the organizers to make sure that it is a highly thrilling but always safe
experience. An exciting sports event that includes rafting on the river is
the Time for Raft Triathlon, a challenging competition combining 11km
of rafting, 12km of running on the road that follows the river, and 44km
of bicycling along the coast on Provincial Highway 11.
June28 29
June22
Taiwan International Balloon Fiesta (臺灣熱氣球嘉年華活動 )Location: Luye Township, Taitung County ( 臺東縣鹿野鄉 )
Tel: (089) 336-141~6
Website: www.taitung.gov.tw
In recent years this hot-air balloon festival, staged on the Luye Plateau
north of Taitung City in southeastern Taiwan, has become a huge hit.
Each year, the organizers invite hot-air balloon teams from Taiwan
and abroad to show off their colorful and sometimes funny-looking
balloons. Visitors can go on tethered f lights and, if willing to pay
significantly more, on untethered f lights, which last longer and allow
you to see more of the grand scenery of eastern Taiwan.
May30
AUG.10
TAIWAN TOURISM EVENTS
Travel in Taiwan 5
MAY~JULY
6 Travel in Taiwan
WHAT'S UP
News& Events around Taiwan
Books
Lonely Planet TaiwanSince the 1970s, Lonely Planet’s guidebooks have been indispensable for backpackers on their journeys into foreign lands. This February, Lonely Planet published the 9th edition of its Taiwan guidebook, with updated information on major and minor tourist attractions. The new edition also includes a Taiwan Top 15 “Must Do’s” list, and offers detailed information about hiking, cycling, and other outdoor activities, experiencing Taiwan’s most exciting festivals, learning about the island’s indigenous tribes, soaking in hot springs, visiting offshore islands, and much more. More info about the new LP Taiwan at: www.lonelyplanet.com/competitions/taiwan-the-beautiful-isle.
Books
Chineasy – The New Way to Read ChineseLearning Chinese characters can be a daunting task for Westerners, who are used to the simplicity of the alphabet system. With the Chinese language emerging as another “lingua franca,” the desire to learn and master Chinese is becoming ever stronger around the globe. Getting off to a good start when learning written Chinese is very important, and the recently published book Chineasy, The New Way to Read Chinese might be exactly what beginners need. It introduces you to Chinese characters with the help of cute and colorful illustrations. The aim of the author, Taipei-born Shaolan, is “to allow people to learn to read Chinese easily by recognizing characters through simple illustrations” and help them “gain a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural references of the vocabulary.” More info about this book at http://chineasy.org.
Airlines
China Airlines with Indigenous ImagesTravelers f lying with China Airlines on the Taipei-Brisbane-Auckland route will notice that their plane sports a dynamic painting depicting scenes from a traditional Taiwan indigenous wedding. The painting was created by Sakuliu Pavavalung, a well-known artist from the Paiwan Tribe. The aircraft art represents the strengthening of relations between Taiwan and New Zealand. Since the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and New Zealand's Maori both belong to the Austronesian language group, and share cultural and genetic attributes, their two countries are eager to expand cultural exchanges and research on indigenous subjects of mutual concern.
Travel in Taiwan 7
WHAT'S UP
Tourist Spot
Cat on the Roof in HuweiThe small rural town of Huwei in Yunlin County has, quite unexpectedly, emerged as a bit of a tourist hotspot recently. It all began in 2003, when a resident of the town’s Dingxi Community took in a stray kitten. His son raised the kitten, and created the picture book “Cat on the Roof” starring his furry friend, which became the winning entry in a picture-book contest staged by the county government. When, sadly, the cat was killed by a truck two years ago, father and son teamed up with community students and volunteers to create murals depicting the cat. Cat images were soon also being made for power-line poles, signboards, buses, and park benches, and cute cat sculptures were introduced to the community park. If you want to visit the town for a “cat on the roof” experience, now popular with visitors from around Taiwan, a train journey to Dounan with a short bus ride from the station is all it takes.
Hotel Booking
Hotel Quickly Now Available in TaiwanThe Hong Kong-based startup Hotel Quickly, which offers a mobile-only, last-minute hotel booking application, is now cooperating with hotels in Taiwan. This is great news for travelers wanting to make last-minute travel decisions and looking for special offers. The service allows users to make same-day bookings at discounted prices, choosing from the best deals offered by six hand-picked hotels. The choices are based on geo-localization, and are divided into three categories (prime, design, and comfy). The app is available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry devices. More info about the service at: www.hotelquickly.com.
8 Travel in Taiwan
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.
Four Great Masters of the Ming Dynasty: Wen Zhengming 明四大家特展-文徵明
April 3 ~ June 30National Palace Museum
The Four Great Masters of the Ming Dynasty were Shen Zhou (1427~1509), Wen Zhengming (1470~1559), Tang Yin (1470~1524), and Qiu Ying (ca. 1494~1552). This year, the National Palace Museum presents in succession exhibitions highlighting each of those four masters. This exhibition focuses on Wen Zhengming, who, after first failing repeatedly at civil service examinations and then struggling as an official, devoted his life to poetry, painting, and calligraphy, becoming a greatly accomplished artist. He had a major impact on painting and calligraphy of the middle and late Ming dynasty, excelling at the major calligraphic types and establishing a unique style of his own in painting. This exhibition shows both calligraphy and painting masterpieces by the artist.
The acclaimed Huang Yi is one of Taiwan’s most inventive young choreographers. In 2012, he impressed with Huang Yi & Kuka, a duet featuring a dancer (Huang Yi) and an industrial robot (Kuka). The production won the Digital Art Performance Award 2012. Creating works incorporating technology and machinery, Huang Yi is known for his avant-garde performance experiments as well as the velocity and precision of his movement. His latest production, Special Order, is a highly experimental work that has been produced following requests from the public and his co-producers. There will be three different seating areas, from which audience members can choose according to their preferences in experiencing a show, and everyone is asked to bring his/her own headphones, to enjoy the best possible audio experience.
2014 Innovation Series – Special Order by Huang Yi
May 29 ~ June 1National Theater (Experimental Theater)
2014新點子舞展-黃翊《量身訂做》
This year, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum will for the first time stage X Site, an outdoor installation project combining architecture and contemporary art. Plans are to make this an annual event happening for three months each spring. The venue is the plaza in front of the entrance to the museum. The artists chosen as creators of this public installation art, Su Fu-Yuan, Jen Tah-Sien, and Chen Xuan-Cheng, were selected by a museum jury from among 29 groups supplying design concepts. The artists’ work is a large scaffolding-type structure made with bamboo, in the past an important material for construction work in Taiwan.
Program X Site: The Landscape of the Boundary X site地景裝置計畫:邊緣地景
April 12 ~ June 29Taipei Fine Arts Museum
May 26 ~ June 1National Concert Hall (and other venues around Taiwan)
The Taiwan International Percussion Convention (TIPC) is a triennial convention bringing together percussion groups from Taiwan and abroad. This year 30 concerts around Taiwan are scheduled, featuring leading percussionists including Pius Cheung from Canada, Percossa Percussion from the Netherlands, and The Percussions Claviers of Lyon from France. Performers from Taiwan include Forum Music, Ju Percussion Group, and Succession Percussion Group. First staged in 1993, TIPC has been growing with each edition and is now widely considered one of the most important international percussion events in the world. TIPC 2014 Program: www.jpg.org.tw/TIPC/program.php
Taiwan International Percussion Convention台灣國際打擊樂節
Travel in Taiwan 9
CULTURE SCENE
TaipeiATT Show Box
Add: 12, Songshou Rd., Taipei City(台北市松壽路 12號 )Tel: (02) 7737-8881www.attshowbox.com.twNearest MRT Station: Taipei 101/World Trade Center
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) 2896-1000www.kdmofa.tnua.edu.twNearest MRT Station: Guandu
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 39 號 )
Tel: (02) 2552-3720www.mocataipei.org.twNearest MRT Station: Zhongshan
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 )
Tel: (02) 2343-1100 www.cksmh.gov.twNearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial Hall
National Concert Hall (國家音樂聽)National Theater (國家戲劇院)
Add: 21-1 Zhongshan S. Rd., Taipei City( 台北市中山南路 21-1 號 )
Tel: (02) 3393-9888www.ntch.edu.twNearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial 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) 2758-8008www.yatsen.gov.tw/enNearest MRT Station: Sun Yat-sen 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) 2361-0270www.nmh.gov.tw Nearest MRT Station: CKS Memorial Hall
National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院)
Add: 221 Zhishan Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei City( 台北市至善路二段 2 21 號 )
Tel: (02) 2881-2021www.npm.gov.twNearest 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 )
Tel: (02) 2382-2566www.ntm.gov.twNearest 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) 2722-4302www.novelhall.org.twNearest MRT Station: Taipei City Hall
Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋)
Add: 2 Nanjing E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City( 台北市南京東路四段 2 號 )
Tel: (02) 2577-3500www.taipeiarena.com.twNearest MRT Station: Nanjing E. Rd.
Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館)
Add: 181 Zhongshan N. Rd., Sec. 3, Taipei City( 台北市中山北路三段 181 號 )
Tel: (02) 2595-7656www.tfam.museum Nearest MRT Station: Yuanshan
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.twNearest MRT Station: Taipei 101/World Trade Center
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) 2381-3137www.csh.taipei.gov.twNearest MRT Station: Ximen
Venues
X site地景裝置計畫:邊緣地景
May 26 ~ June 1National Concert Hall (and other venues around Taiwan)
Taiwan International Percussion Convention台灣國際打擊樂節
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) 2725-5200 www.twtcnangang.com.twNearest MRT Station: Nangang Exhibition Hall
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) 2372-3552www.ntmofa.gov.tw
TainanTainan City Cultural Center (台南市立文化中心)
Add: 332 Zhonghua E. Rd., Sec. 3, Tainan City( 台南市中華東路三段 332 號 )
Tel: (06) 269-2864www.tmcc.gov.tw
KaohsiungKaohsiung 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) 555-0331www.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) 531-2560http://163.32.121.205Nearest KMRT Station: City Council
Farm-Carpeted Agricultural Treasure-House, Pristine Outdoor-Adventure Playground, Grand Geology Classroom
The East Rif t Valley at Yuli
The east coast is often described as “isolated,” kept locked away from the rest of the island by the soaring, rugged, thick central mountains. But this is meant in a decidedly positive sense, and in a relative sense – the west and north are busy and densely populated, the east coast virginal and unspoiled, sparsely populated, laid-back, even sleepy.
The East Rift Valley
Text: Rick Charette Photos: Jen Guo-Chen, Vision Int'l
10 Travel in Taiwan
FEATURE
And it’s easy to get to. Hop on
a plane at downtown Taipei Songshan
Airport and you’re there in about 35
minutes (Hualien) or one hour (Taitung).
And on a sunny day a few weeks back I
met up with the usual members in my rat-
pack Travel in Taiwan gang at downtown
Taipei Railway Station at 9:30am, before
10 was on a sleek Puyuma Express train
smelling sweetly of spanking-newness,
and was sitting in a car rented right
outside Hualien Railway Station at 12:15.
We were in the lyrical East Rift Valley
less than 30 minutes later.
The valley is long and narrow, about
150 kilometers in length, framed by the
north-south Central Mountain Range
and the Coastal Mountain Range, with
the city of Hualien just beyond its north
end and Taitung just beyond its south.
Since the establishment of the East Rift
Valley National Scenic Area (www.erv-nsa.gov.tw) in 1997, which encompasses
the entire valley and a little bit more,
there has been systematic tourism-facility
development.
The valley is one of my favorite
Taiwan playgrounds, and is certainly one
of the quietest on the main island, along
with the parallel East Coast National
Scenic Area just over the coastal
mountains. I have three days of all-day
fun to tell you about, so let’s not tarry.
Text: Rick Charette Photos: Jen Guo-Chen, Vision Int'l
Travel in Taiwan 11
FEATURE EAST RIFT VALLEY
Day 1First stop
of the day, Liyutan
(Carp Lake). In the foothills of the
central range just southwest of Hualien
City, crowded on weekends/holidays, the
place comes into its own at other times –
our Day 1 was a Monday – when the birds
find it quiet enough to come out and sing
for you. About 104 hectares in area, this
is the east’s largest lake. Among the well-
developed tourist facilities are a visitor
center; pedal-boat, canoe, and motorboat-
with-driver rentals; bicycle rentals; a
4km ring road offering pleasant walking/
cycling; camping/picnic areas; easy-
challenge trails that take you into the
hills; and open-air local-style restaurants,
where lake shrimp is the big hit. When
we visited the lake’s aesthetics were being
augmented, inventively, by a giant black
rubber duck, in cartoon-style à la Dutch
artist Florentijn Hofman’s world-touring
giant yellow ducks. Hualien is known for
its black duck denizens.
When the Japanese controlled
Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, they set up
10 immigrant villages in the East Rift
Valley. One of the areas of settlement
mouth of a central-mountain side valley,
this was once Taiwan’s fourth-largest
logging operation, with 2,000 residents
at its height, and many of the buildings,
built with Chinese cypress, have been
beautifully restored. There is a history
center, remnants of the extensive railway
and cableway systems that ran high into
the hills, train, machinery, and other
displays, plus many informative English
signboards.
is on Fenglin town’s north/northeast
side. A cash-crop tobacco industry was
launched to help the Japanese immigrants
support themselves, and among the
best-preserved historical sites are two
lovely traditional Japanese-style tobacco
buildings, on Darong 2nd Road, used for
storage and smoke-roasting. These were
actually built later, after the immigrants
had gone back home post-WWII, by
local families who had learned the trade.
Fenglin has the most concentrated, and
best-preserved, collection of tobacco
barns in Taiwan.
History buffs will find even richer
reward at Lintian Mountain Forestry
Center, southwest of Fenglin town. The
center is a former timber-industry village
established by the Japanese – my favorite
destination in the valley. Located at the
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FEATURE
Geology Classroom – The War of the PlatesHere’s how it all went down. Er, IS going down, for the tectonic show is still very much “live,” with continuing – geologically speaking – high drama.
The Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate have been in the midst of a mighty slow-motion car crash for some time now – 15 million years. Stand in the East Rift Valley, look west, and you see the great Central Mountain Range wall. That’s the visible edge of the Eurasian Plate, thrown up from the sea bottom. Look east, at the lower, more rounded Coastal Mountain Range. That’s the visible edge of the Philippine Sea Plate, a former spaced-out necklace of volcanoes far out at sea that has come crashing into Taiwan.
The deep seawater-filled trench that once existed between the two has been filled with the materials from mountain collapses and mountain-valley erosion, creating a gently undulating, extremely fertile plain. Each year the Philippine plate encroaches 8cm on its enemy, and each year island Taiwan is thrust 0.5cm higher.
1. Black rubber duck on Carp Lake 2. Pedal -boating on Carp Lake 3. Old tobacco building in Fenglin 4. Old building at L int ian Mountain Forestr y Center5. Old train at L int ian Mountain Forestr y Center6 . Mountains of the Central Mountain Range4
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Travel in Taiwan 13
FEATURE EAST RIFT VALLEY
Day 2
The people of Taiwan love hot-spring
soaking, a deep-rooted cultural element
picked up from the Japanese. The
dynamic local geotectonic activity has
given rise to a string of hot-spring pearls
down the east coast, with a number of
locations developed as resorts by the
Japanese.
The waters of the Ruisui Hot Springs
– Taiwan’s only carbonate hot springs
– have a metallic quality, with a murky
yellowish-orange look from the abundant
iron. Locals believe they are notably good
for the spawning of baby boys; many just-
married couples come. The resort’s oldest
hotel, the venerable predominantly wood-
built Ruisui Hot Springs Villa (www.js-hotspring.com.tw; Chinese), was built
by the Japanese. There are both open-air
and private facilities.
A few kilometers higher in the central-
mountain foothills are the Hongye Hot
Springs. “Hongye” means “red leaf,”
referring to the area’s maple trees and
their mild seasonal color changes. The
springs, long used by the local indigenous
residents before the arrival of the
Japanese, have clear, odorless sodium-
bicarbonate and calcium waters suitable
for both bathing and drinking. The oldest
hotel here, Japanese-built as a police
sanatorium, has been preserved largely
unchanged.
The Ruisui Rafting Tourist
Center is the launch point for 4-hour-
long whitewater-rafting trips on the
Xiuguluan River (23 rapids, 21km, Class
III), through a magnificent canyon the
river has sculpted through the coastal
mountains to the sea. The river performs
a rare trick, running down from one
mountain range (the Central), crossing
a valley, and slicing through another
mountain range. How? The coastal range
is both softer and younger, rising slowly
enough to give the river time to erode
everything placed in its path.
Those who’ve been denied the joys
of time spent around farm animals will
relish J.J. Valley Farm (www.jjfarm.com.tw; Chinese), located behind the rafting
center. This is a dairy farm where you
can feed the cows and view the milking
process. You can also get up close to
water buffalo, horses, goats – even
ostriches. The farm’s and surrounding
roads are long, quiet (on weekdays), and
scenic, and bicycles can be rented at the
big service center, where there are also
milk-theme treats such as milk hotpot,
candies, etc. (see accompanying Stay/Eat/Buy article).
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FEATURE
Day 3
Southwest of Yuli town on Provincial Highway 30 is the welcoming garden-
style Nan’an Visitor Center, gateway to Yushan National Park’s eastern section.
Further up the highway is lofty, photogenic Nan’an Waterfall, and at the dead-end
highway’s stop is the Walami Trail trailhead. This trail, specially targeted by hike-
lovers from overseas, is part of the cross-central-mountain Batongguan Japanese Era
Crossing Trail, opened to facilitate Japanese east-west communication and control of
indigenous groups in the area. It’s 14km from the trailhead to Walami; the return trip
takes about 12 hours. The high-mountain scenery is striking, with soaring waterfalls,
deep gorges, f lying-high suspension bridges, and cliff-face traverses. Many choose
the shorter, easier hike to Shanfeng Waterfall, which takes three hours and does not
require permits. For details, visit the national park website (www.ysnp.gov.tw).
Southeast of Yuli town on Highway 30, in another deep, clear-cut side valley,
are the Antong Hot Springs. The waters are rich in hydrogen sulfide, meaning the
famous “rotten egg” smell dedicated soakers love. Local lore has it that a “Japanese
gentleman” stumbled upon the springs way back when while on an exploratory hike.
The Japanese systematically mapped their new colony’s exploitable assets after taking
control. Visit the An-Tong Hot Spring Hotel (www.an-tong.com.tw), which has both
indoor and outdoor soaking, where in the rear you’ll find the well-preserved original
Japanese-built spa inn (display only), built with dark wood. Like the bigger places in
Ruisui and Hongye, the hotel is a 2/3-star facility.
1. Hot-spr ing bathing in Ruisui2~5 J . J . Val ley Farm6. R ice farmer seen f rom Count y Road 193
7. Nan’an Water fal l8 . Suspension br idge on the Walami Trai l9. An-Tong Hot Spr ing Hotel
County Road 193The rift valley has many scenic drives, on roads major and minor, but perhaps one of the best is County Road 193 between Ruisui and Yuli, which hugs the contours of the coastal mountains at their foot, generally five to 10 meters above the plain – perfect for photos. Vehicles are few, settlements few and small, and often all you see below and beyond is a vast expanse of paddy fields. The road’s easy grades and gentle curves make it a bike-rider favorite.
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Travel in Taiwan 15
FEATURE EAST RIFT VALLEY
South of the springs, Sixty Stone
(Liushidan) Mountain overlooks the rift-
valley floor, its peak about 800 meters
above sea level. A 300/400-hectare
tableland of daylilies carpets its top,
blooming in spectacular fashion
August~September, with the paddy-grid
far below a unique backdrop. I’ve been on
the mountain when the big orange show
is on, and it really is a thrill; on this trip,
however, we found ourselves wrapped
up in thick, rolling mists, which though
not what we’d come for was nevertheless
wonderfully rewarding aesthetically,
creating myriad artistic shanshui-painting-
style canvases for eye and camera. Chike
Mountain, northeast of Yuli, is also
known for lovely daylily vistas.
The East Rift Valley’s f lat terrain and
alluring pastoral scenery makes it a very
popular bicycling destination, with many
routes to choose from. I am especially
fond of the loop routes around the
townships of Chishang and Guanshan,
which bring you through picturesque
paddy-field tapestries and to many sites of
historical/cultural interest. In Chishang
is one of the valley’s most photographed
roads, Bolang Dadao (“Brown Avenue”),
made famous in a Mr. Brown Coffee
commercial and an EVA Air commercial
starring Japanese-Taiwanese pop-idol
heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro.
English and ChineseAntong Hot Springs 安通溫泉An-Tong Hot Spring Hotel 安通溫泉飯店Batongguan Japanese Era Crossing Trail 八通關古道Bolang Dadao 伯朗大道Central Mountain Range 中央山脈Chike Mountain 赤科山Chishang 池上Coastal Mountain Range 海岸山脈Darong 2nd Road 大榮二路Fenglin 鳳林Fengtian Immigrant Village 豐田移民村
Guanshan 關山Hongye Hot Springs 紅葉溫泉J.J. Valley Farm 吉蒸牧場Lintian Mountain Forestry Center 林田山林業文化園區Liyutan 鯉魚潭Nan'an Visitor Center 南安遊客中心Nan'an Waterfall南安瀑布Ruisui Hot Springs 瑞穗溫泉Sixty Stone Mountain 六十石山Walami Trail 瓦拉米步道Xiuguluan River 秀姑巒溪Yuli 玉里
Rift Valley CyclingFor good information on routes, bike-rental locations, and more, visit the East Rift Valley National Scenic Area website (www.erv-nsa.gov.tw). The Taiwan Tourism Bureau also has a detailed, clearly formatted booklet – Traveling on Two Wheels: Guide to Bikeways in Eastern Taiwan – which though published in 2010 remains invaluable.
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FEATUREFEATURE
Getting There & Getting AroundFor the full Taiwan train schedule and prices, visit www.railway.gov.tw/en.
There are good car-rental agencies right outside both the Hualien and Taitung railway stations. The majors, such as Hotai Leasing Corp. (www.easyrent.com.tw), allow you to pick up in one city and drop off in the other. Both railway stations have nearby scooter-rental outlets, Hualien’s has bicycle rentals, and there are scooter/bike-rental shops elsewhere throughout the region outside smaller stations and in major tourist areas. Check with the Tourism Bureau or East Rift Valley National Scenic Area authorities for the latest info.
If you don’t feel like transporting yourself around the region, check out the Taiwan Tour Bus service (www.taiwantourbus.com.tw).
1. Dayl i l ies at Six t y Stone Mountain2. Bic ycl ing in the East R i f t Val ley 3~ 6 Bolang Dadao (“Brown Avenue” )
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Travel in Taiwan 17
FEATURE EAST RIFT VALLEYFEATURE
F
Smoothie on Facebook : www.facebook.com/smoothie15
Smoothie House Chang’an Branch ~ Breakfast ShopAdd: 55 Chang’an W. Rd., Taipei City Tel: +886-2-2552-3250
Groups are welcome. Looking for cooperating travel agenciesAnd representatives Contact: [email protected]
1F, 15 Yongkang St., Taipei City Tel: +886-2-2341-85552F, 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 CityTel: +886-2-2894-5511
Colorful, Sweet, And Delicious
World - Renowend Mango Snow�ake Ice Shop
World - Renowend Mango Snow�ake Ice Shop
The ice treats of Smoothie House are made with fragrant aiwen mango cultivated in Taiwan. This type of mango has a firm texture and 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.
Whatever your Stay/Eat/Buy decisions when exploring the East Rift Valley, there will no doubt be a close connection to the land.
1 & 2 Sunshine Hot Spr ing B&B3 & 4 Wisdom Garden5 & 6 L in T ian Shan restaurant pig trot ters7. Green Genie milk hot pot8 . Ta T i Hotel rai lway lunchbox
Family-run Sunshine Hot Spring
B&B is on the main road leading through
the Ruisui hot-springs area (see main
Feature article), 10 minutes by taxi from
Ruisui Railway Station. The “B&B”
is misleading; rooms are in purpose-
built cabins and a small two-story
building. A farm was here before the
Sunshine operation, and the attractive
original Hakka-style farmhouse has been
converted into the open, breezy reception
and breakfast areas. The friendly operators
make great coffee, using local beans.
Rooms range from Japanese-style
tatami dorm rooms to a suite done in
European chalet-style with aromatic
cypress wood, red-earth ceramic f loor
tiling, and in-suite spa tub. A waterfall
springs from a cliff at the back of the
site, and directly before this are small
open-air hot-spring pools and a number
of private-stall hot-spring tubs, the latter
overlooking a creek. Pickup at Ruisui
Railway Station can be arranged. (Rooms start at NT$1,500.)
I’ll call Wisdom Garden a “B&B-
plus.” In the central-mountain foothills a
short drive off Provincial Highway 9 just
north of Yuli town, it sits amidst thick
slopeland tree growth. On approach it
looks, to a Westerner, akin to a ranch
house, with an inviting veranda and yard.
The interior is open-concept, and though
the trappings are elegantly Chinese, the
big open kitchen reminded me of the
farmhouse kitchens of my youth. I said
“B&B-plus” because the main building,
though clearly owner May Xu’s home,
has large rooms specially built for
guests, and the later-built rear building is
exclusively for guests.
May, originally a big-city denizen,
long harbored a dream to live in an
idyllic “Peach Blossom Spring paradise.”
For guests, evidence of her success lies
in such things as lovely views of the
rift-valley plain beyond and below, the
hearty breakfasts featuring veggies May
has fresh-plucked hours before, and the
early-morning visits by deer, rabbits, and
occasional boar to the property’s stream.
Further evidence – the similar-style
homes on left and right were built by a
one-time guest and a colleague of her
husband. (Rooms start at NT$1,600.)
Where to Stay
Sleeping and Eating in the ValleyWhere to Stay, Where/ What to Eat, What to BuyText: Rick Charette Photos: Jen Guo-Chen
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18 Travel in Taiwan
FEATURE STAY/EAT/BUY
1 & 2 Sunshine Hot Spr ing B&B3 & 4 Wisdom Garden5 & 6 L in T ian Shan restaurant pig trot ters7. Green Genie milk hot pot8 . Ta T i Hotel rai lway lunchbox
Hualien County is known for the quality of its
pork, and its best-known related dish is braised pig
trotters. On my last few trips I’ve noted local consensus
that the best are at Lin Tian Shan restaurant, near
Lintian Mountain Forestry Center (see main Feature
article). The owner, Ms. Zheng Xiu-yun, says her
dishes, following Hualien custom, are “honest,” with
simple preparation and combinations used to showcase
the natural f lavor of the star ingredient, which are
“especially rich because the land here is especially
rich.” The trotters are first fried, turning golden-brown,
then soy-braised for many hours with Chinese herbs,
mushroom, garlic, and onion.
Demand for guaranteed-healthy foods is surging in
Taiwan, the people love hotpot, and Ruisui Township’s
clean environment has led to surging dairy production
– leading directly to a novel Ruisui specialty, milk
hotpot. The preparation is similar wherever you go, but
the versions at two restaurants in Ruisui town, Green
Genie and Bamboo Village Japanese Cuisine, both
popular with both tourists and locals, are especially
tasty. The broth is made with vegetables and chicken
bone, then ultra-fresh Ruisui milk is added. Your large-
bowl individual serving will contain myriad ingredients;
the creamy editions at both recommended restaurants
contain pepper and (again ultra-fresh) crab, clams,
shrimp, spring onion, red carrot, and egg yolk. Green
Genie’s beef and mutton is fresh and tender, Bamboo
Village’s udon noodles and seaweed add Japanese
character. Hearty, savory, delish – guaranteed.
Everyone in Taiwan knows that the best rice in
the country is said to come from Chishang Township.
The land’s fertility and ideal climate bring forth rice
grains that are larger, more resilient, and of superior
quality and taste. During Taiwan’s period of Japanese
rule Chishang rice was sent to the Japanese emperor
as tribute. Building on this quality, Chishang railway
lunchboxes, in the past sold from the train-station
platforms to passengers on passing trains, are also
said to be Taiwan’s best. Each typically contains, at a
minimum, a chicken leg or pork cutlet, sausage, soy-
stewed egg and soy-stewed tofu, pickled cabbage,
and rice. The railway lunchboxes at Ta Ti Hotel, in
Chishang town, are considered by many to be the best.
The hotel also offers cod, soy-stewed marbled pork, and
vegetarian variations, plus such other goodies as fried
dried beancurd and beancurd skin.
Where/What to Eat
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FEATURE STAY/EAT/BUY
Bamboo Village Japanese Cuisine (竹村日式料理 )Add: 15, Sec. 1, Zhongshan Rd., Ruisui Township, Hualien County (花蓮縣瑞穗鄉中山路一段 15號 )Tel: (03) 887-6083
Green Genie (綠晶靈瑞穗鮮奶鍋 )Add: 52, Chenggong N. Rd., Ruisui Township, Hualien County (花蓮縣瑞穗鄉成功北路 52號 )Tel: (03) 887-6306
Lin Tian Shan (林田山豬腳 )Add: 80, Changqiao Rd., Changqiao Borough, Fenglin Township, Hualien County (花蓮縣鳳林鎮長橋里長橋路 80 號 )Tel: (03) 875-1999Website: www.lintiansan.url.tw (Chinese)
Siang-Ye Knife Shop (鄉野鐵店 )Add: 9, Neighborhood 7, Tongmen Village, Xiulin Township, Hualien County (花蓮縣秀林鄉銅門村七鄰 9 號 )Tel: (03) 864-1011
Sunshine Hot Spring B&B (山下的厝 )Add: 137, Sec. 3, Wenquan Rd., Ruisui Township, Hualien County (花蓮縣瑞穗鄉溫泉路三段 137號 )Tel: (03) 887-0203, 0937-468-021Website: bulao.hlbnb.tw
Ta Ti Hotel (大地飯店 )Add: 210, Zhongxiao Rd., Chishang Township, Taitung County (台東縣池上鄉忠孝路 210 號 )Tel: (089) 864-330Website: www.c-tati.com.tw (Chinese)
Wisdom Garden (智嵐雅居民宿 )Add: 98-1, Suangan, Neighborhood 5, Dayu Borough, Yuli Township, Hualien County (花蓮縣玉里鎮大禹里 5鄰酸甘 98-1號 )Tel: (03) 888-2488, 0921-986-461Website: wisdom-garden.18851.com.tw (Chinese)
English and ChineseAmis mochi 阿美麻糬Amis Tribe 阿美族Chishang railway lunchboxes 池上鐵路便當May Xu 許琨亮mingchan 名產Ruisui Railway Station 瑞穗火車站Tongmen 銅門Truku Tribe太魯閣族Zheng Xiu-yun 鄭秀芸
You no doubt noticed the “hotel”
rather than “restaurant” in the last entry.
The Ta Ti Hotel is an unusual place –
above the check-in counter is a menu.
The counter staff also handles orders
for both the first-f loor restaurant and
a sizable retail outlet. A steady stream
comes in to buy the tasty, super-low-
fat rice ice-cream – original f lavor, plus
other surprisingly pleasant down-on-the-
farm variations such as pumpkin and
roselle – and rice sponge cake. You can
even buy bags of uncooked Chishang
rice, decidedly more expensive elsewhere,
including organic.
Other unique East Rift Valley buy
options include superb-quality traditional
Truku-tribe hunting and other knives
crafted by hand at Siang-Ye Knife Shop,
in the mountain-surrounded Truku
village of Tongmen not far from Liyu
Lake, known for masterly folk-craft skills.
For more on Tongmen and other Truku
masters, visit ap.shlin.gov.tw/Truku/.
Right outside Hualien Railway Station
are numerous mingchan or “famous
products” outlets, selling Hualien-area
processed snacks. My favorite? Delicious
Amis mochi. Japanese mochi features
glutinous rice, but the Amis Tribe uses
millet. Flavors range from sesame and
green tea to strawberry and pineapple
preferred by kids.
Some of the closest friends in my
world – my “taste bud-dies” – are telling
me I cannot finish without mentioning the
many fresh milk-based treats sold at J.J.
Valley Farm, visited in the main Feature
article. The range of creative snack items
is impressive, but our collective vote for
“best at J.J.” goes to the milk ice cream,
milk pudding, and milk nougat candies.
Dreamily creamy, all.
Ta T i Hotel r ice sponge cake J . J . Valley Farm dair y produc ts Siang-Ye Knife Shop hunting knives
What to Buy
FEATURE
20 Travel in Taiwan
Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Art CenterUrban Island of Cultural Creativity
First,
something about me. I live
in Taipei, and I love zooming down-island
on High Speed Rail trains for quick day-
trip explorations of Taiwan's west-side
cities. Downtown Taipei to downtown
Kaohsiung in just 90 minutes – the future,
already here! My wife (she’s Taiwanese)
and I most enjoy walkabout and rented-
bicycle city touring. My mom/pop-in-law
often tag along, and there's nothing Dad
likes better than hiring a local taxi for a
half-day meander. These guys, he says,
''know all the inside stuff.''
One thing we see eye-to-eye on
(actually, he's right about the taxi drivers,
and I enjoy this style as well) is that
Outdoor Art Treasure HuntHere are my four favorite Pier-2 installation artworks, among the scores. Go find them.• A 3D-mural train seeming to burst from the wall of a warehouse.• A picture-perfect single-plot rice paddy, in the large square between two sets of warehouses, that bursts with bright green when the rice is ripe – a celebration of the south’s proud rural heritage.• A giant yellow transformer seemingly standing as protector over the (to-be-mentioned) bike path.• A “sound tree” with copper bells hanging from stainless-steel branches that sprout from a massive scrap-metal trunk – a celebration of Kaohsiung’s industrial past/present.
Kaohsiung's Pier-2 Art Center (www.pier-2.khcc.gv.tw) is one of the city's
best attractions – for him a great city-
tour launch point, for me a half-day-plus
end in itself, because there are so many
attractions within this attraction.
As the authoritative CNNGo has said,
Kaohsiung, ''Once known mainly for its
industrial harbor … has grown into a hub
of art and culture.'' Pier-2 Art Center,
expansive and still growing, is at the heart
of this cultural-creative bloom. CNNGo
says the city has ''the largest port and the
coolest art,'' and the still-young special
zone, opened in the early 2000s, has
become one of Kaohsiung's most popular
cultural attractions. The 14 old, renovated
Kaohsiung Harbor warehouses here (with
more to come), long abandoned, were
formerly used to store such treasures as
1. “Sound tree” with copper bells 2. Giant yel low transformer3. Fantasy f igures4. 3D -mural t rain5. Pier-2 Ar t Center in the evening
fish meal and granulated sugar. Today,
they are dedicated to cultural-arts
creation and treasure displays, including
exhibits, live musical/theatrical shows,
and large-scale outdoor installation
artworks and graffiti-style murals.
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SPECIAL REPORT
22 Travel in Taiwan
Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Art CenterUrban Island of Cultural Creativity Text: Rick Charette Photos: Jen Guo-Chen , Vision Int'l
English and Chinese
Kaohsiung Design Festival 高雄設計節Kaohsiung Museum of Labor 高雄市勞工博物館Pasadena Italian House 帕莎蒂娜義大利屋Pier-2 Art Center 駁二藝術特區Rainbow Bay Festival 大彩虹音樂節
Getting There & Getting Around
If you are taking public transport from west-side cities, the High Speed Rail system is fastest and most comfortable. In Kaohsiung, the three rail systems (regular railway, High Speed Rail, and metro) converge at Zuoying Station, enabling easy transfers. The art center is a short walk from KMRT Yanchengpu Station. There is a Kaohsiung Public Bike station between the metro station and art center, and private (city-vetted) rental shops by the bike path just outside the Penglai warehouses.
A Kaohsiung Visual Tour
For an enthusiastic, insightful 30-minute visual tour of the art center and Kaohsiung in general, go to http://travel.cnn.com/cnngo-kaohsiung-062776 .
In one warehouse is the
Kaohsiung Museum of Labor (museum_new.kcg.gov.tw). Half of another – the roof
was first damaged by fire and then removed
to create an “open box” for under-the-sky
entertainment – is now the Kaohsiung
base for The Wall (thewall.tw/grounds/pier2), synonymous with Taiwan’s indie-
music scene. There are also arts and crafts
boutiques showcasing independent Taiwan
cultural-creative design talent.
End your day when your tummy says
it’s time in yet another warehouse given
new life, home to Pasadena Italian House
(it.pasadena.com.tw), a bright neon-and-
tiffany restaurant in the North American
mode. Be sure to buy the award-winning,
islandwide-renowned walnut and dried
longan bread at the on-site bakery.
You also
need to know that
Kaohsiung’s popular harbor-area bikeway
rolls right by the art center, the section here
running where the trains that once served
these facilities trundled along. In 2010,
CNN Travel declared Kaohsiung one of
Asia’s five best biking cities.
Large-Scale Events
Pier-2 is a key event stage for, among other big-time annual happenings, the Kaohsiung Design Festival and Rainbow Bay Festival. The latter is one of Taiwan's biggest music events. Check the center's website for May/June events.
SPECIAL REPORT KAOHSIUNG
Travel in Taiwan 23
A Place of Relaxation, Living History, and Vibrant Ecology
24 Travel in Taiwan
Lanyang Museum
Sheng Yang Leisure Farm
Huaquan Farm
Memorial Hall of the Founding of Y i lan Administration
Tangwei Brook Hot Spring Park
Lanyang Museum
Diudiudang Forest
TOP TEN TAIWAN TOURS
Text: Joe Henley Photos: Maggie Song
Wai ’ao Beach
Huaquan Farm
Sheng Yang Leisure Farm
Wushi Fishing Harbor Lanyang Museum
TOP TEN TAIWAN TOURS YILAN
Yilan is just an hour away by bus or train from Taipei City, but it is a world apart from the big city in terms of scenery and pace of life.
Ar temis Garden
Huaquan Farm
Today such stories are just that,
however – colorful tales of a rich past. The
Yilan of modern times, easily reached from
the capital of Taipei (less than an hour
by car via the much-tunneled National
Freeway 5), is a place of relaxation,
living history, and vibrant ecology, with a
welcoming culture all its own.
The fastest way to get to Yilan from
central Taipei using public transport
is to catch a bus from either Taipei
Bus Station, just to the north of Taipei
Railway Station, or Taipei City Hall Bus
Station, located above MRT Taipei City
Hall Station. You can also take a train;
the fastest reaches Yilan in a little more
than one hour.
Your first stop
might well be the hot-spring town of
Jiaoxi, famed for its many relaxing
resorts, which pipe in the mineral-rich
local spring water that bubbles up from
under the plain, not from the mountains
directly behind. Take a walk through
narrow Tangwei Brook Hot Spring
Park, a beautifully manicured public
promenade where you can grab a coffee
or other refreshing drink at one of the
small commercial establishments at the
head of the park, where there is comfy
outdoor seating on the boardwalk, and
soak your feet in the free public foot
bath pools. Should you feel the need for
some spa treatment, there are also small
pools inhabited by appropriately named
doctor fish, which nibble harmlessly and
painlessly at feet that are dipped in.
If you happen to be in Yilan during
the warmer months, a visit to Wai’ao
Beach, just to the north of Wushi Fishing
Harbor, is a must. You'll find fine, soft
sand, and gentle waves suitable for
beginner-level surfers. Small beachfront
guesthouses overlook the water, backed
by steep, green foothills. There is even a
windmill that looks as though plucked
straight out of the Dutch countryside.
From the beach you can see Turtle
Island, a shell-shaped volcanic land
mass that, although small, provided
a much-needed visual landmark for
sailors in the days of sail. In those days,
if coming from the north you needed to
sail between Turtle Island and the main
island to make land in Yilan, because of
the currents. This led to the development
of Wushi Fishing Harbor, which for a
time was an important center of trade
and commerce (the original harbor was
just south of the present-day site, behind
Lanyang Museum).
The glory days of Wushi Fishing
Harbor are gone, but it is remains an
active fishing port. This means one thing
for tourists: fresh seafood, and lots of it.
Along the harbor’s edge is a two-story
complex; the ground f loor is dedicated
to seafood snacks, and the upper
level houses a menagerie of seafood
restaurants. When you walk up the stairs
you will be met by a clutch of insistent
yet polite folk holding out menus in front
of you and imploring you to take a seat.
Oysters, sushi, squid, whole fish of all
kinds, you name it – if it comes from the
ocean, they've got it here.
After you've filled your tummy with
the bounty of the sea, a stroll through
the nearby Lanyang Museum may
be in order. The museum's exterior is
unmissable, formed with aluminum
and stone panels rising up out of the
ground at around a 45-degree angle in
the direction of the Pacific Ocean, made
to look like the coastal cuesta formations
that define the area. The museum, which
is almost completely bilingual, focuses
on Yilan's history and culture. You start
your journey through the region's past
on the fourth f loor and work your way
down. As you descend from the top f loor,
you f low in the same manner as the local
waters do, which fall from the sky, first
hitting the mountains, then gradually
making their way to the plain below and,
finally, to the sea. This is only fitting,
as Yilan County sees about 200 days of
rainfall per year.
If you were
to stand
atop a high mountain in the northeast
of Taiwan and look out over the expanse
of Yilan County below, you would see
an alluvial fan spreading out toward the
sea, bracketed by hill and mountain, that
has been formed over eons by the steady
rush of the Lanyang River and other
local waterways. The area was once
almost completely cut off from the rest of
Taiwan, accessible only by sea save for a
few trails over the mountains blazed by
the island’s native peoples. It was a region
of mountain-dwelling headhunters and
almost equally fierce f latland-dwelling
warriors, forbidding and even deadly to
outsiders.
Wai ’ao Beach
Lanyang Museum
TOP TEN TAIWAN TOURS
26 Travel in Taiwan
TOP TEN TAIWAN TOURS
Travel in Taiwan 27
NANZHUANG
Welcome to your home in Taipei
www.parktaipei .com
The hotel is conveniently located in front of
Exit 6 of the Daan MRT train station
Only 6 minutes to Taipei Songshan Airport
Park Taipei Hotel is conveniently located
in the heart of downtown Taipei.
A carefree place in the center of bustling Taipei
After taking care of business, doing shopping and traveling around
You’ll return to your new cozy and relaxing home
Your home in Taipei, Park Taipei Hotel Welcomes You!
Tel: (02) 5579-3888Add: 317, Sec. 1, Fuxing S. Rd., Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段317號)Website: www.parktaipei.comHow to get there: Take the MRT Wenhu Line or Xinyi Line to Daan station. The hotel is just in front of Exit 6 of the Daan MRT train station.
All this rain
makes Yilan
a productive center of agriculture as
well, and nowhere is this more evident
than in Yuanshan Township, to the
west of Yilan City, where several leisure
farms in the Hengshantou Agricultural
Leisure Area give visitors a taste of what
it's like to work the land for a living.
Huaquan Farm, for example, is a place of
tranquility where visitors are introduced
to the organic, laid-back lifestyle that
Yilan has recently come to embrace as
part of its new, environmentally friendly
image. You can pick fresh vegetables
to cook and enjoy in the farm's hotpot
restaurant, or opt to just take a walk
around and see the sights.
For something a little different,
there's the Sheng Yang Leisure Farm
next door, where edible aquatic grass
is grown and can be sampled in an
elegant Japanese-style restaurant. Not
far away is Artemis Garden, another
popular Yilan tourist farm. It's basically
a giant greenhouse teeming with f lowers
and all things green and growing. The
English and ChineseDiudiudang Forest 噹森林Ewang Community 鄂王社區Jiaoxi 礁溪Hengshantou Agricultural Leisure Area 橫山頭休閒農業區Lanyang River 蘭陽溪Sky Street 天空步道Sun Lake 太陽湖Tangwei Brook Hot Spring Park 湯圍溝溫泉公園Turtle Island 龜山島Wai’ao Beach 外澳沙灘Wushi Harbor 烏石漁港Xueshan Tunnel 雪山隧道Yuanshan Township 員山鄉
Lanyang Museum (蘭陽博物館 )Add: 750, Sec. 3, Qingyun Rd., Toucheng Township, Yilan County (宜蘭縣頭城鎮青雲路三段 750號 ) Tel: (03) 977-9700Website: www.lym.gov.tw
Huaquan Farm (花泉農場 )Add: 15-1, Bajia Rd., Shangde Village, Yuanshan Township, Yilan County (宜蘭縣員山鄉尚德村八甲路 15-1號 ) Tel: (03) 922-015
Sheng Yang Leisure Farm (勝洋水草休閒農場 )Add: 15-6, Bajia Rd., Shangde Village, Yuanshan Township, Yilan County (宜蘭縣員山鄉尚德村八甲路 15-6號 ) Tel: (03) 922-2487Website: www.sy-water.com.tw
Artemis Garden (香草菲菲 )Add: 650, Neicheng Rd., Neicheng Village, Yuanshan Township, Yilan County (宜蘭縣員山鄉內城村內城路 650號 )Tel: (03) 922-9933Website: www.artemisgarden.org.tw
Memorial Hall of the Founding of Yilan Administration (宜蘭設治紀念館 )Add: 3, Lane 3, Lixing, Jiucheng S. Rd., Yilan City, Yilan County (宜蘭縣宜蘭市舊城南路力行 3巷 3號 )Tel: (03) 932-6664Website: memorial.e-land.gov.tw
Luna Plaza Mall (新月廣場 )Add: 6, Lane 38, Sec. 2, Minquan Rd., Yilan City, Yilan County (宜蘭縣宜蘭市民權路二段38巷6號 )Tel: (03) 932-8800Website: www.lunaplaza.com.tw
The Wall – UriSabakiJo (賣捌所 )Add: 38, Kangle Rd., Yilan City, Yilan County (宜蘭縣宜蘭市康樂路 38號 )Tel: (03) 935-2493Website: thewall.tw
fragrant, calming interior, filled with
birdsong, is complete with a DIY craft
area, an elevated walkway known as Sky
Street, a bakery that serves up delicious,
soft home-style bread, and an outdoor
area with a view of Sun Lake and the
surrounding green hills.
Now, on to
the big city –
in this case a relative term. Yilan City is
a quiet yet stimulating big town/small
city of just less than 100,000. Stepping
out of the railway station, you'll see the
towering Diudiudang Forest, a steel
sculpture in which a f loating train weaves
its way through green girders doubling as
rainforest trees.
The city's history is well preserved,
with architecture dating back to the time
of the 1895-1945 Japanese occupation
dotting the urban landscape. Check out
the verbosely named Memorial Hall of
the Founding of Yilan Administration,
a restored former Japanese magistrate’s
residence that is also known for the giant
camphor trees which dot its immaculate
gardens and grounds.
For even more history, visit Ewang
Community, a village within the city
filled with architecture that dates back
to the early 20th century, traditional
markets, temples, and artisan shops.
For a touch of modernity, head to Luna
Plaza Mall, the largest shopping mall
in the county – especially if you need to
stock up on necessities.
At night, if you're looking for a place
to hang out and possibly take in some
live acoustic music, be advised that
Yilan City now has its own branch of
The Wall, a live-music house that grew
to prominence in Taipei, expanded into
Kaohsiung, and now has a presence on
Taiwan's eastern shore. The Yilan branch
is a laid-back, small affair, housed within
the walls of a Japanese-style residence
– charming and relaxed, much like the
county itself.
丟丟
Memorial Hall of the Founding of Y i lan Administration
The Wall – UriSabakiJo
TOP TEN TAIWAN TOWNS
28 Travel in Taiwan
A Meeting Point of Historical, Cultural, and Social Conventions
Text: Owain Mckimm Photos: Maggie Song
Two young Taipei designers are producing a unique type of stamp, making use of the old typesetting method common in Taiwan before the arrival of the computer age.
Stamps, or
chops/seals as
they’re also often called in English, are
an essential part of living in Taiwan.
A fact of life here is that any document
that has not been thoroughly pummelled
and left covered in angry-looking red
welts – created using said stamps – is
not worth the paper it’s written on.
Taiwanese administration, and thus
society in general, undoubtedly moves to
the sound of a stamp falling. And it’s not
just officials who love to stamp. Everyone
in Taiwan, it seems, has his or her own
personal name chop, the impression of
which serves as one’s official signature on
anything and everything that needs to be
signed. In Taiwan, more stamping goes on
in a single morning than does in an entire
run of the musical Stomp.
The stamp that I hold in my hand,
though, is a far cry from the cheap,
computer-carved stamps you can pick
up for NT$50 at one of the many key-
cutting stores around Taiwan. It’s also
different from the embellished jade
chops with characters and decorative
arabesques carved by calligraphic masters
for thousands of NT dollars apiece –
though these give a similar sense of high
officialdom to those using them, I’m sure.
No, this chop is unembellished apart
from the simple grain on the gourd-shaped
wooden handle and turquoise dapple
pattern on the newly oxidizing copper of
the base. It is also reassuringly heavy, and
feels more like a blackjack than a piece of
stationery. And, unlike traditional chops,
the raised letters which serve to imprint
one’s name onto paper are not carved from
stone. The face of the stamp is, instead,
made up of movable lead type – the kind
used by the likes of Gutenberg or Caxton
in old-fashioned printing.
I give it a spin, dipping it first in ink
and then applying it to a sheet of a thick
handmade card. With a satisfying thunk,
a block of rubicund lettering appears,
debossed into the fibrous white background.
1. Lead t ype stamp2. R is K Studio work shop3. R ick and K imberly
1
1
32
2
OLD STYLE / NEW IDEAS
30 Travel in Taiwan
The designers
of this
strange instrument, who I have come to
meet at their central Taipei studio, are
Rick Wu and Kimberly Lin. Together
they run the R is K Studio, producing
items with a unique Taiwanese flavor on
a cottage-industry scale. Though still in
their twenties, both Rick and Kimberly
have a design aesthetic that is not what
one would think of as modern, though
it’s certainly not old-fashioned, either.
Rather, the two have an understanding
of the value of history in giving a piece
character, and this shows through in their
designs, in which they often take old, used
objects and put them to a new purpose.
“History makes objects attractive,”
says Kimberly, directing my attention to a
bookcase with a back that is an ornate set
of window bars, slightly worn and rusted.
“These bars – who knows what their story
is? A family might have hung clothes from
them, or owned a cat that would squeeze
through them, or grown bonsai trees next
to them. It’s because they have history
that we find such objects desirable. When
something experiences life, a sense of that
life sticks around on it.”
Though the stamp itself is not made of
reappropriated materials, the design and the
concept are infused with history both recent
and ancient – complex strands of influence,
inspiration, and symbolism that have twined
together over more than three millennia.
The initial idea
for
the stamp came to Kimberly when she
attended a printing workshop at a nearby
shop in one of the lanes off Taipei’s
Taiyuan Road. Situated directly opposite
the shop is one of the most fascinating
stores in all of Taiwan – the Rixing Type
Foundry – the last shop in Taiwan, and
perhaps one of only a handful left in the
world, that makes movable lead type. ''The
owner of the foundry, Chang Chieh-kuan,
is really keen for people to learn about
the old printing industry, and so we were
encouraged to collaborate with him and
make a product that would help introduce
people to that culture, which has all but
vanished,'' explains Kimberly.
Printing and chop-making, by their
very natures, share a common ancestry.
Name chops first surfaced during the
3
OLD STYLE / NEW IDEAS STAMPS
Travel in Taiwan 31
1
The stamp is a work of poetry in which the ancient ceremonial chop, suffused with all its pomp
and circumstance, is infused with the stalwart rigor of the industrial
printing revolution
Those who
buy one of Rick
and Kimberly’s stamps, however, will be
among the few who can use Rixing’s lead
characters for their original purpose. After
you purchase a stamp (wooden handle and
copper base) at a shop (funfuntown or 324
Print Studio; see addresses at end of article),
you’re given directions to the Rixing Type
Foundry on Taiyuan Road, where you pick
out the characters you want, in your desired
font of course, and are then directed to
another shop (the Riyu Printing Company
in Wanhua District), where a master
typesetter sets your letters for you and fits
them into the base of the stamp. This might
seem like an impractical way of buying a
stamp, but it has the benefit of obliging you
to go on a journey to two of the oldest and
most interesting neighborhoods in Taipei,
Dadaocheng and Wanhua.
And there is one further thing that sets
this stamp apart from the common name
chop. It is not, as you may have thought,
designed for providing one’s official
signature. The 9 x 5.4cm size of the copper
base makes it perfect for holding type to
print another of Taiwan’s societal must-
haves – the business card.
Business cards, like chops, are one of
the cornerstones of Taiwanese society.
Everyone has them – car mechanics,
bartenders, even Buddhist monks. In
Taiwan, swapping business cards is as
common as shaking hands. And the fact
that Rick and Kimberly’s chop is designed
to print business cards is yet another
wink to history: In the very early days,
chops were not used as stamps at all, but
carried around the waist to be presented
as evidence of one’s rank and office – very
much the business cards of their time.
Rick and Kimberly’s stamp, then,
represents something much greater
than the sum of its parts. It is a meeting
point of historical, cultural, and social
conventions, a work of poetry in which
the ancient ceremonial chop, suffused
with all its pomp and circumstance, is
infused with the stalwart rigor of the
industrial printing revolution.
Shang Dynasty (1600~1046 BC), and were
impressed into the wads of clay used to seal
important documents (stacks of bamboo
sheets tied together with cord). After the
invention of paper in 105 AD, chops were
used to stamp officials’ names directly
onto the documents themselves after being
dipped in a paste made from crushed
cinnabar. This practice may well have
contributed to the invention of woodblock
printing, in which entire pages of characters
are carved into wooden blocks, covered in
ink, and printed onto paper.
Movable type, which was invented
in China around 1040 AD, remained
somewhat of a novelty in Asia, due to
the non-alphabetical nature of Chinese,
Korean, and Japanese writing, until more
advanced mechanical printing presses
began to appear from Europe. Taiwan’s
first printing press arrived on the island
in 1881, donated by Scottish missionary
Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell, and the first
mass-printed newspaper was distributed
in 1885. By this stage, manual typesetting
using individual letters was being replaced
in the West by increasingly sophisticated
methods of mechanical typesetting, which
could cast entire lines of text with the
push of a few buttons.
In Taiwan, though, again due to the
vastly impractical number of characters
in the Chinese language (over 100,000
by some counts), mechanical typesetting
remained a pipe dream until well into
the 20th century, with shops like the
Rixing Type Foundry (which was
established in the 1950s) receiving orders
from a publisher and then painstakingly
arranging the type by hand, sometimes
compiling scripts of over one million
words long from their stock of over ten
million lead characters.
This has, of course, now all changed,
and the stacks and stacks of lead
characters at Rixing are likely never again
to be used to print a novel or a newspaper.
Nowadays they are museum pieces more
than anything else, and people buy the
characters merely as curiosities.
32 Travel in Taiwan
OLD STYLE / NEW IDEAS
1 & 2 Rix ing Type Foundr y 3. Test ing an R is K Studio s tamp
12
3
3
2
English and Chinese
Chang Chieh-kuan 張介冠Taiyuan Road 太原路
funfuntown (放放堂 )Add: 2, Alley 1, Lane 359, Fujin St., Taipei City (台北市富錦街 359 巷 1弄 2號 )Tel: (02) 2766-5916 Website: www.funfuntown.com (Chinese)Hours: Wed. ~ Sun. 14:00~21:00
324 Print Studio (324 版畫工作室 )Add: 16, Lane 97, Taiyuan Rd., Taipei City (台北市太原路 97巷 16號 )Tel: (02) 2558-8880Website: www.324ps.tw (Chinese)Hours: Fri. & Sat. 10:00~18:00
Rixing Type Foundry (日星鑄字行 )Add: 13, Lane 97, Taiyuan Rd., Taipei City (台北市太原路 97巷 13號 )Tel: (02) 2556-4626Website: http://rixingtypography.blogspot.tw (Chinese)Hours: Mon.~Fri. 8:30~12:30, 14:00~18:00; Sat. 9:30~12:00
Riyu Printing Company (日裕印刷有限公司 )Add: 10, Lane 201, Kunming St., Wanhua District, Taipei City (台北市萬華區昆明街 201巷 10 號 )Tel: (02) 2311-0117
OLD STYLE / NEW IDEAS STAMPS
If your impression of Chinese cakes is still the sweet and greasy cakes of the past, try this exclusive house special cake. Shelled golden mung beans are mixed with a special formula to produce a cake with an enticing mung bean and milk aroma and a melt-in- the- mouth texture. This delicious cake leaves a pleasant taste in the mouth and will leave you wanting more; its fresh fragrance and delicate flavor can also be enjoyed frozen or eaten as a tea snack.
www.hscake.com.tw
Delicious handmade cakes. Famous Chinese imperial palace cakes.
He Sheng Cake Shop
Established in 1974, He Sheng Cake Shop makes traditional Chinese cakes just like those made by imperial palace chefs.
Mung Been Cake
Main Shop: 2, Lane 26, Sec. 1, Zhongshun St., Wenshan District, Taipei City (台北市文山區忠順街一段26巷2號) Tel: (02) 2936-5702
Zhongshan Branch: 91, Yitong St., Zhongshan District, Taipei City (台北市中山區伊通街91號)Tel: (02) 2504-8115
1
Land of Salt, Sugar, and ShrinesTaking a Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Bus to the Southwest Coast
Text: Steven Crook Photos: Rich Matheson
Taiwan’s southwest is a treasure house of traditional culture and rural scenery. However, exploring beyond the major cities of Tainan and Chiayi is not easy for those without their own vehicle. The Taiwan Tourist Shuttle’s Southwest Coast Route plugs this gap, and recently Travel in Taiwan jumped aboard for a tour of some of the many attractions served by the shuttle.
Both garlic and sugarcane grow well in
south Taiwan, but garlic and sugar are not
usually blended. The name of this factory
is in fact derived from an unusual place
name. Suantou (meaning “garlic”) is a tiny
village on the southwest’s Jianan Plain, and
the sugar factory here is one of Taiwan’s
oldest, having begun operations in 1904.
From the late Qing Dynasty until
the 1950s, sugar was Taiwan’s No.
1 export, with about one-fifth of the
island’s farmland devoted to sugar
cultivation in the latter stage. Since then
the industry has been in steady decline,
one key reason being Taiwan sugar’s
high cost in comparison with cane-sugar
produced in Brazil and other countries.
Most of Taiwan’s sugar factories are
now shuttered, and a few have been
dismantled. Suantou’s has been idle for
over a decade, yet remains intact. As
such, it is a magnet for those curious
about Taiwan’s industrial heritage.
It is also one of just a handful of
places in Taiwan where what are called
“sugar railway” trains still run. At the
industry’s zenith, diesel locomotives
hauled wagons full of cane from
plantations to sugar factories, and
passenger cars from town to town. The
network comprised about 900km of
762mm-gauge track.
Arriving with time to spare before
the 10am train (there’s another at 3pm
each day; extra services are put on
when needed), we sampled some of the
unusual popsicles sold here. The taro
and pineapple versions are popular, but I
recommend the sugarcane-juice popsicle
– refreshing as well as fitting.
After buying our tickets (NT$100
for adults) inside Suantou’s endearingly
quaint passenger station (a relic of the
Japanese colonial era, which lasted from
Stop I: Garlic Sugar Factory
BACKPACK BUS TRIP
36 Travel in Taiwan
THSR Chiayi Station
Dongshi Fisherman’s Wharf
Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields
Garlic Sugar Factory
Budai Visitor Center
Donglong Cultural Center
Puzih Embroidery Cultural Hall
Nankunshen Daitian Temple
Mashagou Coastal Recreation Area
Taiwan Salt Museum
Siantian Temple Beimen Visitor Center
Qigu Salt Mountains
Engineering buffs are sure to find the machinery
fascinating, and anyone whose eyes
appreciate the subtleties of shadow
and light will be beguiled
Ask 10 people what you ought to do when visiting this lively seaside town, and
buying/eating seafood is sure to dominate the answers given by nine. Budai Seafood
Market, where dozens of seafood vendors sell live crabs, shellfish by the bucket, cuts
of grouper, and other ultra-fresh delights, is also a splendid place to enjoy lunch. Little
English is spoken in the 40-odd eateries which surround the vendors, but photo menus
do a good job of overcoming the language barrier.
If you lack the time or appetite to sit down for a proper feast, buy a deep-fried
oyster wrap for later enjoyment. The fishing harbor is a good spot for a picnic, and
clearly visible from Budai Visitor Center, the town’s tourist-shuttle stop. The walk
from center to harbor – where photogenic fishing vessels are moored for unloading,
cleaning, and repair – takes 10 minutes.
In addition to the tourist shuttle, Budai is served by several buses each day from
Chiayi City and the town of Xinying, both of which can reached by train.
1895 to 1945), we boarded the train.
The contrast with Taiwan’s high-speed
railway – which is visible just to the east
– could not be greater. With an average
speed of 15 km/h, bench seats, and open
sides, it is a true “slow travel” experience.
The on-board guide provided a stream of
commentary in Chinese about the local
history, sugar industry, f lora, and fauna.
After trundling through nearby
fields – some are still used for growing
cane – the train returned to the factory.
Wandering inside the main building, we
saw massive machines formerly used to
crush cane, and vats where the pulp was
boiled. Engineering buffs are sure to find
the machinery fascinating, and anyone
whose eyes appreciate the subtleties of
shadow and light will be beguiled. There
has been no effort to spruce up the interior
for visitors – commendable honesty.
The area lacks both steep gradients
and heavy traffic, so cycling is a popular
pastime. Biking from Suantou to
Dongshi’s Fisherman’s Wharf on the coast
takes two and a half hours, almost half
of which is spent on a dedicated bikeway.
Bicycles can be rented for NT$100 to
NT$250 per day from Songmeng Rental
Store (open 8am to 5pm daily), just behind
Suantou’s old railway station. The Taiwan
Tourist Shuttle bus stops at Fisherman’s
Wharf before heading south to Budai.
Stop II: Budai
5
BACKPACK BUS TRIP SOUTHWEST COAST
Travel in Taiwan 37
1. Salt f ie lds on Tainan's coast2 & 3 Gar l ic Sugar Fac tor y4 & 5 Budai Seafood Market
Taiwan Salt Museum
2
3
4
If you have time for only one house of worship during your visit to Taiwan, consider making it
Nankunshen Daitian Temple
If you have time for only one house
of worship during your visit to Taiwan,
consider making it Nankunshen Daitian
Temple. This sprawling complex may be in
sleepy farming country, but it is no place for
quiet contemplation. Come on a Sunday,
or on the birthday of one of the six plague-
busting “kings” enshrined here, and you
are guaranteed an intense introduction to
Taiwanese folk religion. Rites invariably
feature deafening drums, immense
quantities of firecrackers and spirit money,
and spirit mediums known in Taiwanese as
tangki. These individuals, almost always
men, demonstrate how the gods possessing
them protect them from harm by making
superficial cuts on their forehead, shoulders,
and back with swords and blunt axes, or by
pushing long needles through their cheeks.
Nankunshen, however, offers so much
more than human spectacle. This temple has
been drawing pilgrims since 1662, and over
the centuries has received vast donations of
cash and gold. Much of the former has been
utilized to expand and renovate the complex.
Not long ago, 405kg of the latter was melted
down and used to cast an icon symbolizing
the Jade Emperor, Taoism’s chief deity.
Unlike most of Taiwan’s traditional
pantheon, the Jade Emperor is almost always
represented by a rectangular tablet, rather
than a human-shaped effigy. The metal alone
is worth over US$17 million.
Taller than a man, the icon is an inspiring
sight – but tourists should not visit thinking
this solid-gold tablet is the only or even the
main attraction at Lingxiaobao Hall, the
annex constructed to house it. The whole is
very much greater than the sum of its parts.
Showing great pride in the building,
as well as expert knowledge, temple guide
Mr. Kao Ying-fu began by explaining a
key concept behind the hall’s design and
decoration. From the outset, he said,
Nankunshen’s management committee was determined to make the hall
an expression of Taiwanese culture. For this reason, rather than regurgitate
episodes from ancient Chinese myths and legends, several of the beam and
panel paintings depict scenes of everyday local life. There are images of
farmers and fishermen, and nativist painter Hung Tung (1920-1987), who
lived near the temple.
Well-known symbols of Taiwan such as Alishan’s forest railway and
Taipei 101 also make an appearance, as do Taiwanese sporting heroes like
golfer Yani Tseng and NBA star Jeremy Lin. We would not have recognized
a hero of another sort, internationally lauded philanthropist Chen Shu-chu,
were it not for Mr. Kao’s help.
Stop III: Nankunshen Daitian Temple
BACKPACK BUS TRIP
38 Travel in Taiwan
Nankunshen Dait ian Temple
Caesar Park Hotel brings you all of the beauty of Kenting.
Your first choice for an unforgettable vacation!
Various Activities
Fantastic Taste
The Caesar Park Hotel – Kenting is located on the Hengchun Peninsula at the southern tip of Taiwan, immediately
adjacent to Kenting National Park. Offering blue skies, beautiful sandy beaches and an alluring tropical ambi-
ence, Caesar Park Hotel – Kenting is without question the finest holiday hotel in the Kenting area. With its
relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff, this is a real home away from home. A wide range of leisure activities are
available to suit all preferences, from families to honeymooners; Caesar Park Hotel – Kenting has everything you
need! Why not come and experience Taiwan’s tropical paradise? You can be sure of taking beautiful memories
away with you when you leave.
Relaxed Atmosphere
Friendly Staff
SOUTHWEST COASTBACKPACK BUS TRIP
Travel in Taiwan 39
Caesar Park Hotel brings you all of the beauty of Kenting.
Your first choice for an unforgettable vacation!
Various Activities
Fantastic Taste
The Caesar Park Hotel – Kenting is located on the Hengchun Peninsula at the southern tip of Taiwan, immediately
adjacent to Kenting National Park. Offering blue skies, beautiful sandy beaches and an alluring tropical ambi-
ence, Caesar Park Hotel – Kenting is without question the finest holiday hotel in the Kenting area. With its
relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff, this is a real home away from home. A wide range of leisure activities are
available to suit all preferences, from families to honeymooners; Caesar Park Hotel – Kenting has everything you
need! Why not come and experience Taiwan’s tropical paradise? You can be sure of taking beautiful memories
away with you when you leave.
Relaxed Atmosphere
Friendly Staff
Shallow ponds where seawater was evaporated by sunlight to produce salt were
until recently one of the southwest coast’s distinctive sights. Many of these former salt
pans are now used for aquaculture. One of the very few places where salt is still made
the time-honored way – and then merely for educational purposes – is Jingzaijiao, 13
minutes by Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus from Nankunshen.
The salt fields here took on their current appearance around 1818, when the
bottoms of the ponds were covered with broken pottery shards so salt crystals would
not stick to the mud. For almost two centuries, salt was harvested between early fall
and late spring. Typhoon rains meant summers were usually washouts.
The site’s information boards in Chinese and English do a fine job of explaining
the traditional salt-making method. During the peak months of March, April, and
May, a 100-square-meter of crystallization pond yielded up to 350kg of salt every three
days, but collecting it involved backbreaking amounts of shoveling and hauling.
Learning about a defunct industry is not the only reason to stop at Jingzaijiao.
Thanks to the utter f latness of the landscape and the water’s reflective qualities, this spot
has been the source of countless gorgeous sunsets captured in photos and on canvas.
Getting There and Around
The Taiwan Tourist Shuttle’s Southwest Coast Route (service #7702) can be boarded at Bus Platform 4, THSR Chiayi Station, 11km west of Chiayi City. There are three services each day, departing from the station at 9:45, 10:45, and 15:15. Buses take 1 hour, 45 minutes to get from the station to the final stop at the Taiwan Salt Museum. The last bus from the museum back to the station sets out at 17:30. Alternatively, tourists can take a Taiwan Tourist Shuttle #99 Taijiang Route bus from the museum into downtown Tainan via Anping District. Visit www.taiwantrip.com.tw for details.
English and Chinese
Anping District 安平區Budai 布袋Budai Seafood Market 布袋漁市Budai Visitor Center 布袋遊客中心Chen Shu-chu 陳樹菊deep-fried oyster wrap 蚵仔包
Dongshi 東石Fisherman's Wharf 漁人碼頭Garlic Sugar Factory 蒜頭糖廠Hung Tung 洪通Jianan Plain 嘉南平原Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields 井仔腳瓦盤鹽田Kao Ying-fu 高英富
Lingxiaobao Hall 凌霄寶殿Nankunshen Daitian Temple 南鯤鯓代天府Suantou 蒜頭Songmeng Rental Store 松錳租車sugar railway 糖業鐵路tangki 童乩Xinying 新營
Stop IV: Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields
1
2
40 Travel in Taiwan
BACKPACK BUS TRIP
1 & 2 J ingzai j iao T i le -paved Salt Fields
Climbing the Wuling Sixiu A Hike for Hikers with a
Good Head for Heights
Text and Photos: Stuart Dawson
Located just north of Snow Mountain (Mt. Xue; 3,886m), the Wuling Sixiu is a group of four mountains in Shei-Pa National Park (www.spnp.gov.tw). Hiking all four of the peaks usually takes three days, making this a more challenging hike than Snow Mountain.
The hike
begins at the end of
Wuling Road, next to Wuling Villa (www.hoyaresort.com.tw/inn/; Chinese), which
is an excellent place to stay the night
before the trek to acclimate and get ready
for the first day.
It’s best to set off early in the morning.
The first day’s hike is relatively short –
only 4.5km, the goal Taoshan Cabin –
but it involves climbing some 1,500m in
altitude. It takes the average person most
of the day to complete.
You start out
along a
forestry road. We set out at 8am on the
short 1.5km walk along the beautiful and
flat pine-tree-lined road, which brings
you to the trail proper. From there the
route suddenly becomes very steep, and
it’s a relentless slog uphill. About halfway
up we came out of the trees, and found
ourselves looking at a magnificent “sea
of clouds” above the Yilan Plain. It’s
amazing how quickly you forget about a
difficult climb when being rewarded with
such inspiring views.
Before reaching the cabin, you come
to the peak of Taoshan (Mt. Tao; 3,324m),
the first of the three mountains we
were hiking on this trip (we didn’t hike
to the fourth of the Wuling Sixiu, Mt.
Kelaye; 3,133m). On the exposed top it
was freezing, with a bitterly cold wind
blowing so strong that we could barely
stand. After a quick photo, we headed on
towards the cabin.
The cabin space had already been
fully booked when we had applied for the
necessary permit before our trip, so we
pitched tents. There’s a small section of
dwarf bamboo before the cabin that offers
excellent protection from the wind, which
was much needed.
HIKING
42 Travel in Taiwan
1
2
The trail takes you along an incredibly scenic ridge and you’re surrounded by tall
Chinese hemlocks and twisted junipers the whole time
English and Chinese
Central Mountain Range 中央山脈Mt. Chiyou 池有山Mt. Kelaye 喀拉業山Mt. Pintian 品田山Shei-Pa National Park 雪霸國家公園Snow Mountain 雪山Taoshan 桃山Taoshan Cabin 桃山山屋Wuling Farm 武陵農場Wuling Road 武陵路Wuling Sixiu 武陵四秀Wuling Villa 武陵山莊Xinda Cabin 新達山屋Yilan Plain 宜蘭平原
Safety
The Wuling Sixiu is certainly not a hike for beginners. The trail up to and down from the ridge is very steep. In several places hikers need to have a good head for heights as they scramble up cliff faces with big drops. It is highly recommended that anyone wishing to do this climb join a group with a qualified guide.
After a cold
night, we
woke up in time to hike back to see the
sunrise from the top of Taoshan, and
were grateful for the warmth that the
sun provided.
After the cabin, the trail turns west
and takes you along an incredibly scenic
ridge. You’re surrounded by tall Chinese
hemlocks and twisted junipers the whole
time. After a couple of hours, we arrived
at the base of a “waterfall of rocks.” This
vast river of small boulders has been
formed by freeze-thaw action. Following
it, we came to the peak of Mt. Chiyou
(3,303m), where you are presented with
spectacular panoramas of large swaths of
Shei-Pa National Park.
From there we carried on towards
Xinda Cabin, where we camped the
second night. This night was even colder
than the previous one. There was no moon
and not a cloud in sight, and we were
able to see the Milky Way. It would have
been great to sit out looking at the stars
for much longer than we did, but the cold
drove us back into our tents.
The next morning we were once again
up early enough to watch the sunrise
above the Central Mountain Range, this
time as we headed to Mt. Pintian (3,524m),
the third and final peak of our three-day
adventure. The climb to Pintian requires
a good head for heights. The last stretch,
300 meters long, has some fixed-rope
sections with tremendous drops. There are
plenty of good footholds, but hikers need
to have strong nerves to overcome the
height. From Pintian, we simply retraced
our steps back to our starting point and
then continued on a bit further, hiking
down to the main area of Wuling Farm
(www.wuling-farm.com.tw), a popular
recreation farm.
HIKING WULING SIXIU
Travel in Taiwan 43
1. Atop Mt . Tao2. Tak ing in the mountain scener y
3. Twisted tree of f the trai l
3
2014 Hsinchu City Glass Art CarnivalMarveling at Amazing Glass Creations at Hsinchu’s Glass Museum
Text: Dave Austin Photos: Maggie Song
Hsinchu, in northwest Taiwan, is a city with a bright and colorful
history that has established itself as Taiwan’s glass arts
capital. At this year’s Hsinchu City Glass Art Carnival, Hsinchu
let its colors shine!
Art pieces
from renowned
glass artists were on display at the Hsinchu
City Glass Museum this year as part of the
Hsinchu City Glass Art Carnival. Visitors
came to explore their world – a world of
masterful artisans – and learn about the
special techniques each uses during the
melting and heat-shaping processes in his
or her search for beauty, meaning, and
uniqueness, each artist seeking to break
away from old conventions.
Hsinchu is one of Taiwan’s economic
boomtowns, and its advanced-
technology sector has earned it a global
reputation. The Hsinchu Science Park
is a leader in high-tech research and
product development, most notably in
semiconductors, information technology,
computers, and optical engineering.
Since its establishment in 1980, the park
has seen enormous success in many
fields, earning Hsinchu the title “City of
Technology.”
But it is not only high-tech prowess
that has gained Hsinchu attention
on the international stage. The city
has also made a name for itself in
a craft that dates back long, long
before the first ever computers or
semiconductors made an appearance:
glass art. The annual Hsinchu City
Glass Art Carnival, which this year
took place from January through
April in and around the Hsinchu City
Glass Museum, fuses traditional art
with modern society. It is a showcase
of beautiful artworks in splendid
diversity complemented with glass-
workshop demonstrations and DIY
sessions during which visitors can
design their own pieces with the
guidance of professional artists.
“Happiness” and “Peace” were
the themes for this year’s carnival –
themes quickly understood by anyone
who visits Hsinchu Park where the
museum is located. A short walk from
Hsinchu’s main bus and train stations,
the park is a pleasingly calm oasis in
the midst of bustling surroundings.
When you enter, the buzz of traffic
quickly fades, replaced by the
sound of birds chirping and breezes
whispering through trees.
SPLENDID FESTIVALS
46 Travel in Taiwan
2014 Hsinchu City Glass Art Carnival
We found ourselves surrounded by a colorful array of palm trees, cherry blossoms, and
flowers. Glass-art pieces were scattered throughout, glistening
beautifully in the sun
On a sunny Friday morning during
a mid-February visit to the city with a
couple of friends, I entered the park by
crossing the Nine Curves Bridge, which
spans the appropriately named Lichi, or
Beautiful Pond. As its name suggests,
the pond is a charming introduction to
the park, with a lovely little pavilion in
the middle where visitors can take in the
beautiful landscape, watch schools of koi
swimming about, and listen to the many
species of bird chirping to each other.
Moving further inside the park, we
found ourselves surrounded by a colorful
array of palm trees, cherry blossoms, and
f lowers. Glass-art pieces were scattered
throughout, glistening beautifully in
the sun. The inspirational ideas behind
the works range from peace, love, and
happiness to religion and childhood
memories. The park is also home to the
Hsinchu Zoo (the third largest in Taiwan),
the Holiday Flower Market (open
weekends and holidays), the Hsinchu
Confucius Temple, and the Vision Hall of
the Windy City.
The building
in which the
Hsinchu City Glass Museum is housed
was constructed in 1936 for the use of the
Japanese royal family and high-ranking
government officials visiting Taiwan.
In the decades after Taiwan regained its
independence from Japan in 1945, the
facility was utilized by such groups as the
Kuomintang's Taiwan Military Takeover
Committee, the Americans’ Military
Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG),
and the Hsinchu Military Police. The
city government opened the museum on
December 18, 1999.
The building has a south European-
style oblique roof, reinforced Western-
style brickwork on the first-floor level of
the façade, and a Western classical-style
foyer. Design modifications were made to
the courtyard, interior space layout, and
landscaping to accommodate the museum’s
five functions: collect glass artworks, hold
glass-art exhibitions, engage in glass-art
education, boost the industry’s sales and
marketing, and conduct research on the
history of glass and on glass-making and
glass-art techniques.
SPLENDID FESTIVALS GLASS ART
Travel in Taiwan 47
One of the highlights of the annual
exhibition is the attractive Glass Art
Street, beside the museum along the
banks of the Beautiful Pond. Artists
were displaying and selling their
works in four beautiful Japanese-style
structures. They greeted us to their
small stalls with a smile, and a number
took pleasure in telling us stories about
traditional glass-art techniques that have
been passed down through generations.
Many have melded these traditions
with more modern stylistic elements,
such as using solar power and recycled
materials. It was evident that great care
goes into each finished art piece and the
processes used to create it.
The museum
is split into
numerous different sections with themed
permanent exhibits. The first section
we visited tells the history of the site,
portraying scenes of the past. We then
spent time in two large galleries on the first
floor in which works by artists from both
Taiwan and abroad are displayed. This
year’s carnival featured a solo exhibition
by Taiwan artist Zheng Mu-lian, entitled
“The Wild Fun of Making Glass Crafts.”
His 53 pieces on display were a splendid
showcase of creativity in the use of
materials available in day-to-day life.
Another noteworthy permanent
exhibit was the “Glass Imprisonment
Room,” featuring glass-art reproductions
of articles left behind by the last occupant
of what was used as a detention room
when the military police occupied the
building. Upstairs, visitors can follow
the timeline of glass’s history in various
human societies, from its first recorded
uses in 3000 B.C. Mesopotamia to
modern-day Hsinchu and elsewhere.
In the last display room we visited,
housing the permanent exhibit “The
Beauty of Glass Art,” we learned about
the three defining characteristics of a
English and Chinese Beautiful Pond 麗池Holiday Flower Market 假日花市Glass Art Street 玻璃藝術街''Glass Imprisonment Room'' 玻璃監獄Hsinchu Confucius Temple 新竹孔廟Hsinchu City Glass Art Carnival 新竹市玻璃藝術嘉年華Hsinchu Park 新竹公園Kuo-Kuang Motor Transport 國光客運Nine Curves Bridge 九曲橋The Wild Fun of Making Glass Crafts 游矽野趣Vision Hall of the Windy City 風城願景館Zheng Mu-lian 鄭木連
glass-art piece: its shape, its color (the
piece’s “feeling”), and its creative idea.
Most importantly, we were told, is the
use of light. The nature of a piece can
change completely depending on the
intensity, angle, and distance of the
light shone upon them. Much like the
infinite spectrum of light, a piece of glass
art can stimulate an infinite number of
sentiments within its viewer.
We learned that the Chinese style of
glass art captures the feelings from deep
within the hearts of the artists. This was
evident in all the creations we viewed at
the Hsinchu City Glass Museum, and
in the sense of pride that glowed on the
faces of the artists we met – knowing that
they had captured something rare and
beautiful, and proud to have it on display
for the whole world to see.
Practical Info
Hsinchu is easily reached from Taipei by both bus and train. Kuo-Kuang Motor Transport has a regular service (Bus 1822) from Taipei Bus Station; the trip takes just over an hour. Most trains, conventional and high-speed, traveling Taiwan’s western lines also stop at Hsinchu.The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday 9:00~17:00. Entry is NT$20 for adults.
SPLENDID FESTIVALS
48 Travel in Taiwan
Hsinchu City Glass Museum (新竹市立玻璃工藝博物館 )Add: 2, Sec. 1, Dongda Rd., Hsinchu City (新竹市東大路一段 2號 ) Tel: (03) 532-4834
The Chinese style of glass
art captures the feelings from
deep within the hearts of the
artists
GLASS ARTSPLENDID FESTIVALS
MRT Ximen Station, Exit 1
NET
Guanqian BranchAdd: 12, Sec. 1, Hankou St., Taipei City
(台北市漢口街一段12號)Reservation Hotline: (02) 2370-2323 (24h)
Ximen BranchAdd:156, Hanzhong St., Taipei City
(台北市漢中街156號) (Exit 1 of MRT Ximen Station)
Reservation Hotline: (02) 2389-0828 (24h)
Jilin BranchAdd: 196, Jilin Rd., Taipei City
(台北市吉林路196號)Reservation Hotline: (02) 2521-0060 (24h)
Jilin Branch IIAdd: 155, Jilin Rd., Taipei City
(台北市吉林路155號)Reservation Hotline: (02) 2521-1677 (24h)Guanqian
Branch
Jilin BranchJilin Branch II
Hankou St.
Kaifeng St.
Hu
ain
ing
St.
Jilin R
d.
Gu
an
qia
n R
d.
Chengdu Rd.
Ximen BranchMinsheng E. Rd.
Minquan E. Rd.
Foot massage(40 min.)+essential oil foot spa(10 min.)=50 min.
Price NT$500Whole-body massage(60 min.) or foot massage(60 min.)
(choose one of two) + essential oil foot spa (10 min.) =70 min.
Special Price NT$799Whole-body massage(60 min.) + foot massage(30 min.) +
essential oil foot spa (10 min.) =100 min.
Special Price NT$1,200
The most popular services of the health center are foot massage and whole-body massage.
Zho
ng
hu
a R
d.
Xin
ing
S. Rd
.
Ha
nzh
on
g St.
Li Bing-hui Foot Massage Health CenterMany locals, travelers, and business people come to this well-known health center
Taiwan-style body meridian massage helps to stimulate blood circulation and metabolism and to strengthen the immune system. It also helps to relieve fatigue and pain.
10% discount for services costing more than NT$1,000 (at Ximen and Guanqian branches) Except for special prices
20% discount for services costing more than NT$1,000 (at Jilin and Jilin II branches) Except for special prices
Paiwan Pottery
Passing Down the Ancient Pottery Traditions of an Indigenous Tribe
Text: Cheryl Robbins Photos: Aska Chi
The Paiwan
Tribe has a population of
approximately 86,000, mainly
distributed in Pingtung and Taitung
counties in southern and southeastern
Taiwan. Traditional Paiwan society
was hierarchical, roughly divided
into four levels: chieftain, nobility
(chieftain’s siblings and other family
members), shamans/artisans, and
commoners. From objects in and
decorations on homes, and from
patterns on clothing and accessories,
it was possible to identify a person’s
social status.
For example, the hundred-pace
pit viper was (and is) a sacred animal,
and its depiction, whether on clothing
or on the lintel of a home, was strictly
for the chieftain. In addition, the
courtyard in front of a chieftain’s
home contained a large stone carving
of the ancestral image. Today, three art
forms are considered Paiwan cultural-
legacy treasures: bronze knives, glass
beads, and pottery vessels.
In the Paiwan creation legend,
the first members of the tribe hatched
from eggs inside a protective pottery
vessel guarded by the hundred-pace
pit viper and incubated by the sun’s
rays. For this reason, traditionally
not all pottery vessels were used
by the tribe for practical purposes.
There was a type of vessel that was
considered sacred, and displayed
on shelves in designated areas of
homes. It was taken out only during
special ceremonies. Such pots were
personified, and had male and female
versions – the first decorated with
hundred-pace pit vipers, the second
with protruding bumps representing
nipples. These vessels were not only
important ceremonial items, but also
essential betrothal gifts for weddings
within the chieftain’s clan.
INDIGENOUS ARTISTS
50 Travel in Taiwan 1
“The elders of the village say that clay has a memory. It can keep a form and even the artist’s
fingerprints”
Just as with
the tribe’s
other cultural treasures, however, many of its
pottery vessels have been “lost” in recent times
– sold to, or taken away by, collectors and others
outside the tribe – leading to a cultural crisis,
until some artisans from Sandimen Township
in Pingtung County stepped in. They researched
how to make the traditional-style pots, including
the technique used in firing them over an open
hearth. One of these artisans is Oko Matilin,
who opened the Oko Handicrafts Workshop to
produce the pots for the people of the tribe, later
expanding to serve a wider market and including
other cultural products.
Oko’s son Lavurus Matilin has opened a
cultural-creative design company on the same
premises to complement the efforts of the
workshop, and helps to design its products. The
workshop is located just off Provincial Highway
24 in Sandimen Township’s Sandi Village, down
a narrow lane, which is home to a number of
indigenous-run workshops.
Lavurus, like his father, grew up in this
village. He traces his artistic roots back to
his grandparents, who were also artisans. He
grew up watching his family members create
pottery, wood, and metal artworks, and became
interested in art and design at a young age. He
has never entered formal fine arts studies, but
has worked as an artisan’s apprentice and as an
intern at the National Taiwan Craft Research
and Development Institute in Nantou County,
learning the basic techniques of working with
all three media. When asked which medium he
prefers, he says that because they are so different,
he has no favorite. He first worked with clay, and
notes that, “The elders of the village say that clay
has a memory. It can keep a form and even the
artist’s fingerprints.”
For him, however, it is not the medium that is
important but the ability to continuously create
new works. This is the spirit of the Oko Workshop,
which is divided into two distinct work areas: one
for making pottery and one for woodworking. In
the pottery area, traditional-style pots are made
in different sizes: the larger conform to the actual
size of the traditional pots, while the smaller are
meant to serve as gift items. Molds are used for the
smaller pots, but the larger ones have to be formed
exclusively by hand due to their size and the detail
of their decoration.
Product development is currently focused on
the integration of different media, such as clay
and wood. Colorful ceramic coffee mugs are
created, some fitted with wooden handles that are
handmade in the adjacent woodworking area. The
solid-color mugs are decorated with traditional
Paiwan patterns. Some are crafted as a set of two
that fit together vertically, creating a splendid
gift to present to couples, notably at weddings,
especially as they can be packaged in an elegant
wood box. The workshop’s line of coffee mugs
and other everyday-use pottery items is currently
its most popular; in addition to being sold onsite,
they can be found at gift shops around the island.
Lavurus
notes that the use of
traditional Paiwan patterns is very important. “The
advantage of indigenous peoples in producing
products is our stories. These stories lead to different
patterns.” Near the entrance to the pottery work
area is a set of shelves lined with product prototypes.
New products are constantly being designed and
tested, and custom orders are also accepted, such
INDIGENOUS ARTISTS PINGTUNG COUNTY
Travel in Taiwan 51
1. Paiwan ar t is t Lavurus Mati l in2. Oko Handicraf ts Work shop3. Color ful ceramic cof fee mugs
1
2
3
2
3
Yuan Gan Wu Jian Creative Culture Company Ltd./Oko Handicrafts Workshop (原感物件創意文化有限公司 / 峨格手藝工作室 )Add: 52, Sec. 2, Zhongzheng Road, Sandi Village, Sandimen Township, Pingtung County ( 屏東縣三地門鄉三地村中正路二段 52號 )Tel: (08) 799-5200
English and Chinese Lavurus Matilin 拉夫拉斯馬帝靈Oko Matilin 峨格馬帝靈Paiwan Tribe 排灣族
Getting There & Getting Around
Self-drive: From National Freeway 3, exit at the Changzhi/Sandimen Interchange and connect to Provincial Highway 24, heading east toward Sandimen. Cross the Sandimen Bridge and continue on Provincial Highway 24. A few hundred meters past the intersection with County Road 185, turn left onto a smaller road. The workshop is about 100 meters ahead on the right.
Public transport: Take a train to Pingtung Railway Station. Turn left on exiting the station and walk to the Pingtung Bus Station (www.ptbus.com.tw; Chinese). Take bus No. 8227 to Sandimen (NT$68).
of the Taipei 101 building on the top. Just
below the skyscraper, on a piece of wood
jutting out that represents a girder, is a
pottery sculpture of a construction worker
who had no idea that he was helping
to create what would be, for a time, the
world’s tallest building. The message of
this piece is that we need to consider who
great achievements really belong to.
Another
of his interests is
developing tourism in his village. Part of
the property has been transformed into a
campground, and those interested in art can
stay overnight and make use of the pottery-
making and woodworking areas to create
their own works. Lavurus encourages such
exchanges, and recalls a visit by two artists
from the Caribbean who came to learn
traditional Paiwan pottery making and
firing techniques. Other plans for the future
are the development of a showroom and a
space for DIY activities.
as from companies wanting to create an
exclusive gift or commemorative item.
Although he enjoys being able to
create functional products based on
Paiwan legends and motifs, his dream is
to be able to spend more time creating
pure, one-of-a-kind artworks. Several of
his artworks have been exhibited around
Taiwan, and are on display at the entrance
to the pottery work area, including a set
of three wood-carved books representing
a record of stories.
Stories told to him by people during
conversations are the inspiration for his
works, such as a pottery sculpture of a
man sitting slumped over on a piece of
driftwood. This is the depiction of a now-
middle-aged man whose biggest desire in
life is to study in junior high school, but
after 40 years that opportunity has still
not come. Another work is a vertical piece
of driftwood with a carved representation
“The advantage of indigenous peoples in producing products is our stories. These stories
lead to different patterns”
INDIGENOUS ARTISTS
52 Travel in Taiwan
Visiting a Shellfish Farm in Tainan
Text: Steven Crook Photos: Rich Matheson
Taiwan is – no exaggeration – a paradise for lovers of seafood, with
clams being a particular favorite. They appear in soups and stir-fries, and
can also be grilled or pickled. Curious why Taiwan enjoys such an abundance
of clams, and eager to sample some of the island’s best, Travel in Taiwan recently headed to the southern city
of Tainan in search of answers.
Opening Up Taiwan's Clam
Heartland
54 Travel in Taiwan
FOOD JOURNEY
Clams are
found
around the world, in freshwater as well
as salt. An Arctica islandica clam found
in the sea off Iceland in 2006 turned
out to be 507 years old, making it the
oldest individual animal ever discovered
with an age that could be accurately
ascertained. Clams, like trees, have
annual growth bands, although the ones
enjoyed in Taiwan’s restaurants are
seldom more than two years old.
For as long as humans have been
living on the island, clams have featured
in the cuisine. Clam shells have been
discovered in middens around the
island. Even now, at many points
along the coast, some members of the
older generation still gather to cook
wild clams. The vast majority of clams
eaten in Taiwan nowadays, however,
are cultivated in coastal ponds along
the southwestern coast. With over
100 hectares devoted to raising clams,
Tainan’s Qigu District plays a major role
in local shellfish production.
Outside Taiwan, Qigu is best known
for the black-faced spoonbills and other
migratory birds that spend their winters
here. The presence of so many birds is
no coincidence. The mild conditions in
which clams thrive also support shrimps,
snails, and small fish, staple foods for
waterbirds.
Qigu’s
clam-raising heartland
is utterly f lat. Compared to other parts
of Taiwan, the absence of buildings and
greenery is striking. The region is criss-
crossed by long, straight, raised roads
and utility poles; at least three-quarters
of the surface area is covered with water.
It appears deserted at first, because when
they can the workers shelter from the
hot sun beneath tarpaulins. But as soon
as we began talking with our guides for
the day – among them Mr. Zhang Feng-
xu and Mr. Chen Jun-zhang, both third-
generation clam farmers – we began to
appreciate how much hard-work activity
and diligence is involved in bringing
tasty clams to the dinner table.
I asked Mr. Chen why his ponds
lacked the paddle-wheel aerator machines
that are a common feature of fish farms
in Taiwan. He explained that as long
as the ponds are big enough (20,000
square meters is an ideal size), waves
whipped up by the consistent breezes
from the nearby Taiwan Strait provide
enough aeration for clams. Each pond
is completely drained at least once every
two years so the sun’s rays can disinfect
the mud.
The ponds are 30 to 50 cm deep, and
have openings through which sea- or
freshwater is added, and exit channels for
draining excess water. The water’s salt
content must be between 25g and 28g per
kg (the seawater off Qigu has 33g per kg),
and Mr. Zhang said this level is easy to
achieve because plentiful freshwater f lows
into the area from rivers and streams.
12
3
1. Sor t ing clams according to size2 & 3 Work ing in the c lam ponds
If the water is insufficiently saline – a
risk if there has been very heavy rainfall
– the clams may die. These days, clam
farmers use a pocket-size instrument
to measure salinity, but in the old days
highly experienced farmers simply
checked by tasting the water. There are
no industrial parks nearby, so water
quality is of little concern.
Opening Up Taiwan's Clam
Heartland
Travel in Taiwan 55
ClamsFOOD JOURNEY
The region is criss-crossed by long, straight, raised roads and utility poles; at least three-quarters of the surface area is
covered with water
The clams raised by both
men only spend about half their lives in Qigu. The shellfish are actually bred on the coast of Yunlin County, 40km to the north, then moved to Qigu for eight or nine months before harvesting. According to Mr. Zhang, usually 70 to 80 percent of the clams transplanted from Yunlin reach a saleable size, which for most varieties is around 3cm across.
Clams, like most shellfish, consume
plankton, but modern-day clam farmers
supplement this diet with yeast and high-
protein fish food. Piscicides are not used;
in fact, Mr. Chen and his fellow farmers
raise milkfish in their clam ponds, and
not only because the fish can be eaten by
the farmers or sold. Milkfish feed on a
kind of weed which, if allowed to thrive,
chokes and kills clams.
Mr. Zhang and Mr. Chen work year-
round, but an especially busy period is
just before the Mid-Autumn Festival,
which usually falls in September.
Millions of Taiwanese families celebrate
this important traditional festival with
barbecues, and a large number of them
add clams to the feast.
There can be no doubting
the popularity of Qigu’s clams with
Taiwanese consumers, especially now
that it is known that these shellfish
are a lean source of protein, contain a
useful amount of omega-3 fatty acids,
and are high in iron. However, like most
other forms of farming in Taiwan, few
young people are willing to enter this
industry. The authorities are endeavoring
to introduce high technology to add
value and make the business less labor-
intensive. Both Mr. Chen and Mr. Zhang
have attended classes in which they have
learned how to minimize chemical inputs
and reduce disease risks.
The two men agree that among the
biggest problems now facing clam farmers
are the difficulty they face hiring workers
and climate change. None of the ladies
sieving harvested clams (sorting them by
size) at the time of our visit was under 45;
those out on a raft collecting clams from
the bottom of a pond with a vacuum-
cleaner-like device were scarcely any
younger. Temperatures have f luctuated
unpredictably in recent years, baff ling
even tremendously experienced clam
farmers like Mr. Chen’s grandfather.
Just as Qigu’s clam farmers
are doing their best to make their
industry more sustainable, consumers
can help by minimizing “food miles”
(the distance food travels from where it
is produced to where it is consumed). An
excellent way to do this is to enjoy Qigu
clams and other seafood delicacies close
to the source, at A-Food Alive Sea-Food
Restaurant, a few minutes’ drive from
Mr. Chen’s clam ponds.
Decorated with blow-up photos
of black-faced spoonbills, A-Food is
delightfully unpretentious. The tables
are of the circular sort favored by local
banquet-style establishments. The staff
wear matter-of-fact aprons. The fact
2
that this eatery was three-quarters
full, though it is in the “middle of
nowhere” and we visited on a weekday at
lunchtime, speaks for itself.
Like many seafood restaurants in
Taiwan, the menu lists neither prices nor
quantities. The former vary according to
season and availability. As for the latter,
customers can ask for larger or smaller
portions depending on how hungry
they are. It is best not to arrive with set-
in-stone opinions on what you want to
eat, but rather come with a mind open
to suggestions made by the chef, who
always knows what is best and freshest.
It can be assumed that A-Food has
served a great many clams in its history,
and the ones we enjoyed – in a soup, as
well as larger ones cooked to perfection
and served by themselves without
seasoning – exceeded our expectations of
excellence. Good clams taste more like
mussels than oysters, and anyone who
associates shellfish with slimy or rubbery
textures or gritty aftertastes will leave
A-Food with a newfound appreciation for
this food category.
56 Travel in Taiwan
FOOD JOURNEY
English and ChineseChen Jun-zhang 陳浚彰Qigu District 七股區Taiwan Salt Museum 臺灣鹽博物館Zhang Feng-xu 張峰旭
Anyone who associates shellfish with slimy or rubbery textures or gritty aftertastes
will leave the restaurant with a newfound appreciation for
this food category
1 2
3
1. Feast ing on f resh seafood2 & 3 Washing and inspec t-ing the clams
Getting There and AroundTo properly explore Qigu’s clam-raising district, you will need a car, motorcycle, or bicycle. Two Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus services, #7702 Southwest Coast Route from THSR (Taiwan High Speed Rail) Chiayi Station and #99 Taijiang Route from Tainan Railway Station, go to Qigu’s Taiwan Salt Museum, from where you can take a taxi to the clam-farming area.
A-Food Alive Sea-Food Restaurant (阿芬海產餐廳 )Add: 27-1 Haipu, Qigu District, Tainan City (台南市七股區海埔 27之 1號 ) Tel: (06) 788-2207; mobile: 0987-751-158
A-Food’s other standout dishes include
fried grouper, salted giant tiger prawns,
milkfish, and lobster. You will need a
Chinese speaker, or a decent phrasebook,
to order – but as is true with so much of
the Taiwan culinary experience, fortune
favors bold travelers, and rewards their
palates and stomachs!
Travel in Taiwan 57
ClamsFOOD JOURNEY
brelloWhen someone mentions the word “rollerblading” to you, you might remember a time when almost everyone you knew had a pair of roller skates or rollerblades, perhaps using them to train for the next ski season. Or you might remember people wearing neon-colored spandex, dancing to disco music on MTV spots during the'80s. This is a familiar part of the past for many Westerners, and although the memories or the knowledge of that era of high popularity may be ever fuzzier, some have continued with the sport and have pushed the boundaries of what is possible on rollerblades ever further. You might wonder, “Was it the same for people in Asia?” The short answer is: Yes, it was pretty much the same – the boom of rollerblading was indeed global.
The sport
has developed
numerous disciplines in the years since,
like speed skating, roller hockey, various
recreational forms and, as dubbed in the
’90s – aggressive inline skating, meaning
the extreme forms of inline skating. This
is the kind of rollerblading I personally
find to be the most enjoyable, and it is the
type you will see most often in Taiwan.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that other
disciplines are not popular here as well.
For example, when I go skating with
friends at Taipei's Guting Riverside
Park, we often run into others enjoying
recreational inline skating – a discipline
focused on endurance and fitness.
Other times, at skate spots on university
campus grounds, I’ve seen groups of
students slalom skating for social or
extracurricular fun on more than one
occasion, smoothly weaving back and
forth between little cones placed on
the ground. There is also a substantial
roller-hockey following in Taiwan, with
regular matches happening in major
cities and towns – sometimes even with
cheerleading squads! Most notable,
however, is that the Taiwanese are
actively seeking out formal instruction
in rollerblading, akin to people seeking
out qualified private-sector guidance in
music, mathematics, or foreign languages
in the West.
When it comes to aggressive inline
skating here in Taiwan, there are quite a
few individuals who perform at its highest
level. Wang Wei-chieh is one, and I have
had the privilege to go skating with him as
well as other advanced skaters on a regular
basis for about two years now. Wei-chieh
primarily makes his living by serving as
a rollerblading instructor – getting people
of all ages started, and teaching them
how to keep advancing. The training he
provides leans toward the extreme forms
of inline skating, but also includes other
forms. I often see him finishing up a class
with a group of smiling enthusiasts when I
arrive at a skate park for a little “blading”
session, and sometimes the students will
join us afterwards and continue practicing
till the lights are turned off.
A few weeks
ago we
went together to the recently built concrete
skate park in Xinshi Park in Pingzhen
City, Taoyuan County. While strapping
on our skates and loosening up, I took the
time to ask Wei-chieh about the best places
for rollerblading in Taiwan, and if he
himself chooses spots based on the specific
things he’d like to practice. His reply:
“For me, a pair of rollerblades is just like a pair of sneakers: I will always need them no matter where I go. So, regarding the question of where to go rollerblading,
brello
ACTIVE FUN
58 Travel in Taiwan
Wang Wei- chieh jumping at a ver t ical wall
bladingin Skating in Taoyuan
with an Accomplished Local Inline SkaterText: Hanré Malherbe Photos: Zenith Lin
“For me, a pair of rollerblades
is just like a pair of sneakers:
I will always need them no
matter where I go”
TaiwanL: Rollerblader Wei- chiehR: Rollerblader Hanré
bladingin Taiwan
ACTIVE FUN ROLLERBLADING
spine that connects the deep and shallow
ends of the skate park’s large bowl.
Impressively, Wei-chieh can spin both
towards the left and right in mid-air. Each
time I f lew over the spine with relative
ease, but not nearly as stylishly as he did.
Next, we went over to the street course
next to the bowl to do some “grinds” on a
big “box” in the middle.
It went
pretty smoothly
for both of us regarding successful
execution of tricks, although it took time
refining the stunts, and after almost
countless jumps we needed a little break.
I asked Wei-chieh how rollerblading has
influenced him over the years:
“As I think back over the past 10 years or so, one of the most valuable things I’ve learnt from rollerblading is how to be brave. Brave people never only
say ‘I want to …’, or ‘I wish I could …,’ but instead think of a practical way to deal with a challenge. You are most certainly going to fall down or fail at some point, but you must stay optimistic, and think about what happened. Maybe your body strength is not enough … or your reaction time was not fast enough. Approaching a challenge this way opens your mind to search for a solution. In the beginning I wouldn’t try to find a solution; instead I’d just take off my skates and go see a movie with friends or whatever. But each time I regretted not having worked at it just a little bit more. The same goes for the many challenges life throws at you: If you don't figure out a way to deal with them, you will end up living a life filled with regrets. But if you choose to think of ways to solve your problems, you will become more and more confident.”
His confidence shows. After our break
he proceeded to do the most difficult trick of
the most important factor in your choice should be imagination. If you use your imagination, many locations are suitable for skating. Trying to skate at a place you would usually ignore will force you to think differently about how you skate, and ultimately bring about better advancement of your skills. For me it is extremely important to make rollerblading a free and creative activity – which is what the sport is all about. Obviously, skate parks will provide many of the necessary elements, but there are so many more obstacles out there waiting to be creatively explored in non-conventional locations.”
I found this perspective inspiring, and
now felt even more excited about the day’s
rollerblading, so we got started right away.
First, we did some simple 180s (jumping
straight up and then turning 180 degrees
in mid-air, landing backwards) over the
He proceeded to do the most difficult trick of the day:
Grinding on top of the tallest, gnarliest mountain of concrete
the park has to offer
ACTIVE FUN
60 Travel in Taiwan
1. Gr inding on top of the tal lest wall in the park2. Pingzhen Skate Park3. Roll ing across a box4. Jumping of f the box
1
23
4
English and Chinese
Guting Riverside Park 古亭河濱公園Pingzhen City 平鎮市Wang Wei-chieh 王韋傑Xinshi Park 新勢公園
www.facebook.com/inlineriders?ref=profilewww.facebook.com/funboxrollerblade?ref=profileAlso, feel free to contact this writer via e-mail: [email protected] finally, here is a webpage with a good reference list of rollerblading terms: www.rollerblading.com.au/skating_glossary.htm
Pingzhen Skate Park (平鎮滑板公園 )Add: 58, Zhongyuan Rd., Pingzhen City, Taoyuan County (桃園縣平鎮市中原路 58號 )Take a train to Zhongli Railway Station and take a taxi to Xinshi Park (5 min.).
For more info on Taiwan's rollerblading scene, visit the following two Facebook pages (events, photos, Taiwanese rollerblade culture, etc.). They are mostly in Chinese, but don't be shy to post in English ... someone will answer you.
the day: Grinding on top of the tallest,
gnarliest mountain of concrete the park
has to offer – the coping on top of the
more-than-vertical wall in the deepest end
of the bowl. There was no way I would
attempt the same, so I just watched him in
awe for awhile, before deciding to finish
off the day with some jumps off of the
ramp-side of the box in the street course.
I’ll leave
you with
something one of my friends from the UK
once said to me about the rollerblading
scene here in Taiwan, which I think sums
things up pretty well:
“From my experience, the community is alive and well in Taiwan, whereas in the UK it is more broken up and it’s harder to find people. Here, the simple fact that you like the sport allows you to make friends and skate, but back home it is more about who you know and what you can do.”
ROLLERBLADINGACTIVE FUN
Your Journey Begins Here
The modern
version of the Chinese character for sun, 日 (ri), doesn’t
much resemble the sun, but in ancient times the character had the sun’s rounded shape.
The curvature on the left side of the modern Chinese character for moon, 月 (yue), is an
indication of the original character’s depiction of a crescent moon.
Both characters are quite common in Chinese; they also have the meaning of “day”
and “month,” respectively. If you put the two together you get the character 明 (ming),
which means “light” or “bright.” Combine 明 with the character 天 (tian; “day”) and you
get 明天 , meaning tomorrow (as in “when the skies once again brighten”).
Put two 月 together and you get the character 朋 (peng), meaning “friend/companion,”
which is usually used in combination with 友 (you), which alone also means “friend.” If
there should ever be a night sky with two moons shining down on you, make sure that a
good 朋友 is at your side.
Here are some other common characters containing either 日 or 月 : 早 (zao; “early”),
昌 (chang; “prosperous”), 唱 (chang; “to sing”), 晶 (jing; “crystal”), 有 (you; “to have”),
and 朝 (chao; “morning”).
One of the most famous tourist destinations in Taiwan, Sun Moon Lake in the center
of the island, is also written with the two characters for sun and moon in Chinese: 日月潭
(the last character, tan, means “lake”).
FUN WITH CHINESE
62 Travel in Taiwan
Illustration: Fred Cheng
ri
yue
Luckygift Bakery was established in 1988. The founder, Mr. Huang Yong-ji, is a first-generation apprentice of Mr. Tsuyama, a honey Castella cake master baker with renowned Japanese company Nagasaki Hompo. To prevent these handmade skills to be lost, Mr. Huang decided to establish his own company, Luckygift Bakery. He insists to use natural ingredients and keep the original taste and therefore, he won the major award such as National Quality Guarantee Golden award. Luckygift Bakery was named Excellent Business and noted as Famous Gift Bakery in Taipei. Recently, it is ranked No. 1 nougat in Liberty Times' fine food blog and No. 1 Mother's Day cheesecake in Apple Daily News.
Round Nougat (Rated No.1 by Fine Food Blogs)Luckygift Bakery’s original round nougat is soft, aromatic, and chewy but not sticky to your teeth; it has become one of its star best-selling products. Each piece is made by hand.Enjoy now our six different nougats in different delightful flower packages.
Honey Castella CakeThis house special cake with browned surface emits pure flower aroma and tastes delicious. This special skills to make it has been passed down over two decades.
Pineapple Cake (Star Product)With the crispy crust and soft filling, the sweet Pineapple cake is beloved in Taiwan. It is also the best seller for visitors.
Round Nougat
Pineapple Cake
Honey Castella Cake
Customer Service Hotline: (02) 2694-2299
Yanji Branch: 4, Lane 137, Yanji St., Da’an District, Taipei City (台北市大安區延吉街137巷4號); Tel: (02) 2741-7457
Guangfu Branch: 422 Guangfu S. Rd., Da’an District, Taipei City (台北市大安區光復南路422號); Tel: (02) 2704-5157 www.lucky-gift.com.tw
Sec. 4, Zhongxiao E. Rd.
Sec. 4, Ren’ai Rd.
Civic Blvd.
Lane 137, Yanji St.
●
ShinkongMitsukoshi
●
Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
● Taipei 101
MRT Zhongxiao-Dunhua Station
MRT Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
GuangfuBranch
Yanji Branch
Yanji St.
Guangfu S. Rd.
Baked Shaqima
EXIT 2
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