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Xiao-er-lang
Around Taiwan in Thirty Days
"E-Mails of my wonderful solo bicycle trip"

Xiao-er-lang

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March 5th 2005 Saturday in Taitung, Day 15

Most of wild dogs on the streets are fat and strong here, I think there are too many good-hearted Buddhists or very few Cantonese around. The population of whole Taitung County is about two hundred thousand, the same as forty years ago. The wild dog population growth rate must be higher than human beings here because they won't go out to look for a better life. But the less development actually could make this area a superb spot for retirement and tourism.

There is a small but famous duck-meat preparing place in town. They cook the same duck in two styles. First style: Slice the skin, add large scallions and sweet paste, wrapped them with ready made thin egg-roll skin, we normally call it, Peking-style, then chop the rest of the duck into heavy flavored sauces as the second style. We bought a big bag of it and drove to a little town, Liji, for lunch. We found Jing-li farm on top of a hillside where goat milk coffee is their specialty. There is a very good view, overlooking a bad land and a grass toboggan field.

My Bonnie is over the ocean, my bonnie is over the sea, My..., I got in close touch with my ocean finally. We drove to Jinzhun beach in the afternoon to enjoy the ocean waterfront for the first time after I arrived the east coast. It's a gorgeous mile-long sandy beach by the mountainside, the beautiful reef scattered around making the beach more tasteful. I pretended to pick up shells on the sands to fool my sister but eventually jumped into the breaker to enjoy the chilly water. I was the only one in the water. The ocean force is very fierce if you don't know about it. I had two near death experiences some years ago. I lost my dear friend, Hsu-chun-hsiung, he drawn by accident in one scuba diving attempt.

We bought some famous Tunghe bao-zhi (Chinese meat and vegetable bun) in the town of Tunghe for supper then drove through a tiny lovely tunnel built by Japanese years ago in Tai-yuan. Over the tunnel, it? Another world, we drove around from another newly built road to come to the outside world. I heard Taiyuan used to be a place for keeping prisoners.

We went to Zhiben Hot Spring as a regular homework in the evening. To swim in a non-flavored shallow hot spring water pond only made me feel like taking a hot bath at home. Too much of it will eventually slow down my spirit I guess. I personally prefer to cold showers even during wintertime. It will prevent you from catching cold, enrich your ability to combat against all kinds of weather condition especially on top of the high mountains or in the cold streams and most of all, it will cultivate your strength of ability to fight against all evils. But a friendly ostrich walking on the street, a restaurant for small eating at the corner near the hot spring makes the trip meaningful.

March 6th 2005 Sunday in Taitung, Day 16

Min(3)-shu(4)(Bed and breakfast) is rather popular for ordinary residents to make extra income in Tatung area these days. Peng-chuan-yin, a long time friend of my sister, arranged a lunch banquet in a mountainous area near Tai-ma-li for a bunch of friends several days ago. Her close friend, interesting Li-sheu-wen, gave us a ride touring around from town to town before reaching Jingfong County. More than fifty years ago, the Yi-yuan Ming-shu owner, Chen-huang, came over Taiwan with the retreat army from Hunan, China. He married a minority woman and built his family in Taitung. He told me he missed his hometown in some midnight dreams. His place is high up in the mountain, he and his wife cooked a big table of food for us. Most dishes were from his vegetable garden and poultry farms, the pheasant is one of the delicacies. I did see those pretty chicks were run around in the farm a while ago, it made it hard to chew their meat. Chang-jin-ru, one of the guests, a schoolteacher in town, sitting next to me on the table, exchanged some point of view concerning education philosophy in Taiwan with me. Later, I visited quite a few min-shus nearby and realized that most of the operators were minorities. I believe an organized group is needed to help them to attract customers from outside. On the way home I pictured many bonze statues showing general characters of ordinary living in this minority village.

In the evening we went to Fisherman" Wang-ping-zong's house for sukiyaki dinner. Wang is a retired teacher, very fond of fishing. Every morning we would pass by a small temple by the beach before we entered the park for a morning bike riding. Wang was always there, chatting with lots of folks about fishing philosophy. Sashimi (raw tuna or salmon fish) with wasabi (a real spicy, irritating spice) almost became my daily plate ever since I reached this wonderful city. How lucky am I to have this opportunity to enjoy it! Wang gave me three books he wrote with the names as, "Life," ","Truth," and "Enlightening". Mostly, it is doing the inducing and the deducing work of daily life philosophy for ordinary people in town.

March 7th 2005 Monday Green Island, Day 17

Green Island, a sixteen square-kilometer island, is about 33K east of Tatung City. This would be my last place to visit before my round-Taiwan trip takes off again. I woke up at six in the morning in order to catch an early boat to go to the island. Unfortunately, I found a flat on my bike's inner tube before departure. I have no choice but to pump air in with my newly bought air pump from Hong Kong, wishing the tire would hold before reaching Fu-Gang fishing market. The nearby pier is the harbor where the boat departures. My sister and brother-in-law accompanied me to the boat in time for take off. I paid an unexpected charge of one hundred Yuan for my bike. The round trip ticket for the tourist passenger is eight hundred Yuan in the low season like this. I paid five hundred Yuan as a resident with the backup of a store owner on the island who was a student of Wang-ping-zong who gave us a dinner party last night. I later found the five hundred boat fee for two thousand residents on the island is way too high for them to pay, comparing with their income level. They'd rather stay home without traveling to know more about the outside world, and eventually the speed of development of this area will be affected by this behavior pattern. Green Island is opened for development over fifty years so far, but stayed as a deserted place as is for a reason.

I was treated as a VIP, and being invited to the captain's cabin as an honored guest by the officers after knowing about my respectable touring activity in Taiwan. But I enjoyed more by staying outside, getting the freshest air, waving hello to Beidawu Mountain, the highest summit in southern Taiwan, and seeing a flock of dolphins swimming along with our boat. The gust was too strong for ordinary passengers to survive, so I got no company with me at all in those forty-five minutes.

Xiao(3)-mao(1)-kon(1) Tea House, named after famous Taipei, Bei-tuo's setups, is located next to the harbor. The steps going up to their house are too steep for a sixty-one year old man with his broken bike. The hostess, Kuo-hsiu-BAO, gave me a very big welcoming smile and it made the sunshiny day even brighter. She cooked an all-vegetarian meal while I was fixing my bicycle tube. In a little while, the host came back, Tian-rei-ming, a simple-minded and kind gentleman who built this place up and also worked as a welder, taking care big and small related jobs on the island. He returned for lunch with his three temporary assistants from a nearby working spot where he was installing an automatic electrical folding gate. He showed me around his property and asked me some travel-related questions. What he wanted the most was to have his son, Tian-kuen-cheng, back from the city, to talk to me about the future development of the place. But his son, after buying some construction material, was waiting for the freight boat to return. The power plant director, Cheng-chao-min, a regular customer and friend, came over to chat with us for about an hour, he gave me a general description of the island.

The Green Island Harbor sits on the west side of the island. There is a well-paved cement highway circling around the island for about eighteen km. After two km of congested residential area up north, I saw a beautiful lighthouse in the northwest corner by the beach, next to the airport. Most lighthouses built in Taiwan are kind of fat in its shape, but this one is rather slender. There is a story behind the scene: about a hundred years ago an American ship ran into underwater reefs by the island and was rescued by local people nearby. Later, those Americans not only built this lighthouse for them but also gave those poor residents three years of food supply. So the native farmers did not have to harvest for three years, but there came another three years of starvation as a result.

There were two painters giving the third coat of white paint to that already white enough to the lighthouse environment. Another 3 km passed and I came the Oasis Vila, the place used to be a jail for political prisoners during the era when the Nationalist Party was controlling Taiwan politically and is now a memorial hall. I spent a whole hour here, trying to remember the time of my childhood spending under the ruling government without love and tolerance. How could they treat the people with different political point of views as prisoners! After the memorial park, with anger in my mind, I made a terrible uphill turn to the only mountainside ride by the seashore, more than half an hour later, it ended at the same point before the memorial park, I turned around trying to fix my fault and it actually doubled my mistake. This experience gave me a good lesson of not studying and memorizing the map well enough before taking a trip. I passed by Zhaori hot springs without stopping for their high-priced ticket. I'd rather use the not too fancy spot used by the locals for free next time. There is an international standard camping ground, built not too far from the hot spring, with a wooden platform and other facilities ready for the campers. I didn't see any attendants in the neighborhood; all the grounds were full of
weeds. The same situation as I experienced years ago in Hong Kong surrounding islands, it's quite a waste of money with no succeeding plan to attract people to use.

I met the director, Cheng-zhao-min, with his cute dog by the roadside again before I finished the whole island by sunset. He showed me a safe spot for swimming by the roadside. The pure green water around the island together with the outstanding reef statues and beautiful rock formations made unique scenery. When I come again next time, I'll try to swim around the island to enjoy it to its extreme limits, or may be trying to find a small raft to boat around, imitating the act of Robinson Cruise. I think it will take three days to really enjoy Green Island.

Supper served with Sashimi, made of freshly caught green fish, Ah-Bao told me his husband has to take some meat with the meal for his daily nutrition. We were trying a plan to catch crabs in the evening but a small cup of wine made me drowsy and couldn't stay any longer. I normally don't like to stay in a place like hotel, spending time with people who want to please you for economic reasons or staying with buildings of no emotions. But the living quarter built by Tian's family was quite comfortable to me, the extra height of the ceiling, the design of the fixture and even details of a small corner were thoughtfully considered. I had a sound sleep without dreaming of any lions.

March 8th 2005 Tuesday in Taitung, Day 18

I got up not too early and found my fixed tire flattened again and short of time doing fixing job. Later in Taitung I found I didn't clean the inside of the tire wall well enough in my first fixing job as a result for the second one. After breakfast, Tian's family insisted on not taking any fee from me and I liked the feeling of being treated as a friend instead of customer. Ah-Bao even wrapped the leftover pseudo-Chicken thigh for me because she thought I liked it. The assistant told me that he would have the fishing gear ready for me next time when I come. We had a dish of seven silver fish he caught last night when I feel asleep. I pushed my bike to Tian's installing site to see his workmanship and saw him with his ragged non-licensed truck. I reached the Star of Green Island just in time for departure. The captain waived the freight fee for my bike this time as a friend's treat. On the way back, in the captain's cabin I sang that beautiful Green Island Serenade for them, i.e., Chang-chun-shen, Su-zong-song, Lin-chun-de and Chen-zong-yi. I told them this song is very popular in Mainland China now, soon after the hostility of both sides of Taiwan Strait is over, Green Island will definitely become a hot spot for the tourists from mainland.

I called Tian-kuen-cheng in the city, and then came a fine strong young man who loved to work for his hometown, the hope for this underdeveloped region. We talked for a while and I gave him some advice to bridge his idea with the world for future business development as his father wanted me to do, then I took a much needed nap for tomorrow's early departure.

I woke up rather late in the afternoon and found all the surprises by the bedside. During my nap time, my brother-in-law went to have my bike fixed in the repair shop, buying a cell phone for me just in case I get stuck on the lost highway, having a long jeans for me to protect me from getting hurt if I fall from the bike, having a waist pouch for me for organizing small stuffs. What a brother! We rode together to the park again to grant my wish to swim in the huge eleven hundred meter-long swimming" pond. The water was rather chilly and the giant carp were visible. I took a fifteen-minute swim with other polar bear swimmers. We went to a photo shop to unload the memory space out of my digital camera to a CD and then went to a barbershop near the county government for a crew cut. Oh my lovely long hair!

A very special dinner of mi-feng (a very thin rice noodle) was prepared by Mr. and Mrs. Chen-yuan-ho, a classmate of Chen-chiu-tse, my brother-in-law. He has a modern house with very old pine trees, pond and antiques. The most interesting items were a teapot with a magnet control to the flow and a big build-in tiled goldfish tank, the spotless water made the swimming fish as a living Chinese painting. The well-written Chinese of the truth of love from Corinthians, "Love is patient, love is kind," always hopes, always perseveres." There was a nice dish of Sashimi, the delicious home-made snacks, plus the great love from another classmate, Wang-jing-kwui, an English teacher who spread his late wife's ashes in the ocean. I was so touched in this last evening of my staying in Tai-tung-city.

March 9th 2005 Wednesday in Hua-lian, Day 19

At six thirty, I got an early start when all the truck drivers were still in their dreams. I was fully equipped with a newly custom made rack on, whispering 'sayonara' to my beloved sister and in-law. I couldn't enjoy more in a week's stay in Taitung! Trying to avoid the seashore wind I picked up the Taitung-rift-valley-highway as my alternative to go up north. The highway goes along with the Central Mountain Range where our young mountaineers always went in for their brave adventurous climbing. While I was riding, I hardly got a valley" feeling as I thought I should have. Mostly, the rice field covered the land of both sides of the highway. The uphill slope of the road started to ease up after Taitung County. Lots of young girls with their kids were selling sugar cane juice and sweet corn by the roadsides. I found those products could satisfy most of my energy needs. These young ladies were from Vietnam married to farmers unable to find wives in their local town. They were hard workers in the field but couldn't find a decent living in their own country after communist took over scores of years ago in southern Vietnam. Most of them are going home once a year for visiting their relatives. They always give customers a bright smile to show their happiness from the heart.

At first, I thought I was going to stay in Yuli overnight to take a break, but it was only lunchtime when I reached its frontier. I changed to a smaller but prettier County Road 195 at Lochi, as suggested by Chen-mei-gui in Dawu. Right at this moment, the direction of wind changed in favor of my riding. What a miracle! This nameless tail wind pushed me through the west coast, waited there for a week and then climbed over Central Mountain Range to catch me here to continue its service for me. Now, I wanted to name it the 'Wind of the King!' It helped me cover more than 170K in a day.

I called my friend, Hsu-guo-shi, before reaching Hualien City. Through his cell phone I found he is presently in Chengdu, my hometown, looking for me! He gave me his wife's number to help me out. Chang-hui-chu used to be Hsu's classmate in school, was also a member of Mountaineer Club while we were in college. She has been teaching in Hualien Teacher's University for years. She took me to a nice buffet vegetarian restaurant, Pu-ti-shu, near the railroad station for dinner. There was a Canadian overseas student, Rik De Busser, from Quebec sitting next table with his lovely girl friend. He came to town for only three months but spoke Chinese fluently. Another young man trying to speak English with me is studying in Hualien High school, where I was planning to visit tomorrow.

March 10th 2005 Thursday in Hualien, Day 20

Last night, after dinner, Chang took me to a place near her university to stay. These office-looking houses were used mainly for their guests to stay when needed. I'm very thankful to have this peaceful spacious villa to stay to recuperate after a long distant riding.

I got up early as my usual habit and found myself totally recovered after a sound sleep overnight. After some study, I discovered this villa-type mansion" is located right by the most beautiful beach front, Chi-shin-tang"((Seven-star Gulf), in Hualien. In a nearby newly established shop I met Matthew from Arkansas, spoke the same southerner's English as American ex-president Clinton.

There is a well-designed bike route going along most of the developed area on the beach. I had a beautiful ride under the sun and mild breeze before going to a fast-food place near the university for a big lunch. I used to be a highly praised fried rice cook, the chef in that one-wok kitchen was so surprise to listen to my suggestions" after two big bowls of his specialty taken by me. I met a so-called ABC (America Born Chinese) girl, Gao-ming, from Vancouver when I was approaching Kao-hsing High School. She told me she was touring around Taiwan and found this beautiful place she liked and decided to stay for a while to study Chinese, she is on her way to a foreigner's bureau for visa extension. Quite a unique spirited girl!

I rode such a long distance to visit this not so famous High School for a special reason. There are two songs I always like to sing, Hui(2)-yi(4) and Ni(2)-lai(2). The melody and lyrics are so deeply rooted into human's loving sensation. The rhythm of the music makes me feel like swimming in a fragrant pond full of rose juice. This H.S. is the birthplace of these two songs. The composer, Kuo-zi-jiu, taught music here for thirty-four years, retired and passed away years ago.

I went randomly into an art class to listen to instructor Wang to teach. He happened to be a very resourceful teacher, he used computer as a major tool to inspire the kids to understand and define the process of career locating. He said that it took he himself thirty some years to put him on the platform today. Through the help of the guard at the front door, I was introduced to the administrators and got the opportunity to visit the memorial place for their late music teacher in the dormitory area. The place Mr. Kuo used to live was converted into a permanent memorial hall to recognize his contribution to the school and music world. The house is simple but full of discipline. While there, I was trying to find out how those beautiful songs were created. After a while I seemed to get the feeling from his environment of the land, people and culture background. It's a mixture of them all. I especially felt the importance of the lyric writer, Miss Chen-pei-ling, the beautiful words of this Chinese teacher must play a major role to give the birth of these songs. In addition to the above two popular songs, I felt the Hua-lien wu(3)-chu(3)(dance music) should also be added as an important song of their work. I went to the library to meet the director, Hsie-shi-hsian, and got a precious memorial CD and lots of copies of old information. Before leaving the school, he gave me a website of Hua-lien H.S.: <a href="http://www.hlhs.hlc.edu.tw/">http://www.hlhs.hlc.edu.tw/</a>. He suggested the music cultural hall and alumni section for further information.

I went to the railroad station to get some important information for me to decide whether to continue my riding up north to complete the riding flu. There is a very nice information center near the station run by the railroad enterprise. With all the information I got, I realized that the next section of highway, Suhua highway, consists of too many long dark tunnels with narrow pavement. Also, only two days ago, a big accident happened; a collision of a tourist bus with a big truck full of construction pebbles. For the safety reasons, I decided to take the Jukwang passenger train with a cargo compartment to Taipei tomorrow afternoon.

When I was wandering on the street to look for a place for dinner, I happened to meet three lovely youngsters, a boy named Huang-wei-fan from minority county of Tai-lu-ge, two girls, Sun-jia-hui and Wu-ting-er. They are good friends studying in a vocational school. We had dinner together in a snack shop, and they suggested a computer Ka (computer with coffee) equipped with separate smokeless rooms next door for me to use. It was a really a comfortable place for me to continue writing my travelogue. I drank four big cups of ice coffee and stayed there until two-thirty a.m. before heading back to my mansion in Hualien. The road distance become much shorter after you know how to make turns.

March 11th 2005 Friday in Taipei, Day 21

Getting up late for departure, I called Chang to say goodbye and found she was in Taichung (central Taiwan) at this moment. The traffic alternatives are so convenient in Taiwan these days; people can go almost anywhere and any moment to do whatever they want. But unfortunately, most people abandoned bicycle as an energy efficient and environmental protected vehicle to go around from place to place.

On the way to the train station I rode one extra intersection and found that the Tzuchi University was next to me on the roadside. Tzuchi is a world famous name these days, the creator, Master Cheng-yan is a nun with enormous ability of leadership and marketing creativity. She made an empire in the Buddhism kingdom. In the field of philanthropy, medicine, education, and culture, we'll see their devotees always get to the frontier where the needs are most wanted, worldwide. Hualien is their birthplace where a medical college established its foundation. People worship her for her extreme unselfishness. I believe a better world is always in our hand when we give more than take. I feel the architecture of the main building is too heavy cemented without the deep kind spirit of the Buddhism philosophy. I enjoy a small all bamboo made hut in the background with many vivid sculptures surrounded by water ponds.

I paid three hundred thirty-three Yuan for my train ticket and two hundred something for my bike. I checked my bike into the station and went to the same computer Ka to wait for my departure hour of 14:23. I paid eighty Yuan again for another five hours. The only working hour I have left before getting into Taipei. I don't think I can do any more decent computer work once I get there. Up to this point, I spent most of the ten thousand Yuan I borrowed from Mr. Lin in Dayuan twenty days ago before my journey started. I neglected to bring all my travel money on the shelf back home as I rushed to the road. And even worse, I lost my token money bag at my first fall in front of the telecommunication office in Dayuan while leaving the office after a whole afternoon's attempt but no result to get my wireless notebook computer online. At that moment I was trying to mount on my bike with my big bag in a rainy day. I don't seem to worry about my near empty pocket with only three hundred Yuan in it. I came empty handed to the world and I'll leave the same way, but now I have my backpack, bike and loads of generous old friend in Taipei.

My seat was in the second compartment while my bike sat in the last compartment with other cargo on the train while leaving the railroad station. The train was smooth and comfortable; it took about four hours to reach my destination, Songshan, where cargo is allowed to unload. The train was never full until Jiaoshi, when hundreds of students just out of school come on. It's quite a job for me to squeeze over the jam-packed walkway of more than ten compartments to reach the tail end. I left the train at 18:17 as scheduled. The route to my next appointment was not too complicate to ride, only a few turns to make before I reached the National Taiwan University, my mother school in college. In the department of psychology, I saw a notice on the bulletin board: "It's not allowed to keep traveling wild animal in the office!" I started to worry about my classmate's situation of taking me as a guest now. I easily found Hsu-jia-hung in his office eagerly waiting for my arrival, we called him "little third son" for his innocent-looking character. He is almost a chain smoker, with all the cigarette butts in the ashtray. Good thing about it is he seems never smoke at home or in front of friends who don't smoke. He told me he is still very fond of playing soft tennis as forty years ago and likes to use all the leftover energy to play it every Thursday night when he comes back from Taichung where he take the position as a director, working a newly established psychology department up for another new job after the retirement from here now. He was ready to teach in an evening class for out-of-the-work students. I joined his class taking his lesson of Development Psychology session of a General Psychology course. Dr. Hsu got his degree in Physiological Psychology in Iowa State. The main subject tonight, neuro-system, was his expertise, but it made me a little sleepy. May be it's from the fatigue of a whole day's travel especially without enough rest overnight. The two-and-a-half hour class finally came to an end by this unique T-shirted professor with saliva spread all over. He wore a country style bamboo hat as he walked on campus, which was very suitable for this current drizzly evening. We walked back to his retired professor's office to chat until eleven thirty before heading back to his home about fifteen minutes away.

March 12th 2005 Saturday in Tao-yuan Day 22

A warm heated toilet seat scared me in the bathroom this morning. I was very much afraid of a hand would stick out of the bottom of the seat to help me wipe out the wastes.

I met Wang-lian-hui, Hsu's better half, in the morning with their daughter, Da-wen, before going to a special place for breakfast with Hsu. Wang is currently working in NTU student guidance center; she used to be a member of NTU Mountaineering Club while in college. I remembered she sang quite a lot in our last class gathering last time.

Here we went to a tiny alley near Ho-ping-tung-lu, an old fashioned breakfast spot where they used clay-made stove to bake Shao-bing (cake), I had two big bowls of salted soybean milk, a set of Shao-bing you-tiao (fried fat chopstick like donuts), one singleton Chinese shortcake with sesame on top, one egg shaped sweet rice ball, one egg cake. My big appetite stunned my friend and the other customers. But they didn't know while I was traveling I normally have a big breakfast because I didn't know where and when I could land my second meal.

I made an appointment yesterday with my friend, Chiu-hai-yuan, to listen to his speech delivered in Gong-guan, the branch school of Teacher's University, but things became out of control after my friend, Wang-ching, picked me up to a mini-gathering in Tucheng, the suburb of Taipei. I knew Wang over thirty years through my grade school classmate, Lin-chi-hsiung. Wang promised me to send me back to where I should go by two in the afternoon. But when five of us: Wang, Lin, Cheng-ming, Yang-cheng-yi and me, were playing Ping-pong, working on the sukiyaki, drinking and laughing, things started to become much different than expected. Later, Lin told me he wanted to take his wife, Li-sheu-lan, to a flower show tomorrow in central Taiwan. It sounded very attractive to me, so there I go again to Lin's house to stay.

I met Lin's son Alvin and Alvin's newly wed wife in Lin's four-story building. Alvin is currently working for Microsoft in Taiwan, can speak very fluent English. He taught me how to use software to put the words and pictures together that night. I hope my fun writing travelogue could eventually be translated into Chinese with pictures attached.

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