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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 13th 2005 Sunday in Tao-yuan, Day 23

In order to make a round trip to central Taiwan in a day easier, we got up early in the morning. Lin is a very good cook, and especially likes to cook for an old friend like me. It took us only two-and-a-half hours to reach Changhwa, the place near my first stop of my journey. Oh, yes, I didn't get a chance to tell everyone how exactly I finished my first 200K in the first day of my fantastic round-Taiwan-tour in detail. It was a very frustrated day.

On February 19th, I took off from Dayuan near the airport, the first part of the road was pretty much flat without much of steep hills. I think I didn't do so a good job when I assembled my bike from three separate pieces into one. The night before departure, I had a rough ride experience, very difficult to reach the highest speed gear somehow. When I went over Miao-li, Hou-long, I met the first very long hill to climb. Before reaching the top of the hill, just over the 109K mark of the West Coast Highway, I wanted to change my gear to the lowest in order to be able to reach the top. At this critical moment, one of the most important parts, the speed shift gear broke into two. I hitchhiked for a while with no luck, and then I pushed my broken bike up the hill for about 2K to an exit. I rented a ride to a nearby town, Tong-xiao, hoping to fetch a needed part to replace so I could continue my journey. Unfortunately, it was Saturday and the repair shop was unable to get the wanted parts from the distributor. I had no choice but got to the railroad station in town and get on the next local train to a bigger city, Changhua. As I arrived, my friend, Huang-jin-po, came to the railroad station with his friend who knows the bike well. How happy was I to see a close friend in a desperate condition like this. We drove directly to his familiar repair shop to compete a fairly good job. Huang insisted of paying the repair bill about one thousand Yuan. We had a seafood lunch together and drove me all the way to my 200K destination in the dark.

This was another holiday and Huang waited for us in his home with a big yard, making tea for us. Tea ceremony became a special art in Taiwan when the economy reached a certain level. Huang seems an expert in doing so. We enjoyed it very much. Huang works for Taiwan Water Company as a senior electrical engineer, now over fifty without getting married. He is very kind to his mother, kid sister and friends alike. I think at this moment, the only hard thing for him to do is the last kick to the goal for a fond decision on marriage.

It was a windy day for the last day of annual flower show. I liked to watch is the orchid exhibition by Taiwan Sugar Company. The giant company is not producing too much sugar these days due to the international sugar price competition. The garden designs were also interesting, full of creativities and oriental philosophy. Taiwan Express Railway Project had a special booth for advertising of its opening ceremony on October 31.

On the way back to Taoyuan, we sang happily together to shorten our journey psychologically.

March 14th 2005 Monday in Taipei, Day 24

There was an appointment made last week for the mini-reunion of NTU Agronomy classmates at noon in Taipei. There is only 20K to Taipei up north via Taoyuan. I'd like to enjoy this section of seashore ride. The chilly northeast seasonal wind was still blowing hard against me due to an arrival of an unexpected cold front. It's really the worst wind condition I ever faced this month. What an enjoyment, it almost blew me down in one of the worst uphill slope. Three hours later, I only finished two-thirds of the distance. I was unable to appreciate the seashore at this moment. I spent the last bit of my energy to fight against the wind. Finally, after crossing the Guandu bridge, I was in the region of Taipei city, I thought I could take the mass transit to fast my speed to meet my friends by the college. The authority turned me down for the reason of the failure of an experiment of taking bike along with the passengers recently. With no exceptions, I had to keep on riding. Fortunately, the Chongshan bridge bared motorcycles but gave the green light to bicycle riding. A little advantage can boost the rider's spirit right away sometimes. After the whole sections of Chungshan North road, then South road and Roosevelt road, there came the National Taiwan University, NTU, my mother school where I went in as a student in agronomy department, later transferred to psychology.

It was two-forty in the afternoon. The lunchtime was over, the food court already closed, my poor classmates sitting in the lounge, waiting for a traveling VIP to arrive. Right away I recognized Wen-chong-kwang, Huang-sheng-luo and Chu-guan-ting's old face from forty years ago, but not Miss Liu-xiao-lan's. I think I was too shy to look at girls when I was a freshman. After some handshakes and pictures taken, all my retired classmates left me with my empty stomach. I turned my bike to the campus to visit my only missed classmate nearby. Lin-hsin-er worked in the university farm for the past twenty years. How lucky I am, he is now the boss of many enterprises owned by the farm, and most important of all, he is as generous as he used to be. With only a small signature, there came two whole boxes of Ice cream cake and peanut flavored Popsicles. How do I miss them all! I bit and swallowed five big cakes with three Popsicles in half an hour. Mr. Lin startled with his eyes wide open, he was worried about the capacity of the poor stomach of an old man. I spent the whole afternoon in his office and a small part of the farm. I enjoyed a little green house mansion designed under the idea of the most environmentally effective and efficient philosophy. The breeze blows the air into the room from the surrounded flowing waterway keep the room temperature four degrees lower than outside in the summer time. A small square lawn consists of hundreds of different species of grass from different origins. Lin told me how comfortable he is at his present position now. There are quite a few years to go before his retirement.

When the sun says good evening to the Thumb Mountain nearby, the re-union of psychology classmates is coming to time. The eating place is not too far from the NTU campus. There is no parking problem for my skinny bike. The so-called Big Five classmates chose to stay in Taiwan for their career development out of twenty-one in our class almost forty years ago. Look how happy they are; I think they made the better choice. Not much of struggles to make, never living in an isolated island, they live with their own folks, doing things in the country where they think they belong. We had a great time spending the whole evening together. Professor Li made a decent report for that evening as the following.

March 15th 2005 Tuesday in Taipei, Day 25

I called my kid brother, Ching-fu, at ten-thirty last night to inform him of my coming to town and wished to stay with him overnight. Arriving Taiwan for the 25th day, without getting together with my beloved brother was kind of weird to me. I do purposely wish to stay with my different old and new friends this time in different evenings to enjoy and understand their lives better.

I was with my brother for Chinese New year this year in Chengdu. I actually arrived Taiwan before he did. It was nice to see his family members in his house. His wife, Tsai-chi-nan, is a Chinese painter, specialized in flowers. I used to attend her art class and enjoy her teaching. Their daughter, Hue-chi, was the only one of our second generation who went to the same college, NTU, where most of us were alumni. She just got a new job, selling bioresearch apparatus. Their son, Ben, is going to get married this fall in the States; I am ready to go to Vermont to participate the wedding ceremony there.

Hue-chi took us to a small restaurant in Tong-hua Street near their house to have very delicious dishes of Cantonese Dim-sum (small eating dish). I never had such a well-cooked Cantonese food for years after I left New York City. A couple from Burma operated the store.

Sun-Jen-hsian gave us a ride to a getting-together spot with some friends from NTU Mountaineering Club. This club was re-establishing its base forty-two years ago when I was a sophomore in college. Now, Sun is the major coordinator for the members of the first ten years. The place we were going now is the home of Chiu-shu-hua, the editor-in-chief of our 40th year re-union publication two years ago. At that time, through lots of effort, our members of the forty years had the first chance to see each other in a remote mountain lake, Son-luo-hu, discovered by the club years ago.

With thousands of books and photographs on the standing bookshelves circling the house, I found the reason why the memorial publication was in such a good quality. People from all aged group showed the harmonized spirit inside the club. I sensed the growing momentum is still marching. Chiu gave us an in depth description of out happy time that evening.

March 16th 2005 Wednesday in Taipei, Day 26

I called my friend, Chiang-ying-hsian, and told him my whereabouts. He said that I was not too far away from where he lived and wanted to offer a ride to pick me up. Since it's not too far, I thought it's easier for me to ride there with my bike. After finishing looking at the map, there I went to my long-time-no-see friend. You can hardly imagine, a ten-minute riding distance took me more than three hours to finish!

According to the map, Chungshan road is on the other side of the flood dredging way. Unfortunately, there is another Chungshan road, the right one, on this side, which I ignored. The doorman took a few precious pictures for us and I am on my way with the spirit of a wayfaring stranger. I came to a big cross road after crossing the wide flood dredging way. The traffic control volunteer kindly showed me a shortcut to my friend's house. I made a left turn. After floods of trucks and sexy olive sales girls, the road took me to a remote Tai-shan county. Trying to come back to my Chungshan road, became a nightmare to me. An endless mountain highway took all my energy away. But I happened to pass two valuable spots as a reward, though. A beautiful Putian Buddhist temple and a school for overseas students are on the roadside. This school is a pre-college my late father used to be a principal forty some years ago. I would not have known the school had moved to a mountainside like this if I had not happened to pass by. After more than two hours' struggle, I finally reach the top of the highway and found Chungshan road. Trying to get the accurate spot, I called Chiang. Up to this right moment, I found the same road in Lin-ko was not the one I should go! Fortunately, a kind lady showed me a small downhill forest road, which eventually took me back to the riverbed near the place where I came from. There was a worker there told me to climb a very steep pier up as a shortcut. It looked like a mission impossible by just looking at it. I don't believe I made it together with my bike. At top of the pier I met a young man, Yu-jun-hsian, he told me his story of joining the army voluntarily after the regular service experience as a college student. Later on, with his motorcycle leading, I followed. Within five minutes, I met my dear friend, Chiang-yin-hsian, anxiously waiting for my arrival.

I start knowing Chiang in Shanghai about twelve years ago. He is an active member of Mountaineering club while in school. He entered the same college while I already left Taiwan. He is the kid brother of my long time body, Ying-chun. Both of them have a very high spirit of starting enterprises and did well. Since Ying-hsian and I were both living in the States for decades, we often went together to the mountains and waters. We enjoy each other for our personality ingredient of free spirit. We make jokes, laugh and sing together without a boundary.

This is the place his father-in-law resides. I met Mr. Kao in the States once, he is running a packaging business, he told me most of the clients moved to mainland China, business is very quiet these days, he was in his sick bed but happy to see me. Ying-hsian is still dressed like a plumber. He is one of my few friends with a doctor's degree but not having the title on his name card. I loaded my bike and backpack in his sports van, and he drove us to his newly purchased place in Nan-kan, near the airport. Taiwan's transportation system is really convenient, it took us only twenty some minutes to arrive his luxury apartment. We swam in the vacant warm water swimming pool and had a steak lunch buffet nearby.

We went to Nan-gang to meet my classmate, Chiu-hai-yang. We call him Da-Pai (Big Shot), because the way he walked and talked looks like a VIP, but in reality, he is an honest humble gentleman. He started working for Sinica, the highest research institution in Taiwan, ever since he came back from the States after receiving his Ph.D. in Sociology from Indiana. He took us to see the whole institution of all fields of research, a very quite but full of deep thought place, and gave us an interesting background introduction. In recent years he became a famous speaker for the intellectuals in Taiwan and active in democratic movements. In his three published books, I can clearly picture the change of Taiwan's political progress with his increasingly improved writing ability. I went to his home to taste the delicious home cooking from his happy wife, Li-su-hua, and stayed there overnight. Honestly speaking, I brought all camping gear with me, traveling around the whole Taiwan Island, without even opening it up. I don't think I need to own any property, or to have too much money for the rest of my life for the same obvious reason.

March 17th 2005 Thursday in Taipei, Day 27

Happy Li-su-hua, I met her once in New York City long time ago when she came to visit with Da-pai. She retired from her career, staying home to take care of her light Parkinson's disease. I really admire her spirit of singing, she keeps on singing whenever she can. Da-pai has an interesting pot garden in his patio. He is especially interested of cultivating a unique species plants, called "stone lotus." This plant is neat, clean and beautiful, just like the classical music he loves. He gave me eight different species in three specially designed containers of his. Later, he gave me a book of special plants he found might be interested to me also a memorial set of the famous Taiwanese composer, Lu-chuan-shen. I think he will give you anything he has, only if you ask.

We went again to Chiu's department and got a chance to take a precious look at the museum for Taiwan's minority tribes. It is a small, well-kept museum with in depth collections.

In one hour, I reached Taiwan University by bike with loads of books and plants on my back. I found my friend, Chang-chang-yi, in his geography department near the university farm. He handed me his name card with five titles, I think he can triple it or more of it if he wants. I remember about thirty years ago, before his return from the States after schooling, he came to New York to talk to me to go back to Taiwan. Then he came back to his beloved education field to teach and work as a brave warrior in the frontier of environment protection, and look at me, I am still a traveling soul looking for its destined end.

Chang took me to the famous NTU's alumni hall for a wonderful lunch buffet. I liked the cheesecake made here and gave a few suggestions for its salad bar as a return to its chief chef, which he took with delight. Chang talked me into a field he thought I might be interested and we made another appointment for tomorrow evening before leaving.

After lunch I went to the student activity center on campus and found Mountaineering Club on the second floor. There stood Lin-chi-wei, Tseng-hsin-yi, Hung-chung-wei and Lin-wei-ting in the office, taking a lunch break. I asked about their recent activities and told some of my early experiences in running the club. We enjoyed seeing each other, taking a picture together by a student from our neighbor, Boy Scout Club and singing our club song before bidding farewell.

My friend, Shih-meng-tao, a guitarist, has his residence and classroom on the street near campus; there I met him with his young wife and a three-year old son. We used to help a mutual friend, Peng-hsin-han, together out of his depression years ago while Peng was still a student in school. Shih looked much energetic and young than the last time I saw him decades ago. He is handicapped with his feet unmovable since childhood. Shih makes me think of our newly wed Nobel Price winner, the physicist, Young-cheng-ning.

I met Chiang-yin-hsian again and went to see his ill father at his home. We are all in the age of taking care of, or even leaving our aging parents. I lost my parents ten years ago with very bitter experience. They all were in a near perfect health condition while they were leaving. I was not prepared to accept the fact and went into a depression stage for a few years. I finally overcome my sorrow through the help of rock climbing, reading, religion and the encouragement of friends. After recovering, I always take the parents of my friends as my own.

A thirty-some year-old friend, You-Tian-deng, is an assistant professor in Taiwan University, teaching physical education. He came to Chengdu with his Tai-chi master, Chang-kuo-chang, to worship a late famous Tai-chi Teacher in his graveyard. Chang was practicing Tai-chi over forty years, but only broke through the important turning point and got inspired ten years ago after reading a series of books compiled by that master's disciples. Chiang and I met them in the gym where lots of the scholars from the university were learning Tai-chi from them. We had dinner together with some other students, among them, Miao-shi-chuen, a professor of immunology in Taiwan University, and Lin-sheng-fen, a VP from Dryden Financial Group.

Chian-ying-hsian drove me to Yuan-huan to pick up his brothers to a hot spring in Jingshan. I met Ying-chun with his wife, Luo(4)-chung-ze, and Yin-zhi whom I knew in Shanghai. Another brother, Ying-shi, with wife just finished their daily dental practice came out of the office. Up to this moment I've met all the members of Chiang's family. It's a rather unusual occasion. The road Ying-hsian drove us to the hot spring is about fifty kilometers away. I knew this distance without looking at the odometer. It is the same route I used to walk roundtrip when I was a college senior participating a race in one hundred-kilometer walk in memory of our late national father, Dr. Sun-yet-sun's one hundred-year birthday. It was a very severe experience for me to walk that a long distance with rare chance to stop in twenty-two hours. Now, Chang finished this in about an hour. Ma-tsao Hot Spring is unique for its mineral rich and high temperature spring. Quite a few individual ponds allowed you to fill in the spring water by yourself with the right temperature you wanted. We got there at eleven thirty and finished after mid-night. What a crazy nightlife in Taipei!

March 18th 2005 Friday in Taipei, Day 28

The loud vibrating sound of so many familiar folk songs woke up from my needed sleep.

Oh yes, on the way back from the hot spring last night, Ying-chun, Ying-hsian and me released the control of our throat, singing hundreds of the songs learned from our Club years ago. Singing together without the company of any music instruments is of course not as pretty and formal as a choir. But the feeling of the mutual understanding of all the background we shares together will make us drunk without the involvement of any alcoholic beverage. The sounds of the music become the wake-up call this morning.

Ying-cun called me up and gave me the information about his friend and associate's whereabouts as he promised last night. I rode to Hsing-yi Community college to meet its principal , Kuo-chen-wie, talked about the whole concept of the past and the future development of community college in Taiwan for quite a few hours and got very valuable data for further understanding.

I went back to NTU farm before Lin's departure for his weekend recess, made a preliminary renew list for our classmates directory and the most important, to pick up the leftover ice cream cakes in the box last time. I ate three and brought the remainder to treat Chang-chang-yi right next door. "I shall return" for visiting more of Lin's territories in animal farms, food processing units and horticultural gardens, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera for more of his treats, may be?

Seeing Chang in his office at six thirty, then heading for Yung-ho Community College, settled in Fu-ho Junior High School. Several nice curry layer cakes with cups of ginger tea made a wonderful snack before talking to the principal of the middle school, Chen-chung and her smart dog, Stanley. From her inherited accent of language I was surprised to find out her grandparents' birthplace was Sichuan, Chengdu where I was born. Taiwan's community college offers courses to adults aged over eighteen. It gives a second chance for people to an everlasting study and the enrichment of life. That's probably could also become a good base for a better society in this very politically inclined society.

A dinner appointment made with my pal of fifty-five year friendship, Long-wei-yeh, was delayed from six thirty until almost eleven in the evening. Chang took me over Long's house, where all the good dishes were still on the table, after three hour conversation in school, both of us got very hungry. We ate all the dishes plus two whole big metal pots of rice. It was quite a revenge, Long's elder brother, Long-wei-chen used to eat eight bowls of rice from our poor kitchen some decades ago! Long graduate from NTU in double E, worked for IBM for thirty years, retired as the chief general manager, and worked now as vice chairman for Acer's affiliates, Wistron, a computer software package company, playing golf most of the time. I hardly see him after graduation. Last time we met, thirteen years ago, was in one of the small islands in Hong Kong, He described me as a barbarian wondering around there with my #2 sister to my friend. Chang happened to be Long's schoolmate in high school. Not to take too much of his sleeping time for his golf date by daybreak, we left Long's house a little while after mid-night.

Chang's wife, Su-li-yu, was still waiting for us, when we arrive his home near NTU. She showed me her oil painting of a green pond. When you look at that painting in close range, it doesn't seem a great painting, but when you look it at a distance you can almost see the full pond of water will about to run out of the boundary and drop to the floor underneath. What a wonder you will never see in Chinese painting.

March 19th 2005 Saturday in Taipei, Day 29

Early in the morning, Chang took me to a hard working couple to buy man-tou (Chinese steam bun) and soybean milk for breakfast, then we went for a very special meeting at six thirty in front of an un-addressed location in Chung-ho, where I was brought up in my childhood. Forty-eight of my grade-school schoolmates will be on a full bus, ready to go for an annual tour for three days. I have to leave Taiwan tomorrow because I reach my visa is due. My deadline for thirty days' stay is pushing to the limits. The only information I have on hand for the waiting location is "Da(4)-miao(4)"(big temple) on Chung-ho Road. That's the place I used to catch the bus to school fifty years ago. My God, Chung-ho road is a miles long street now, how could Mr. Chang find a hundred year-old temple plus all kinds of buses parked by the street sides everywhere. Luckily, one old lady knew exactly where "Da-miao" is, after so many U-turns driving by our chauffer. Finally, I found all my old classmates five minutes before their departure. After all the handshakes with most of the unfamiliar faces, we bid farewell while singing together with our school songs. Believe or not, I could still remember all the lyrics without a reminder. I could see through my classmates' wide-open shocking eyes with some explanation. See, I was born in Chengdu, Sichuan. I arrived Chung-ho when I was six. The only language I can speak at that time was Sichuanese. People in that rural school had never heard such a strange dialect before. They laughed and made fun of me, including our class teacher, Jiang-cheng-man. I was so angry, and decided to shut off my mouth to them all, then I became the famous Wang Ya-ba (dumb person). For the next five and a half years, I didn't speak a single word on campus! Then came a teacher, a fresh graduate from teacher's school, Chao-jian-hsin, finally opened my mouth with his weird love.

Going back to Chang's office, I picked up a few more books and a roll of posters, I'm very much loaded by the weight of dozens of books, now. Yet, another appointment is waiting for me at NTU hospital in Chong-shan south road, where Tsung-tsai-yi's father was hospitalized. I heard Tsung was once appointed as minister of economics by the current government, but failed to take the position after the unbearable attack by those elected representatives in congress. She had a self-declaration for herself as "a rabbit dashed wrongly into the bush". When I arrived the hospital I was unable to find a place to park my bike, so I laid it outside the door of Starbucks coffee shop inside the hospital where we were supposed to meet. At eleven, Tsung came on time. I knew Tsung from the Mountaineering club in college forty years ago before I left the school. she was just an innocent young girl by then. We spent one and hour in the coffee shop, listening to how she has overcome all the obstacles throughout her life so far.

The security officer came over about to inquire my wrongly positioned bike, but when he saw I was with my famous friend, he apologized for disturbance instead. Time passed fast with her keeping on nodding to surrounding admirers. She said adios to me,
going for her next two waited appointments.

How about my next three appointments? The weather was bright outside, there was a parade going on the street, it was organized mainly by Nationalist Party, the issue was against the "may be" faulty gun-shot-affair last year which might be the possible reason to make the present president, Chen-shui-bian, re-elected by lots of sympathetic voters as a result. Thousands of people were on the street to release their anger. I felt very strongly with the emotion of the people for the movement, but if we use the valuable energy doing something, like to push the economics to a better platform or to improve a culture program of some kind, could be more meaningful? I entered Sun-jen-hsian's home for my first appointment. Tsai-ri-hsin and Hsu-pei-lian gave a group of people a slide show for sharing their experience while climbing the highest summit in Africa in the boarder of Tanzania and Kenya a few years ago.

The wild animal were real, the scenery of the mountaintop was fantastic. It was a good moment of sharing by our younger members who are still energetic and full of hearty spirit. Next, came Dr. Chen-wen-hsiang to give us a good lesson concerning the protection and training of our muscle while doing exercise and mountain climbing. He came back from the States after enough training in the area of rehabilitation. His conclusion of the speech was, even we can't prevent our body from the influence of aging, but if we take care of training our muscle and eating habit carefully, we definitely will enrich our life quality to a great extent. I think most of our poor health condition is the result of our ordinary daily bad habits throughout our lifetime.

Suppertime arrived with more than two dozens of hungry stomach, scores of dishes won't fill up their big appetite, there were more delicious dishes coming up. By eight o'clock, the choir started its monthly practice. Tonight, we started to practice "Memory". The conductor, Chang-bang-kui, is a well liked fellow with its opera voice and professional skill ready. Singing together in a choir is one of the most sincere joys in life. With no pseudo environment like Karaoke, no pretending behavior pattern of any kinds, just follow the rhythm of notes. The harmony of the voices makes me feel like drinking a cup of wonderful pure fruit juice without a single drop of water added. But I think once a month practice is far less from enough to make a decent choir group.

March 20th 2005 Sunday in Hong Kong, Day 30

My departure day finally arrives; the moment to say Farewell, Adeu, auf Weidersehen and Good-bye to all my old and new friends in Taiwan becomes rather difficult. I'll conclude my wonderful solo bicycle trip of Around-Taiwan-in-Thirty-days into five Chinese characters, " Mei(3)-Li(4)-de(2)-Bao(3)-Dao(3)"(The beautiful treasure Island).

My dear friends, I LOVE YOU ALL!

These above thirty travelogues are written by Xiao-er-lang with no rights reserved, please do whatever you like. And I also like to apologize to someone who might be hurt by some of the strong words I might have used. As I did that I didn't really meaning anything, please take it as a joke from an old pal.

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