My trip with hannah - pt. 2

When I left off we were still on the first day of our trip. We had finished dinner with Jill and Eric in JiJi and we were driving up into the mountains to our hotel near Sun Moon Lake. We drove through a bit of fog climbing into the mountains, but we arrived at the lake without trouble. The majority of the hotels are on one broad side of the lake, but not all of them - I had no idea where ours was. In fact, I didn't even know our hotel's name. I had booked in a fairly direct and brief exchange over the phone. When it comes to using my Chinese on the phone, that's the best way to do things. The more I have to say, the greater the chance I have to create confusion. I called them up again and I got them to slowly enunciate their excruciatingly (unusually) long name to me. She tried to describe the location to me, but I couldn't make it out. I found the 7-11 and I asked them if they knew of a hotel called [insert ridiculously long name here]. They said it was off on it's own on the other side of the lake. They got out a small map and showed me. That would have made it hard to find...it's not a small lake.

We got there 20+ minutes later. We kind of had to sell the person at the desk on letting Bagels stay in our room, but she was allowed in (provided she stayed off the wood floor.) The place was a bit spartan, but really very comfortable in all the right places. Two big beds, soft pillows, thick warm blankets, comfortable bathroom, shower with plenty of hot water. We journaled for a few minutes and passed out - a good first day.

DAY 2

We didn't try to push ourselves getting up too early. We left mid-morning for a daytrip up into the high mountains. Anyone whose come to my blog has seen a number of posts and pictures from Taiwan's high mountains - it's one of my favorite places here. We decided to drive straight to the top and save any stops for the return trip. We drove through Puli, past WuShe and QingJing Farms. The drive was pretty standard for the Central Cross-Island Highway. Some sections were fast and fun, in other parts we were stuck behind tour buses and semi-trucks. We were more than happy to chew up the time catching up and talking about any sort of thing, big or small, we had a good time.

We made it up to the top and I found a trail that I knew wasn't too long, less than 45 minutes each way. We realized what a good decision that was the second we got out of the car. The wind was just howling. It felt like a cold, dry typhoon was trying to blow us away a few particles at a time like fast water over sand. The wind made it cold, the still air was chilly on its own, but the wind made it bitter cold. At first we were chatting as we hiked up the trail, but the ripping wind and the uncomfortable temperature put a stop to that. Bagels was actually very well off. Being so close to the ground protected her completely. She went bounding about while hannah and I trudged on occupied with maintaining our balance. We made it to the top and found a comfortable spot on the calm side of the peak. I pointed out some of the well known points in view, especially the valley leading down to Taroko Gorge. Protected from the wind, we warmed up and took a few pictures. On the way down the trail we discovered amazing hair-like ice crystals coming out of the ground. Their were patches here and their on shady sections of the path. We got back to the car and we were be glad to be back inside. I think we were both feeling mostly numb after the return trip. We were also really thirsty. It's amazing how a stiff wind can really just pull moisture out of your body. We stated driving back down.

We drove past QingJing farms. If I have my history correct, QingJing farms was one of the areas given over to some of the soldiers in the R.O.C. Army that had come from the mainland. When Chiang-Kai Shek first retreated the plan was to regroup and quickly re-invade the mainland. Over time as the military/diplomatic/political situation became more calcified, less flexible, Chiang-Kai Shek started to face dissent among his soldiers. Many had given up their entire lives coming to Taiwan. Moreover, they were discouraged and prevented in starting new lives in Taiwan because KMT leaders were worried that establishing roots might weaken resolve for retaking the mainland. Chiang and the KMT placated some by giving them farms high in the mountains that they could work or sell off.

Driving on, we found a beef noodle restaurant I try to stop at every time I'm in the mountains. It's some of the best beef noodle soup I've ever had. I'm perfectly comfortable with the idea that it just tastes so good because I eat it after long hiking trips when I'm really hungry. All the same, I'll swear there's none better to be had.

After that we drove into WuShe. WuShe carries the namesake of the single saddest story I've ever heard - The WuShe Incident. In 1930, during the heart of the Japanese Period in Taiwan, relations with the aboriginal groups in the remote mountains were still tenuous. Some sources describe groups that had much better relations with the Japanese than they had ever had with the Chinese. Other reports say that many embraced learning Japanese. Different sources do seem to agree that it was standard for the Japanese to place large contingents of police in aboriginal towns. In many cases these police were dictatorial and reports of abuse were widespread. In 1930, near Wushe, Nantou County, one small conflict exploded into a terrible massacre.

After his son was insulted, a local Chief, Rudao Bai, felt that he could no longer quietly suffer the abuse of the Japanese regime. He gathered 1200 fighters for a secret attack. Before striking the cut they telephone lines completely isolating the Japanese in the area. They targeted an athletic event at a local primary school, killing 134 Japanese as well as two Taiwanese. They also raided other targets for munitions and other supplies. For some time, the Japanese didn't respond at all. Because the region was so remote, it took two weeks for the first survivor to get in touch with the central Japanese government. They didn't even believe the early reports because they were so outlandish, even more so considering that the region in question was regarded as well-subdued.

But the Japanese response did come. It was resolute and vicious. Fighting against soldiers with only guns, the aborigines did well. They used the rugged terrain to their great advantage and the Japanese withdrew their assault. But for Imperial Japan to lose one fight was no different from losing the Empire. They believed that this was a fight for their existence, they would not limit their aggression. They returned making aerial assaults on the camps aboriginal soldiers and civilian towns. They started using tear gas but they soon deployed deadly poison gas. Chief Bai retreated further and further into the mountains, but he realized that the fight against Japanese could not succeed, it was futile. He and his remaining fighters committed suicide.

The Japanese rounded up the survivors and moved them to another area where they lived under close police observation. Those police raped and killed many of the survivors.

My trip with hannah

Back in January I had my first visit from a friend since coming to Taiwan. hannah, an old friend from college, came to East Asia to visit me and some of her other friends before returning to Saudi Arabia where she works. She was here for six or seven days and we used the time to take a trip down to Nantou County, where I used to live. Then we went on to Tainan, the oldest major city in Taiwan. I'm going to try and break this up into two posts to keep it from getting too long.

hannah's arrival was a bit of a story itself. She pointed out that there was a world of difference in the post-arrival directions provided by me compared to the directions from her friend Leslie (who lives in Japan).

There's a bus from the airport into Taipei Main station - you think you can manage that? I don't know if it's hard to find if you don't know Chinese. The bus terminal is past the baggage area at a corner of the terminal. Give me a call if you have any trouble, I can meet you at main station and we'll go home together. If you're really in trouble, you want to go from the airport to Taipei Main Station - to ChengDa University. There is a Starbucks within sight of the main gate for ChengDa and that's less than a minute from my house. We'll work this out, no worries, see you soon-

That's all the directions I gave her. Leslie, reportedly, sent several pages of meticulous POV notes and instructions so as to defy the remotest possibility of misinterpretation. hannah mused that even though both methods of instruction were effective they gave clear insight to our different personalities.

hannah made it from the Airport to Taipei Main Station without incident, then she used a taxi driver's cell phone to give me a call so I could tell him where to go. Everything worked out fine. hannah met Bagels and my roommates, Tom and Vinny, then she crashed on the couch. We left for my old home, Nantou County, the next day after I finished my Chinese class.

The drive down wasn't too eventful. After going through the first toll both we found the window wouldn't go back up. The rest of the trip it just stayed down. Our first stop was in my old town, Ming Jian. There was a mechanic I'd used before so I took the car to them right away to see if they could fix it. They said it'd take at least an hour and we were glad to have the time to walk around. Ming Jian isn't often seen as a great place to visit, but I wanted to show hannah where I had lived, and why I liked it so much. Walking with Bagels, we stopped in at my old school and said "hello." The kids remembered me and I saw my old boss, Uncle Sam. Everyone was very friendly and I'm really glad we went by there. I showed hannah my favorite restaurants and told her small stories from my time there. We stopped at my favorite drink stand and got fresh orange juice - quite easy to find because of the low cost of labor in Taiwan.

We went back to the mechanic and he had managed to get the window back up. He said the switch could roll the window down, but not up - don't use it. I took his advice, payed, and we drove East, towards the mountains, to JiJi. There we met with my old friends from Ming Jian, Eric and Jill, and their two sons, David and Young. Eric is a civil engineer who works on Taiwan's hydro-infrastructure. We used to have long, interesting talks about his work - I'm always glad for a chance to visit with him. Jill's English is very good and we talked about how her graduate studies were going. David and Young were very glad to see Bagels again. We all had a great dinner together before hannah and I left, driving up into the mountains to Sun Moon Lake.

As a brief aside, I'll tell you that as a resident of Taiwan, there are four places that I'm considered socially obligated to take any guest who'll be in my care for any extended period of time. Taroko Gorge is a natural marvel, a gem on the East Coast just north of Hualian - we didn't go there. Taipei 101 is one of the tallest buildings in the world, certainly the tallest in a seriously active seismic zone - we didn't go there. Taiwan's night markets practically burst with unique foods, myriad shops, and cosmopolitan people - we didn't go to any of them. We did go to Sun Moon Lake. Sun Moon Lake is a large, scenic lake just inside the edge of Taiwan's Central Mountain Range. It's developed but I wouldn't call it overcrowded. It's usually pleasant and peaceful enough. The fact the we hit only one out of four Highlights™ was later a source of minor scandal.

A few photos of our story so far:
1.) That's hannah with Bagels in the car. They got along well and Bagels seems to love riding in the car now.
2.) That's me with some of my former students at my old school in Ming Jian. Bagels was there too, but she makes a lot of the students uneasy. I have hard time understanding why people often feel so nervous around dogs here.
3.) That's me with Jill and Eric. The little boy is Young. David is behind his mother, out of the shot. I was trying to get Bagels to stay for the photo, we'll try and get the timing better in the future.

I'm gonna stop here because this is already getting long. I'll pick it up again soon enough. Also, on the right I've added a feature that makes a link to any online reading I've found particularly insightful. Give it a shot, I won't put anything up that isn't worth the time.

Silver River Waterfall in 30 min. or less

Hey Everybody,

It's been a while, but I'm gonna see what I can get done here in thirty minutes. That might not seem like much of time commitment in an entire day, but that beats showering, checking facebook, and non-work related English usage in my daily life.

I have a new roommate named Hannah. She's from New York and she's studying Chinese just like me and Tom. We're all getting along well, Bagels too.

Last week she mentioned that she had heard about a really beautiful waterfall with a small temple behind it up in the hills above our university. She invited me to go hiking to trying find it, it was an easy thing to say yes to.

We left our apt. about 1:30 and I honestly thought we'd be gone for two to three hours. I was very tired when we got back five plus hours later. But I was also elated because it had been a gorgeous, fun, comfortable hike. Most importantly, we'd had a good time and I got to discover some new areas in the hills that I'd never been to before.

For anyone in Taipei I'll provide some brief directions. Starting from the hillside section of ChengChi Daxue (my university) find the longest steepest stairs you've ever seen. Go up them and go past the courtyard area at the top until you come to a pretty big road. Cross the road and keep going up the trail until you come to ZhanShan Temple...welcome to 貓空 MaoKong. Go to the left of the temple right to the road. Follow the main road for about 15 minutes and start looking for places to turn right. There are a few places that work because they all lead up to a ridgeline you'll need to cross over. There's a trail on top of the ridgeline. Travel along it checking the arrow signs for 銀河 瀑布 - YinHe PuBu - the Silver River Cave. It's a fairly comfortable 30 minute walk once you cross over the ridge.

Some photos from our hike:
1.) That's Hannah, my new roommate with Bagels.
2.) That's a hillside orchard I go past on my morning runs, same direction as the waterfall.
3.) That's a ridiculous "bridge" we went past on our hike. I swore it was straight out of a Monty Python sketch because a bridge was completely unnecessary there as Hannah shows. And if the bridge isn't necessary I guess there's no reason to worry about functionality or safety.
4.) That's Bagels playing in a small side waterfall.
5.) That's the best shot of the waterfall - always a hard thing to capture by camera. Waterfalls are better in real life.
6.) That's a view of the temple built into the cliff behind the waterfall. I think a guy lives there. He certainly spends a lot of time there at least - he was very friendly to us, even with the dog.