February 21, 2010 Ali Shan, Taiwan
Well here is the first look at my travels. I spent a number of years in Taiwan working on a power plant project. While there, I was fortunate to have met some every interesting Taiwanese students at Feng Chia University in Taichung. They escorted me all over the countryside even spending nights at their family homes.
I would provide the car and English lessons and they would teach me Mandarin and show me the beauty of their country. I have been many places and seen things that Americans seldom get to see in all parts of Taiwan. I have been to shrimp farms on the coast, family centers in the mountains, to water falls and tropical jungles. I will share some of my adventures in this and future blogs.
To begin, Taichung is located on the western coast of Taiwan along the Taiwan Strait. It is almost half way down the coast from the northern capital of Taipei. A major freeway connects Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan to the south. (Taiwanese for north is pei, center is chung, and south is nan). I was part of a team that contracted to build eight coal fired power plants along the coast of Taichung in the 1990's. I spent two months at a time in country with short trips back to the States or other Asian ports to fulfill visa requirements. In 1995 I spent the whole year in a rented apartment in Taichung. My last trip to Taichung was in 2000 about nine months after a devastating earthquake that hit in September of 1999. More about all of this later.
The first place I want to share is Ali Shan or Ali Mountain. We would leave Taichung late in the night for a four or five hour drive to the gate of the mountain park. This was a very interesting trip since four others in the car would give four different sets of driving directions. We made it there in time but it is interesting to learn that students from each part of Taiwan would have a different inflection for the same word. This I think stems from the four dialects spoken on the island plus the Mandarin which is like our American English, the same but different from British English.
The purpose of the trip was to see sun rise from the mountain top. If you know Taiwan it rains a lot there, so out of four trips, I saw a beautiful rain-free sunrise only one time.
As you can see the trip was well worth the time spent. It is incredible to see the sun rise over the mountain peak of Ju Shan(Jade Mountain, highest peak in Taiwan) while standing above the clouds. It is like looking down from an airplane with out the airplane.
Of course the biggest challenge is staying awake all night and going from the temperate clime in Taichung to the very cold of a 8,736 foot mountain top. The trip back also scares some people in that the roadway up and down the mountain follows the contour of the mountain and is subject to slides from earthquakes.
During the night drive there is no fear for something you cannot see. But the day time drive back, well, lets say that I am glad I did not know what I knew on the second trip.
I have not been back up the mountain since the Chi Chi earthquake of 1999, which reportedly damaged the road pretty bad. I am sure they have added some improvements that makes it a far better drive now of days.
For those of you wanting to take the adventure you can kick off your trip from Chiayi at the Ali Shan Forest Railway, avoiding the drive. Or just enter the mountain road from just outside of Chiayi. The railway is a narrow gauge system built during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in 1912 to bring logs off the mountain.
There is also a giant juniper tree believed to be over 3,000 years old that is known as the Ali Shan Sacred Tree located along some beautiful forest paths.
Which ever experience you have it will be unique, with the silence and spiritual uplift from seeing the start of a new day high above the clouds.
Traveler 210
I would provide the car and English lessons and they would teach me Mandarin and show me the beauty of their country. I have been many places and seen things that Americans seldom get to see in all parts of Taiwan. I have been to shrimp farms on the coast, family centers in the mountains, to water falls and tropical jungles. I will share some of my adventures in this and future blogs.
To begin, Taichung is located on the western coast of Taiwan along the Taiwan Strait. It is almost half way down the coast from the northern capital of Taipei. A major freeway connects Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan to the south. (Taiwanese for north is pei, center is chung, and south is nan). I was part of a team that contracted to build eight coal fired power plants along the coast of Taichung in the 1990's. I spent two months at a time in country with short trips back to the States or other Asian ports to fulfill visa requirements. In 1995 I spent the whole year in a rented apartment in Taichung. My last trip to Taichung was in 2000 about nine months after a devastating earthquake that hit in September of 1999. More about all of this later.
The first place I want to share is Ali Shan or Ali Mountain. We would leave Taichung late in the night for a four or five hour drive to the gate of the mountain park. This was a very interesting trip since four others in the car would give four different sets of driving directions. We made it there in time but it is interesting to learn that students from each part of Taiwan would have a different inflection for the same word. This I think stems from the four dialects spoken on the island plus the Mandarin which is like our American English, the same but different from British English.
From the gate and parking area, you can ride a train or walk to the mountain top before sunrise. Of course there is always the traditional Taiwanese snacks of dried cuttle fish and guava juice for sale by entrepreneurial vendors at the gate and in the small village beyond the gate. Also there is this breakfast dish something like oat meal but a lot wetter, which I called "water rice" because it is rice that is cooked in an excess of water and served like a hot thick soup. My favorite breakfast is a a flour shell wrap with an egg spread thin and very spicy hot sauce that is fried on a griddle.
The purpose of the trip was to see sun rise from the mountain top. If you know Taiwan it rains a lot there, so out of four trips, I saw a beautiful rain-free sunrise only one time.As you can see the trip was well worth the time spent. It is incredible to see the sun rise over the mountain peak of Ju Shan(Jade Mountain, highest peak in Taiwan) while standing above the clouds. It is like looking down from an airplane with out the airplane.
Of course the biggest challenge is staying awake all night and going from the temperate clime in Taichung to the very cold of a 8,736 foot mountain top. The trip back also scares some people in that the roadway up and down the mountain follows the contour of the mountain and is subject to slides from earthquakes.
During the night drive there is no fear for something you cannot see. But the day time drive back, well, lets say that I am glad I did not know what I knew on the second trip.I have not been back up the mountain since the Chi Chi earthquake of 1999, which reportedly damaged the road pretty bad. I am sure they have added some improvements that makes it a far better drive now of days.
For those of you wanting to take the adventure you can kick off your trip from Chiayi at the Ali Shan Forest Railway, avoiding the drive. Or just enter the mountain road from just outside of Chiayi. The railway is a narrow gauge system built during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in 1912 to bring logs off the mountain.
There is also a giant juniper tree believed to be over 3,000 years old that is known as the Ali Shan Sacred Tree located along some beautiful forest paths.
Which ever experience you have it will be unique, with the silence and spiritual uplift from seeing the start of a new day high above the clouds.
Traveler 210
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