TAIWAN
We departed Taipei the day before, crawling eastward through the traffic on the outskirts before puttering through Shenkeng, Shiding and Pinglin districts, each growing steadily less urban, edging away from the ugly, pragmatic architecture of the cities towards rural traditionalism. Soon I could open the throttle up a little as the road wound beneath heavy canopies of evergreen trees, their leaves bathed in gold from the midday sun. We wended up formidable jungle-covered hills and down through tiny agrarian communities where cross-hatched crops grew in orderly lines surrounded by scatterings of wild, untamed spring flowers. We shot through the flat coastal basin of Yilan City before skirting the Philippine Sea down to the popular seaside town of Hualien to rest our weary behinds for the night. The main attraction today: Provincial
Highway 11, which links Hualien with Taitung via 100-odd miles of well- maintained, undulating tarmac that carves the edges of precipitous white cliffs, slices inland through lush green valleys before diving back down to
follow the coast. Highway 11 is also a popular cycling route — we see families, tour groups and solo cyclists, their back wheels flanked by panniers laden with gear, resolutely carving a path by the strength of their legs while I flick my wrist to pull on the throttle. Aſter bidding our concerned citizen
at the shed farewell, the highway winds inland through impossibly vibrant terrain where the air smells dustier and the long grass growing on the embankments is frosted yellow at the tips. An hour south of Hualien, we pause to wander the surreal Xinshe Rice Terraces. They fall from the road to the shore like great reflective steps shot through with parallel rows of rice shoots, their mirror-like surfaces deepening the blue of the spring sky and blurring its puffy, whipped-cream clouds into white smudges.
OVER AND UNDER Spring skies in Taiwan see more sun, but they also see more change. “Spring is like a stepmother’s face,” says an old Taiwanese proverb — meaning it’s prone to swiſt, cruel looks at any moment in
ABOVE: Scarecrows on guard at the Xinshe Rice Terraces, Hualien County
the form of sudden rain or temperature changes. Pushing on south, the road straight and smooth, clouds knit together ominously on the horizon, like a blanket slowly being drawn across the sky. The day feels later than the hour by
the time we reach the Baxian Caves (or Eight Immortals Caves). Though relatively shallow, the caves have been found to contain relics of the Changpinian Culture, suggesting they were inhabited up to 25,000 years ago, making it one of the most significant archaeological sites in the country. We climb the steep wooden boardwalk that leads to the upper caves, wiping away the sweat pouring into our eyes in the stifling aſternoon heat. Though the highest is set into the cliffs 430ſt above sea level, these are in fact sea caves, formed by tidal erosion millions of years ago and forced upwards by tectonic movement. At the little shrine at the top of the trail, a wooden shutterboard roof perched on a yellow-
Adventure September 2018 41
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
