The Gaomei Wetlands on the coast near the large city of Taichung
Another edition of our irregular feature, Biking Weekend, takes us along both coasts of the island of Taiwan: Two Trips, Two Taiwans
At Keelung Harbor. This highly photogenic town is built in a caldera that collapsed, exposing one side to the sea.
On Saturday I headed out with my friend Jeff, the taller, better-looking lad here, south along the northeast coast of the island of Taiwan.
On weekends the area around the Matsu Temple in Dajia, an important center of the island's Matsu cult, is crowded with visitors.
On Sunday, I took an easy ride out to Dajia, in deference to my sore butt and knee from the ride the day before on someone else's bike. Here, near the famous Matsu temple, crowds grab a snack. Dajia is also famous for something near and dear to my heart: it is the center of the island's bicycle manufacturing industry. Giant is HQed there, and many frame makers, such as Maxway, which makes frames for Jamis, Surly, and Salsa, are based there.
Chainless and forlorn at the convenience store.
On Saturday I borrowed a mountain bike from Jeff's wife. Unfortunately for our original plan, the chain broke, forcing us to waste more than an hour waiting for shops to open so we could get it fixed.
On Sunday in Dajia the streets were packed.
On Sunday I had to gingerly thread my way through the traffic by the temple in what usually is a small town.
Getting the bike fixed
Fortunately a car repair shop opened early on a Saturday and we were able to get it repaired for nothing, by an English-speaking car repair man, no less. Here he is hard at work improvising a chain repair. One of the great things about biking in Taiwan is that generally repairs are never far away.
A small engine repair shop fronts a major intersection in Dajia.
In small towns like Dajia, the shops are small too.
Off we went down the coast.
It wasn't until after 9 that we headed down the coast. On a cheap, unfamiliar mountain bike, my butt was already in pain.
Heading out of Dajia
I left Dajia and headed for my favorite part of this ride, seven or eight kilometers of empty rice fields along the Dajia River.
The coast road with its wide berms
I love the NW coast road, though it is crowded with trucks and weekend day trippers on Saturdays.
Irrigation by the rice fields
The irrigation ditches here are all covered. To keep birds out? The area is also crowded with traditional brick homes, echoing the upscale style prevalent in China, as settlers will often aspire by imitating those back home above them in social class.
A betel nut girl abandons her stall for a chat on the phone.
Betel nut girls, generally underdressed, line the major truck routes, like this one along the coast. They sell betel nuts, a stimulant.
An old farmstead cut off by the road.
I'm usually the only person on the narrow empty roads along the rice fields.
Caution! Bats crossing.
After a few kilometers we come out by the water.
A farmer.
Once in a while one passes a farmer or fisherman going about his business.
The road hugs the coastal cliffs
In the 19th century the east coast of Taiwan was widely held to be among the most beautiful sights in the world:
"When that most prosaic but useful publication, the China Sea Directory, ventures upon superlatives, there is generally some tolerably good reason for it. (here follows my description as above), and then "the highest sea precipice in the known world lay unveiled before our eyes. It was superb... the studendous cliffs of the Yosemite Valley in California, ...the grand sea-wall of Hoy, in the Orkneys,...the glories of the iron-bound coast of Norway, all fade into nothingness beside the giant precipices of Formosa. We kept close to the land, the appearance of which if anything, increased in grandeur. The gigantic wall of rock was cleft every few miles by huge gorges...forming as they did a practicable highway into the interior, which is otherwise well-nigh inaccessible, owing to the denseness of the vegetation."
Still serene emptiness of rice fields and hillsides.
The river next to the rice fields, which I didn't picture because it is so ugly, has created escarpments on both sides that echo in miniature the 600 meter peaks lining the coast that I had ridden past the day before.
The flotsam and jetsam of work.
The northeast coast of Taiwan is also known among aficionados for scuba diving, and on weekends the area's diving shops do a brisk business. Fishing is also quite popular; there's an abyssal trench a few kilometers offshore, meaning that the seafood is tremendously varied.
Somebody's backyard.
It always amazes me that all these chickens aren't taken by hawks or stray dogs.
Through a tunnel.
Rockslides are common hazards in Taiwan, where some of the steepest slopes in the world are found. Tunnels like this to protect the road from especially dangerous slopes are common.
Along a dike.
Taiwan's rivers, long tamed, are heavily diked. One of the saddest parts of Taiwan's excessive development is the destruction of its rivers.
The wild cliffs.
Surprisingly, in the hills just to the west is coal, gems, and gold. If you hike in the hills you can easily find low-quality coal seams outcropping along the rock faces.
Highway 3 vanishes into the distance.
Similar to Japan, Taiwan hosts a construction-industrial state in which flourishing local patronage networks support the ruling party in exchange for massive investments in infrastructure, like this elevated highway along the entire length of the island.
In many places people were drying seaweed.
All along the coast locals are busy in industries such as fishing, seaweed processing, and tourism, that depend on the sea. Biking through the tiny communities affords many views of various kinds of seaweed drying in the sun.
Spraying pesticides
Probably the only bummer on Sunday's rice field route is riding through pesticide spraying.
Processing.
In rural areas across the island, clumps of women can be seen formed around basins and buckets and boxes as they hand-process everything from mushrooms to seaweed.
Barbecuing.
The raised highway provides shade for a family outing, a favorite Sunday pastime.
Squeezing into the traffic in a small town.
Because of the island's crazy land use laws, as well as traditional practices, streets in Taiwan are cramped and progress can be slow.
Under highway 3, a playground.
Looks like someone had a few dollars leftover for a park project.
A bike trail
Bike trails are a booming infrastructure in Taiwan. Old spur lines, leftover from the Japanese colonial period, are being converted to bike trails in a number of communities, and both coasts are now favorite sites for trails through flat coastal terrain. There's talk of creating a national network.
The view from above
After Highway 3 I got on the dike, since the road ahead appeared blocked by construction.
A local village
We headed through a little village back to the coast highway on Saturdayafter bumping into bridge repair on the trail that forced a detour.
On the dike
On my Sunday detour another bicyclist approached from the distance.
The nuclear plan outside Fulong
At Fulong we turned back -- there was no way I could continue further with the pain in my rear and knee -- and because the sky looked ominous. Here is the island's fourth nuclear plant, testimony to its leaders' preferences for large infrastructure projects.
Building construction
The never ending quest to turn all farmland into roads and buildings continues.
A beach strip
Here a scuba instructor is giving lessons, as students practice in the shallow waters off the beach.
An egret
Common sights in Taiwan's rice paddies, an egret pauses on a lovely summer Sunday afternoon.
Bride and groom photos
Wedding photos are an island tradition, and couples go to great expense to make them look expensive and romantic.
A farmer stops to stare
"What are you looking at?" he asked me, not so much in challenge as in disbelief that anyone would come here, camera in hand, for the view.
Photo time!
At the same time a tourist van stopped to disgorge a group of tourists, apparently from the Subcontinent. This lovely couple was obviously having a very good time.
Irrigation ditches
Neat and clean and quiet, just the way I like it.
Jeff adds air
Jeff nursed a flat for several kms until we hit a scooter repair place.
Couches in the shade
Need a rest? Anywhere you go, farmers and construction workers have left furniture in the shade.
Beach protectino
In front of an old copper processing facility where copper waste has stained them red, note how eroded the concrete beach protectors have become in just a few years.
High speed rail line
A vista of concrete pillars, Taiwan's High Speed Rail falls away into the distance. One wonders how the HSR will hold up over time.
Cliffs and ruins
A corner of the old copper processing facility and the hills behind it, outside Keelung on the coast. During WWII the Japanese had a POW camp next door, which they used for labor. In the 1930s and into the war, 20% of Japan's copper came from this mine.
Cabbages
Not just rice: cabbages too.
Keelung Harbor
Our day ended at Keelung harbor, endlessly photogenic. I've spent many hours in this city taking pictures.
Another farmer going to work
Before I turned uphill to climb up to the escarpment on Sunday, I stopped to chat with an old farmer bringing fertilizer down on his bicycle. Another satisfying ride under a warm Taiwan sun.