Taiwan News #10 + East Coast pix

Morning on the coast.

I went out to Chris Gunson from Dubai, whom I met through our respective blogs. Chris turned out to be excellent company. This trip inspired my latest piece for Taiwan News.

The owner of the hostel explained that they weren't entirely legal. "It's difficult to get a license here, the government is reluctant to give them out. So I just say I am having a few friends stay." Why was there a problem? He said that the big hotels are putting pressure on the government to limit Bed and breakfasts.

...enjoy some pics below.

Missing Megaliths...

At one of the megalith sites outside Dulan.

From a 1967 work...

On the lower slopes of the mountains behind the hamlet of Chung Yung, known also as Katsawan, behind the town of Ch'ang Pin, a megalithic site was investigated by Sung in 1963. No megaliths remained in their original position at that time; all have been rolled down the hill from their original plateau site to the village below and incorporated in walls and house foundations. Shouldered stones are the most abundant. An important feature of the site is the presence of large round stones, usually basalt, of doughnut shape with a hole in the center. They are reminiscent of the stone money of the island of Yap in Micronesia, but are somewhat smaller in scale. The only other site with stones of this shape thus far encountered is T'ai Yuan. Coarse, orange, gritty pottery is common, and a few sherds of cord-marked pottery were also found. A small coarse, orange effigy of a dog or pig was found by Sung, and a similar specimen was illustrated by Kanaseki and Kokubu from Peinan (Kanaseki and Kokubu 1957: 55). One wonders whether or not these animal effigies have any relationship to the famous ones from Lanyu.

One wonders how many of Taiwan's standing stones have become foundations, walls, tables... gravel.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Coast sanity break

Why haven't I been posting? Had midterms to give and grade, and then took two days off to visit a friend in Chenggong. Love that ahhhh feeling when you head south out of Hualien and you know it is going to be a good day. A special bonus was the vast decline in tour buses. Saw them, but not in the insane numbers of before.

Interestingly, the wind was in my face the whole way. Usually it is at my back this time of year. El Nino?

More photos below...

East Coast Adventures

I went off to the east coast this weekend, which is why I haven't been blogging. Did a loop: Saturday from Hualien to Chenggong (~120 kms), Sunday Chenggong back to Hualien (~140 kms) via the 30 over to the Rift Valley and the 193 back to Hualien city. Monday we tried to do Mugumuyu but the rain defeated us. For more pics click on READ MORE:

Riding the Tawu/Longxi Industry Road

The evening we stayed in Tawu we ran into this amazing man, TX Wong, from Hong Kong. Tex was walking around Taiwan, a 30 day tour, 30-40 kms a day. He was two weeks in and expected to take another two weeks. This was his second trip. I am hoping to interview him in early May about his experiences.

Busy as heck this week, and then took three days off to go cycling. So that explains the lack of posts...

A lovely weekend on the east coast as my friend Michael Cannon and I headed out to explore the Tawu-Longxi industry road. Two days of fun in the sun, with plenty of beer, great scenery, and even a trio of pole dancing babes. Click on READ MORE to read more...

The Disappearing East Coast

A beetle takes wing.

I've blogged many times on the destruction of the East Coast by the forces of development, on the magical transmutation process by which local lands are seized and transformed into profits for big developers with the apparent connivance of local government officials. A very representative case is the disgusting Miramar Hotel development project just north of Taitung city, but Hualien is also being ravaged by "development". This week it was local Amis people complaining about the county government's surprise annexation of tribal lands...

Karo said he and his neighbors have received a notice from the county government, asking them to tear demolish their homes and move away from a plot of land right on the border between Fenglin and Guangfu (光復) townships. The county wants to build a stray dog shelter on the site.

“I wonder if the county government considers dogs more important than people, so it wants to drive us away to make way for a dog shelter. But is not the government’s job to take good care of its people?” farmer Cunsing Rokateh said. “The problem is we do not have another place to move to even if we were willing to move.”

Namoh Nofu, an Aboriginal rights advocate who is from the area, said that in the past decade, the county government has planned development projects for about 1,400 hectares of land around the border area of Fenglin and Guangfu townships, which is the traditional domain of the Amis villages of Tafalong and Fata’an.

“The development projects include car-racing tracks, a camping park, golf courses, holiday resorts and an ‘eco-friendly industrial park,’” Namoh said. “However, the county government has never consulted local Amis villagers before coming up with the plans. It simply pretends that it does not know these are lands on which the Amis of Tafalong and Fata’an villages have lived for thousands of years.”

A map of the area (source)(GoogleMaps link)

The Taiwan Environmental Information Center put out some information on it:

位於花蓮縣鳳林鎮，馬太鞍溪、花蓮溪、萬里溪之間的沖積扇（Cidihan），雖然目前標的為「花蓮縣鳳林綜合開發計畫-萬榮開發區」，但事實上，長久以來為鄰近的Tafalong（太巴塱）與Fata'an（馬太鞍）等部落傳統世耕地、放牧地和獵場，直到現在，兩部落仍有不少族人在此區域內的Palicanlican、Takomo兩地從事耕作。x

The alluvial fan known as Cidihan in Hualien County between Fenglin Town, the Mataian River, the Hualien River, and the Wanli, has been designated the "Fenglin, Hualien County Comprehensive Development Plan - Wanjung Devleopment Zone". However, for many years the area has been the traditional croplands, grazing lands, and hunting grounds of the neighboring Tafalong (Taibalang) and Fata'an (Mataian).  Down to the present day the two communities still have many tribal people engaged in farming in the Palicanlican and Takomo areas.

According to the TEIR, the Hualien County government's stray dog shelter is merely the camel's nose in the tent. Once the land is actually seized, the government plans to put in -- please swallow what you're drinking so you don't spew it all over your keyboard -- an international Formula 1 race track (no, not kidding) taking up 70 hectares, a light airfield, a landfill, a high tech industrial park and an "international class love dog park" (國際級愛狗樂園). Man, you just can't make this shit up....

The Taipei Times article said that the exact ownership is locally known but has not been formalized. The TEIR piece observed that a spokesman for the local people said that they have never given up their rights to the area. In 2008 they applied to receive protected status but the government has been delaying processing the application. Wonder why.....

Cases like these are only the ones that receive publicity; there are many others. See the East Coast now, over the next couple of decades, it's going to be concreted over....
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Riding: Taiwan east and south

Stephen Jack assembles his bike on the platform at the train station in Hualien.

The long weekend offered some great opportunities for cycling, though the weather sucked across the island. Friday my friend Stephen Jack and I took the crack'o'dawn express over to Hualien, had lunch with friends, then headed south. But before we get to the pix from the ride, I thought I'd set down some things I've discovered about taking a bike on the train in Taiwan....

If you want to take your bicycle on the train in Taiwan, here are a few tips.

1. Bagged bikes can go on all locals and jyu guang hau trains. They are not allowed on the Taroko specials. For the dz chiang trains, see the train listing in the schedule and check for the bicycle icon. They will accept a bike bagged on that train.

2. "Bagged" means in a bag, any bag, plastic bag, paper bag, whatever. Dedicated bike bag, of course. "Bagged" means that most of the bike must be in the bag. For road bikes like I ride, I just take the front wheels off. You don't need to take off the handlebars, rear wheels, etc. Again, just remove the front wheel and pop in bag. I know some riders who had big bags specially made, they just drop the bikes in whole and go. This means that....

3. ...for ease of handling, I always roll the bike around the station and carry it up and down stairs and then disassemble it on the platform. When I get off the train, I assemble it on the platform and roll it back out the station. This is because I feel it is easier to roll a bike than carry it unless you've got a really nice bike bag with straps, which I do not. This sometimes leads to arguments with train station staff, who appear to be deaf to the phrase "I have a bag".

4. On all trains but the dz chiang expresses, the bikes can go anywhere they fit -- you can put the bike behind the seats on a jyu guang or in the empty area at the front of some older cars. On the dz chiang designated bike trains, the bikes ALWAYS go in Car 12. Car 12 will be a hermaphrodite, half seats, half baggage. Sometimes they use an old dining car. On those trains, before you buy the tix, tell the cashier you have a bike. They are supposed to put you in car 12, though the system is set up wrongly so seats in car 12 are sometimes hard to come by (but there is always room for a bike). Once you set the bikes down in car 12, you can go to your seats in whatever car. PROTIP: seats 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Car 12 are almost never sold. Thus, they are always empty. You can sit in them and most of the time you will never be kicked out. I haven't been yet. Also, you can usually sit in the baggage car even though you are not supposed to. Just go in and sit down on the floor, the Taiwanese do it all the time. As have I. On the morning trains that car will fill with commuters.

5. HSR: You can take a bike in a bike bag on the HSR. There is usually room on the seats at the end of the car or by the luggage rack, but you can ensure that you get that space by being the first one in line to get aboard. If you tell them you have a bagged bike, they will try and give you the seat next to the luggage. In fact the best seat is at the end of the car, ask for that -- the space behind the last seat is almost always big enough for a bike.

On to the pictures! Click on READ MORE.

Post Christmas Construction Industrial State Blues

Death lurks in the tall grass.

On the heels of the defeat for the environment by the Miramar Hotel, the government is announcing a feasibility study for a highway between Hualien and Taitung to cut the travel time for the 180 km route by one hour. Lots of people passing this around on social networks, accompanied by expressions of disgust and dismay. It's obviously not for "local residents" (Taitung's population is declining over time and note below comments on highway use), but for the anticipated big busloads of Chinese tourists whose presence is an excuse for spraying ever more concrete around Taiwan's most beautiful areas as well as to better enable gravel and other firms to strip the area of its resources. Highway construction will also enable the KMT to feed and water its patronage networks on the East Coast. The TT writes:

Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) yesterday said the ministry intended to budget NT$15 million (US$484,000) next year to conduct an assessment on building an expressway connecting Hualien and Taitung.

The government is electrifying the rail line between Hualien and Taitung, something discussed for years. The highway bureau also observed:

DGH Director General Wu Meng-feng (吳盟分) said highways 9 and 11 are the two main roads connecting Hualien and Taitung, and the travel time is between three and four hours.

He said that traffic on a normal weekday only usually accounts for about 20 percent of the highway’s designed capacity.

Yes, that's right. The government is talking about putting in four lanes of tarmac to replace two lanes that operate at only 20 percent of capacity outside Lunar New Year and a few other times. Just another example of my friend Jeff's pithy comment on Taiwan's construction-industrial state: "There's no place in Taiwan so beautiful it doesn't need more concrete."

See the east coast soon; development is going to destroy it.

UPDATE: Klaus has a vague map on his excellent post on the environment.
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DAILY LINKS:

• Mess Halls from the days when US servicemen and their families were posted here. Don't miss the post below with pics of the Grand Hotel from a half-century ago. 
• Government moves forward on "free economic zones." These will be full service areas which will have special regulations for environment, land acquisition, labor, etc. Labor: once again the government is going to push to get more "foreign labor" in, reduce the minimum wage, and float suggestions that Taiwan import Chinese workers. 
• AsiaEye with Under the Radar News
• Reservoirs in Taiwan are sufficient through Feb.

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Biking the East Coast and Green Island

Yushan above the clouds from the ferry to Green Island

This week I spent four lovely days on the east coast with my friend Andrew Bott and the travel writer Joshua Samuel Brown, who co-authored the current Lonely Planet guide to Taiwan, which is why I haven't been posting here. Saturday we left Hualien and rolled down the coast to Chenggong. Sunday morning we split, Joshua heading over 23 to the Rift Valley, while we went another 60 kms to Fugang and got on the ferry to Green Island. Monday we returned on the ferry and then took the train from Taitung to Rueisuei. The next morning, Tuesday, we rolled back on 193 to Hualien and took the 1 pm express back to Fengyuan in Taichung. Click on read more for pics and narrative....

They made a desert and called it development

Yeah, my blood's so mad feels like coagulatin'
I'm sitting here just contemplatin'
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation.
Handful of senators don't pass legislation

An image of planned/ongoing "development" projects for the East Coast. Basically, each line represents one project. Four example, the yellow box at lower right lists some kind of tourist area, followed by the names of four hotels.

Better see the East Coast soon.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

"We are never gonna get to Donghe": East Coast Rift Riding

This weekend I took 193 out of Hualien and then turned east to ride over 23 to Donghe and back to Taitung. Come below the fold for a look at another glorious ride (WARNING: dozens of photos, may take some time to load up!!!!!)

Sad Destruction of the East Coast Continues

What is this ant doing with those tiny bugs? Are they aphids? Ant larva?

A Taipei Times commentary reports on yet another developer/local government nexus that is wrecking the environment, this one on the east coast:

Taiwan’s east coast has been subjected to a string of development projects that exploit the land and disregard environmental justice. Now, as the nation gets caught up in a rush to develop tourism, one more construction plan has been added to this sad list. On May 30, a meeting was called in Sansiantai Borough (三仙台) in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功), at which local residents were told that an environmental impact assessment for a building project in the area had been completed and that construction work would start after one week. Stunned by the sudden announcement, local residents demanded that the departments responsible for the project hold a second public meeting to better explain what impact the project would have. However, the departments in charge said that there was no reason to hold another meeting and that they were not duty-bound to do so because the required procedures had already been completed.

Serious problems are evident in several aspects of this case.

The project development site is located in the famous Sansiantai scenic area. Although the area is well-known, most people are probably not aware that the east coast’s last remaining intact coral reef is just nearby. This is the most beautiful diving spot on the east coast and it is an important haven for marine resources that are shared by Aborigines and fishermen. Studies by the Eastern Marine Biology Research Center of the Fisheries Research Institute and by members of Academia Sinica show that this small stretch of sea is home to 2.5 percent of the nation’s fish fry and fingerlings. They recommended that it be designated a marine conservation area. Unfortunately, the coral reef has already been degraded by mud and sand washed down from building sites on adjacent land and by overfishing. There is good reason to worry that the 12 hectare resort development project, in the course of its construction and future operation, will cause more damage to the coral reef and that the reef will be completely ruined.

Such projects are totally common throughout Taiwan. And things are only going to get worse, as the commentary notes:

Articles 10 to 12 of the version of the law favored by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which are to do with how land can be used, would give local governments the sole power to change the classification of usage for land and exempt them from the restrictions imposed by existing laws on land use. The proposed articles would also greatly reduce the time required for reviewing applications to change land-use designations to a maximum of one year. If these articles are approved, local residents, who are generally disadvantaged in their access to information, will be made even more vulnerable to procedural injustice than they already are.

Plans to wreck the east coast with "sustainable development" have been in the works since forever. Recently, with the advent of tourism from China, these plans have accelerated, becoming even bigge and more venal. See this post for more on the loosening of regulations. This week also revealed another nifty trick for getting around regulations -- call your land grab "a university expansion" and get the county government to carry it out.

Another project currently planned is to connect the ends of Route 26 through unspoiled terrain on Taiwan's east coast and thus complete the round the island road network the Ministry of Transport and Communications has dreamed of for years. Wild at Heart has more information.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Riding the East Coast: Rift Valley and Coastal Range

This weekend I met my friend Michael Cannon in Hualien for a ride down the rift valley and over to the coast. The plan was to go down 193 and over to the coast on day 1, and then down the coast to Donghe and then cut into the mountains on 23, then turn south and go down to 197 and to Taitung. In fact we didn't manage the second day (route map). But we had two excellent days along the gorgeous east coast. Come along for the pics and information, and don't miss Michael Cannon's excellent write-up with great pics.

We stayed here on Friday night, the French Jesuit mission hostel, which is open to the public. It was $300 NT for a room with an attached bath. The catch is, the main gate is closed at 10 pm so you have to be back at the hostel at ten. Not a problem if you are riding early like us.

We had breakfast at this popular steamed bun place on Chungshan Rd not far from the coast. Delicious and very filling.

It was clouded over but soon gave way to sun and white puffy clouds.

Then it was south out of Hualien through Jian and across the bridge on 11 where 193 splits off to the right. Entering the scenic area, we stopped for the obligatory Bike with Sign shot. For those of you from Taichung, we ran into the brother of Rocky from T-Mosaic bikes at the end of the bridge.

Michael takes in the views.

We ran into this fellow practicing his archery. The bow, Michael observed, was made of bamboo.

193, as the bike hanging there hints, is a major bike route and we encountered many cyclists on the road. It is rolling, but gently, and there are no serious hills. A very pleasant ride.

A farmer framed against the mountains on the far side of the rift. The route is totally scenic.

Lovely.

A moth rests on a leaf.

A bike rests by a farm.

We stopped at a junction to buy drinks and met these men enjoying conversation.

It was mother's day, and all along the route people were celebrating.

Gradually the day cleared into clouds and light.

The minimum security prison. You can get water here by the toilets in the parking lot. It is also the peak altitude of the ride; from here you roll downhill to Rueisuei. Just before this point the sun got so bad I became woozy and had to doze along the roadside for ten minutes before I could resume riding. It usually takes me a few weeks before I am used to the summer sun here in Taiwan.

Looking down the road to Rueisuei.

Michael grabs a drink on the bridge into Rueisuei town. Just before the bridge is the turn for Hualien County Road 64. We were headed there after lunch.

Rueisuei town, with food, places to stay, 7-11, bike rentals...civilization.

Michael grabbed a shaved ice dessert here, and then we headed back over the bridge to Hualien 64.

From this point, we go 22 kilometers through the hills to Dagangkou on the coast, where Highway 11 crosses the great red bridge.

Beautiful views on 64, and plenty of climbing. A road the Bike Gods made as a reward for the faithful.

The grades are not difficult.

The first climb is the highest, to over 200 meters and stunning views.

Michael inspects a drop.

64 follows a river gorge flanked by low peaks.

The further in you go, the more amazing it gets.

S-curves, steep descents, good climbs, scenery, 64 has it all.

We stopped in the little hamlet of Chimei to get a drink.

Finally, after two hours of riding, taking pictures, and resting, we reached Highway 11 and the coast at Dagangkou. The sea and sky offered lovely shades of green and blue.

Feeling like we accomplished something.

From Dagangkou we rolled down the coast to the small town of Changbin, staying at this minsu just before Changbin. It was $400 a person for a very large room, but you'll need your own towel, this place uses those hopeless paper disposables. We had done 122 kilometers and 1300 meters of climbing.

The next day was gorgeous but we were still pretty beat from yesterday's ride, so we decided to do the leisure ride down the coast.

The coast range was capped by clouds.....

...making for stirring shots.

We stopped by Donghe for the famous steamed meat buns and some 7-11 coffee, then rode down to Sanhsientai. Pretty place but overrun with Chinese tourists.

Michael climbs a hill.

Then it was down to Taitung.....

...and on the crowded train....

....through the mountains on the southern link line and back to Kaohsiung and home. 85 easy kilometers on the day. What a great weekend! Wish you had been with me.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.