20101101 Day 12 - Joe's Cycling around Taiwan (Hsinzuang 新莊 to Keelung 基隆)

I stayed at Cousin Rudolf’s house for the weekend.  Rudolf and his wife are coffee aficionados.   For two mornings they have fed me cups of coffee blew with the best beans money can buy in Taipei.   For Sunday dinner, they treated me to a five-star restaurant with wonderful food and impeccable services.  After such pampering from the earnest hospitality, I needed to get out of their house before I succumbed to the luxury and scuttled my journey.

Hsinzuang (新莊), where I have stayed for two days, is a suburb of Taipei.  It is one of many townships located on the left (southern) bank of Danshui River (淡水河); while Taipei is on the right bank.  My plan for today is to continue going north and to circle the northernmost shoreline of Taiwan.  The easiest way to do this is to ride along the left bank of the river, cross the river at some point, and then get on Highway 2 (台2線).

After careful maneuver through the Monday morning rush hour traffic, I arrived at the river bank.   Riding through the rush hour traffic in Taiwan is not much different from that in any other big city.   Many cars, and motorcycles – a particularity in Taiwan, are proceeding as close to you as they can get away with.  As long as you hold steady with the handlebar, keep a slow pace, not make a sudden move, and not hesitate to dismount from the saddle when stopping, then it is not impossible to ride through the maddening traffic in Taiwan.


A small town on the left side of the river is called Bali (八里), which sounds the same as Paris in Chinese.  The riverbank straddling this town is referred to as Bali Left Bank (八里左岸), mimicking the Chinese pronunciation of Paris Rive Gauche.  The bike path along the river bank is very popular and is typically overcrowded with casual bicycle riders on weekends.


A triple-arch bridge, Guang-du Bridge (關渡大橋), leads to a suburb of Taipei.


The bike path is very long and very well maintained.  I didn’t have time to travel the full length but did manage to ride for about 8 kilometers.  Most of the riverbank is a mud field.  Some sections are swamps with low lying vegetation (red mangroves?)


A slow-moving sampan against a backdrop of a densely populated Taipei suburb.


A short distance away from the bike path, two painters with bicycles found a quiet corner to sketch the hustle and bustle of the vast metropolis across the river.


I took a 5 minutes ferry ride at Bali Wharf to go across the river mouth of Danshui River.  The ferry fare were NTD $20 (USD $0.67) for me, and NTD $25 (USD $0.83) for bicycle.


A view of the river mouth, where Danshui River meets Taiwan Strait.


Danshui Township (淡水) is an old port city.  It is very popular with weekend tourists.  I used to come here to visit my cousin Rudolf when he was a freshman at a university here.


In the late 19^th century, Canadian missionary George MacKay (馬階) came here and built the first Presbyterian Church (長老教會) in northern Taiwan.  He also built a hospital and a school in this town.  He is still fondly remembered and a bust of MacKay sits at a town plaza.


MacKay established his Presbyterian congregation in 1872.  He built his first chapel in 1891 at this location.  The current church was built in 1933, 32 years after MacKay died.  There are more landmarks in town with Mackay’s legacy but they are at the end of a steep uphill, so I digressed.


After Danshui Township, I took Highway 2 to circle around the northernmost tip of Taiwan.  The highway is built near the coastline and the scenery is beautiful and at times magnificent.  But there was a problem for me.  Because I was cycling around Taiwan clockwise, I was on the inland side of the highway and frequently was not able to get a good view of the coastline.  Sometimes the view was so compelling that I would, but seldom, dash across the highway to get a better look.


On the side of Highway 2 is St. John’s University.  It is an institution founded in 1879 in Shanghai by American Episcopal Church.  The current campus was established in 1967 at this location after Communist China closed down the school in Shanghai in 1952.


One of many clusters of roadside cafes catering to beachgoers.


A gigantic condominium complex appears on the inland side of the highway and it looks totally out of place.  Housing units look tightly packed together and the complex is really humongous comparing to its nearly empty surrounding.  Its distant location from the city seems too far for commuters, and the claustrophobic density seems too unrelaxing for vacationers.  Yet the complex looks much occupied; its attractiveness seems to have escaped me.


After this short downhill, the highway runs next to the coastline.  The scenery starts to live up to the namesake for this area called “North Coast National Scenic Area” (北海岸國家風景區).


White crashing waves pound on the rugged coastline.  A nuclear power plant sits atop a hill at a distance.


A famous roadside eatery is Liu’s Meat Tamales (劉家肉粽).  It has many kinds of tamales wrapped in bamboo leaves.  I had two tamales and a bowl of Taiwanese sesame coq au vin with rice wine (麻油雞).  It was a very satisfying lunch.



Fuguei Cape (富貴角) is the most northerly tip of Taiwan.  A lighthouse and a radar station are built at the cape.  I was surprised to see that the lighthouse is built on a flat headland, instead of being on top of a tall hill.  A walkway, leading to the cape and suitable for cycling, is built very close to the rock beach.  No one was on it when I was there.  Inches away from me were deafening waves pounding on big rocks and littering driftwood abounding.  It was very surreal.



A naturally formed stone arch is on the side of the highway.


A section of the highway with wind turbines atop a hill overlooking a long bridge.  The view from the bridge out to the ocean is spectacular.


Road signs point to three tourist attractions.  One is for a small town, Jinshan Township (金山), with historical streets.  Another is for a museum that houses sculptures by the most distinguished Taiwanese sculptor, Juming (朱銘).  The last one is for a memorial park commemorating a deceased Taiwanese pop singer Teresa Teng (鄧麗君).  Because of the time constraint, I missed all three.

I now am regretting not visiting the last one.  I should have gone to see how a pop singer is being honored posthumously in Taiwan.  Not to be disrespectful, but what does the park look like?  Is it like the Graceland at Memphis or the Neverland at Santa Barbara?  Inquiry minds want to know.


Although the dreadful northeast seasonal wind has died down, the waves are still very forceful. The sound of these waves hammering on the rock beach is thundering. The sight of surging white bubbles from colliding waves is awesome.



One of many fishing harbors along the highway.


Two daring anglers dropped their fish tackles from a cliff butting against the coastline.


A view of the big rock formation on the coast.  Notice more daring anglers on top of the big rock.


And there were daring newlyweds too.  One newlywed in a pink dress on the left and another newlywed in red dress on the right are on photo shoots, accompanied by two groups of professional photographers.


Yeliou Geopark (野柳), a cape with odd geological formations, is the main attraction in North Coast Scenic Area.  When I got there, I found its parking lot packed with tour buses and throng of tourists crowding the park entrance. I turned around and headed back to the highway.

Off the coast at a distance is Keelung Island. My destination for today, Keelung City, is near.


By late afternoon, I arrived at Keelung City.  It is the second-largest port city in Taiwan, after Kaohsiung.  I asked a local for information about lodging near the temple and was referred to a hotel a block away.  The hotel, Huaguo Hotel (華國大飯店), caters to packaged tour groups.  The fee for a lone traveler like me was NTD $1350 (USD $45) for a quiet room away from tour groups.

The night market near the temple is very famous.  It was busy on a Monday night and was full of tourists from mainland China.


A Taiwanese puppet show (布袋戲), donated by a temple devotee for the evening, was performing in the temple plaza.


A salted sticky rice (油飯) on the left and crab meat soup (螃蟹羹) on the right were ok.


Sweet fermented glutinous rice soup with sesame balls (酒釀芝麻湯圓), an acquired taste, was very tasty.


Hot bean jelly with lotus (蓮子熱豆花) was good too.


A handmade plum ice cream (烏梅泡泡冰) rounded up the dinner.


The first map shows the full island of Taiwan.  My bike ride for today was from 11:30 position to 12 o’clock position.

The second map gives a closer view of my ride.  The balloon with number 5 is the Fuguei Cape, the most northerly tip of Taiwan.


Vertical profile of today’s ride. There are many small uphill and downhill along the coastline.  The steep hill at distance 72 km is Waimushan (外木山), a shortcut from Highway 2 to Keelung City.



Summary of today’s ride.


-Joe


Next:  20101102 Day 13 - Joe's Cycling around Taiwan (Keelung 基隆 to Jiaoxi 礁溪)