I found the Presbytarian Church in the Taichung City

It took me almost two hours including walking under the hot sun and humid weather in the Taichung City to find the Presbyterian Church. The tasks included: 1) web research to find the destination and to plan the bus routes. 2) preliminary walk to the 'bus station' if I can find the station; 3) leaving my residence 1 1/2 hours before the church service; 4) changing the plan at the last minute and taking a different bus route so that I will arrive the train station first then taking different bus to go to a station near-by the church; (This requires an explanation which will be discussed later.) 5) walking near 45 minutes from the bus station to the church including asking people around to find the church (This also requires explanations.).

The location of the church is at Ming-Sen-North Rd. According to the web research, I can walk by to a local girl's high school (Ming-teh Girls' High School) to find #103 bus station. I had tried to walk to this bus station around 6:00 AM today, but could not find them.

Additional research has indicated that there is another #103 bus station at Taichung Agricultural Technology School, the place I was quite familiar with when I first moved to Taichung City. Thus, when I left my residence around 8:30 AM and walked directly to this #103 bus station. To my great disappointment; at the bus station, it has a notice saying that #103 is no longer in service. Thus changing the plan at the last minute became inevitable. I then took bus #35 to the train station; then #88 to Chiang Kai-Seik Elementary School.

Walking from Chiang Kai-Seik Elementary School to the church was a real challenge; even it is actually not far at all. First, the names of the roads in the Taichung City does not follow logical order. If there is no map at hand, one simply cannot find the route from one location to the other location easily. Second, Taichung citizens do not know much about their city either. They just could not help very much to the strangers about the direction. One person had directed me to Ming-Sen Rd. Although Ming-Sen Rd is a logical choice by common sense which says that Ming-Sen North Rd would be simply the North-Side of the Meng-Sen Rd. Unfortunately, when the city officials named the Ming-Sen North Rd few years ago, they did not follow this logic. In reality, Ming-Sen North is actually almost 7 blocks from the Ming-Sen Rd. What an adventure! This was almost my walking day.

With all those efforts, the important thing was that I finally found the church and attended the first Presbyterian Church service in Taiwan since I came to Taiwan almost three months ago.

The Hundred-Year-Old Ka-Tong Tree (茄茼樹) has uneasy time with Fu-Wei's (虍尾) modernization

Fu-Wei (虍尾) Village of the Yun-Lin County (雲林県) used to be the agricultural heartland of Taiwan during the Japanese colonization period. The Japanese built a sugar-cane plantation, a sugar process factory and a railroad track to transport sugar canes from the plantation to factory employing the so-called double-track five-Fu-A(五分仔) train whose track width was only five-'measure', a little bit smaller than a regular train track with a seven-'measure', or seven-Fu-A (七分仔). Ka-Tong Tree (茄茼樹) was planted as part of the environmental protection plan because the tree has unusual ability to adsorb dust and smokes produced by the sugar factory. Additionally, Ka-Tong Tree (茄茼樹), provides villagers shades to protect from the hot summer sun.

Fu-Wei's old-day glory was gone with the ending of the Japanese colonization in 1945. With more than 50 years of mis-management of Kuo-Ming-Tang 国民党 which has dominated Fu-Wei's (and also Yun-Lin County (雲林県) )politics for more than 50 years, the Yun-Lin County (雲林県) has become the poorest county in Taiwan. Weeds have taken over the landscape of old sugar cane plantation and most of the old Japanese technician's residences are left deserted. The county and the village are under pressure to bring in cash at the expense of old historical treasures. The great shade-providing, environmental beneficial Ka-Tong Tree (茄茼樹), were once fallen victims; they were once pulled out from the road side by the local politicians. Local artists, teachers and university professors petitioned to save the trees and were finally successful to convince the government to stop politicians from continuing to cut-down the trees.

What a story. Photos show the Ka-Tong Tree (茄茼樹), the train that ran the five-'measure' track, the deserted sugar cane plantation and old Japanese technician's residence. Overlooking those deserted artifacts are the 7-story concrete building with which the politicians believe they will bring the cash to the poor Yun-Lin County (雲林県).

Keelung, The name evolved from 'Chicken Cage' (雞籠) to 'Foundation Prosper'(基隆)

The majestic Keelung Mountain is located at Northeast Corner of Taiwan facing the Pacific Ocean. It looks like a pyramid; for Taiwanese farmer, it looks like a chicken cage. The name of the mountain was originally called as the 'Chicken Cage' 雞籠, or Keelung in English. Over the time, the name evolved to 基隆, literally means 'Foundation Prosper' but with the same pronunciation, Keelung.

Photo shows the Keelung Mountain.

Where is the name, Ka-Fun-A (九分仔), coming from?

Locating in a valley at the northeast corner of Taiwan and surrounded by the mountain, Ka-Fun-A, used to be a small mining village with nine major families. Each week (or may be month), the family takes turn to go to major cities like Keelung, or Taipei to shop. How many portions each time the shopping family needs to bring home? Of course, it is nine. The name, Ka-Fun-A, literally means nine portions in Taiwanese. Thus, the name of the village is Ka-Fun-A (九分仔), , the Nine Portions.

Photo shows the village of Ka-Fun-A, and the surrounding mountains. It is a beautiful landscape.

I was very moved by the Taiwanese Movie--Cap #7, 诲角七号

Over the television and the newspaper, there were a lot of discussions about the most popular movie of the time in Taiwan, a Taiwanese made 'Cap #7' or 诲角七号. Out of curiosity, I went to see 'Cap #7' on October 10, a holiday in Taiwan. I was very moved.

Although the story is similar to 'Madam Butterfly', or 'Miss Saigon', there are twists. The first twist was the introduction of a modern romance between an arrogant Japanese woman (a stage producer), and a distressed Taiwanese artist. This new romance co-mingles with an old romance between a Japanese teacher and a Taiwanese girl introduced to the audience only through the narration of the love letters written by the teacher who left Taiwan after Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945. The second twist is that a 'dying' southern Taiwanese village finally assembled a group of local musicians against all odds to produce a successful music show in the end. This 'can-do' spirit really says a lot about Taiwanese self-confidence, a character much needed by Taiwanese these days. This group of local musicians, interestingly, consists of a distressed Taiwanese musician, a 福佬人 (the largest Taiwanese ethnic group), a Hakka salesperson, an aboriginal policemen, a Presbyterian church musician (a young girl), and an old men with traditional Buddhist faith. Isn't this group of musicians represent all ethnic groups, faiths, gender, and generation of the modern Taiwanese society? But, wait. Where is the Chinese which represent the 15% most elite group in Taiwan? I believe that this elite group was represented by the very arrogant Japanese stage producer (a bossy woman) in the movie. Is that a coincidence?

There were also many humors along the story of the movie. Well, I think the movie, 'Cap #7' is a well-done, successful Taiwanese movie.

An old, dying 'mine-city' reinvented--九分仔

Along the Northeast cost of Taiwan, there are several townships that have experiences periods of glory, decay, and re-invention. Those townships include Sui-Hong (瑞方) and Kau-Fu-A (九分仔).

In the early 1930's, gold mine was discovered. The Japanese colonial government set up a company to manage the gold mine. Tunnels and infrastructures to transport and process the gold mines were built. Population of townships shot up rapidly, and the township enjoyed period of glory and prosperity. This glory and prosperity continued after 1945 when the Japanese government surrounded to the Allies and the Chinese colonial government took over the mine management. Gold and mineral production of those township began to decline until it all ran out in the 1970s.

Those township began to experience a time of depression between 1970 and 2000. Jobs were gone. Young people left the town for the jobs in big cities.

Those townships reinvented themselves in the 2000's after a very successful movie, 'The Sorrowful Township' (悲情城市) shooting at 九分仔. Today, the townships have become a very popular tourists' spot. There are old shopping street, the gold museum that attract tourists all over the world; mostly, tourist from Japan. I do agree this is a great tourist spot. I enjoy very much with every details of the 九分仔.

Photo shows the shopping street of 九分仔.

Taiwan High Speed Rail-- a Taiwanese Pride

One day in September, I had a ride with a taxi-cab which also had another passenger, a tourist from PRC. I was taking the taxi to give me a ride from Chung-Hsing University to the railroad station of the Taichung City. At the Taichung City Railroad Station, I will then take a commuter transit ride to the High Speed Rail station at New U-Jih. At New U-Jih, I will then take a bullet train to Taipei in less than 40 minutes.

I had few conversations with the taxi-driver and the Chinese tourist while we were all in the taxi cab.

" How much do you have to pay for the HSR to Taipei?", asked the taxi-driver.

"About NT $600." I answered.

"I will take you to Taipei with NT $600. What do you think?", the taxi-driver offered.

"No," I said. "because HSR is a Taiwanese pride".

It is !! I have taken the HSR rides several times. It is not only fast, it is also very comfortable. Passengers can take advantages of the rapid, efficient transit support from the local railroad and bus systems to access the HSR. The trains run every 30 minutes. The HSR is one of the few superior ground transportation infrastructures that US needs to catch up. I often yearning for such a transport system in the US so that I don't have to drive 90 minutes every day for work.


I had mentioned that there is another passenger in the taxi, a tourist from PRC. Yes, we did have few conversation over the melamine-tainted milk products sold everywhere in the world. Well, She did not defend her government. She said Chinese government and merchants are equally rotten and need to be reformed or pressured to reform.