A Trip to the Hills -- 22 November 2000

I noticed this odd stairway up into a tree-filled hill. Hmmm. "Odd" I thought to myself. Then I noticed a map beside the stairway. I read the map, and noticed that this was essentially a shortcut through the hills to my destination!

Yaaay! All I have to do is follow 30-50 twisty, unmaintained paths through a large, tree-filled hill with the only hope for maintaining my sense of direction some small, neglected Chinese signs! No problem. So off I went into the hills...

Waait a minute. People actually live on this hill. Strange. I noticed several housing units, although there's no way to park your car less than ten minutes walking from these living units.

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Here are the steps that I was going up. At this point, I was fairly out-of-breath, so I figured a picture couldn't hurt.

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The first large building I came across. Some sort of Buddhist shrine, I'm guessing. It was pretty clean, and you could tell it got some use. At this time, however, there was no-one there. I couldn't see a single person. I took some pictures, and tried to be unobtrusive.

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Someone lined up some vases here. I saw this type of thing a few times here and there.

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The Martyr's Shrine, my destination, lies somewhere along the Keelung river. Keelung is, naturally, pronounced "Jeeee Long." The guys who invented pinying, the romanisation of the Chinese language, were smoking some seriously bad weed... The only other alternative I can think of is their first language wasn't English, but some other language using the alphabet we know and love.

Anyway, through the trees, I could see the Keelung river, so I knew I was basically on the right track.

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Journey To the Taipei Hills 22Nov2000 008

Journey To the Taipei Hills 22Nov2000 009

You can barely see, through the trees, a little table with some stools around it. The idea I'm trying to convey here is that this hill was littered with hundreds of little 'rest areas' -- benches, tables, etc. It was actually quite nifty.

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Notice the sign points in a couple of different directions to tell you where you need to go. My destination, Ta An Ru (pronounced "Da On Rue") is not on this sign. Checking against my map, I realised that I must not be in the right place, anymore. Thus began my slow realisation that I probably wasn't going to make it to the Martyr's Shrine.

At this point, however, denial was in full effect, and I continued on my way in the general direction of the Keelung river.

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Again with the solitary shrines. No people, but obviously maintained.

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This was the first of the abandoned badminton courts I found. Well, abandoned, so I thought. Perhaps this one was abandoned, but as my journey continued, I found about 50 more. We'll see some of them in a bit...

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Here, I could actually hear someone playing what sounded like 'pop' music (lively beat, drums, whatever) then doing their own karaoke on top of it. The person really was tone deaf, however, and it was painful to hear. I didn't venture up to take their picture, but I saw an old man and younger woman watching the spectacle. I took a couple of pictures, and moved on.

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If you were there, you'd have a feeling like this badminton court was abandoned, too. But there were lights on the wall. There were scoreboards. There was old unused equipment. It had a feeling like if it was abandoned, it was only some months ago.

The mystery started to build...

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Damn. These hills are too vertical.

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Here was the biggest and most-elaborate temple-like thing I'd ventured across yet. From above was a solitary-sounding clay bell clanging. I imagined some old monk sitting there with his bell, hitting it and playing it in a strange rhythm. A younger man (22-25?) and an older man (50-60?) came here and walked up those steps and inside.

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I followed the old man's path inside. Then I took a picture or two. For some reason, the picture I took of the guardians on either side of the steps isn't here. I can only assume the digital god of CompactFlash cards ate it.

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Here is the younger man, bowing and doing a ritual to some passed-away spirits. Who knows. I'd have to ask him, I guess.

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This was the source of the clanging clay bell and its strange rhythms.

At one with nature, this dog was dancing to the rhythm of the fleas.

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In some earlier series of pictures, I offhandedly mentioned the famous Taipei hotel, whose name escapes me. The hotel is at the base of the hill so, naturally, I was able to snap a picture or two of it.

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The distant Taipei downtown.

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The hotel, again. Different framing. Literally about 20 feet from the other picture, above. Strange how a little tree and a bush can change your perspective on life.

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Another 'abandoned' badminton court. Look at those chairs. No way those have been sat upon in the past few weeks. Yet, there was evidence that these courts are used every day. We'll get to that in a little bit.

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Journey To the Taipei Hills 22Nov2000 036

I'm trying to give you an idea of the dilapidated state of things.

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Well, I had made it to Ta An Ru. Now all I need to do was... look at my map... let's see here... oh. I'm only about 1/4 of the way there, and now I get to hike in the blazing sun down this busy road with buses and cars for about 20 minutes.

Or, I can go back up into that strange hill with all those cool shrines and stuff, with shady trees and cool breezes...

Which would you choose?

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So, back into the hills it is. Let's get some more pictures of that odd hotel.

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Try to get a feel for the path I was on.

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These leaves were big. So I stuck my hand in there for you to get the idea.

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No my journey was less directed, but I basically wanted to get back to where I came from, but via a different route than I'd already traversed. However, this pot of smoking debris I'd passed before. This time, I took a picture or two. I actually passed these pots two more times later in the day, as my attempts to get back 'home' grew more frantic. (I needed to get somewhere at 3pm).

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Journey To the Taipei Hills 22Nov2000 057

What's with all these badminton courts???

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Another coolio red thingy in the hills.

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Now I knew something was amiss. Those chairs looked pretty clean and well-stacked. There was a TV, VCR, and loudspeaker sitting there that, although dirty and graffittied, looked relatively functional. And in the second picture, right in the center of the picture, slightly higher than the middle, notice that digit "2" that you can only see half of?

That's 2 as in 22, as in November 22, as in the day I was walking around.

That was the final hint. Calendars kept to the day, and working clocks.

These things definitely are being visited on a daily basis.

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Maybe someone more familiar with the sport of hitting featherweight objects over nets can tell me what that... thing is. Fenny and I both surmised it's some sort of exercise or strecthing thing, but I, in the mood for exercising, couldn't figure out a way to use it.

If I was a smart man, I'd have made this a wiki page, and whosoever knew the answer could have just edited this page and put in their opinion (or fact). But I'm not a smart man, and this isn't a wiki page.

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Now I know. The plant gives it all away.

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The sign says "Ru Shan Cheng" which is odd, since everywhere else I've ever seen it written, it's written "Cheng Shan Ru." This sign appears to be meant to be read right-to-left.

As it turns out, that's also where I want to go (back where I came from) so of course, I turn right instead of left.

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Oooh! Looks at the white man where white men aren't supposed to be!

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Nifty little swingset in the hills. Romantic place for a couple to go, since there are absolutely no people here. This is where I had my lunch.

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Another of Buddha's little creatures thinking the same thing. Lunchtime. Yummiferous leaf.

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A path leading down to...

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Another badminton court. These things are everywhere.

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This one had a working clock, up-to-date calendar, and what appeared to be many postings about player rankings, info about the lady that ran the place, etc. The sign tells us hours of operation, among other things.

Looks like they play from about 5am to around 9 to 11am.

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Now the pace is getting a little more frantic. It's about 1:30, and I'm nowhere near getting back to where I belong. I've passed the smoking pot of doom as documented higher in this page another time or two. I'm going in circles, and following signs appear to do me no good.

I decide to go a little off the beaten path...

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Journey To the Taipei Hills 22Nov2000 088

Journey To the Taipei Hills 22Nov2000 089

Up this huge set of stairs I've never seen before. Higher and higher into the hill I go.

But that seemed to be taking me nowhere I needed to go. The path kept getting rougher and rougher, and started going away from the direction I knew I needed to go (west).

So I was forced either to go back the long way I came, or take a path a little less-travelled...

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Another badminton court! Yak! This one had a view!

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The view of Taipei from the badminton court.

Now it's getting more like 2:30, and I need to get to Shih Lin (pronounced "Sure Ling") at 3:00.

The good news, I can see the train station from this perch, and I'm only maybe 5 minutes North of it (I was hoping to be South of it, but that's what happens when you get lost) and almost directly above it. I just need to get down this damn hill.

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Right after these pictures I came to a dead-end. Well, sorta. I was walking down the path, and I came to a locked door. It appeared to be meant to keep people from coming the other way, but it foiled me for about five minutes.

But a little ingenuity and lack of understanding of basic physical properties of my shoes and the ground I was traversing, and I was on my way again.

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Journey To the Taipei Hills 22Nov2000 103

Now check this out. This is cool. You see that swastika on the guy's chest and in the foreground? It ain't a swastika. Has nothing to do with swastikism.

It's all about the Buddha, man.

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So I escaped from the hill. And now I've got a newfound appreciation of what's hidden in those trees. I took some pictures of the hill, because those trees really do disguise all the cool stuff going on inside.

Incidentally, there's a SmartCar in the lower-left of the first picture. Just now noticed that.

Probably this journey into the hills is the thing I'll miss most about this trip to Taiwan. I just have never gone into the woods and found so much cool stuff in there before.

Or maybe I should put it this way: When in the US, I venture into the woods, I usually find complete wilderness, or I can tell before entering that it's just a campground with only the last vestiges of wilderness in place: an occasional tree and a bear.

Here, I could not tell before venturing into the woods that it would be so full of people and civilisation. It's as though they had decided to build out fun campy things to do, but try to leave as much natural in place as possible at the same time. The hill appears unchanged by all the change it underwent.

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Cool. Train station.

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Woods. Hills. Train station coffee shop.

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Occasionally I forget to upturn a picture or two. This one's a rainbow!

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The map shows me where I am. That, and it shows you the basic layout of the maps in the TRTS station. I like the look 'n' feel much better than the BART stations.

--

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