Essay Series No. 31
Impression of Treasure Island Taiwan
Author: Ding Kangquan (comma)
The understanding of Taiwan began with the nostalgia of Taiwanese poet Yu Guangzhong, who has always been full of curiosity about Taiwan opposite Kinmen Island, and has always wanted to go to Taiwan one day to enjoy the scenery of Sun Moon Lake and the beautiful girl of Alishan Mountain, and on January 22, 2017, I had the honor to use the Spring Festival Golden Week to visit Taiwan.
One of the treasures: the sights of Taiwan are remarkable
Taiwan mainly produces Taiwan sapphire, opal, green jade, rhodonite, colorful manganite, agate jade, topaz, and so on. Taiwan has Xueba Park, Yeliu Geopark, Yangmingshan Park, Kenting Park, Daluge Park and other park scenic spots.
From Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Chiayi, Kaohsiung, Kenting, Taitung, Hualien and back to Taipei all the way down, the memory is particularly deep is Sun Moon Lake and Kenting Park. Sun Moon Lake is located in Yuchi Township, Nantou County, the central island of Taiwan, we took the luxury yacht that Chiang Kai-shek sat on that year, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Sun Moon Lake. On the afternoon of January 26, 2017, we entered Sun Moon Lake. Sun Moon Lake is formed by the accumulation of water in the fault basins of Yushan and Alishan, and there is a palace built here by Chiang Kai-shek specifically for Soong Meiling, surrounded by Xuanguang Temple and Wenwu Temple, and a Meiling cigarette factory.
Sun Moon Lake, larger than Hangzhou's West Lake, is the largest freshwater lake in Taiwan, and the scenery is undiminished by the Wushan Gap, especially the Ci'en Pagoda, which once served as the temporary hiding place of Master Xuanzang's spiritual seat, adding a bit of mystery to it. I went to the Buddha statue of Gen-la Xuanzang and bowed three times to show my awe.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, when many friends wish the Spring Festival of the Year of the Rooster, it is also my fifth day in Taiwan, on the beach of Kenting, the southernmost point of Taiwan, the treasure island, kissing the sea and enjoying the happiness of nature brought by the blue sky and white cloud sand cactus, which is also a great blessing in life. At this moment, you can temporarily forget the troubles in the business sea, return to the embrace of nature, and enjoy another kind of happiness and comfort in the world.
Treasure 2: Taiwan's precipitated history and culture
January 25, 2017, the second day of our trip to Taiwan, can be said to be in Taipei City to receive a cultural and historical tour, appreciate the culture of the "Taipei National Palace Museum", feel the solemnity of the soldiers' handover ceremony at 3:00 pm every day at the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, and feel the heroic strategy of Sun Wen's "Great Virtue Journey, World for Justice".
People are constantly capturing this solemn moment from four angles. The entire ritual lasts about 20 minutes. At the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, there are also cultural venues such as the Concert Hall and the Art Theater, creating the feeling of an art palace for visitors.
A place with more historical and cultural connotations is the "Taipei National Palace Museum", located in the center of the two treasures of the town hall, the jade cabbage and coral stone of the Qing Dynasty are dazzling and priceless.
The "Taipei National Palace Museum" is one of the three major museums in China, and it is also a major museum for the study of ancient China and sinology. By the end of 2014, the collection reached more than 696,000 cultural relics. Among the most famous boutiques are jade cabbage, Mao Gongding, Jing's plate, "Fast Snow Time Eye", and so on.
Standing in Taipei's tallest building 101 business district, Taipei is indeed a city with many cultural stories.
One of the disappointments: Taiwanese tour guide "Hua Zi" is not friendly
At 5:00 a.m. on January 24, 2017, I thought that the Didi taxi APP software downloaded last night was done, but I didn't expect to start booking express trains at 5:40 a.m., but I kept making a mistake, and I couldn't get a taxi in a hurry, so I could only choose to take the bus to the train station first, while contacting the tour guide in Wuxi, but fortunately, the tour guide was good at talking, so that we just need to take the car to the opposite of Carrefour supermarket in Poly Plaza on Xianqian Street. This will not affect the need to go to Shuofang Airport to wait for the flight, and finally solve the embarrassing situation of no transportation early in the morning in winter.
This time I went to Taiwan without the surprise and impulse of going to Hong Kong and Macao for the first time, nor the yearning and joy of going to France, Italy and Germany for the first time, just like going to a relative's house to visit the door and spend a beautiful Spring Festival holiday. Rushing to Taiwan for the New Year is also a long vacation for my annual hard work, and this time I took 15 days at once to treat myself who usually forgets my work. At 3:00 p.m. that day, braving light rain, I arrived at the beach of Taiwan's Yeliu Geopark. The wind of the sea blowing on the cheeks felt particularly pleasant, at this time, Xiao Fan, the assistant of the company in Wuxi, and Manager Qin, the planner of Jinyang Company, called from time to time to talk about the bank's acceptance to pay advertising money, originally saying that it would pay 150,000 yuan, saying that this time it could only pay 50,000 yuan. In general, I am still very happy, after all, there is 50,000 yuan in the account, and many fellow travelers watch me constantly calling and contacting the business, and they are very envious. I am also happy to enjoy the beauty of the waves, beaches, and cacti while enjoying the economic benefits of the company's employees going to work.
Just as I was thinking about it, Taiwan's "Huazai" tour guide introduced his veteran experience while enthusiastically introducing Taiwan's customs, after all, we were visiting Baodao for the first time, and he also seemed polite and measured. He introduced our eight-day route to our tour group: starting from Taipei, going to Taoyuan, Taichung, Chiayi, Kaohsiung, Kenting, Taitung, Hualien, and finally returning to Taipei and walking around Taiwan Island. At 5:30 p.m., I happily put 9 photos in the circle of friends, and I didn't expect that there were 120 friends like and comment on the first day, which made me have a sense of happiness in early New Year! In the process of interacting with the tour guide "Hua Zi", he can be said to be a window for us to understand and experience Taiwan.
On the third day, January 26, he took us to the "Rainbow Village" built by veterans to feel the importance of the reunification of the motherland; To tell you the truth, the first 3 days this "Hua Zi" tour guide had a relationship with us, and on the fourth and fifth days he began to go on a shopping spree, and he saw that every time our group went to a shopping point, the desire and passion for buying were not high, and he began to mumble. In order not to disappoint the whole team, my lover and I specially spent nearly 8,000 yuan to buy red coral, which is also the only valuable souvenir purchased by our group, Hua Zi was very happy to see me, but she was very dull to Ms. Xiao of Changzhou, who never shopped, and even the two bumped into each other for a little thing.
On the seventh and eighth days, we were tired and had nothing to see. After visiting Taroko National Park, the tour guide began to fool us into buying pillows, Alishan tea, Soong Meiling cigarettes, red coral from Pingtung, opal from Hualien, and nougat (NT$280) that was more than twice as expensive as Taipei City (NT$100), but our shopping line was still very rational. In order to shop, the tour guide sometimes said unkind things, and the group members just didn't hear it.
Surprise 2: Taiwanese food is not delicious
On January 25, 2017, the second night of our trip to Taiwan, the tour guide arranged for us to go to Taipei's food street for a late-night snack. In fact, it is the same as our Taiwan Food Festival on Nanchang Street, it is a sea of people, I did not expect that it was more than 9 pm, and there were so many people distributed in every bustling corner of Taipei. After eating food, we group activities, we ate nearly 200 yuan of food after being very full, Xu is that I am not naturally interested in food, I have long heard that Taiwan's food snacks are famous in the world, I eat generally.
I remember at noon on the third day, at noon on the day I went to Sun Moon Lake to visit, I ate prawns, mountain pork, and bamboo chicken in a small restaurant, especially when I ate Chiang Kai-shek's favorite bent waist fish (almost contracted by me alone), it was quite flavorful, and it had characteristics compared to gourmet snacks. This is also a good meal for our team before the "little Chinese New Year's Eve" of the Spring Festival.
I'm not interested in Taiwanese snacks, but I feel good about Taiwanese fruits. On the sixth day of the trip to Taiwan, we shuttled back and forth between Taitung and Hualien County, and the deepest memory was that we tasted Taiwan's Shakya, papaya, pineapple, high pears and other fruits at the landmark attractions of the Tropic of Cancer, especially the Taiwanese Shakya, I ate Shakya for the first time in the year of the Mandate of Heaven, and took nine photos in the hotel and put them in the circle of friends, and greatly recommended this fruit.
"Political Fast Food" on Taiwanese TV Shows
January 27 was the fourth day of my trip to Taiwan, which happened to be the night of the New Year's Chinese New Year's Eve, and to celebrate the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, I added four more dishes at my own expense. After appreciating the height of Alishan, Taiwan's iconic mountain of 2 kilometers, I did not see the beautiful Alishan girl with my own eyes.
On Chinese New Year's Eve night, I drank my only sorghum wine in eight days and went to my room to rest. Turn on the TV, there are nearly 30 channels, all three or four people around the studio chatting about various current affairs and political topics. For example: What signal will Trump send to Jack Ma? Fan Shiping deciphers the story behind "Alibaba". Their television channels broadcast news on a daily basis, many of which present fast-food-style bickering, and lack the breadth and depth of cultural and historical knowledge broadcast by documentary channels and science and education channels.
—— [Created on September 28, 2016 in Shengshi Media Office Building]
- Revised on March 28, 2023
About the author:
Ding Kangquan, pen name comma. Famous poet, television journalist, choreographer and producer, cultural scholar, economic commentator. He is currently a member of the China Reportage Society, a member of the Jiangsu Writers Association, a member of the Jiangsu Literary and Art Critics Association, the chairman of the Wuxi Binhu District Writers Association, a visiting professor of the Business School of Jiangnan University, and the founder of the Comma Academy.