An Adventure Comes To An End

This has been a pretty busy month at TiC. I have had the pleasure and excitement of following some cycling friends come to Taiwan and enjoy this country the best way possible--on two wheels and without a motor. Sadly, the month of March was normally abnormal for its weeks of cold and drizzle, but I guess no adventure comes without hardship. Earlier Inposted on riding with Andrew and Alison on their way to Sun Moon Lake. It was a magnificent day and a rolling conversation. It was one of those great days to be on a bike.

Well, Andrew and Alison have just concluded their spectacular adventure around Taiwan and Andrew has written up a little summary of their Taiwan adventure.

The full article can be found at: Rolling Bicycle Tours

Andrew was kind enough to allow me to post on their experience as I got to bike vicariously through them and enjoy seeing their Taiwan come into focus the same way mine has for me.

For those interested in details, with the intent to whet your appetites, here is a summary of what we did: 

Cycled 1,100km around the entire island: Down the Taiwan Straits on the west coast and back up the Pacific Coast on the east, almost exclusively on specially demarcated cycling lanes and paths  

Cycled up towering mountains and into deep gorges, to magical lakes and waterfalls; through long tunnels and over suspension bridges, through forests and rice paddies 

Marvelled at the many ornate Tao, Buddhist and Confucian temples and shrines, adorned with colourful dragons, mythical birds, gods and goddesses; with offerings and incense and a constant stream of devoteesExplored bustling cities and towns with bright neon lights; indigenous village regions, quiet fishing villages and beach areasStayed in some great hotels, B+Bs, guest houses, a monastery, a love hotel, beach cabins, and a faux castle 

Enjoyed the end of the cherry blossom season and relaxed in many hot springs 
This is a small country, yet the people, culture, landscape and scenery is so different from place to place. There is something for everyone to enjoy - be it temples, Hakka culture, indigenous people, nature, mountains, ocean, architecture, cities, fishing villages. 

 ........

Please visit Andrew's blog and read the full, well written article. It reminds an longtime Taiwan curmudgeon like myself of all the wonderful things to be seen by bike. Moreover, their route and approach to touring may provide an excellent guide for others to follow.

I am looking forward to their future adventures and hope they will reprise their Taiwan tour in the not too distant future. Moreover, I have made some wonderful new friends.

This is what it's all about.... All of it!

Taiwan's Round Island Trip: The Cultural Zeitgeist of Circling Taiwan's Center

Jhuolan: Highway 3   


Many cyclists who live in Taiwan or come to Taiwan to visit, at some point or another, get the idea to bike around Taiwan. Locals call it the 環島 (huan dao) trip, and it has become an indelible part of local Taiwanese culture, often as a rite of passage or personal challenge. Although the idea of biking around Taiwan is nothing new, the huan-dao experience really gained traction following the release of the 2006 sleeper hit, Island Etude. Inspired by a true story, the plot is driven by a young man who, along with his acoustic guitar which he incredibly straps to his back, attempt to circumnavigate Taiwan by bicycle and in the process encounter a variety of people, their lives and ideas. The movie found salience in Taiwan at a time when the culmination of pro localization policies that had begun under president Lee Teng-hui, and continued under his successor, Chen Shui-bian, had reached their nadir before 2008 ushered in the reactionary policies of Ma Ying-jiu-- policies that hoped to both reign in Taiwan's 本土化, or localization movement, and reframe Taiwanese culture into a greater Chinese context. Island Etude did not serve to instil in Taiwanesea sense of a unique and separate Taiwanese culture, but rather, it found salience-- especially with younger Taiwanese-- in its ability to provide a visual representation of an identity that has been regularly challenged and denied by Chinese nationalists on both sides of the strait who have chalked up the Taiwanese identity to the fortunes of political actors and their ethnic politics rather than an expression of popular sentiments. Island Etude served as a very powerful symbol as circling Taiwan sketched a defined border as both a loving embrace and as a defensive shield that is understood by those within as belonging to a collective "we/us" vs. an undefined them. Within the closed loop of Island Etude's huan-dao trip, the film deals with overlapping ideas of identity, culture, environmentalism, cosmopolitanism, localism and ethnicity within the meaningful symbolism of Taiwanese cultural life.

Over the next eight years, the Ma administration would attempt to both promote Taiwan's huan-dao trip with the creation of Taiwan's first official round-island bicycle route, while attempting to obscure and reframe Taiwanese culture as a mere subgroup of a glorious Chineseness.

The power of Island Etude can be indirectly felt in the firm rebuke of Ma Ying-jiu'diminutizing cultural policies, and in the rise of several social movements, many of which were led and organized by Taiwan's younger generation-- movements which are loosely united through a shared sense of a Taiwan-centered identity and the feeling that the policies enacted by the Ma administration were antithetical to the goals of protecting Taiwan's security, environment, economy, culture and, most important,Taiwan's precious democracy. It was the generation of the Sunflower Movement that really made the huan-dao into the cultural phenomenon it is today, as it is the generation that has has filled the act with meaningful symbolism that weaves together identity, social action and the imagination of what Taiwan is and what it can be. 

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In the spirit of Island Etude's 10th anniversary, I would like to present my own huan-dao 環島 route for those looking to also embrace Taiwan and learn the contours of land through the physicality of cycling.

There are so many options and so many roads. There are so many things to see and do. 

This route is a winter route running counter-clockwise assuming the rider will be arriving at the Taoyuan, Taiwan International Airport for a couple weeks of cycling without camping equipment.

I would advise the rider to be in good physical shape and have gearing for climbs. 

I'll start this route in Sanhsia 三峽 as it is near the end of the Blue-Line of the MRT and close to the airport.


Highway 7 (Northern Cross Island Highway)


Mingde Reservoir: Miaoli Route 126


Guoxing Township: Highway 21


Wujie, Nantou: Route 83


Sun Moon Lake: Route 21

 
Renai Township: Nantou, Route 56


Tataka (Tatajia), Alishan: Highway 21


Highway 27, Kaohsiung


Kenting: Route 26


Manzhou Township: Highway 26


Zhuofu Industrial Rd., Fuli, Taidong County.

Lanyu

  
Taroko Gorge: Highway 8, Hualien


     
Iilan: Highway 9

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