A Wrinkle in Climbs: Nantou Route 68 and Route 64

 

After a week to recover from last week's physical implosion on Hohuan Mountain, I decided to limp back onto the pubic roadways and have a little adventure on some roads I had never ridden. Sometimes you just need to add a few wrinkles into a more direct route to make the ride worthwhile. That is what I set out to do.




Both of these routes offer new and more interesting pathways in and out of the Sun Moon Lake area, and may be a welcome change from the traffic clogged arteries of the Highways 21 and 14.



I lazily biked into Caotun and then lowered my shoulder as I pushed into a choppy crosswind along the Highway 14. I wasn't feeling too great and had no idea what my day would look like. As I eased my way onto the Route 147 that cuts a deep channel between Jiufen Er Shan and the foothills of the Sun Moon Lake area I decided that I would commit to a little adventure.



I stopped to double check my GPS and dribble sweat on a stainless steel table propped under the awning of an earth god temple. This was the beginning of the Nantou Route 68.



A couple of signs near the start of the road were advertising some sort of 玉門關谷. I had no idea what this Jade Gate Valley was, but the locals seemed to think it was something worth advertising. I was under the assumption that it was another "spectacular" tunnel of trees or some type of tourist temple site.



I lurched up into the mountains having left my climbing legs back on Wuling Pass. Within a few minutes I was high above the Route 147.



The road was a slithering slab of seamless asphalt. Being an election year, no road is too smooth for a repaving job, and this area had not been overlooked.



After a couple of bends along a jungled cliffside, I finally discovered what the Jade Gate was all about. It was an enticing set of cliffs and waterfalls that rivalled the Fairy Falls in Taichung's Taiping area. I was close to calling off the ride for a leap into the bubbling water under the falls, but I carried on.



The Nantou Route 68 was not even close to as difficult as I had imagined as it mostly slung around the swampy tributaries of the former series of ponds that once made up the Sun Moon lake area before the Japanese hydroelectric project transformed the basin into the lake we see today,



After a few more dips and humps I was closing in on the Highway 21. This would be a great route for someone looking to add a little panache to a Sun Moon Lake trip without incurring too much of a climbing penalty. The lack of traffic was well worth the few climbs I did have to contend with.



I almost hopped on the Highway 21 and went back home...almost.



Curiosity and improving legs got the better of me and I hooked an immediate right onto the Nantou Route 64. The Route 64 is a different animal all together. Within a kilometre the road rises high above the Puli Basin.



I could look down across layers of hills and the betel covered mounds below. I had looked across this area many times before on the ascent into Sun Moon Lake and I always wondered what could possibly be out in the seeming vastness of the wilderness unfolded before me. I was about to find out.



After a couple of 12% grades, the signs get more encouraging.



I followed along as the road became nothing but a strip-- a well paved strip, mind you-- but a strip nonetheless.

The coolness of the shady track was a dream in the summer heat as I zipped under the boughs of tall cedars. A troop of monkeys burst out of the bushed just in front of me and I was startled off my bike.



At one point the road was so lovely, I hiked for a hundred meters or so, just to take in the serenity of the mountain. Not a single car in sight.



I passed the Taiwan Forestry Research Station amid the trees and tried to take it all in. This road was such a pleasant surprise. I couldn't live in the moment long enough.



Finally, it was time to descend along the Route 64 to the Route 131, with is a long, wide downhill and enough speed over the distance to convince yourself that you are a much faster rider than you really are.



I passed through Shui-li and then beat a heavy rhythm back to Taichung, where I was stung by the smoke of a thousand prayer fires along the Highway 3 to close out Ghost Month.

It was a great day on the bike. I have missed these days.

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The Big Lie: Sun Moon Lake Cycling and Other Links

If you repeat a lie...

Taiwan Today had a recent article detailing the Merida cycling event at Sun Moon Lake. I made the observation that this event seemed suspiciously linked to a CNN-GO article and the Taiwan Tourism Bureau's desire to promote it. The Taiwan Today article actually and suspiciously mirrors and even quotes the CNN article's most erroneous statements, which I devoured in an earlier post HERE.

Sun Moon Lake, a natural alpine lake located in central Taiwan’s Nantou County, is surrounded by high forest mountains with stunning landscapes. The lake—named because its eastern part is round like the sun and its western part is narrow and long like a crescent moon—has been voted year after year by local and foreign visitors, including those from mainland China, as one of Taiwan’s must-see tourist spots.

Statistics from the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration show that the number of visitors skyrocketed from 2.6 million in 2009 to 6.3 million in 2010, after the launch of a cable car service Dec. 28, 2009. The service became an instant hit as it offers a bird’s-eye view of the lake’s beauty in a relaxing 1.87-kilometer ride between the lake and the nearby Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village.

In 2011, the number of visitors declined slightly to 5.3 million. But the administrative office is confident that its efforts over the past few years in building a round-the-lake bikeway will soon spark another tourism boom, as hundreds and thousands of bicycle enthusiasts from around the world come flocking to the lake to indulge their passion for bicycling and soak in the beautiful local scenery.

The TT Article begins to look more like an attempt by Tourism Bureau underlings to toady up to their superiors.

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Also:

Bike Radar has an interesting piece that briefly mentions Taiwan. Sadly, the writer buys into the tired old Cold War tropes perpetuated by competing groups of Chinese nationalists in the CCP and the Kuomintang (KMT).

On a clear day you can see Taiwan from the coast. China and Taiwan are inextricably linked and their differences not so old as to be forgotten. Xiamen has a huge sign facing across the water that says ‘Two countries, one system’, essentially a declaration of friendship. Taiwan also has a sign, visible from Xiamen with binoculars, which says ‘Two countries, two systems’. Direct flights between the two places only began in the last two years, and there are many big military bases in the hills around Xiamen. Despite that, China and Taiwan are trade partners on a massive scale.

This is notion is purely the invention of the writer's own China fantasy. From Xiamen you might be able to see the island of Jinmen (Kinmen), which is under the administration of the Republic of China; the official name of the state governing Taiwan. Still, it is NOT Taiwan. This is a oft repeated misconception employed to create the illusion of closer geographic proximity and, in the hopes of Chinese nationalists, possibly closer political proximity. This same strategy was used by Japan's colonial government on Taiwan, which published maps of Taiwan to include Mt. Fuji and the Home Islands resting just on the northern horizon.

Moreover, the idea that Taiwan and China are "inexorably linked" is a simple construct that stands as firm as the claim that Taiwan is inexorably linked to Japan, The United States, The Netherlands, the Balkans, the Azores or any other location. It all depends on subjectivities and how you wish to politicize them.  

The repetition of these flimsy ideas are maddening. I wish it would stop.

And:

• Mark Caltonhill has written a wonderfully detailed piece on cycling the Rift Valley. If you are considering biking Taiwan's lovely East Coast, give this a read.

• Here are Dom's pictures from our trip across the Northern Cross Island Highway. 

• Paul Sharpe has just started putting his pictures and write-up on his trip around Taiwan a couple months back. Wonderful photos. Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... with more to come. If you are considering biking around Taiwan, check this out. 

Tourism Bureau Manufactures Cycling Buzz?

In less than a month after CNNGo included Sun Moon Lake in its erroneous and potentially misguided list of Top 10 cycling routes, a report comes across the wire like this:

Taipei, April 6 (CNA) Tourism officials said Friday that the number of cyclists in the Sun Moon Lake area of central Taiwan has surged during the past few weeks, driven by a CNN report that said the scenic area is one of the world's top 10 cycle routes.

In a March 15 article titled "Cycling Routes That'll Take Your Breath Away" on CNNGo.com, the area around Sun Moon Lake was ranked No. 5 behind the Great Ocean Road in Australia, the Udaipur City tour in India, the Karakoram Highway between China and Pakistan, and the Route of the Hiawatha in the United States.

The unexpected media exposure has triggered an overwhelming response from both local and foreign cyclists, according to the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration.

"We have seen the number of cyclists doubled on holidays, with 30 percent more on regular days," said Chang Jenn-chyan, director of the administration, who added that there has been an increasing presence of foreign cyclists.

This report seems fishy to me.

My questions are:

• How can the Tourism Bureau possibly have amassed enough definitive data to draw the conclusion that there had been an increase in cycling traffic due to the CNN article... especially in a few short weeks?

• Which methods are they using to collect data?

• How is the Tourism Bureau defining "foreigner"? I would assume they mean caucasians, but they may be including other foreign visitors.

My feeling on the matter is that the Tourism Bureau is paying for press and they are determined to show results of their marketing efforts.

I have emailed CNNGo for clarification and I have yet to receive a reply. I have also emailed the Taiwan Tourism Bureau for clarification.

I have seen a number of instances where the Tourism Bureau has supplied visitors with talking points, in exchange for a free trip.

The Tourism Bureau is too quick to draw its conclusions, especially since central Taiwan has been experiencing nicer weather in recent weeks and more people will be out cycling anyways. To attribute an increase in cycling to a minor CNN article seems presumptuous and wanting.

I also doubt large numbers foreigners saw the CNNGo article and immediately booked a trip to Taiwan to ride Sun Moon Lake.

I recently rode Sun Moon Lake, and at no time did I see any government official collecting survey data on riders.

I think we may be seeing a move by the government to promote a Merida event that will be held at Sun Moon Lake at the end of the month. They are trying to hype their own efforts at taxpayer expense.

In the long run, this type of manufactured hype may not be in the best interest of Taiwanese cycling, as many of these hyped locations do not deliver the goods when we actually ride them. Nothing makes a worse impression than being underwhelmed.

This is just a farce in analogical reasoning.

It really raises the question as to how many other articles have been fudged by the government.

Taiwan Tourism Bureau = FAIL!