Stifled Dream of a Bicycle Paradise: Pollution and Industrial Blight Cloud Taiwan's Future in Cycles

With the annual bicycle festival right around the corner, the Tourism Bureau is again hard at work pumping Taiwan's place in the bicycling universe with lofty powder-puff pay for play articles that seek to lure potential cycling tourists to our shores in search of a life of exotic adventure in the timeless swirling mists of the Far-East.

By the beginning of October the official Tourism Bureau budget is ripe enough to fete cycling writers and bloggers on managed tours of Taiwan's hand picked cycling monuments, which all seem to rest amid the swelling bosom of tourism furniture-- hotels, hot springs, knick knacks, food...etc...or they serve to validate government expenditures on infrastructure like meandering bike paths or bike-share programs that mainly cater to students. The copy retains a familiar form along the official Tourism Bureau talking points listed for each writer to earn airfare and a travel stipend. We see glowing reviews of "the Bicycle Paradise" or the cute moniker "the Cycling Kingdom" with its knowing wink to King Liu the figurehead of Giant Manufacturing Co, Ltd. the maker of several branded bicycles and components.

Take these examples:  

"...majestic mountains, scenic cliffs, awe-inspiring waterfalls, quaint peaceful lagoons and all the while being surrounded by water on all sides. Taiwan is really an enchanting tropical paradise to go seeking adventure 

Combined with the country’s natural splendor with advance infrastructure i.e. good roads, Taiwan makes an ideal destination for cycling. Due to its vast infrastructure budget spent by the government for the maintenance of its roads, Taiwan altogether has over 3,000 kilometers of road network making it a paradise for cycling enthusiasts to venture within." --Arabian Gazette

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"Over the last two decades, Taiwan has transformed into a cyclist's paradise, opening thousands of kilometers of interwoven bikeways through some of the island's most beautiful landscapes. The extensive new network of routes has earned the country many accolades, including a spot on Lonely Planet's 2012 Best Countries to Visit list and CNN Travel's top "Cycling Routes That'll Take Your Breath Away," and for good reason. By bike, visitors can cruise past hillsides painted with colorful flower farms, marvel at the geology of Taroko Gorge's marble walls, follow old rail lines through retired mining tunnels, cross thrill-inducing suspension bridges and sample sweet pineapple cakes from local farm stands."--Smithsonian

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"Premier  Mao  stated  that  he  envisions  Taiwan  becoming  a  “cycling  paradise,”  and  relevant  strategies  are  necessary  to  achieve  this  vision". --Executive Yuan (2015)

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"Taiwan is considered by many to be a cyclist’s paradise with its picturesque bike trails through the island-nation’s awe-inspiring scenery. Thanks to extensive funding in the past decade, Taiwan now boasts thousands of miles of bike roads that wrap around the 14,000 square-mile island. The country’s bike paths show off the country’s diverse topography, from plains on the Eastern Coast to Mountains that are at 3,275 altitudes. The breathtaking lush green mountains and beautiful water scenery make your biking adventures heavenly".--Student Universe

They get the swirling mists, but of a more ominous variety. Don't get me wrong. Taiwan is an amazing place to be a cyclist. I have ridden through the valleys of awesome. I have seen inspiring things that I can't fully describe and have gloriously suffered in ways that only a cyclist with a love for the ride can fully comprehend. It is not that I don't like Taiwan or that I don't want people to cycle Taiwan. My complaint is quite the opposite. I love Taiwan and I love being a cyclist here. I want riders from around the world to embrace this country like I have. I want them to speak of Taiwan cycling with the reverence of the old European routes. I really do. And too often Taiwan gets in its own way of making good on its claims. I too often feel embarrassed for the people who have read my writing and taken the plunge to visit for a ride only to find their routes choked with pollution levels too dangerous to cycle without tempting asthma. I am embarrassed by glistening natural vistas marred by the industrial blight of smoke stacks, cement factories or the rotting concrete shell of a failed mega-resort. In Taiwan we almost get it right so often and we have a lot of potential, only to overdevelop our way into having all the charm of a shopping mall food court. I wrote about this issue back in 2015. I am writing about this issue today.      



The leading culprit in ruining the Taiwan cycling experience is the pernicious air quality. There is no way to escape it. I might lose more than a month of riding each year due to air quality. During the dry winter months the air can be especially noxious.

In a recent article Taichung City Mayor, Lin Chia-lung states his strong support for cycling as an integral part of the central city's identity with a commitment to cycling infrastructure. 

Mayor Lin indicated that cycling enthusiasts are in for a treat, as the festival features exciting events including Giant Cup, Taichung Cycling Tour and Wheels Ride Festival Taiwan, encompassing activities such as self-challenges and family cycling recreation. Moreover, the century-old Tour de France will be hosting the L’Etape du tour” in Taiwan for the first time on September 17, making cycling an integral element of Taichung City’s brand. The city government strives to expand city diplomacy and forge sister city ties by continuing to create cycling-friendly environments and fostering the cycling movement. 
According to him, Taichung is the primary industry cluster of cycling; aside from the headquarters of Giant, the city also features popular tourist recreational bikeways in Houfeng, Dongfeng and Tanyashen. The city government is promoting the “Cycling 369” program to establish 300 iBike rental stations, 600km of bikeway and 9,000 iBikes. Furthermore, the “OK Taiwan – Departing from Taichung” round-the-island cycling tour will be launched to promote cycling activities and industry to domestic and overseas markets.--Taichung City Government 

This is one face of Lin Chia-lung. The other is of a glad-handing politician eager to garner support from the industrial sector in his bid to woo industrial production facilities to Taichung and push Taichung further over the threshold as Taiwan's second largest metropolitan area. 

In addition, Mayor Lin made some noises last April to the tune of reducing pollutants by 40%.

In an exclusive interview conducted by “YAHOO TV! Weather Risk” at the Taichung City Government Building, Mayor Lin suggested that the air quality of Taichung has been improving in the last 5 years. The content of PM2.5 was 22.8μg/m3 last year in average, which was a decrease of almost 40% from the level of 35μg/m3 in 2011. There are several sources of pollution, including the exhaust from motor vehicles, carbon black from kitchens, uncovered construction work sites, or open-air combustion in addition to the emissions from power generators.--Taichung City Government

A problem with these claims is that they rely on Taiwan's EPA, which has long been rumored to be in the pocket of industry and politicians. Polluters are even allowed to report their own numbers. Even the scale of measurement was adjusted to suit Taiwan's higher levels of pollution. 

In a piece I wish I had written myself, blogger Michael Turton from The View from Taiwan outlines why Mayor Lin may be just paying lip service to the environment. 

The midnight spike in air pollution, using the app airvisual. This is from the Taichung area. The app usually shows a spike, a small one, between midnight and 2 AM. Why? Because factories in Taichung are quietly dumping pollution into the air in the wee hours to avoid EPA fines. I've come to dread Sunday nights because the factories on the hill below our house frequently dump foul-smelling shit into the air.

Turton's speculation is supported by the data. It appears factories and the infamous coal-fired power plant in Longjing spend the wee hours ferociously pumping out pollution that often lingers around the Taichung Basin throughout the day before wafting southward. The thought may be that people are either sleeping or indoors working while the pollution levels spike.

In a 2015 report on the impact of air pollutant on human physiology, National Taiwan University released the following report and recommendation:

Upon studying the physiological effects of particulate matter among laboratory rats, Prof. Tsun-Jen Cheng (鄭尊仁) found that fine and ultrafine particles cause damage to the respiratory system upon entrance into the lungs. Affecting the coronary artery and the autonomy of the nervous system, fine particles may lead to the onset of arrhythmia and heart attacks.
Prof. Ta-Chen Su (蘇大成) also discovered that the incidence of cardiovascular inflammation in the blood is related to the inhalation of fine particles. For instance, epidemiological statistics show that the sudden hike in hospitalization for cerebrovascular disease during the winter coincides with short-term increase of air pollutant levels. Statistics also show that the severity of Taipei’s City’s air pollution is highly linked to the thickness of the internal carotid artery, making levels of PM2.5 an important indicator for studying long-term atherosclerosis. Su’s study also suggests that exposure to PM2.5 is detrimental to the development of the infant’s nervous system.  

Vice-Dean Chan further noted that Taiwan’s annual PM2.5 standard of 15 µg/m³established by the United States, it is also much higher than the WHO suggested concentration of 10 µg/m³ . Traffic is the major source of air pollutants in Taipei, whereas in Central Taiwan, fine particles are produced primarily by thermal power plants. Urging authorities to take more proactive actions against air pollution, Chan emphasized the importance of setting emission standards according to the human capacity instead of industrial development. Prioritizing health over development, emission standards should be set by the Environmental Protection Administration in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and not, as in the present, with the Ministry of Economy. 

It is a sad irony that a country that so badly wants to be taken seriously as a "paradise"... enough to make such grand and public proclamations of the sort... can be simultaneously working so hard to hinder positive development in realizing the cycling fantasy. Air pollution can be hard for a cyclist to escape. Even from the highest peaks the views that memories are made of are often obscured by a yellow-white haze. Nobody should be expected to come to Taiwan and enjoy cycling through Venus. 



It is not only the air that interferes with Taiwan's desire to become a cycling paradise. Too often unchecked and unregulated development in sensitive natural ands ecological areas serve as a regular reminder to visitors of the blight of concrete and development. The shell of the nearly complete but wholly illegal Miramar Resort in Taidong is the perfect poster child of overdevelopment. Another shameful monument to industrial blight is the Asia Cement Factory near the mouth of the famed Taroko Gorge on Taiwan's east coast. Taroko Gorge is the natural monument that frames Taiwan's KOM Challenge, the world renowned one-day cycling race from the ocean to 3275m. Not only is the Asia Cement Factory and mining operation an eyesore in a sensitive area, it was also built on a site that was procured through deceptive and illegal means. 

A fantastic paper, Making Indigenous Lands into ‘concrete’: land grabbing in the embededness of cement industry in Taroko area, Eastern Taiwan by Yung-ching Lo 羅永清 concludes:

Taiwan experienced rapid economic development in the 1970s and 1980s and it inspired an entire development discourse on the ‘Taiwanese miracle’ (Simon 2002). As Simon’s article ‘The Underside of a Miracle: Industrialization, Land, and Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples’ has pointed
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out, this view overlooked three important facts that should be taken into account when examining the development in Taiwan. First: rapid development was made possible largely by an oppressive regime of martial law that quelled worker unrest. Second: development took place at immense social and environmental costs. And finally, those costs have been disproportionately borne by Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. 

These factors place an enormous weight on the ethnical shoulders of a visiting cyclist. As the cycling world converges on Taroko to close out Taiwan's international cycling season this October 20th, with some of the biggest names in the sport attending, they will not only be faced with Taiwan's immediate beauty and serious climbs, but they will also see the cost of the Taiwan industrial state apparatus. 

It is with these thoughts in mind that I produced the protest postcards below. They are a reminder of the gulf between our reality and our fantasy as a cycling paradise. Too much work needs to be done before our officials and representatives can even begin to stake authentic claims to "a cycling paradise". The pressure to change needs to remain constant, even on days when the air clears. This is not how I want Taiwan to be remembered.  

花蓮--武嶺--台中: Central Cross Island Highway: Hualien to Taichung

Soaring Views From Wuling

This weekend it was time again to make the long trip out to Hualien for another go at the Central Cross Island Highway. This time I would be joined by Michael T. Jeff M. and a new face to my riding circle, Dwight J., who is an excellent rider with a very nice Reynolds 953 road bike from the domestic custom manufacturer, Rikulau. The custom paint is all in a Grateful Dead motif. And it is orange.

Our goal was to make it up and over Wuling on Ho Huan Shan in two days. With such good company who would want to miss out? I decided to request the time off so I could make the Friday afternoon train and not arrive too late.

Packed

As with any bike trip, there is always something conspiring against you; weather, health, mechanical problems, family issues, and countless other things that threaten to rain hell on your plans for a weekend joyride. For me, it was a snowballing collection of minor problems that were accumulating faster than gnats in my eyebrows. I had been feeling like a cold was coming on all week and on my Wednesday ride I felt like I was only breathing at 50% of my normal capacity. The chest congestion was only alleviated by huffing asthma medicine.

I took Friday afternoon of and hopped the HSR to Taipei and then connected to a train going out to Hualien. The trains all advertise space for bikes in each car, but mine didn't have an apparent spot, so I tried to desperately sandwich it behind a seat. This was pissing me off as the derailleur was poking out and passengers were rubbing against it. I had no idea what was being squeezed under the bike bag and the whole experience scared the hell out of me. I hate taking the train. When someone came to claim their seat I moved to the next car... only to find a huge space available to store my bike. I then alternated in and out of the adjacent seat as riders came and went.

We needed all the help we could get

I didn't arrive in Hualien until 5:45pm and I quickly assembled my bike and changed into my biking clothes for my ride up Taroko Gorge. Unfortunately, something bent on my front wheel and I was getting all sorts of wheel rub. It was a choice of either some friction and a front brake, or free spinning and no brake. Safety first. The issue bothered me for the entire trip as I kept thinking about how much more energy I was using to compensate. I am sure it wasn't that much, but psychologically it was a menace. I didn't have much light left, so I started to hammer for Tian Xiang, right at the top of Taroko Gorge where the rest of the guys were waiting. Darkness soon fell over the gorge and the feeling was one of smallness as I could make out the shadows of cliff sides against the backlit sky. My pace slowed to avoid wasting valuable energy for the next day and because the road was unpredictable with dangerous chunks of rock dotting the lanes. When I finally arrived my lungs were rattling and I was just in time for dinner before the kitchen closed. The cook punished me with the gamiest "chicken" I have ever had the displeasure to eat. It was like that scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, where they over-cook the turkey and can only gnaw at the dried out meat. Our lodgings were at a Catholic hostel next to the old Hitler...er China Youth Hostel. Simple lodgings, but a bed nonetheless. I hardly slept with my heart racing from my night ride, so waking up was easy as a fitful sleep never arrived.

Going Up!

We started out just before seven, to beat the rumored road closure, which seemed to be taking the weekend off. After letting the legs warm up we steadily made our way up into the mountains. The views are always breathtaking. As rough as this ride is, it is simply stunning. It is a cyclist's dream. I wish my camera could do justice to the scenery, but my technical ignorance and saturated light conditions led to some disappointing pictures.

A Light At The End

My biggest concern was that we had skipped out on breakfast to head out before the road closed and I wasn't sure how a breakfast of Powerbars and almonds would hold everyone until we could have a proper meal. There is a big difference between "nutrition" and "food" to last for a day of riding.

Michael and Dwight Take-5

We continued up the mountain and hit all of our scheduled rest and regrouping spots early. There are about four major points to stop along the way, counting Tian Xiang. Each spot has water and sport-drink and maybe more. The first major stop sits right under "The Wall", a series of steep switchbacks that lattice their way up the side of a mountain and offer some amazing panoramas of the Taroko National Park. We sat down for a few minutes and ate mini-bananas, drank Supau, and chatted with the locals before resuming our climb.

The Wall

One of the little treasures found along the way is the series of little red bridges designed and built by the Eifel Company. Each Eifel bridge is marked with the Eifel insignia and a mark that signifies the bridges were originally requisitioned for use by the French colonial government in French Indochina (Viet-Nam). The date "1954" is conspicuously stamped into each name plate; a historical signpost illuminating Taiwan's position between geopolitical events, thousands of miles away, involving the old colonial world and the neocolonial world order of the Cold War. Following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the colonial infrastructure projects were suspended and sold to other Western allies; possibly bought with some of the remaining U.S. Aid money in 1964.

Eifel's Bridge

Bridging Divides

The weather was gorgeous during the entire ride. After all those days of rain, it was exactly what I needed to bring the color back to my 1970's Playboy-style, cycling tan-lines.

The Anatomy of a Climb

I was sticking to my plan of approximately 8mph for most of the climb, though after each start and restart things it was getting harder and harder to turn the crank. The gradual grade slowly starts to sap the energy right out of you.

Jeff Pushes Onward

The road along the mountains is full of all kinds of creatures. There were butterflies, hornets, beetles, birds and several troops of wild Formosan Macaques. Periodically along the ride I could hear the barking and woofing of the macaques as they tried to defend their territory from cyclists and tourists.

Monkey... or Macaque

I was pleased to arrive at the little cafe near the God Tree. The last time we made this trip, this was the spot things started to go seriously bad. At that time the cafe was closed, it was getting dark and it looked like tempers were beginning to flare. This time we had a delightful lunch and peach-honey coffee. The operator is a very friendly woman who speaks excellent English. We made light conversation with a family on vacation and then headed out for the final leg for the day.

Cafe at the God Tree

I was thrilled to be seeing the scenery in daylight. So many wonders that I had missed in the dark on the last trip were brilliantly visible. It is amazing to be able to look down at the East Coast and see where you started the day.

Looking Back

The mountains just keep getting more and more impressive as the road edges upward.

The Bike Takes A Rest

For those of us who live down on the plain, it is easy to forget the vibrant diversity of our island. We tend to reduce it to our immediate location. As cyclists we are really lucky to have such a topographical spectrum to savor on each ride. As Taiwan's mountains rise directly out of the ocean we can climb from the salty coastline, through jungle, cedar forests, and alpine meadows all in one day's ride.

Cliffside Traverse

It could be very easy to confuse many of these pictures with some of the more heralded cycling spots in Europe and in many ways Taiwan's passes rival those that are already enshrined in the mythos of the sport.

Michael Arrives In Record Time

We arrived at a little strip of family farms and hostels around Dayu-Ling at about 5:00pm, which is pretty good for a strong, but leisurely pace. I was really happy for Michael to have done such a great job on Day 1. He rolled in to base camp with energy and power.

Dwight Gets Checked Out

When we pulled up to out hostel we encountered a group of riders comprised of old guys from CPC (Chinese Petroleum Company). They took a special interest in Dwight's bike and examined our machines to comparison shop and sing our praises for shelling out X-dollars for whichever shiny component they were hot for. Despite our cordial meeting, we soon discovered we would likely be sharing a single room with Team Metamucil. We asked the girl at the restaurant if there were any other hostels that might have rooms and she fortuitously had an entire building that was vacant. We took it. It was also another night of light sleeping as I was buzzing from altitude and excitement.

That night after arriving we sat down for dinner and discovered that the food in the mountains is not high in variety of quality. This put me in a dilemma. My nutrition plan called for a good, high carb dinner to replenish my spent glycogen stores and a bit of protein to help repair the muscles. I figured if I ate enough, despite not being hungry, it would pay dividends on the hill climbs. The other guys thought they'd make it up at breakfast. We also had bought fruit and I found chocolate milk tea for my recovery drink. My nutrition strategy would be a double edged sword.

Morning in the Mountains

Over Sunday breakfast of what seemed to be last night's noodles, Michael announced his desire to return to Hualien with Jeff. I was happy Michael had made it to where he did, but I was also disappointed I would not be able to post a picture of one of the most inspiring individuals standing atop Wuling at the sign with a bicycle by his side. Maybe another day... but not this time. Dwight and I needed to get to the greater Taichung area and so we were determined to summit by mid morning.

Dwight and I readied for a tough climb of some real steep grades, said our goodbyes to Michael and Jeff, and headed toward our goal. The abrupt warm up climb out of Dayu Ling was a rough wake up call so early in the morning. To add to my misery, I was also feeling a little nauseous from a bad case of Mona Rudao's Revenge that would make seated climbing that much more of a concentrated effort. Ugh! I bet it was the chicken.

Dwight and I kept taking bites out of the climb and before long I settled into a nice even pace... if that's what you can call a sledgehammer pedal stroke.

Where It Starts To Get Interesting

I took a little rest up at the rest stop at the half-way mark to TCB and get a coffee. Dwight came along and was just clearing his head of the altitude. We were over 2500 meters and our bodies were demanding more oxygen than we could provide. The temperatures would oscillate wildly between extremes of hot and cold around every switchback and it was making my lungs react with fluid and coughing. It was bad enough trying to get oxygen in the high altitude and then my lungs were conspiring against me to limit how many alveoli were available to put the high octane stuff into my blood. I was pissed.

Leaving The East Behind

I settled into slow, even breaths and let my muscles power up the climb, alternating toe direction to spread the work between muscle groups. Toes up... hamstrings... toes down.... quads. I was really getting into it and feeling the progress. I was much stronger than last time and that knowledge alone was a big motivator. Although I haven't been doing my regular hill climb lately, the practice was paying off.

Dwight Pulls Himself Up

Dwight was also powering up the climb. He was a fantastic cyclist and stormed up the ribbons of roadway with a determined grind.

The Road To The Summit

Finally, at 3275 meters the ascent was over. We had crested the mountain sometime around 10:00am. For me it would be my second trip to the top and for Dwight his first. It is not an easy feat by any measure and there we were at the top. Taiwan's rippling mountain range eddying into the distance and clouds far below. It was euphoric.

Looking West

The next task was to get off the mountain. I am not a believer and thus descend with guarded caution. That caution was rewarded several fold as driver after driver strayed over the double yellow line. Each corner becomes a potential catastrophe as ascending vehicles cut for the straightest lines rendering many parts of road impossible to safely pass. Gravity is not only an enemy on the way up, but on the way down in can easily pull you into a belligerent driver. Several times I saw the face of stupid. The worst was the Volkswagen T4 van than thought passing three cars and a tour bus with a 12% grade on a blind corner was a reasonable maneuver. With a van closing in and a rain gutter nearly a meter deep on my right, I had to become as small as possible and consider crashing into the gutter to avoid getting hit. That incident put me on edge for the rest of the descent. The adrenaline put my Spidey senses on alert and soon every motion in my periphery became a threat. Earlier I also saw an underpowered Suzuki Solio pull a similar stupid move, but it was nowhere near as close.

Dwight J. Triumphant

We zig-zaged down off the mountain through Wu-She and stopped for a moment at Mona Rudao's grave before aiming for home out of Puli. We kept a wicked pace mostly between 38-45kph. taking turns pulling. Dwight made one fantastic pull on the way to Caotun. We maintained this pace and despite my intestinal discomfort, I felt pretty good. At one point we caught a couple riders from Taichung out doing a Puli ride. They hopped into our line and Dwight and I took turns pulling. At no time did either of those two make a move to pull, which is fine, but then after nearly losing them a couple of times, they stayed in line until we hit the last major hill out to Caotun, popped out of line and smoked us on the hill climb. Not the most courteous of riders. Despite two days of hard riding, we pull their asses out of Puli and then they leave "ffft! Without a do-you-mind-me..."

At Caotun Dwight and I parted and he kept on the Highway 14 toward Changhua. I took the Highway 3 to Taichung, but not before a stop at the poor Wufeng McDonalds to alleviate my symptoms. Afterward, with a little encouragement on the road, I was overcome with a new burst of strength and power to propel me home at a speed that was eating up other cyclists and some slower scooters alike.

There is something I really like about returning home feeling battered and pummeled, and knowing I look it. I love the feeling at the end of the day's fight against all my physical and mechanical enemies; the feeling that although roughed up, I pushed myself to overcome and I won another day in the saddle. I put the bike up sometime around 4:00pm. In two days we had logged 124 miles, climbed to nearly 11,000ft in just under 60 miles, covered 32,644ft. of vertical climbing and had a marvelous time.

Thanks guys!

Be sure to check:

Michael's Post on the ride with pics.

Cross Island Adventure

Taiwan's Central Cross Island Highway:

Biking East Asia's Highest Mountain Range

This weekend 3/6-3/7 I am planning to go on a trip deep into Taiwan's Central Mountain Range with a great group of guys. As I prepare for this next adventure I just wanted to look back at our last one together.

Last October a group of us decided to ride Taiwan's notorious Cross Island Highway for a weekend. We spent weeks planning and worrying about the weather and road conditions. A succession of torrential rains and typhoons had rendered southern Taiwan a disaster area and Taiwan's mountain roads are known to be unstable due to the silty clay that makes up much of the island, an artifact of Taiwan having been pushed up from the sea floor where the Continental, Pacific and Philippine plates collide. The violence of Taiwan's birth is masked by the beauty of its mountains.

The week prior to our trip the National Weather Bureau issued a Typhoon alert expecting another typhoon to hit Hualien that weekend. It looked like our trip would be called off. As the typhoon neared Taiwan it stopped and stalled. The trip was cancelled at noon. By 5:00pm the typhoon was heading back out to sea and so I quickly made the HSR to Taipei where I caught a connector with a bike car to Hualien. I arrived at the hostel after 11:00pm and hit the hay.

Riding into the mountains

Too early in the morning we left the hostel and began our journey into Taroko. I was carrying a light pack with way too much gear. I had planned for a change of dry clothes and warm biking clothes expecting to be cold and wet up on the mountain. It was all light, bike specific stuff... just took a lot of space. At breakfast I realized that I had left my money at the hostel and when I called they couldn't find it. I was pretty sure where it was so I am expecting it was taken as a tip. The same place tried to kick a group of us out of a room we reserved and paid for in June of 2000 because a bigger group had arrived. They conveniently "lost" my reservation when I asked to see it. Bastards!

Taroko Gorge

Roadwork

We quickly made it up Taroko Gorge and navigated our way through a massive land slide that had taken the entire face from a hill. It finally dawned on me that all the dust covering every rock, building, tree and flower, was from that slide.

Landslide

We worked our way up to the higher reaches of the mountains and occasionally stopped to hydrate and look at the indigenous fauna.

What?! You don't like the Beatles?

Taiwan Pride!

The winding road into the mountains

I had an unfortunate accident with a road grate and had been off the bike for 5 weeks while it was getting fixed, so the climb was pretty tiring. I was running on the 34 tooth ring and up near the 25-26 tooth cogs for most of the day. 27 was my highest so spinning my way through was not an option.

When you are looking down things are looking up

After splitting up due to the differences in speed each member could endure, we all met up at about 5:00pm to do the final leg together. Michael F. went ahead to the hostel at Yun Shan. It soon got dark up on the mountain, which was actually quite peaceful and calm. I would ride up ahead for a while and periodically proclaim a hostel around the next bend. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I looked into the bushes and caught two glowing eyes looking at me reflected by my bike light. My heart jumped for a second. Monkeys? Deer? Boar? My mind raced for animals. The presumably extinct clouded leopard? Then the eyes parted ways and I realized the entire mountain was filled with fireflies. We finally made it to the hostel and not everyone was the Good Humor Ice Cream man.

The morning ascent up the Highway 8

The next morning the five of us gathered around the table to fuel up for the coming ride. The group decided to split up with one going low through Li Shan and Michael Cannon and myself going high over Wuling. Wuling is near the peak of Ho Huan mountain and falls just sort of 11,000ft. As we were gathered around the table with our collective 75 years of experience living in Asia, we all discovered that none of us had acquired the taste for rou song, a type of dried, shredded pork that is often added to porridge and other foods.

Fruit For Thought

The climb over Ho Huan Mountain is a bedecked in one breathtaking alpine landscape after the other. Over 10,000 ft. the oxygen deficit becomes noticeable and the need to... ahem! stop and take pictures becomes ever greater.

Michael and I assailed the climb with grit and made it to a rest stop for water and calories. I think I found some instant noodles to eat dry. I was glad my internal battle over tires was won by the 25c slicks and not the fat CX tires. Anythign to take rotating weight off for that puppy.

We were making great progress at 8kph (eh!) and the adrenaline hit as the peak slipped into sight. Another factor was the intense heat. We had expected alpine chill, but the temperature rose over 80 degrees F.

Michael Cannon starts the final push

The peak!

My ascent

We hit the summit at about 12:00pm and kicked back to watch the tourists in their cars mill about and scoff a little about all the assholes who drove their cars up to the summit to ride around as if they rode the whole thing. Going from 300ft above sea level to 11,000 ft. was just a fantastic feeling. Groups of riders were coming up the other side on expensive road machines. They park further down the mountain and use the last stretch to the summit as their hill climbing workout.

My favorite shot

The clouds from the west were catching on the peaks creating abstract blotches of sunlight on the ridge line. We decided to bomb the hill. It is a pretty hairy descent as the cars coming up are never paying attention and I can think of one time where I moved to the side to let some card pass... only to have a car skid in my direction because he had been traveling too fast for the conditions. Michael Cannon was gone. He hit that hill at speed and never looked back. I was more cautious and wanted a few more pictures. The temperature dropped and I was soon in full warmers and hat.

Posing at the top

About halfway down I got word from the other group that the expedition had fallen apart. I caught up with Michael Cannon and after waiting until 3:00pm for conformation, we decided to book on back to Taichung. Suddenly we had a mission again and cruised down the mountain. We hit every green light from Puli to Wufeng. Seriously. EVERY green light!!! We kept the speed above 2o mph (32 kph) for most of the trip to Caotun, which was great from our wasted legs. Michael suffered three flats on the way back and after each the ability to restart to ever longer. A final Snickers bar did the trick and we were back in Taichung by 7:00pm.

Wuling at 3275 Meters

An epic ride with some real great people. I can't wait for the next one.

Michael F., Michael T., Chris, Michael C. and me

*I would like to credit Michael Cannon for the great pictures of me riding and the construction worker in the tunnel. Michael Cannon has to be one of the best saddle-top photographers I have ever seen. He seems to find the right shots to capture.