Taiwan Tourism Goes On The Offensive in the Washington Times

  The Washington Times recently published an article focusing on Taiwan's bicycle boom. The writer, Jonathan Heflin does an impressive job in sewing together incongruous snippets of the Tourism Bureau agenda to form a semi-coherent article on the state of Taiwan's state sponsored cycling programs. 


Maybe I am a skeptic at heart, but there are plenty of other cycling cheerleaders out there to give anything related to cycling a knee-jerk round of cheers. This blogger and experienced Taiwan watcher has some reservations when it comes to how and why Taiwan and Taiwanese cycling is promoted in the media. 


I have been around the block enough times to understand that the Washington Times is a frequent and reliable source for Taiwan's government to promote its policies and agenda through a seemingly third party source. Often, ROC government editorials, letters and favorable stories are released through the WT. With that in mind, and the obvious lengths the Tourism Bureau and the Government Information Office have gone to alter reality in the foreign press through CNN-GO, I have my reservations as some of the same incongruous themes and talking points appear in report after report. 


The WT article states: 

In recent years, this southeastern Asian island nation has felt the strain on air quality due to a growing number of automobiles. To combat this issue, promote a healthy lifestyle,  and create meaningful tourism opportunities the country has focused its efforts on molding a cycling culture - reintroducing this very basic form of transportation to its people. Finding the perfect combination of ingredients for such a complex recipe, however, isn't always so easy.

For this long-time expat, the issue is a confluence of factors. As Taiwan's economy has shifted and the ideals of democracy have become entrenched in the twenty-five years after nearly a century of both Japanese and Chinese Nationalist authoritarian colonialism, Taiwanese have come to demand more from their government. Gone are the days when the government could simply strong-arm both metropoles and localities into accepting destructive and harmful environmental policies that benefit a few (though it still happens to some extent). People are better educated and do not feel obliged to being poisoned for the sake of economic or diplomatic graces. 


The highlighted section alludes to incorporating the bicycle into the transportation grid. Regular readers of this blog will understand my skepticism as so much infrastructure spending is lavished on leisure cycling and the transportation aspect is sorely underdeveloped or totally neglected by central and local governments. 

Home to one of the world's biggest bike manufacturers, Giant, Taiwan quickly gained an advocate willing to join the fight in bringing cycling to center stage in the country.  Giant has been a key player in efforts to make the island more cycle friendly. One important push was to create the U-Bike bike rental program in the capital city of Taipei, which uses Giant brand bikes.

Giant has done a great job in promoting cycling activities, but as a manufacturer, retailer and advisor to the president, there is an obvious conflict of interest between what is good for Giant and what is good for Taiwan. Giant is in the position to help mold cycling infrastructure to benefit Giant and limit consumer choice. Are we being steered to embrace leisure cycling at the expense of utility cycling because that is where the dollars are?  

Building dedicated bike paths and adding bike lanes to the existing streets has been another key ingredient in the success of Taiwan's cycling culture. Bike paths in major cities have provided a place for recreational cyclists to ride. The idea of biking for recreation can be a foreign idea to many in a society which has historically used them mainly for transportation and delivery of goods. Seeing one's peers take to the bike paths for fun has helped broaden the idea of what cycling can be.

Ah! So here we see the discussion oscillate back to leisure cycling. The urban lanes have been deemed useless due to misuse by non-bicycle traffic and an unwillingness on the part of the authorities to enforce space for cyclists. 


Moreover, the pike paths were built in response to demand. It was not simply about the government building infrastructure and people responding. The Dunhua Rd. bike lane mess was the result of the Taipei government trying to capitalize on the cycling craze during an election year. 


The highlighted section in red emphasizes a retreat from cycling as anything more than a leisure activity. The bias is clear. 

By easing the public into cycling through improved infrastructure, with user friendly rental programs such as U-Bike, and by promoting bike tourism, Taiwan has created a recipe for success that has worked particularly well there. The island has been rewarded for its focused execution with a cycling culture which is growing steadily and thriving in a region more used to the modern travel modes of the 21st century.

This piece attempts to validate the government's efforts in generating cycling success rather than showing how the government has responded (or failed to respond) to the needs of the cycling public.


 I can't help but wonder how instrumental Taiwan's government has been in crafting foreign perceptions of our cycling culture. If we only focus on what is right and embellish the perceptions of our cycling aspirations as if they were real in today's world... we stand to avoid making the changes that need to be made for these cycling dreams to become reality. 


From monitoring English language media on Taiwan cycling, I would be inclined to believe that:


a) Taiwan is a cycling paradise in every regard; an Asian Copenhagen. 
b) Taiwan's government and Giant are the grand architects of Taiwan's cycling culture. 
c) You can easily ride and park your bike in every major city.
d) Taiwan's bike trails actually lead to important places. 
e) Taipei's recreational bike paths connect seamlessly to Taiwan's Rift Valley between Hualien and Taidong. 


Taiwan Links:


The UCI and IOC will allow brand logos on the bikes used by Olympians in 2012. This is good news for Taiwanese companies that produce many of the frames and components being used by the competitors. 


Judge uses Google Maps to finger culprit in bike accident. 


Other Links: 


Bike Messenger Madness. The art of the U-Lock window smash. 


The Lovely Bicycle recommends some salty lemonade for summer cycling. I prefer a popsicle and a Fin at the convenience store. 


If the Australian cycling boom is a myth, it may also be untrue elsewhere. 


Tour de France:


The rider of the year award would have to go to the Slovak, Peter Sagan. The 22yo. rider for Liquigas-Cannondale has lit up the 2012 cycling calendar with an early points win in the Tour of Oman, as well as taking an incredible five stage wins in the eight stage Tour of California. In his prelude to the Tour de France, Sagan took four stages and the points win in the Tour de Suisse. Then, on the biggest stage of them all, Sagan claimed three stage wins in the opening week of the Tour de France. His youthful exuberance at the finish line is enough to get any casual cyclist to tune in to one of the broadcasts on Steephill. 


Bradley Wiggins slams critics over doping. Claims his success is rooted in British pub culture. 


Lance Armstrong vs. The World. It appears even his best friends will throw him under the bus. Still, what is the point. You'd have to investigate everyone from that era to uncover the "true" winner of those races. He passed the doping controls set up by the race organizer. Whether he did that by hook or by crook is irrelevant. I hope every rider in the peloton is clean and scared to death of doping controls. Prosecuting LA several years after the fact just seems selective. 


The hope of Canada withdraws from Tour. Hesjedal (I spelled that right on the first try) goes home injured.

Tracing The Route 139: The Foothills of Central Taiwan

The view from the water cooler at the Fengshan Temple, Bagua Shan


I guess the third time's a charm.


I have tried to explore the Route 139 from Nantou to Jiji on two prior occasions, both times as part of a rebuilding regimen while I try to reverse my state of physical decline. 


The Route 139 looked accessible within my target range of distance, while promising some hills to ease the legs back into climbing shape. The route was close enough to some major highways in case anything went wrong. 



Route 139


I plodded down the Highway 3 to Nantou, while cutting through an irritating crosswind. The breeze was enough to make me wonder it was the wind or simply my own suckage. 


Halfway through Nantou on the Highway 3 I took a left onto the Route 139, which drops on down into  Nantou city. There is a little black and white sign designating the Route 139 continuing diagonally to the right. The roads get tricky, but it is, in fact, the smaller diagonal road that goes out to the Route 139.



Taiwanese Weekend Fun


The 139 is a smooth, well maintained road that wends through small farming communities in the foothills above Nantou. The scenery is that spectacularly radiant green that so defines much of the Taiwanese rural landscape. 

A River Runs Through It


The road dips and climbs past some wonderfully free flowing rivers. In Taiwan our rivers are too often boxed in with concrete to really give the impression that they are a part of the natural landscape. 





There are a few pineapple farms that dot the areas surrounding the Route 139, and some impressive mountains hover in the background. 

Pineapple Fields


The Route 139 from Nantou to the tourist town of Jiji was less challenging that I would have liked, and it was a short 14km with only a couple halfway decent climbs. It was a pleasant road that might make an excellent and creative alternative to the Highway 3, but it was nothing to really challenge the legs. I might suggest it for a novice who might like to explore the area around Jiji. It might make a great, slow-paced day ride if combined with the shady Route 152. 

A Grave Man


Just before emptying out into Jiji, I stopped to snoop around Jiji's Second Cemetery located just on the outskirts of town. You can learn a lot about Taiwan from the stories written on the face of a grave stone (more on that in some other post).  

Over Jiji

Rest

End of the Route 139


After the 921 earthquake in 1999, Jiji's rustic train station and tourist district was nearly wiped out. From the rubble Jiji rebuilt itself as a bicycle destination where cyclists can arrive and rent bikes for a day or simply ride into town for some refreshments on a long team ride.  

Riders


Just out of Jiji I had another flat. I took some time to examine the wheel. Four flats in a week is getting to be a little much. Everything checked out as the hole was in a completely different spot than the prior three, so I aired up and continued back toward Taichung. 


I was still feeling like my desire for a challenging ride had not been satisfied and thus, when I arrived at the point where I embarked on the Route 139, I turned up the hill and charged up Bagua Shan. The 139  toward Changhua is not as much a road as it is a ramp that just vaults skyward out of the Nantou valley. There are no switchbacks to recover. It is just one long grind to the top of the hill. In the searing heat the climb becomes a mental exercise in concentration.  

Farmers Take 5


Once at the top, I took advantage of the slight decline to bring my speed up and make time on the way back home. Despite the slow grind to the top, the lack of traffic and stoplights makes a wonderful way to return to Taichung. The Route 139 atop Bagua Shan is such a great road and it was nice to take it in the opposite direction I am used to. There are a few short climbs and even more invigorating dips that draw out your remaining speed and power just to push the limits of speed. 


In the end, the entire ride was about 112km/70mi.


It was such a nice day for a ride. 

Product Review: Tacx Lumos Lights and Continental Force

Tacx Lumos Bike Lights:



Like most people I work regular hours for a living and that means I have to do most of my serious training at night.

Taiwan can be a frustrating and dangerous place to ride during the day, and at night you have to be even more careful. Good lighting and visibility is essential to surviving each ride unscathed.

For the past several years I had been using a Cat Eye bar top mounted light with strobe and solid beams pairs with a couple of blinkeys on the back.

The worst thing about the Cat Eye was that several times during a ride, I would have to slow down and re adjust the strap to keep it from dangling or dropping off the bar completely. No matter how tight I would fasten the damned light, a little rough pavement or bump on a bridge, would send it illuminating my shoes.

I went into T-Mosaic and saw the Tacx bar end mounted lights and was intrigued. I finally broke down and bought them. After a few nights out with them, I think I like them pretty okay.

They are bright. They are solidly mounted to the bar ends and run on AA batteries. Each side shines front and rear with a blinker if you ever remember to use it. These are all good points.

I don't like the lack of a strobe. It is easy for me to imagine a vehicle misjudging my distance if they aren't sure way type of vehicle I am. I remember one foggy night I was driving through Sun Valley, Idaho. The road was covered in a dusting of snow and the highway covered in fog. I saw a bunch of lights up ahead and wondered what all those cars were doing up there. I suddenly realized that I was about to ram the back end of a semi trailer. The point is: Lights can be deceiving in the dark. A strobe is a good clue that you are a bike.

I am also trying to get used to having something beyond my normal bar ends. A couple times I have turned off the lights by resting my hands on the very ends of the bars.

The last quibble is that the AA batteries rattle when you hit any type of bump and it makes the ride a bit noisy.

My left light has quit working after maybe three night rides. It will turn on if I remove the light and jiggle the contacts, but that only lasts for a moment.

Overall, this COULD BE is a very good product for night owls. I still see lots of room for improvement. Better engineering would be a start. Remounting the button to the outside might be better. Adding a strobe function would make this product a easy choice if it can be robust enough to handle real world riding.

It feels like a beta product, but it is not ready for the consumer.

Update:

About 6 weeks ago I brought these lights back to my LBS. The owner was kind enough to send them in to have the engineers look at the problems. Nobody has heard back from Tacx. I was issued a new set on the LBS owner's dime.

When they break... I will be looking elsewhere.


Continental Force Tire:



I am still, and have been for a long time, a huge fan of the Continental 4000 GP tire. It is an excellent performance tire for racing and fast training.

Sadly, when my tire died, I had to face the fact that Taiwan is always in short supply of my trusty 4000 GP. The superior 25c model is even more scarce.

I needed a tire and went with the Continental Force. I chose the force for its performance profile, and for the fact that it is 24c. I thought this would be a good replacement when paired with the 23c 4000 GP on the front.

The tire feels very firm. At first it made my bike feel like one of those old alloy Cannondale biked of the 90s. After a while the tire felt very smooth and a very good roller with plenty of tack on the road.

I have not had it long enough to rate the wear, but so far, this is a very nice performance tire. Very racy.

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Central Taiwan Cycling Health WARNING: Seasonal Burning

Smoke from Changhua fields


Last night, as I was charging through Caotun halfway through my Wednesday night training ride, I felt my chest tighten and it became harder to draw a solid breath of air. 


At first I thought I had overcooked in my effort and I paused at 7-11 for a water in the A/C. 


I knew I was out of shape, but everything seemed to be going well. Until that point I expected my legs to cramp up before my lungs. 


I started to recognize the feeling of an allergy induced asthma attack and I was traveling without my inhaler or antihistamine. Doh!


As I blew my nose into a complimentary 7-11 napkin, I became keenly aware of the smell (and taste) of  smoke. 


That is when it dawned on me that I had charged full speed into burning season. This is the time of year when farmers burn off the rice husks in their fields and prepare for the next crop of rice. The practice pollutes the air with thick smoke and creates a potentially dangerous situation for those of us with asthma or other respiratory problems. 


If you have allergies, asthma, or any other respiratory problem that could lead to a medical emergency, be sure to keep that in mind when choosing your routes for the next couple of weeks. Also be sure to carry everything you need if you have an emergency. 


I finished my ride at about half-speed, and not after spraying the roadway with two dozen snot rockets. My throat was a bit sore and I had a pounding headache. Feeling much better now. 


Ride safe!

Team Neko To The Rescue: Thanks Again!

Last Saturday I went on another longish ride out toward Nantou as I claw my way back into shape after a 2 month hiatus. There are days when one or two things conspire against you... and there are days when it seems everything does. 


On Saturday, it seemed lots was going wrong. 





I had intended to ride down past Mingian, and then loop back to Nantou via the Route 139, which, if ridden in its entirety would be an amazing ride. This is the second time I had tried to find the Route 139, and often, the view from the map is vastly different from that of the roadside. In my mind's eye, I thought I knew where to go... and I did. The problem was that there is a jumble of roads in the area and I managed to find myself on the wrong one. By the time I realized I would be missing the Route 139, it was too late and I had already wasted too much energy to go back. 





Instead of chewing up grit on a mouthful of nasty hills in the hot sun, I was looping through the shady avenues of the leisurely Route 152, which has become something of a novice route for city slickers visiting the town of Ji Ji and rent bikes on a lark. 





The Route 152 is pretty and pleasant. 





It follows the old banana rail lines around JiJi and within 30 minutes I was plopped back on the Highway 3 headed home.





I rode up the Highway 3 looking for any roads that might show the promise of adventure and as I was passing a 7-11, I felt my rear tire deflate. 


"Damn!", I thought to myself, "Well, at least I am in front of a 7-11. It could be worse." 


I parked my bike and went in for a popsicle and a little A/C before getting down and dirty with changing a flat. 


Once I got everything changed, I hit the road back. After riding less than a kilometer, I felt the road getting soft under my rear tire again. I got off the bike and located a tear in the rubber of my tire. It seemed the high pressure was forcing the tube through the hole causing it to explode. 


Just as I started walking to the Circle K that was just on the other side of the bridge to repeat the flat ritual I had just completed minutes earlier, a number of riders from Taichung's Team Neko stopped by to lend a hand. I explained the problem and it was as if a team of race mechanics had descended on my bike. I gave them space and I was back up and riding-- albeit a little soft in the rear to avoid another blow-out. 



I recognized several of the riders from Caffe Terry, and I decided to hang with Neko for the remainder of the ride. I figured it would be like riding with a mobile bicycle shop. Lots of people with pumps and tubes if anything went wrong.


The group had well over twenty riders, so it was nice to take advantage of the draft. The pace was quick at the front, but not too fast, about 35-38kph. Occasionally the studs of the group would launch off the front in a bit of fun. For me, I was just happy to get a tow home. It was also nice to have one of the only metal bikes in the middle of a bunch of beautiful carbon bikes.


Neko is Taichung's default group ride. They are well organized and always doing something different on both Saturday and Sunday. They also do weekly Wednesday night rides. You can't miss them with their jailbird stripes and cat logo. I see them all the time, but have never had a chance to ride with them before Saturday. Anyone is welcome to join Neko, so they attract both the hardcore racer and the cycling novice. A beginner could learn a lot from these guys. 


There schedule can be found HERE. Sadly there is no English option. 


I bumped along with the group all the way back to Taichung with 20psi in my rear tire. When the group split up and several members finally landed at a cafe, I thanked them for the help and in allowing me to crash the party. 


This is very much the spirit of cycling in Taiwan. People are very supportive and always ready to lend a hand. 


Thanks again Neko. 

Cycling Tour of Taiwan Video

Here is a great little video of a couple of guys on a Round-Taiwan tour. They seem to have picked a pretty good route and taken the time to capture it on video. The sped-up effect is one of my personal favorites.

Taiwan's Soft Diplomacy: Cycling The World To Make Space For Taiwan

A pair of child's overalls from 1978 with an ROC flag and the slogan, "I Love China/Chinese". This provides an excellent example of how these Chinese Nationalist symbols were used to reinforce KMT party ideology in children. The symbolism was a performative means through which Taiwanese located on the periphery could attempt to satisfy their ethnic burden and benefit from drawing closer to state power. The ROC flag is still a very important symbol in every school.




The CNA via Taiwan Focus brings us an interesting article on a Taiwanese cyclist who will embark on an extended bike tour to highlight Taiwan's difficulty in negotiating an ambiguous national identity.

Teddy Liao, who prefers to be known as "Taiwan Floatman," will wear a T-shirt printed with the Republic of China's national flag and perform "human flag" maneuvers in which he makes his body parallel to the ground while holding a pole at famous scenic sites in various countries. 

Liao, 28, who has sold his bike shop in central Taiwan's Taichung city, told CNA that he's motivated to quit his job and travel in this unusual way because he is patriotic and is concerned about Taiwan's unique international status. 

The island of 23 million people is not recognized as a country by the United Nations because China considers it a province to be reunified one day.  

As a result of Beijing's objections to Taiwan being treated as a country, Taiwan is often barred from participating in international organizations that require statehood or using its official name -- theRepublic of China -- at international events. The ROC moved its seat to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Chinese communist party.  

Despite the warming ties between Taiwan and China, Taiwan is still not allowed to show its flag at international sports events, and thus many patriotic Taiwanese people or athletes make a point of showing Taiwan's flag in the audience sections or on the stage of sports competitions or other events. 

What may be the most interesting aspect of this article is how Mr. Liao's trip not only accurately expresses the level of confusion and insecurity the current national policy of demurring ambiguity creates among its citizens, but also in how Taiwan's status as an unresolved post-coloniality has resulted in a confusing juxtaposition and reconfiguring of national identities and symbolism.


The debate over Taiwan's representation is not only being waged between the People's Republic of China (PRC/China) and Taiwan (Republic of China/ROC), there is also vigorous debate within Taiwan over the state of the nation.


Form Taiwan's earliest contact with the ROC, the relationship was defined as one between the centrality of the ROC state apparatus and the Taiwanese periphery. To gain access to the state's monopoly on power, Taiwanese were expected to move closer to the state center by adopting the state ideology of Tridemism, also known as Sunism after the writing of the Chinese ethnic nationalist writer, Sun Yat-sen.


Tridemism is based on the principles of Nationalism/Populism/Patriotism, Democracy, and Public Welfare. Sun Yat-sen believed the Chinese people were racially superior to the other peoples of Asia and, only through these principles, could rise up and become the masters of the "Yellow Race".


Sun's ideals were brought to Taiwan by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) following WWII, which operated as a mirror to the Japanese colonial government it had replaced. The symbols of patriotism and nationalism were regular deployed to array out the nationalization program with the aim of transforming the Taiwanese people into Chinese. 


This process put an incredible burden on Taiwanese to adopt idealized modes of behavior to satisfy the KMT state's requirements of patriotism, while the KMT maintained a gap between the civilized center and its degraded peripheral peoples (Taiwanese).


The ROC flag has remained a confusing and controversial symbol of Taiwan as it is based upon the KMT party flag, brought to Taiwan from China in 1945. After 40 years as a single party authoritarian state, Taiwan's transformation to a democracy failed to transform many of the former symbols of the pre-democratic regime and its failed neocolonial, China centered programs.


In the article above Mr. Liao expresses his desire to display his patriotism in the face of China's belligerence by displaying the national flag-- a flag that is often suppressed by Chinese efforts and also by the complicit acts of the ROC's own representatives.


It is not clear if Mr. Liao is a strong supporter of the constitutional ROC, the Chinese Nationalist state that still maintains a China-centered outlook, or if he has come to associate the old symbols of Chinese nationalism with the modern, democratic experience of Taiwan.


It Taiwan, it is commonly recognized that the ROC flag is not a neutral representation of the nation, but tightly associated with the KMT; a party which still officially seeks to realize its pipe dream of seeing Taiwan as a part of some "Chinese" entity. This would make Mr. Liao's efforts seem almost counter productive.


Many Taiwanese who support a formal declaration of independence steer clear of the old symbolism that is tied to the type of ethnocentrism that was used so effectively in maintaining the social cleavage between those who identified closely with the KMT state (and were the beneficiaries of their close relationship) , and those who did not.


As the majority of Taiwanese reject any type of Chinese identity in recognition of the realities of Taiwan as their center, the deployment of old symbols imbued with new meanings will likely continue and become more common as Taiwanese inch toward a "Taiwan consensus"driven from the bottom up. For many Taiwanese, there seems to be a type of dissonance between the Chinese centered history and experience of the ROC and the Taiwanese historo-political experience, as if the history of the ROC in China has been imported wholesale, reconfigured, and re-imagined as if it had happened in Taiwan. 


What Mr. Liao may represent with his bike ride, is the possibility that a Taiwan centered nationalism has supplanted the China-centered model to become the predominant grammar for discussing the national expectations and aspirations of the Taiwanese. This bike project also betrays how the KMT and PRC policies of containment deployed against Taiwanese nationalism have produced the opposite of the desired effect.