Some Pictures from June 2007 in Taiwan

When we went to visit some friends on their farm outside of Dounan we were able to enjoy a walk around the fields and the village where they lived. There were many old Taiwanese homes, built in the traditional style that was common for farmers from ancient times up to the early 1970s. Our hosts told us that no one really wanted to live in tiny villages outside small towns like Dounan, and so many of the old traditional homes were lying empty, and no one would rent them, even with rents as low as 1500-2000 NT$ per month (about $45-$60 US). We thought if people fixed up the homes with air conditioning and connected them to the Internet these would be lovely places for scholars (like me) to retreat to for writing and study. They would also be interesting bed & breakfast establishments if the Taiwanese ever started being interested in staying in old traditional homes in small villages.

You can see a photograph of the interior of Second Sister's factory and home (they live and work in the same place). Taiwan's economy and development was characterized by a reliance on many small family businesses such as this one. A family might sew garments in their home, or repair machinery, or place machine tools in their home and stamp washers out of sheet metal. Larger establishments might hire cousins and neighbors. Taiwan had its share of big businesses, but to a degree that set it apart from Korea or China, small family owned and run businesses were an engine of growth. In the photograph (the larger version) you can see the outside of the two upstairs rooms where the family sleeps (we have the room with the window and air conditioning unit on the left when we stay in Banchiao with Second Sister). You can also see some of the machine tools used to make screws, bolts, washers, and fasteners.

The photograph of me sitting at a table with a tea pot was taken in the shop owned by our friend Mei-Shuie's little brother. Mei-Shuie is from KaoHsiung, but like Chun-Chih, she married an American and now lives in Springfield, Illinois. Her son Nathan is a classmate with our son Arthur. Anyway, her little brother runs a business with scores of tea shops that sell cold (or hot) tea-based drinks. He also runs a few of these businesses where people can come to buy high quality tea (on the wall behind me are some varieties of tea that sell for $150 US per kilogram).

We visited Yang-Ming University in Taipei (near Beitou) to see our old friend Sandra Lin. She works as a laboratory and research assistant at the university. In the photograph you can see Sebastian and Arthur with Sandra in one of the lab rooms. To the right of Sebastian you can see some glass beakers and test-tubes.

We saw a fantastic museum display about the era when the Dutch East India Company (the V.O.C.) controlled and colonized Taiwan (from the 1620s to 1662) in the old British ambassador consulate home in Tamshui.

Our host in KaoHsiung, MeiShuie's little brother, let us stay in one of his apartments and he also gave us a splendid seafood stew. You can see some of the ingredients he is using to prepare the stew in the photograph.

There is a photograph of a lunch I had at a vegetarian cafeteria in the Banchiao traditional market. It was extremely good.

There is a photograph of the children chasing each other around the apartment in Tamshui where Chun-Chih's cousin lives.

As we started out on our walk around Tamshui on a rainy day I took a photograph of a rice field.

You can see the interior of the E&L Café where I spend so much time working on my papers and my class. In the foreground you can see Arthur and his cousins Yenyi and Shen-Wen.

On Dragon Boat Festival some Buddhists came to Chiayi Park for a sort of fair and revival meeting. The photograph above shows some prayer flags, and if you look past the prayer flags you can see the facade of the E & L Café across the street. The Buddhist fair was quite eclectic, with a variety of Tibetan, Taiwanese, and Chinese themes represented. The prayer flags, for example, are Tibetan.

There is a photograph taken from Chiayi Park looking across Chi-Min Road at the home where Chun-Chih grew up. In the photograph you can see Second Cousin (Second Uncle's second son), Second Sister (she's in the shadows and you can really only see her in the large image), Second Sister's Husband, Fourth Cousin (Second Uncle's fourth son), Mom, and the next-door neighbor. The green banner with red letters says "red and green tea" advertising the tea that Second Uncle's first son's wife sells.

In Chiayi Park on weekends it is possible to hire tiny toy cars just the right size for children to drive around. The children put 10-NT$ coins (worth about 30 cents in American money) into slots and the cars take off for three minutes of 3-mph driving fun. In the larger image of Sebastian driving you will see the stairs leading up to the Chiayi Shooting-the-Star Tower behind him.

White Sand Bay in Kenting National Park is a fine place to play in the waves and sand if the weather isn't too windy. When it's windy the waves may become too high or the undertow too strong. We had a great day for playing. I went out beyond the breakers to snorkel and admire the colorful tropical fish. There weren't many, but there were enough to have fun. Mainly we played in the waves, some of where were large enough for surfing, had any surfers been there.

I like the photograph of Arthur and his cousin Yenyi riding on their cars. Yenyi and Shenwen are First Cousin's children (Second Uncle's first son's children). Although they are not as closely related to Arthur and Sebastian as many of their 17 Taiwanese first cousins, they are the same age and they come to Mom's home every day, so Sebastian and Arthur see them more often.

As our friend Jan was driving us around Kenting National Park we passed through a tiny village not far from Bai-Sha-Wan (White Sand Bay) where we saw a marvelous little Taiwanese temple. There is a photograph of a gate toward that temple's area in the little village.

In Kenting we were told the best place to go snorkeling was in this sheltered cove just northeast of Cat's Nose Rock and just south of the Houbihu marina. We did go snorkeling here and it was a fantastic site for it. The diversity of the fish species was spectacular, and the water was clear and nearly unpolluted. The coral seemed to be in pretty good health. Crowds of tour-led tourists came and went as they had their 15-minute snorkeling or 30-minute scuba diving experiences, but we had a good hour here on our own, enjoying the views of the fish, and it never felt crowded with the groups that came and went.

Second Sister and Second Sister's Husband spend many hours every day working at their machines stamping out washers or other small metal devices. Evidently Apple Computer has a sub-contracter that has sub-contracted out some of the washer production to Second Sister's Husband, so perhaps some of the pieces in future Apple computers will come from this factory. I mentioned to them that the one problem I had with my iBook laptop computer was when a screw came loose and started rolling around on the circuit board, causing various sorts of shorts. It cost just over $100 to fix. I hope Apple Computer will use better washers and tighter screws in their future models.

The Fort in Tamshui is sometimes called "Fort San Domingo" because the original fort on the site constructed by a Spanish expedition had that name. But the Spanish fort was destroyed and the Duch rebuilt a fort (Fort Anthony) that still stands as you see it in the photograph above. Well, it has been modified considerably. When the English opened a consulate in Tamshui in the 1860s they repaired and improved the existing Ch'ing (Cing) version of the old Dutch fort and made it much as you see it today. Back in the mid 19th Century it was important for consulates in the ports opened to foreign trading to be fortified and prepared for attacks from locals or perhaps hostile European powers.

We had a lovely walk among the fields in the village near Dounan just as the sun sank at dusk (around 6:00-6:30).

While we stopped in Heng-chen we admired some of the old relicts of the 19th Century Ch'ing (Cing) era development of the town as a fortified village.

When we went to visit Jan and Nathan and Twila in KaoHsiung they took us to the marvelous Dream Mall, the largest mall in southeast Asia (Sometimes Taiwan is grouped as a Southeast Asian place, and other times it's put with the Northeast Asian countries). On top of the Dream Mall is the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel. I love roller coasters, but I'm terrified by ferris wheels. Just looking at the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel made me feel weak and dizzy.

One of the floors in the Dream Mall was dedicated to baby stuff and toy stores. There was a sort of amusement arcade (Tom's World) with some coin-operated giant stuffed animals that would roam the halls of that floor with children riding on top.

Chiayi is a fairly big city, with about a third of a million residents living in the city or in the towns clustered around it in Chiayi County. The photograph above shows a view looking east down Chung-Shan Road from near the City Hall and the Tax Office.

There is a photograph of Arthur and his cousin Kevinson (who is very slightly older than Arthur) walking down a tree-lined lane in Tamshui. They had snapped their umbrellas together and were having a great time.

Upon our arrival at our friends' home outside Dounan we were greated by the whole family at their farmhouse. Here in the country the people have all sorts of delicious fruits and vegetables. When we had dinner the rice we ate came from the family's fields.

The sun-drenched temple is in a village in Kenting National Park between Moubitou and Baishawan.

On our way out of Kenting we stopped for dumplings and pork soup or noodles in this tiny restaurant. Kenting is the land of seafood, but Jan and I knew our children would not be enthusiastic about a seafood feast, so this is what we ate. In the photograph you can see Sebastian getting a dumpling, Twila putting one in her mouth, and Nathan holding a spoon.

In Banchiou I noticed these hens and roosters waiting in cages outside a shop selling chicken meat. I don't think chickens are smart enough to notice what is going on around them, but if these were pigs or cattle I'd think this was cruel.

One day we went with Second Sister and her daughter Wan-Ting to the hot springs in Beitou (in Taipei). There is an old Japanese building in Beitou where the Japanese elite used to come to relax in the mineral waters. The photograph above shows Arthur looking out a window in that old building, which as been restored and turned into a fine museum about the history of the local hot springs.

Just as the sun set while we were with our friends outside Dounan we walked to the village temple and had a look. I don't have a tripod, so to take photographs like these I set my camera on the ground with "no flash" selected and a ten-second shutter delay. I prop up the lens using a strap or the camera bag so the camera will point where I want it, and hit the shutter and stand back. the photographs aren't usually aligned perfectly, but I can rotate them using iPhoto. It's a good way to take photographs in the dark if you don't have a tripod.

We visited a very old temple in Hung-chun and I noticed the guardian spirit by the side of the altar with the flower in front of him. He looks mean, and he needs to be in order to frighten away evil spirits and wicked thoughts.

The parks in Taiwan often have senior citizens exercising or dancing or playing chess. I remember I used to see men playing traditional Chinese instruments 16-17 years ago when I lived here, but I haven't seen much of that in recent years. In the photograph of the park you can see a cluster of men together, and they are watching (or playing) a game of Chinese chess.

The old Confucian Temple in Chiayi was open, and we found that many people who face exams in the coming days had left photocopies of their identity cards or student cards on the altar with prayers for good fortune in the upcoming tests.

There is a photograph of Twila, Sebastian, and Jan in the waves at White Sand Bay, and if you look carefully you can barely make out some rainbow colors in the background.

Go to other Hadley-Ives online photo albums.

Study our Chinese and English world history timeline.

Our Japan Visit

July 2007

By Eric Hadley-Ives

Book Preview

History Timeline