FRIDAY APRIL 2ND, 2021.
The one where we get very dusty.
On possibly one of the hottest days of the year so far and also a public holiday (Taiwanese Tomb sweeping / Children’s day, 4-day weekend) we planned to walk from Yingge in New Taipei City back into Taipei.
Two new Walking Taiwan walkers, Jen Lee and Ron Madigan, joined us on today’s walk and it was lovely to have some additional company. Rich S, Jen and myself met up at Taipei main station and were pleasantly surprised to get seats for the 30-minute train ride out to Yingge, whilst Ron made his own way via various forms of public transport and met us at Yingge train station.
Yingge is located in the West of New Taipei city and is the largest centre of ceramic production in Taiwan. To the north of Yingge, there is a geological formation which, due to its shape, has gone by the names of 鴿子石（Parrot Stone), 鷹各石 (Eagle Brother Stone), and 鶯哥石 (Golden oriole or Warbler Brother Stone) and it’s this last stone from which the current area gets its name – Yingge (鶯歌) literally means “Warbler Song “in Mandarin。
Local legend tells the story of a miasma (an unpleasant smell or vapour) surrounding this rock formation, which, in ancient times caused passersby to become sickened, disorientated and sometimes, even resulted in their deaths. The famous Chinese Ming General, Koxinga, is supposed to have led his army past the rock and finding himself and his troops caught in the miasma, ordered his cannons to be fired at the rock. As soon as his cannons broke the neck of the stone eagle, the miasma was miraculously lifted and he and his soldiers were able to continue on their journey! That’s the legend at least, and we will return to a local ‘miasma’ a bit later in this journey.
After the customary pre-walk group photo, we headed along WenHua road towards the riverside path. As it was a public holiday, the traffic was starting to get busy and as we made our way past the famous Yingge pottery museum there were hundreds of cars and motorbikes passing us by, as well as a double carriage trailer of live pigs. We heard them before we actually saw them and could certainly smell them way after they had passed by.
The entrance to the riverside path is via an artistic, metal covered bridge and making our way past a number of cycling groups, we started on our journey southeastwards in the direction of Taipei.
It was beginning to get ‘warm’ and despite the relative smog/fog/cloud cover, we were grateful of the shade of the trees lining the path. Initially, the path follows the exact route of the train track and main road and we wondered if the passengers in the cars and on the trains were thinking what we were thinking:
“Why were we the only walkers on the path?” It certainly wasn’t because this is a popular cycling path and was almost definitely because the temperature was rising with the sun and it was now almost 30C, even with the shade! Mad dogs and English men.
As there wasn’t much we could do about the heat, on we walked with the Dahan River (大漢溪) to our right and various scenic spots to our left. Over the years, these riverside paths have been transformed into an oasis of tranquil green, where folks can walk, cycle or just relax. There is also a surprising amount of wildlife to be found in these areas and our path was crossed on numerous occasions by various species of lizards, all of which were too fast for us to photograph.
We passed through the Shanjia riverside sports park (山佳河濱運動公園) and on seeing three wooden loungers positioned lazily on the grass, decided to have a quick rest and some much-needed water.
The path ahead had a row of trees planted along its embankment and once again, we were grateful for the shade these provided, as we ambled along enjoying lovely views of the easterly mountains.
Having crossed the Ganyuan bridge(柑園大橋) and Ganyuan second bridge(柑園而橋), we walked down into the Aboriginal tribal theme park, complete with BBQ pits, a mini campground and an archery target practice area.
Taiwan is currently suffering from an ongoing drought and despite Taipei being spared the water rationing, which has been implemented in the centre of the island, the consequences of the lack of rain were very visible in the river’s low water level and a whole pond full of dried out water lily plants.
We took another water stop at a little temple nestled under a large, sprawling tree and sufficiently rehydrated, continued on our way. We were walking on the south side of the Dahan river and over on our right in Tucheng (土城), we could see the headquarters of FoxConn, one of the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturers. Taiwan is home to thousands of electronics factories etc., but this one is probably the most famous as it provides components for iPhones and is known locally as HonHai (鴻海).
Occupying over 26 hectares, Lujiao creek wetlands (鹿角溪人工溼地) is an area that has been reclaimed and transformed with the aim of purifying the sewage from the Lujioa creek and it is able to treat 12,000 tons of sewage daily. A shaded path marks the entrance into the wetlands and it is lined with various shrubs and elephant ear yams, which look like large fern leaves and are used by the local aboriginals as natural umbrellas.
The layout of the wetlands includes a few different ponds and in contempt of signs clearly showing ‘no fishing’, there were a number of people on the banks with lines and nets trying their luck. One had a container half filled with minnows, so there was obviously catch to be had and seeing the large number of egrets perched in the trees, it would seem that the various fishes were facing both human as well as natural predators.
In the depths of the wetlands, far away from the roaring holiday traffic, we could clearly hear frogs croaking to one another and I was sure they were also commenting about the heat and these crazy humans walking through their habitat. It really was hot, hot, hot; the actual temperature had reached above 30C, with a feel of 36C and despite its origins, the water in the ponds looked rather welcoming, but taking heed of the ‘no swimming’ sign, we continued on our way.
Continuing on, we crossed a couple of inlets/inflows and we were immediately reminded of the legendary local miasma. As we were not in possession of any cannons, we did our best to leave the area as quickly as we could to avoid possible sickness, disorientation or worse!
Leaving the wetlands, the path became increasingly dusty due to the construction work going on along the riverbank and taking another water break under the Chenglin bridge (城林大橋), we decided that it was too hot and too far (another 20km) to walk to DaoDaoCheng in Taipei, so changed our destination to Banchiao district, via the Fuzhou bridge which was only 2km ahead.
Making our way past various types of heavy machinery, we finally exited the dirt path up onto a tarmacked road leading towards the Fuzhou bridge (福州橋) By now the heat was radiating out of the asphalt and taking the advice of a local (Ron is a long-term resident of New Taipei City), we decided to hail a taxi and head to FuZhong MRT station (府中捷運站). Our taxi was brand new and its airconditioned interior was a very welcome respite from the day’s heat.
Our final destination was ABV Penthouse. This particular branch of ABV is located on a rooftop, with panoramic views of the surrounding area and having washed as much dust off as we could, we sat down to enjoy a selection of cold beers, tapas and appreciate the view; a perfect end to our day 11 and 13.5km of walking.
End of Day 11: Elaine.