Only with stories does one really exist
We hurry our pace as we head toward the former Shanhua Cattle Market—now a general market, but still bearing the old name—hoping to get there before the market closes and enjoy a bowl of authentic local beef soup. After more than an hour of hard pedaling, we finally reach our destination. Along the two sides of the road there are a number of vendors displaying antiques, farm implements, and fruit. It is only after cycling for quite a distance that we finally see a market selling food off to the left.
There is already a long line in front of the 258 Beef Soup stall, with people’s voices rising and falling as they order. We hurriedly choose a place to sit and order bowls of steaming hot beef soup.
After eating our fill, we leave the market and pedal along County Road 178 to the Shanhua Brewery. There we turn left onto Provincial Highway 1 and after about an hour turn right onto County Road 171, which finally brings us to the Wushantou Reservoir.
The Wushantou Reservoir and the Chianan Irrigation System were built in the era of Japanese rule, and took ten years to complete. A tunnel was bored through the mountains to bring water to the reservoir, and the project increased the amount of land under irrigation from 5000 to 15,000 hectares. As a result the Chianan Plain became “Taiwan’s granary.”
The Wushantou Reservoir gives us the steepest climb of this journey. After entering the reservoir grounds, we must first cycle uphill for a stretch before reaching the embankment of the dam itself. Cycling along the top of the dam there is a sense of spaciousness all around, with the blue lake on one side and verdant forest on the other. As we ride, there is a strong wind directly in our faces. Going further onward, we see a bronze statue of the Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta, who oversaw construction of the reservoir, with the grave of his wife Toyoki behind.
Our final stop is the GJ Taiwan Bookstore, located in downtown Tainan, which offers a large number of works on Taiwanese history. The founder, Prince Wang, believes that in general Taiwanese don’t know much about their own history, and memories about everything from heroic personalities and outstanding artists of the past to the origins of Taiwan’s industrial development have been lost.
Wang is amazed at the curiosity Taiwanese have about history. When he first opened his bookstore he assumed it would not make any money, but in fact it has attracted many customers, both visiting the store in person and making purchases online, and this support has enabled GJ Taiwan to remain in business.
“When people don’t recognize the things around them, they cannot identify with them or see their value.” This remark of Wang’s makes a fitting footnote to our cycling journey that has included so much of Taiwan’s history. If you don’t know the roles played in the past by these old shops and landmarks, you can’t understand the importance of preserving them.
If you want to see more of the beauty of Taiwan, then get on your bike and hit the road! You may very well find yourself riding along the lanes of Taiwan’s small towns and rural areas, stepping into shops where people don’t often set foot, and getting caught up in the stories of Taiwan’s history.
This road in Tainan’s Baihe District, known as the Linchupi Kapok Road, is lined with kapok trees. The trees flower each year from March to early or mid-April, and the fiery red scene attracts many visitors.
The Ruirong Timepiece Shop has been in operation for over 70 years, and the boss, Yin Ruixiang, is now 93 years old. The many antique clocks in the shop all sound off together on the hour. (photo by Kent Chuang)
The narrow-gauge trains at the Xinying Sugar Refinery once transported sugar cane, but now they carry tourists. Next to the railway is a shop selling frozen desserts made exclusively by Taiwan Sugar Corporation.
The Liu Chi-hsiang Memorial Hall was formerly the residence of the “first family of Tainan.” It exhibits paintings from various phases in Liu Chi-hsiang’s career and documents his influence on the fine arts in Taiwan.
Seen from the air, the winding shores of the Wushantou Reservoir look like a coral reef, which is why the reservoir is also called “Coral Lake.”
The Shanhua Cattle Market got its name from the fact that cattle used to be traded here as draft animals. Today no live cattle are traded, but there are still stalls selling beef and beef dishes.
In 1910, at the end of the Meiji Era, Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta was sent to Taiwan to plan an irrigation system for the Chianan Plain, in order to increase rice production to meet Japan’s rising demand.
The owner of the GJ Taiwan Bookstore hopes to solve the problem of “loss of memories” by enabling people today to understand the history of previous generations.
The GJ Taiwan Bookstore has all kinds of old maps of Taiwan.