Cycling Shorts: A Journey to Central Taiwan

Ride from Wufeng to Sun Moon Lake

Written by Mark Caltonhill / Contributing Correspondent

We meet at 7-Eleven below the apartment block in Wufeng District of Taichung (霧峰), where Nathan Miller lives weekdays (he spends weekends with his wife and daughter in Taoyuan). Swallow breakfast, Miller suggests we first ride around the corner to Guanfu Junior High School (光復 國 中).

After passing rows of ramshackle buildings along Sinsheng Road (新生 路), a few of which had been restored to work as works of art, I remembered that Wufeng had suffered badly in the 7.3-magnitude 921 earthquake, and that more than 100 locals would have died had it happened. That’s during school hours, not 1:47 am.

Aside from the new canopy roof and some supporting beams, the collapsed school, torn faults and the raised riverbank were left intact. Renamed the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan (九二一 地震 教育 園區) in 2007, the school invites visitors to learn about Earth science in a natural setting.

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

“You can easily spend half a day wandering around the various exhibits,” says Miller, who has brought his daughter here twice, although they have yet to go to the “earthquake room” to experience a feeling of such great tendency. He is keen to return, because he was not in Taiwan in 1999, and his daughter was not born at the time.

We drive to Regional Highway 3, which at this hour is crowded with passengers and trucks. Seeing two turns to Jhongsing New Village (中興 新村), where the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) moved the provincial government in 1956, I propose to turn. But Miller, who has a school meeting at 3 PM, says it’s very exciting but deserves half a day of its own.

Qualities of pleasure

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

“You’re going to get a kick out of this,” he said after we pedaled another 20 minutes. “Everyone stops here to take a selfie, but I don’t know if your newspaper will print it.”

He is referring to a 3-meter-high statue of two pigs making love, the male on top with his tongue hanging punk. Below the pair is the inscription Shengshengbuxi (生生不息), which usually means “life without end” but in this context, perhaps “uninterrupted sexual intercourse”.

From newspaper reports, this turns out to be a 2010 publicity stunt by the meat market in Nantou wanting to promote a more positive image of mass slaughter. Parents of the kids complained at a nearby high school, however, it ended up here on top of a hill. (Others complained that it was just a bad example for children because it was biologically inaccurate: the female would have stood if she was in season.)

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

We turn to Regional Highway 16, and soon come to a side road to Jiji Town (集集), the epicenter of the 1999 earthquake of the same name. It now oscillates between being a sleepy alpine village and a vibrant tourist town.

Today, a film crew in town is making an episode of a TV series, although it may be an advertisement for a TV series, albeit with an unusually complex narrative.

Permanent attractions include the 1933 cypress railway station that was rebuilt after the earthquake; Wuchang Temple (武昌 廟), which was not; Ming Dynasty-style exhibition bridge, Zhejiang Province, dating back to 2018; Several Japanese-era wooden buildings belonging to the Camphor Branch Office (樟腦 出 張), which survived the earthquake but appeared to have been allowed to collapse at their own pace despite a promise of Taiwan $ 199.5 million (US $ 7 million) from The Ministry of Culture to preserve it as a former major industry heritage in the region. Today’s main economic activity appears to be betel harvesting and preparation.

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

Pig-free meals

Near 252 Minsheng Street, Naturally Vegan (天然 素食; Chinese only) serves a wide range of delicious noodle and rice dishes.

Lunch is over, we follow the Jhuoshuei River (濁水 溪) upstream to Shueili (水里), where the local Snake Kiln has developed into a major visitor attraction since my last visit more than two decades ago. In addition to the century-old brick kiln measuring 30 meters in length, there is now a museum, art galleries, lecture halls, shops and pottery lessons, and at 6.68 meters, it is the largest kiln in the world.

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

And yes, you’ll likely need at least another half day to do this place – and the ticket price is NT $ 150 – fair.

From here, we only have a dozen remaining from the 65 kilometers per day up to Regional Highway 21 to Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), but nearly half the 900 meters remaining to climb. However, the climb is not strenuous, and the traffic is much low, making the journey enjoyable and 6 on the Eureka scale as we climb the last hill and see the calm waters of Taiwan’s largest lake and the surrounding autumn trees spread out in front of us; A paradise in the middle of Taiwan (well, about 10 kilometers south of the absolute geographic center to be exact).

Presumably, the indigenous Thao people have given it 10 out of 10 since they moved here yet, according to legend (which, in other contexts, it might be called oral history), a tribe member inadvertently discovered the lake full of fish when following a white deer that was Catch.

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

From here, Miller has about 25 km quick descent to Wufeng and this meeting is 3 pm. Meanwhile, I’m going to ride a 30 km ripple through Ita Thao (伊達 邵; Paraobao in Thao language), largely rebuilt since 80 percent of the structures fell due to the earthquake, and around the lake, since then, I haven’t gotten an appointment myself, I still have half a day to spare.

Mark Caltonhill Bicycles, writes, and writes about bikes.

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

Photo: Mark Caltonhill

Nathan Miller

Day Trip is recommended by Nathan Miller, a nine-year-old resident of Wufeng (霧峰) in Taichung () of North Carolina, who was drawn to cycling while living in Japan. He seems to know most foreigners who regularly cycle in Taiwan (and more than a few Taiwanese too), mainly through online activities every evening after teaching English at Asia University (亞洲 大學). Even if you don’t know it, if you use Strava or a similar track recording app, it most likely knows what you were going to do.

>> Many people have never met Miller, nor have I met him until recently, but he is highly recommended by word of mouth as a major reference in many aspects of cycling: bikes, components, clothing, and methods.

>> He recently introduced his cycling shorts to one of his regular tours: from Wufeng, passing through the ‘Passion Pigs’, via Jiji and Shueili, then to Sun Moon Lake.

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