Trees and plants on my way home

When I walk from the MRT station home, I pass through two parks and some shaded streets off the main road. There are plenty of plants here, and I've made it my mission to identify them. Members of our hiking group have been boning up on local flora so we can appear knowledgeable when new members join us!

Blackboard Tree (Alstonia scholaris). The small park on Andong St. is filled with these stately trees.


Chinese Perfume Plant (Aglaia odorata)


Large-Leaf Banyan (Ficus superba)


Camel's Foot Tree (Bauhinia purpurea)


Banana (Musa sp.)


Yellow Flame Tree or Copperpod Tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum)


Frangipani (Plumeria alba)


Parasol-Leaf Tree (Macaranga tanarius)


Bodhi Tree or Sacred Fig (Ficus religiosa), the tree that the Buddha is said to have sat under and gained enlightenment.


Royal Palm (Roystonea regia)


Bay Biscayne Creeping Ox-Eye (Wedelia trilobata)


Sweet Osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans)


Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia)


Camphor Tree (Cinnamomum camphora)


Coral Tree or Sunshine Tree (Erythrina indica var. picta)


Indian Almond (Terminalia catappa)


Chulta Tree (Dillenia indica)


Chinese Banyan (Ficus microcarpa)


Papaya Tree (Carica papaya), the world's largest herbaceous plant.


Madagascar Almond (Terminalia mantaly)


Breadfruit Tree (Artocarpus altilis)


Formosan Sweetgum (Liquidambar formosana)


Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spectabilis). This South American plant is popular throughout the world as a decorative.


Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)

The Hike to the Big Trees

My legs are still sore from the hike we did on Saturday: a 9-hour hike from Full Moon Park (Manyueyuan) to a grove of rarely visited giant trees. It was a strenuous hike, but we were blessed with perfect weather and the final destination was a true natural wonderland.

Just a little note: by the parking lot there was a row of Formosan sweetgum trees (Liquidambar formosana). There were more growing naturally in the park, but they were hard to photograph given lighting and perspective problems.


Starting up the trail near the rear of the park.


The trail starts with several switchbacks that are quite steep. But after that, there's a long stretch in which the path is either flat or gently undulates. Here's Robert coming around the corner:


The forest is quite lush here, with camphor trees, crape myrtles, oaks, machilus, laurels and Japanese cedars, the latter planted long ago during the Japanese occupation. Wildlife here include squirrels, monkeys and barking deer, the latter of which are generally heard, not seen. And there are birds of all kinds here.

Eventually we came to a flat area near a water source that is ideal for camping. Just beyond that are the dreaded stairs. Pretty much the rest of the hike up to the ridge consists of these seemingly endless stairs.


Soon we came to an area where the trail intersects with the top of a landslide.


One more typhoon, and the trail could become a victim to nature. But this place afforded a spectacular view of the mountains across the valley, with clouds constantly rolling over the peaks and spilling downward before evaporating. (The landslide also enabled me to pinpoint this spot on Google Earth!)


Eventually, we arrived at the ridge, where a number of trails intersect. We stopped for lunch. We noticed that the majority of trees were some kind of strange oak, which had acorns, but had a trunk like a fig tree and leaves like a laurel. After some googling, I've found it's most certainly a kind of Rock Oak (Lithocarpus sp.), probably L. hancei. The edges of the leaves are smooth and the acorn is quite round.

After lunch and a rest, we took the trail to the left, which leads toward Beichatianshan (literally "north sky-penetrating mountain"). This is the trail that goes past the grove of big trees. Most of the trail is relatively even, but near the end there are some natural staircases of roots to climb. At one point we crossed a stream which is a popular rest spot for hikers. The locals call the spot "shuiyuandi" (water source). We trudged on, and the ground started getting muddy. Eventually we arrived at a place where the trail widens, which we call the French Quarter (last time we were here, we encountered some rude Frenchmen). This is the place: from here, you climb down a long, muddy natural root stairway and arrive at the final goal: the Big Trees!


These gigantic trees, the endangered Formosan Cypress (Chamaecyparis formosensis), are around 2000 years old or more.




While I was taking a rest, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Up on one of the big trees was a snake! The lighting was terrible, so it was hard to get a good picture of it, but we believe it's a Mountain Keelback (Pseudoxenodon stejnegeri). It's not poisonous.


Then we headed back down. The way down is easier, but still takes a long time....about 3 hours from the big trees to the park. (It took 4 hours of straight walking, not including breaks, to get up to the trees; add time for breaks and exploration, plus walking in and out of the park itself, and the entire hike took us 9 hours.)

On the way down, the sole came off my hiking boot. I started slipping around, and didn't know why, so I checked my boot and the sole was gone! Robert was behind me, and he said he saw a sole on the trail. I climbed up to get it, and then Robert had some plastic ties that we used to temporarily re-attach the sole to my boot. It worked like a charm! The last hour or so was in the dark, but fortunately we brought headlamps along!

After we left the park and were walking toward the car, we encountered a juvenile Banded Krait (Bungarus multicinctus) on the road. This is the fifth species of poisonous snake I've encountered in Taiwan. We used our walking sticks to move it off the road to safety.


What a day! Two snakes, big trees, gorgeous scenery, and a lost sole! But we had one treat left...we went to Belgian Pie's new restaurant in Sanxia, named Patio 28., to enjoy delicious Belgian food and Belgian beer! Here's the owner, a friend of ours, Marc (aka Belgian Pie):


What a great way to end a great day!

Final day in Taidong

Day 3

We visited an area of archaeological sites. Here are some graves in an ancient cemetery of the Puyuma tribe. They were rediscovered during the Japanese occupation, and are a few thousand years old:


More recently, these graves, lined with slabs of slate from the mountains, were accidentally discovered during the construction of a lookout tower. The bones, jewelry and artifacts are now in a museum just down the hill from here. The graves are all oriented so the feet of the interred pointed toward the sacred mountain Mt. Dulan.


In the afternoon, we went to Bunun Village, where we attended a performance of Bunun singing and dancing, featuring their famed eight-part harmony, unique among the Aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. Here are two Bunun performers in traditional dress:


The hand-in-hand two-step line dance formation, men on one end and women on the other, is common throughout many of the Aboriginal tribes of Taiwan, the result of mutual cultural influences.



The singing style is unique among the Bunun, however. Here is an example of traditional dance.


The dance performance was fascinating...the traditional parts at least, like the above. They also gave a performance of the sacred pasibutbut: enter that word into YouTube and you'll experience this intriguing form of music. But just as I feared, they also did something that's a major pet peeve of mine: they gave performances of modern music, complete with cheesy disco-like beats and non-traditional boogie-style dancing. Modern variations on traditional music have their place, but a cultural exhibition is not one of them. Ancient tribesfolk didn't use synthesizers, dammit!

Like many of the Aboriginal tribes of Taiwan, the Bunun used to be headhunters, as illustrated by this sculpture. The depiction quite accurately matches the descriptions of 19th century ethnographers, right down to the shape and length of the knife used for decapitation. The ferocity of the Aborigines was known far and wide back in the day, making for an interesting twist to intercultural relations in the 19th century and before. It's one of the reasons that Taiwan was not widely settled by outsiders until the 17th century. The practice of headhunting was brought to an end by the Japanese during their occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945).


Camel's foot tree (Bauhinia purpurea):


While at Bunun Village, I bought a bottle of millet wine, a sweet, mildly alcoholic drink that's traditional among the Aborigines. It's also authentic, described by ethnographers of centuries past.

While this village was created around a decade ago as a cultural showcase and some of the music presented by the performers is modern, much of the art and culture presented here is authentic, and it's a good place to learn about their culture. It also contributes to the economic condition of the Bunun, providing a channel in which cultural preservation is given economic incentive in this modern world. And the entry fee is only NT$150, the ticket qualifying you for a NT$100 discount on a gift purchase. Not a bad deal at all!

After our visit, we went back to the train station, and rode to Kaohsiung, then took the High Speed Rail back to Taipei. So we did a trip around the island entirely by rail! And I must add, the High Speed Rail lives up to its name. Kaohsiung to Taipei in a mere two hours!!

It's a beautiful day

Sunshine! Beautiful blue skies and aquamarine seas!

We started out the day by going to the Chihpen Forest Recreation Area, where a guide showed us various trees and plants, such as the Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), strangler fig, soapnut tree (Sapindus mukorossi), poisonous wood nettle (Laportea pterostigma), Taiwania, betel pepper (Piper betle), parasol leaf tree (Macaranga tanarius), various banyans (Ficus sp.) and much more. We saw a troupe of monkeys—Formosan macaques (Macaca cyclopis)—watching us from the depths of the forest.


Then to Sanxiantai, which has an 8-arched bridge connecting to an island of black volcanic rock partly covered by a thicket of screw pines.


Weird rock formations at Xiaoyeliu.

A trip down south

I'm in the southeastern part of Taiwan right now... Taidong to be exact. Aboriginal territory. It's part of a company trip. We did a nice 12-km bike ride through some beautiful countryside today, and now it's the evening, and I'm about to enjoy a soak in the hotsprings. Thankfully there's an Internet room at the hotel!

The first thing we did after our six-hour train ride to Taidong was to eat lunch in Guanshan. This was followed by a 12k bike ride around beautiful rice fields. Here's a lovely scene of a rice field, framed by Bougainvillea:



Later on in the bike trip we saw some water buffalo by the river:


Afterwards we went to a farm. It was kind of boring...not much to see. But I liked this scene...it looks like it could be in America, what with rolls of hay and wide open grassland.

Huangdidian

Today we hiked Huangdidian, one of the more challenging hikes in the Taipei area. It's a continuation of the Bijiashan Ridge system, but it starts on the other side of the river that passes through the town of Shiding.

The reason it's so challenging is that the ridge is exposed in various places, with drops on either side that, if you fell down them, you would die. But the likelihood of this happening is lower these days after the county government installed safety barriers.

Huangdidian means "The Emperor's Hall".

It was just me and Robert today.

Here's the trailhead, just outside of Shiding:


This trail starts out with a "Stairway to Heaven" which goes almost all the way up to the start of the ridge trail. On the way up we saw a female golden orb-weaver (Nephila pilipes):


These spiders are quite common on the trails, and including their legs the females can reach the size of a human hand. The males are tiny, and can sometimes be seen on the webs. They are not poisonous, but they can give you a painful bite if you let them.

Soon we came across this Taiwan Common Toad (Bufo bankorensis):


Along the way, there are several spots where ropes or ladders are needed for climbing. Here are some hikers we encountered:


Some more wildlife we encountered: Neolucanus swinhoei, a kind of stag beetle that's native to Taiwan.


We were on one peak looking at what lay in store in the next:


Robert taking a quick break on his way up!


Part of the exposed ridge:


Robert on the ridge.


Finally we come to the section with no safety barriers. Yes, you can fall to your death here if you're not careful!


As we were hiking down a trail leading through the jungle, we came across a cave:


Then, before long, we saw signs of civilization, like this temple built into the cliff face:


Then a shrine to the God of Wealth:


And finally we get to the road. There we saw another temple. (Temples and shrines dot the landscape here in Taiwan - mostly Taoist or Buddhist, or a mix of the two.) The roof was impressively colorful:


And then a walk of about 40 minutes back to Shiding, where we had an excellent dinner of Hongshao Tofu, half a chicken, and stir-fried beet leaves, washed down with Taiwan Beer. It really hit the spot!

Bijiashan Ridge

Yesterday we hiked the Bijiashan Ridge from Ergeshan to the town of Shiding. The hike covers varied terrain through forest and rocky outcrops, and takes about 6 hours to complete. We've taken this trail before, but starting in Shiding. Once we came across a troop of monkeys in the woods up there!

It was four men this time: Robert, Scott, Bobb and me. We took a cab up the hill to Caonan. The cab was not in the best condition and was straining to get up the mountain road with us four big Westerners in it. Once there, we hiked up the trail to the place where the guy sells mung bean soup. The ridge trail starts right next to his place of business.

Ordinarily, on clear days, this trail affords spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and of the city. But today was a hazy, misty day and we couldn't see jack anything. And going through the woods cut down the light even more, and my camera is crap in low-light conditions. I only took a handful of pictures this time.

In this direction the trail was slightly more difficult because of the numerous steep climbs down that follow gentle ascents. Coming the other way, it's easy to climb the steep areas with both hands and feet; going down is a different matter. But it wasn't overly difficult - there were ropes and branches to hang on to.

At one point we came to a rest spot, and I took out the sling Robert brought me from Tibet. It's made of yak hair. We picked up some rocks and tried it out, whirling it and releasing the rocks into the woods. Wow, I didn't know slings could be so deadly. They can propel rocks at high speeds and can do quite a bit of damage!

The variety of vegetation up there was amazing - Lauracea, Machilus, Gordonia, crape myrtles, cedars, screw pines, and dozens of trees and shrubs we couldn't identify. Another walk around Daan Park is in order! (They have signs there, telling you the names of trees!) As for animals, we saw no monkeys, but we did see a snake. A baby one.

At one point, about halfway along the trail, it threatened to rain. It sprinkled for about a minute, and I had my emergency poncho out at the ready. Then the rain subsided. Thankfully.

Finally we came to the end of the ridge, where the trail branches. It was starting to get dark, and we debated which way to go. I wanted to go left, because we were familiar with it and part of the hike is in the open, so it would be easier to see. But I was out-voted: we went right because the sign said it would take 20 mintues to get to the bottom. That trail was clear, but steep, muddy, and slippery, and, we would later find out, was crawling with leeches. In the end it took 45 minutes to get to the bottom. Never trust the time estimation on a hand-written sign!

After slogging and slipping our way down, we crossed a stream, and soon the trail became level. Then we were greeted by a wonderful sight: the road! Just as it was getting too dark to see! (And dammit, I had left my flashlight at home...) We were also greeted by the presence of wild ginger (Hedychium coronarium) alongside the path, which gives off a wonderful fragrance.

We walked to the nearby town of Shiding, and stopped in a local store to get some drinks. Robert and I each had a beer. Then it started to rain. The sky gods had spared us for the entire length of the hike, heeping us dry and with enough light to see until we reached town! As we sat under a shelter, we discovered the leeches! Scott and I both had five on our ankles, suking blood through our socks. Robert later found 20 on him!

Then we took Bus No. 666 back to Taipei.

Pictures to come.