The Less Traveled Side of Taiwan
I returned to Taiwan in the spring of 2004 for a long visit. Because I had vivid memories of the bad air in Taichung and Taipei, I chose Hualien as my destination. It was an excellent choice. Added excitement in 2004 was the election when the DPP was gaining in popularity. The following is my travel journal entry of March 24, 2004.
I have no idea where the inspiration came from, but it was the key to my happy days in Hualien. Taking advantage of a friend’s friend, I wrote up an ad for the local Hualien paper which he translated into Chinese. I wrote that I wanted to be a live-in tutor. With his telephone number in the ad, he could talk to the twenty people or so who called in response. From that beginning, I found a place to live and a couple of ususual jobs to go along with private tutoring.
I have been living in a Taiwanese couple’s immaculate home within walking distance of the center of the city. Communication has been the biggest challenge because the parents don’t speak English, and the two daughters, aged 11 and 14, are just learning English. But the mother, always with a ready laugh and a smile, tries very hard to communicate with me. In fact, it’s quite amazing how deep our conversations can get with the aid of two dictionaries — I find the word I want in the English-Chinese dictionary, and she replies by showing me a word in her Chinese-English dictionary.
Homestays are popular in Taiwan. It’s a cheaper way to travel than going to hotels. It’s not quite a bed and breakfast, since food is not included. The third floor of their home has two rooms for guests. They gave me the bigger room, which has six double bed mattresses on the floor. This room is usually for small tours that come to Hualien to sleep on their way to the famous Taroko Gorge, but the wife explained to me that it was just for me as long as I chose to stay. They brought in a little desk and lamp for my workspace.
I never quite understood what the husband’s job was, but he was a magician in the kitchen. He came home at different times every day on his motorscooter with baskets overflowing with all sorts of vegetables and many fish that I’d never seen before. My friend had told him that I couldn’t have much salt or MSG. That surprised him, but didn’t stop him from turning out an absolutely delicious array of very tasty food. I certainly will never forget the barbecue on their front patio where he kept cooking and we kept eating delicacies for at least a couple of hours.
As a matter of fact, he prided himself on never serving me the same meal twice. My conversations with him are limited, but this is a busy election time in Taiwan and he is solidly for the party called DPP that looks more favorably upon independence from China. The DPP has become much more powerful since the early 1990’s when I taught in Taichung, but Taiwan remains deeply divided politically.
Both the daughters were very shy with me at first because they had never met anyone who didn’t speak Chinese, but the younger one took a sudden turn toward me recently. She likes taking me on walks to different spots in the neighborhood, and she has taken more interest in learning English. In spite of my baby Chinese and her limited English, we still manage to babble happily together. She has her mother’s charming smile.
The best exercise I have found in Hualien is an energetic walk through the hills of a park about a mile away. Had I been there in the early morning as most Chinese believe is the best time to wake up, I would have seen many older people winding through the paths and stopping at certain exercising stations set up for that purpose. However, by the time I arrive in the afternoon, it is nicely uncrowded with no competition at the truly lovely views from the hills out across the sea. Many of my happiest hours in Hualien have been spent plodding those scenic hills.
Sometimes I go in another direction to get to the sea. There isn’t much of a beach to walk on because cement boulders are placed on the sand to prevent erosion, but there’s a path alongside to walk on. From there, I wave hello from Hualien across the Pacific Ocean to Laguna Beach. On one fun day, the younger girl and her mother and I walked and biked a long way following the sea.
In fact, the family has taken me on several trips to scenic areas. Hualien is a very beautiful part of Taiwan that I’ve come to appreciate even more with my friendly family. My friend, Rose, has come up a few times. And, Virginia, who’s a member in Taipei, introduced me to the Toastmaster’s Club in Hualien, which I’ve attended several times. My former student, Frank, even traveled to Hualien with his wife and children. They treated me to a luxurious hotel in another scenic area near Hualien. I’ve had a busy social life here.
Also from the same newspaper ad, I was offered a couple of unusual jobs that are much more interesting than my job in California. In fact, I’m writing my first book — a children’s story about Japanese immigrants who came to Taiwan. Gathering the necessary information has been an adventure in itself. My mentors have been two Chinese people, only one of whom speaks English, and a tri-lingual Japanese doctoral student who is doing research on the Japanese immigration to Taiwan. When we get together, three languages fly around the room. The Japanese scholar thinks aloud first in Japanese, then translates himself into Chinese, and then English. I catch what I can. The three of them don’t always agree on the facts of the history and politely argue about it. These sessions have been mentally draining, stimulating, and quite hilarious at the same time.
To be continued…
Tags: Hualien, Taiwan; teaching in Taiwan; Japanese in Taiwan, Travel
