Traditional Arts, Chingshui, and Taroko

We started the day at the Center for Traditional Arts located in Wujie, Yilan County. I was told by Wen Ge that the Center is like the Disney Land of traditional Taiwanese arts. The Center is a sprawling complex composed of performance stages, recreated traditional streets, canals, shops, and a 7-Eleven. A number of shops offered Do It Yourself (DIY) activities which involve the participant in some small arts and craft project. I, myself, partook of the tea soap DIY. In this activity, the coordinator provided each of us with a block of tea soap, cookie cutters, and string. We punched-out different shapes and strung them together. It was grand and thought provoking. We were also told not to use the soap on the face. I also learned that soap came from Shanghai, originally, and that Taiwan did not start producing until the mid-1900s. After completing the DIY, we wandered around looking at other shops selling toys, food, sandals, puppets, et cetera.

After a morning of fun-filled wanderings, we retired from Wujie and traveled by bus south along the Suhua Highway that joins the counties of Yilan and Hualien in the east. On this road, we encountered the Chingshui Cliffs, which watch over the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Between the sea and the mountains lay a narrow strip of beach and rising-clouds obscured the peaks of the cliffs, which were wrapped in a carpet of tropical foliage.

We resumed our journey, quitting the Cliffs of Chingshui, and passing through the Taroko, the “Magnificent and Beautiful.” Taroko is a National Park of which there are seven on Formosa. The boundaries of the park encompass three counties: Taichung, Hualien, and Nantou. Within Taroko runs a gorge, cut by the Shakadang river. We ventured into the chasm whence we were soon sodden with rain and fell back to our coach to seek shelter.

Retreating from that place, we sought refuge at Leader Village where we feasted on roasted boar, shrimp, and “little rice wine.” Leader Village is a collection of low wooden buildings and a great central hall high upon a mountain clearing, approachable only by a narrow road. The natives provided us with entertainment in addition to food and drink after which we retired to our beds for the night.