October is super busy month, on work and also on private project, only realized no update for the October in November.
Alright so here we continue with my taiwan trip.
Elaine and I spent 3 nights in a seaside small town named Hua Lien, there are few more small historical towns along the coast way and we decided to rent a car and driver (which is our guesthouse host, Xiao Luo) to explore the rest of the town.
Our itinerary as below:
1. DongHua University (东华大学) which the most beautiful university in Taiwan
2. FuXing Sugar Mill (复兴糖厂)
3. LinTianShan Forestry (林田山林业文化园区)
4. FengLin (凤林客家村)
5. YanLou (菸楼)
Of course HuaDong isn't that small, we discussed with XiaoLuo that we wanted to visit some really old and natural place, so he suggested the above.
Car and driver rent per day is NTD 3200, slighly higher than ordinary cab that you could find outside, but the best part is no time limited, and XiaoLuo actually keep us accompanied all the time but not just waiting in the car, feel so much like friend outing.
Anyway i'm not going to introduce every single places but a few that really excess my expectation, such as LinTianShan Forestry.
According to XiaoLuo, Hualien has very rich forest resource where Japan doesn't have, such as rare tree that could made to be expensive furniture and building material.
Thus, during Japan occupied Taiwan time, Japanese company came and set up a based in LinTianShan and started to chop and process log for export.
They hired the local to do all the work, LinTianShan once a very happening place where people could get almost everything in this mountain.
Workers were all well take cared, the Japanese company even slowly build a unique community in this mountain, such as villages, school, community hall, shops and market all can be found in this place, every villagers are schoolmate and colleague.
Once here is the best place to settle down, until Taiwan government restrict export of log, Japanese company then decided to pull out and leave, some of the villager still stay in this mountain but youngest all went out for more opportunities, till then government transformed this place to be a culture area, keep all the old building, infrastructure and equipment for tourism development.
Today LinTianShan is a quiet yet peaceful place, some old villager still living here, not chopping down anymore tress but handmade some souvenir for tourist.
Yet, not much foreigners been to this beautiful places, only some local tours, but thats not much anyway.
Alright scroll down for some picture, and maybe you will fall in love with this place too!
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| LinTianShan is well developed community once. |
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| old train renewed to attract tourist. |
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| Love those old houses, each parts are telling story. |
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| old house with no more villagers. |
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| the history. |
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| moss stair, they are here since a century ago. |
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| our host + driver + tour guide, XiaoLuo. |
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| the boss house in the end of the staircase. |
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| I tried to imagine, the boss was standing here and overlook the last train of log being carried out. |
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| the wooden railway, once the greatest creation in Taiwan. |
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| Used to be primary school / kindergarten in the piece of green land. |
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| School old address. Now, see no sign of school. |
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| Management used to own a bigger house and own yard last time. |
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| One of the sub-village in the area, KangLe Village, and now only left the plaque. |
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| The based of a village house. Stone based still here, wooden house no more. |
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| a memorial of fire incident. |
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| The community hall, not sure is renewed or well-kept. |
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| Closer shoot for wooden railway. |
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| The railway is crossing mountains and river, till to the port. Used to be the busiest place in the mountain. |
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| Workshop and railway, without people and train. |
LinTianShan is one of the highlight of my entire trip in Taiwan, its gave me so many emotion.
I felt sorry for this abandoned place despite a beautiful greenery scenery today, i felt every single old things in this place is sad but strong enough to face the changes of the world.
If you happened to visit HuaLian Taiwan, please spend half day here to feel the natural and the history.
Of course, please send my regard to the place, too.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20141102, 1137am
Rach in missing the place mood.
