Hualian Ship

In 1978, every night, a ship named Hualian Ship would sail at night to the harbor at the northern tip of Taiwan called, Keelung, and it would sail back to Hualian in the day time. After we completed traveling the Cross Island Highway and visited in the Hualian area, we decided to ride the boat to Keelung and then take a train back to Taipei. Clearly, we did not see much on this voyage, as we went inside our cabin pretty quickly. It was too dark to see much. We did take a picture of the Hualian harbor and the kids took a picture in front the life preserver with the name of the boat on it!

Hualien Aboriginal Village

One of the places we visited in Hualien, besides beautiful scenic spots, was an Aboriginal Village. For those who came to visit, they had a show which included some singing and dancing by individuals as well as by groups. It ended usually with an audience participation program. Margaret was very enthusiastic, as usual, about this type of program. She joined the dance fully with big smiles, as you can see from these pictures!

Cross-Island Highway

Since, in Taiwan, the mountains lie in the north-south direction, the highway which now crosses the island had been under construction for quite a long time. It started perhaps in 1956 and was partly finished in 1960. The stretch from the coastal city, Hualian, going west was finished maybe only in the early seventies. We went to see this stretch in 1978. It was quite spectacular from a scenery point of view. We took a lot of pictures and bought some marble ware (vases and cups), which we still use today. We spent quite a number of days there, and visited several attractions in the region. The following are some pictures taken there.

Ali Mountain(阿里山)

The tallest mountain in Taiwan is Ali Mountain. It is one of the must-see scenic spots of Taiwan. We went there for just one day. The mountain is over 10,000 ft. And it is famous for its sunrise! Yes, we did go to see the sunrise, but we had several problems. First the sun was covered most of the time, second my camera did not catch any of my shots. Our whole family was there as we put on all our clothes to keep ourselves warm. Janice took my picture with our kids. It was along the fence where we tried to watch the sunrise! The other picture was what was left of the God-tree(神木) which was the oldest tree in the area.

Forever Connected

The Chinese have an old saying that, if you love someone, your hearts will be forever connected. In the Taida Experimental Forest, which we visited after our Kaoshung trip south, there is a sign that has that saying. (see below) There was a dead tree connected with another tree trunk which formed a heart symbolizing the words. The carving on the sign  said “Permanently connected by a common heart”. We stayed in this beautiful place for a few days, and we visited many familiar places there with our children. We were able to cool down quite a bit after our stay in the hot Kaoshung area. Another special place we visited regularly was University Pond, which has a nice bridge.

Many Relatives!

Almost all my relatives on my mother’s side were there at this wedding of my uncle’s son. Many of them we had never met before. Of course, they had never met Janice and our children. We made a special effort to meet everyone who wanted to meet with us the next day. In addition to my uncle’s family, there were two other families we spent time with. My uncle had taken two of his nephews(his and my mother’s sister’s children) out of China when he went to Taiwan, so that they could avoid the Japanese invasion. They had joined the army and followed my uncle ever since they were teenagers. Later they resigned from the army and my father found some jobs for them at the University Forest Station. They were both married by the time of this wedding and their families (with the exception of Enge’s wife) were all there. We took some pictures together. The first picture was taken with my uncle and his wife. Visiting them was the primary reason my mother took us from Nanking to Taiwan in 1949. This is actually the only picture my family has with them.I call the other two families the Enge family and the Yage family, as those were the cousins’ given names. They actually both belonged to the Chen family.Then we had several pictures of all children with their respective families there at the wedding: