The End of the Beginning: Backpacking around My Motherland

Last Friday marked a new milestone in my lifetime learning journey: I completed my plan of backpacking around my country, visiting 358 townships listed under the 20 administrative divisions, including 6 special municipalities, 11 counties and 3 cities (including the Peng-Hu Islands that are 50 km west of Taiwan proper)


It also marked "the end of the beginning" of my quest to reinvent my self-identity under my two-fold personal vision, as manifested in my blog headline: Rooted in Taiwan, Connected with the World. It's a new personal vision, formed gradually only after I had retired from the workplace two and a half years ago, and is the North Star for my new journey ahead. 


Having spent my entire career in the fields related to international business, I was no stranger to staying connected with the world, and should, going forward, remain so through my decades-long habits of extensive reading and occasional overseas traveling. On the other hand,  I felt that most of my country had remained strange, if not exotic, to me, though during my career I had traveled around the country more than 20 times, all by car.

Upon reflection, I realized that while I was physically around my country time and again, I was driving there for relaxation, sightseeing and enjoyment only, always in a hurry and without really taking time to learn about the places and people there. Thus, to gain my sense of identifying with the land that I have lived on for 65 years, I decided to relearn and rediscover my motherland by backpacking to every township, using public transport such as train, bus, subway, boat, bicycle, and, not the least, my own feet.


The plan was kick-started in early January, 2023 and progressed through the 20 months that followed, during which I conducted 21 trips, each lasting 5 days, with the last one ending on last Friday, August 30th, in the beautiful, eastern coastal county of Hualien.


Although as a backpacker it's impossible to get to know a place as well as the locals do, through the 21 down-to-earth trips made in the last 20 months, I've indeed relearned and rediscovered a lot about my motherland, particularly in terms of geography, history, ethnicity, culture and customs. With that, a sense of self-identity with this land has never been stronger, and I truly feel blessed for being born and to live on this beautiful island country of Taiwan, also known as Formosa!


As mentioned earlier, it's only "the end of the beginning" of my quest to reinvent my self-identity, so I'll start a new round of backpacking to continue discovering my motherland. Until then, I shall reflect on these wonderful backpacking travels of the past 20 months, as listed below, through which the then "rootless me" has been transformed, indeed, to "a new me Rooted in Taiwan".


Date: 1/02/2023 - 1/06/2023

Destination: I-Lan County 

No. of townships: 12

Population: 449,201

Area (square km): 2,144


Date: 2/06/2023 - 2/10/2023

Destination: New Taipei City 

No. of townships: 29

Population: 4,043,898

Area (square km): 2,053


Date: 3/20/2023 - 3/24/2023

Destination: Taipei City 

No. of townships: 12

Population: 2,504,731

Area (square km): 271



Date: 3/20/2023 - 3/24/2023

Destination: Keeling City 

No. of townships: 7

Population: 361,491

Area (square km): 133


Date: 4/24/2023 - 4/28/2023

Destination: Taoyuan City

No. of townships: 13

Population: 2,328,488

Area (square km): 1,221



Date: 4/24/2023 - 4/28/2023

Destination: Hsinchu County 

No. of townships: 13

Population: 592,183

Area (square km): 1,428



Date: 4/24/2023 - 4/28/2023

Destination: Hsinchu City

No. of townships: 3

Population: 457,344

Area (square km): 104



Date: 4/24/2023 - 4/28/2023

Destination: Miaoli County 

No. of townships: 18

Population: 533,468

Area (square km): 1,820



Date: 5/22/2023 - 5/26/2023

Destination: Taitung County 

No. of townships: 16

Population: 211,681

Area (square km): 3,515



Date: 6/26/2023 - 6/30/2023

Destination: Taichung 

No. of townships: 29

Population: 2,853,173

Area (square km): 2,214


Date: 7/24/2023 - 7/28/2023

Destination: Nantou County 

No. of townships: 13

Population: 474,313

Area (square km): 4,106



Date: 8/21/2023 - 8/25/2023

Destination: Changhwa County 

No. of townships: 26

Population: 1,231,000

Area (square km): 1,074



Date: 11/27/2023 - 12/01/2023

Destination: Yunlin County 

No. of townships: 20

Population: 659,521

Area (square km): 1,291



Date: 1/22/2024 - 1/26/2024

Destination: Chiayi County 

No. of townships: 18

Population: 481,071

Area (square km): 1,094



Date: 1/22/2024 - 1/26/2024

Destination: Chiayi City

No. of townships: 2

Population: 262,852

Area (square km): 60



Date: 2/26/2024 - 3/01/2024, 3/11/2024 - 3/15/2024

Destination: Tainan City 

No. of townships: 37

Population: 1,859,328

Area (square km): 2,192



Date: 4/08/2024 - 4/12/2024, 4/22/2024 - 4/26/2024, 5/06/2024 - 5/10/2024

Destination: Kaohsiung 

No. of townships: 38

Population: 2,734,097

Area (square km): 2,952


Date: 5/27/2024 - 5/31/2024, 6/10/2024 - 6/14/2024, 6/24/2024 - 6/28/2024

Destination: Pingtung County 

No. of townships: 33

Population: 791,423

Area (square km): 2,776


Date: 7/22/2024 - 7/29/2024*

Destination: Peng-Hu County 

No. of townships: 6

Population: 107,696

Area (square km): 127

*Return boat schedule delayed by 3 days due to Typhoon 


Date: 8/26/2024 - 8/30/2024

Destination: Hualien County 

No. of townships: 13

Population: 315,784

Area (square km): 4,629

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  1. Read, blog, travel, bikeSeptember 14, 2024 at 3:22 AM

    Chinese translation on FB
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