Embarking on My New Journey: A Day in Town

I went on my first backpacking trip in my country about two years ago. I did it as my new pastime after retiring, to familiarize myself with the land I had lived over sixty years but had known embarrassingly little about. In the 20 months that followed, I backpacked around, visiting 358 townships listed under the 20 administrative divisions of my country, including 6 special municipalities, 11 counties and 3 cities. 

While my round-the-country backpacking ended two months ago, I also planned to start my new round of backpacking in line with my new personal vision statement: "To live a life rooted in Taiwan and connected with the world". I call my new plan "A Day in Town", under which I will spend a full day in a township during my backpacking trips. With about 350 townships that I planned to spend a day in each, I hope to complete my personal project "A Day in Town" in five years -- and that I'll remain healthy and free enough to live my life this way, of course. With that my new multi-year personal project kicked off on 11/25 in Ilan County. Ilan has 12 townships in its jurisdiction, and this time I would visit four of them because my planned travel duration was four days only (with the fifth day traveling home).

Though this was the second time I have backpaced around my country, I still made countless new discoveries, as reflected in the over 500 photos I took. It would take me weeks to complete my blog post had I tried to cover all of them, so I will choose just one photo for each township to record the story that I considered representative, interesting or surprising, apart from some key facts of the township.

The first township I visited is Nan'ao, the southernmost township of Ilan County, bordering Hualien County to the south with Heping River. Nan'ao has the largest area and the lowest population density among the 7 townships of Ilan. Its population is about 6000, with most being Atayal, an indigenous group of Taiwan. Nan'ao has 7 villages, and during the day I spent there, I visited  five of them and walked about 22 kilometers.

To explore Nan'ao, I first took a train to Hanben, the southernmost train station within the jurisdiction of Ilan County. I walked around Hanben Train Station, located along Highway #9, the main cross highway in Eastern Taiwan, flanked by the Central Mountain Range on the west and the Pacific Ocean on the east. The  views of the mountains and the ocean were spectacular. 

The next day, I visited Suao Township. Suao is located north of Nan'ao, though its southern narrow section stretches so close to Nan'ao that the two are almost indistinguishable. Suao is an important port for fishing, military and commerce. It's also the gateway to northern Taiwan and eastern counties of Hualien and Taitung, renowned tourist destinations in Taiwan. Suao has been a prosperous township of Ilan, with 26 villages established for a population of 37000. During my day there I managed to visit 13 villages, walking for a distance of about 23 kilometers.

I started my day in Suao by taking a train to Dong Au, the southernmost train station within the jurisdiction of Suao. Coming out of the station and walking across Highway #9, which took me about two minutes, I was already in Nan'ao, the township I had visited the day before. At first, this was confusing but it became very interesting to me once I figured it out: the administrative border between Suao and Nan'ao is partly formed by Highway #9, with the east side belonging to Suao and the west side belonging to Nan'ao, while the land is all within the proximity of Nan'ao. There are three such villages in Suao, inhabited by people of Minnan ancestry, in contrast to their Atayal neighbors in Nan'ao.

 

On the third day, I visited Dongshan, bordering Suao to the south. Dongshan has a population of 53000 and is the third most populated township of Ilan. It has become a popular tourist destination in recent years, thanks to a cleaning project that was successfully executed and made Dongshan River, a river that flows within the township, both attractive and accessible, with various events held there year-round. There are 22 villages in Dongshan, and during my day there I visited 13 of them, walking about 25 kilometers.

 

The most interesting spot I discovered in Dongshan was this 7-11 convenience store. From a distance I was drawn to the historical appearance of the building. As I walked closer, I found that it's the former site of the township office. I looked around and noticed a sign for the township office on a building across the street. Apparently the township office has been relocated there with its original site rented to the convenience store chain.

The fourth township that I planned to visit was Datong Township, a so-called mountain township which is a special administrative unit for indigenous peoples living in the mountains. Out of the 12 townships in Ilan County, two are classified as mountain townships, the other being Nan'ao. Similarly, a majority of Datong's population of 6000 are Atayal, as in Nan'ao. There are 10 villages spreading over the vast area of Datong, second largest in Ilan. My original plan was to take a bus and visit as many villages as possible. Luckily, my old friend Tseng, an Ilan native, learned I was in town and kindly offered to drive me around. We managed to visit all the 10 villages, with the furthest one situated in the mountain at an altitude of 1000 meters above sea level.

Of the many points of interest we explored on my day in Datong, I was most fascinated by the history of its logging industry that prospered for half a century, between the 1920s and 1970s, during which a railway was built, spanning 36 kilometers between Luodong, a township in downtown Ilan and the logging sites in the mountains of Datong Township. Passenger train services were even introduced on the railway. What a prosperous past of the township!

With my fourth day in Datong ending as planned, my first "A Day in Town" backpacking trip also came to a close, marking the end of the beginning of my new, multi-year journey. I was particularly thrilled by the company of my old friend on the last day, that gave me many bonus insights about the places and peoples of Ilan, apart from some authentic local foods.

Finally, what made my new journey unusual was that I maintained my routine of reading in English during the four days of backpacking. This was not the case when I was backpacking around the country first time in that 20 month period because I was too immersed in the travel to maintain my reading routine. In this sense, while I will still gain new experiences in my upcoming backpacking trips, I'll be more accustomed to them and can read as usual during the journey. 

I look forward to my next backpacking trip.