Welcome to another part of my much slower and relaxing ride around Taiwan. I've since done a lot more of this loop around the island, but in true lazy spirit I have yet to complete it. Hualien to Yilan, and Yunlin to Taitung are the incomplete sections. Today's segment goes from Zhubei Station to Baishatun on the coast. It's a flat and easy section, best traveled from north to south due to the prevailing winds. The total length for the day according to my Strava was 80km, which while not super short is very doable within a day. I took an early train at 07:52 with my bike from Wanhua Station and arrived at Zhubei Station at 9:30. I checked into my room at Baishatun at 5pm. I took things very easy and stopped a lot. Given Baishatun has a train station this is doable as a very long day trip from Taipei. There are bike-friendly trains at 19:22 and 21:11 to Songshan on all days (please double check the schedule and remember bike disembarking isn't allowed at Taipei Main). Wanhua isn't served by these evening trains so your choices are Banqiao and Songshan. I have pretty basic Giant Roam for these trips but it does the job. **Zhubei to Zhunan. AKA North Bamboo to South Bamboo** Zhubei is a pretty sleepy town. I took a route along Guosheng Road from the station, following it to its end, and then I crossed a large road to the first stop of the day: the Tsaitien Temple. Although a plain looking temple this one has an interesting history. The Pingpu and Taokas plains indigenous in the area helped the government put down a revolt in 1758. For this they were granted Chinese surnames and they built this shrine to worship the land god. There aren't many physical sites like this that mark the sinicization process of the plains indigenous. Next, wind through some alleys until you meet a relaxed river bike-way that'll take you to the Jiushe Bridge. On crossing this you'll be on a well-developed bike path that goes right to the coast. The path crosses the end of Hsinchu military airfield and if you're here early there will likely be some jets maneuvering overhead. At the mouth of the river is Nanliao, a windy place that has harnessed this windiness to become a center for kite-flying. It looks like large kite events are held here and although it was quiet when I passed there were a few huge kites in the air. A lot of people take pictures at Nanliao Stairway, which is some stone steps down to the sea, but despite the popularity it's not that essential to visit. Nanliao Steps This next section is pretty darn pleasant and runs alongside a canal and is tree-lined in places. Near Xiangshan there's a short but pretty boardwalk out into the ocean where you can view the native crab species. Like Gaomei near Taichung access is very dependent on tides and unfortunately I wasn't there at the right time. There's a small but friendly museum next to the boardwalk. At this point you'll also start tracking along Taiwan Railway's West Trunk line which can be roughly followed until crossing into Changhua (splitting into the Coast Line at Zhunan). It's always good to have a train line nearby in case the trip needs to be abandoned for whatever reason. Xiangshan Station is one of several original wooden Japanese era stations in the area and is very attractive. I sadly missed it but visited most of the rest on the line. Past Xiangshan the first of the coastal wind turbines come into view. These become a perennial sight on the west coast rides. Taiwan has been investing heavily in wind power over the past decade. Next up are the Qiding Tunnels, a series of abandoned train tunnels built in 1928 that have been repurposed and re-lit for tourists. I wasn't 100% sure you're supposed to cycle through these, but I did anyway as there was hardly anyone around. Just note that there are some stairs at the Qiding Village end. After a little break at a look out point above the railway I headed into Qiding. The village was quiet and I was a bit hungry but fortunately I found a quirky and friendly restaurant near the station called Ali's Inn (阿麗小棧) . The food was good, and I ate a fair bit. The tunnels and the quirky restaurant in Qiding Back on the coast bike path I passed through a large fish auction at Longfeng and then a winding forested bike path before taking the first big highway bridge crossing. **Zhunan to Houlong** I was a little concerned at the prospect of crossing in a few places on the Route 61 highway bridges. Scouting them out, some crossings looked more protected than others and I was a bit worried about mixing with fast moving traffic. This is a bit of an accident prone highway after all. This first crossing was easy and quiet. I realized later that even when you are on the same road area as trucks they are often restricted to the central lanes. I'd say that so far the only one which felt a little unsafe was crossing on route 17 between Taichung and Changhua, where there isn't much of a shoulder. Otherwise they were quiet and relaxed crossings. After the bridge there isn't a coast bike path, or even a coast road anymore, so I traced a country highway into Dashan. Here there's one of the classic wooden stations, and it's still in use! The other wooden stations along the Coast Line line include Tanwen, Xinpu, Ri'nan, and Zhuifen. All of them were built in 1922 to a standard Japanese Station design when the line opened. You can also find similar rural station buildings in Japan. The route I've made also passes Xinpu so it's not totally essential to stop at Dashan as the stations all look very similar. Qingshui Station is also historic and is a more substantial brick building, but it's a bit of a detour from this route. This dog was indifferent to petting. -1 points to Dashan From here I went straight west out to the coast, passing a half-finished site called The Miaoli Cinema Park. I later learned this is a theme park based around movie sets and fake-retro streets. From the reviews online it's often criticized as being overpriced and looking a bit thrown together. From the photos it does look underdone and tacky. I don't quite understand why you'd go here to take photos by fake old buildings when you can just go to Lukang down the coast and take pictures in front of the real things. I went to the Kowloon Walled-City movie set recreation in Hong Kong recently, which was a small thing, but it was very well done. Take a look at the Google Reviews photos to see how poorly done this place is. I think this is the point where the ride became a bit bleak. There is a lot of criticism about how the west coast looks, and a lot of it is based in reality. There are a lot of nice parts but there are long stretches through very desolate landscapes on under-maintained streets with trash problems. The area is clearly one of the more impoverished areas of the country, worlds away from the tech hubs or Xinyi office suites. On the one hand as someone who doesn't want to only see the showpieces in a country I do appreciate getting to see every side of Taiwan. At some points the bleakness of the landscape reached such an absurd level it became strangely interesting. But at other times, seeing swathes of ruined houses and very elderly people toiling away on barren looking land, it was depressing. Normally I go through Taiwanese rural towns and there are a few abandoned homes but the place is otherwise doing ok. Waipu had a huge abandonment percentage, at least on the road I went through on, and even the inhabited buildings looked run down. There was also a noticeable lack of newer buildings which is never a good sign. Communities like this seem very much forgotten. It looks like there's a surfing beach here so hopefully that is attracting some people. If the theme park I passed had been done better that could have provided jobs for the area but I don't think that site will last long. Bizarre park in Waipu. Stuff play equipment, what kids really want are creepy statues Things got strange on the way to Houlong as the large coastal path seemed to ban bikes. Since there was not a soul around I decided to cycle on it anyway. The markings on the ground and bicycle-shaped lampposts clearly indicated that this was intended to be a bike path. It was not particularly old either. So why ban bikes? no biking on this wide empty path! On rounding a large solar farm the path deteriorated and there were many areas with broken fencing and rust. Are bikes banned because this area needs repair? It was very strange. I headed into Houlong town for a quick look. Apart from a couple of pretty historic buildings, the nicest being the Fengchun Hospital near the station, there wasn't much to see. Perhaps there's something a little hidden away here but I didn't find it. I crossed on the Houlongxi Bridge and headed to Tongxing. **Tongxing to Baishatun** Tongxing Old Street was a tiny place, with just one street, that was lined with what looked like Qing era brick buildings. It seems far off the tourist trail. Most houses were still residential buildings, and a fair few were in ruins. I saw no people, just a lot of cats. I quite liked it. It seems it was merchant housing and storage for traders attached to Gongsi Port. As this port still exists but is a fair walk away I assume it was relocated, leading to the decline of this street. Longgang Village instead surrounds Gongsi Port. It is a peaceful fishing village. Beware that Google Maps may lead you onto a road that‘s buried under the beach now. Instead of this dead-end follow the road that travels alongside the railway line and cross the suspension bridge after a kilometer. There is a coastal bikeway after this though looking at streetview the surface is pretty rough in places. I wanted to visit the Guoguang Tunnels so I stayed alongside the railway. This set of tunnels from 1922 were more interesting than the Qiding ones and the lighting was pretty cool. Once again unsure of the rules I cycled through these. Pretty shortly after the tunnels you'll reach Baishatun. After checking into my accommodation (a very nice little sanheyuan room called 内之島旅宿 just south of the village), I went into the town. Baishatun is famous for a large Mazu Temple and there was still plenty of activity there at the end of the day. This is the home of one of the great Mazu pilgrimages which usually happens around mid-March. Unlike the better known Dajia Pilgrimage this one doesn't follow a set route, it goes wherever the goddess wills it. The street leading up to the temple is a small night market, however as it was February there wasn't a lot open. I snacked a bit, looked around the temple, and then returned to sleep. The exact route for this ride can be found on The Hidden Taiwan Map as well as markers for the sites mentioned here. For a lot of Taiwan related art please see the gallery elsewhere on this site. For art and city history see IG tomrookart , and for more outdoor adventures see IG tomrookalso Next section: Part 9: Baishatun to Lukang.

Most of the time when I go hiking I'm either going for the views, or perhaps I want a challenge. Mt Youluo has neither: This is not an especially challenging hike, and there aren't really amazing views from the top. This hike is worth it for the atmosphere. The geography of Mt Youluo means that even on days where the rest of the area is clear there will often be a band of cloud and mist hanging over the upper slopes. While clearly well-known to Taiwanese I don't think this mountain is on the radar otherwise. Mt Youluo is located in Hsinchu County, not far from Wufeng Village. The location and rough hike route are mapped on the Hidden Taiwan Map. The hike starts from The No.1 Trail Entrance 油羅山第一登山口, where there is car parking, and it is a loop trail. The entire loop took us about 4 hours but we were a fairly fast group. Driving is your only option for this one. The start of the trail During the hike you'll climb from a height of just under 1200m up to the summit of 1764m. While not approaching the giants of Taiwan mountains this is still high enough that you'll need to prepare for quickly changing weather. The climb is quite steep in places, and could be slippery. Youluo was extensively logged in the early 20th century and has a mix of old growth forest and newer stands of cedar trees. Shrouded in mist and silence it's a mystical place. The trail is so steep that in some places you are eye-level with the upper trunks of trees that are lower down the slope. Because the mist appears even on otherwise sunny days, like on the one I visited, the lighting can be really beautiful. The mist can sometimes have a slight sparkling appearance that's hard to capture in photos. The summit isn't very notable and I just have photos of the summit marker. It's still inside the forest and there are no views across dramatic scenery. On the descent you'll pass through more mist-shrouded stands of cedar trees along with gnarled and wizened older growth. The trail ends at the No.2 trailhead where it's an easy flat walk back to the No.1 trailhead. On the way you'll pass Youluo Waterfall, but most of the time this is just a trickle. The tiny waterfall Mist bands on the slopes For more Taiwan related articles check out the rest of this blog, and for (mostly) Taiwan related art please take a look at my gallery here.

The attractive Ciyou Mazu Temple. The structure is modern but a temple has stood here since 1757. Some items inside, like the stone lions from 1803, are historic Songshan (the village not the city district) was an independent settlement long before it was absorbed into Taipei. It grew up along the banks of the Keelung River and was a thriving port. Later it was a center for brick-making and lots of old kilns are visible from this photo taken in the middle of the 20th century. Ciyou Temple, pre-rebuild, is visible at the very top left. Not much else remains from this photo Modern Songshan is very built-up in places In more recent years it's become best known for the large Raohe Night Market which occupies what has been the main commercial street here for many years. A short walk away are the riverside bike paths, now a bit cut off by the flood walls, and the end of the runway of the airport that shares the village's name. Songshan in 1945. Raohe Street was once lined with old buildings but many were lost due to road widening. Most buildings here are single floor shophouses. Two taller buildings on the left half of the image, that cast bigger shadows, are the old clinic and the red brick house that are shown later in this post. Because it's an older area there are a few historic sites left, ranging from the somewhat known to the very hidden. I wouldn't say there are any that are very well-known. As I often enter the river paths from Songshan I've had a good look around here over the years. What follows are the things I have found. Strap in, they'll blow your mi.... well they won't but I do enjoy finding and sharing these sorts of places. **The Old Market** One of the few city government listed heritage buildings in the area is the old wooden central market building. It was built in 1908 and was originally a livestock market. Heading inside you can see heavy old cypress beams on the ceiling. Unfortunately it is a bit covered up in many areas and the exterior has been partly modernized. There are lots of small eateries and stalls inside this building, along with a very old school looking medicine shop. Opposite there was once a large building that served as a farmer's association. However this was demolished in the late 2000's and there is just an echo of it within the modern replacement. Scroll back far enough on Google streetview and you can still see it along with some other lost shophouses a block away. I can’t find a construction date for this place but it existed in 1945. From Google Streetview circa 2009 A few other lost shophouses nearby **The Dongxing Building** Next to the old farmers' association site is another modern tower. This replaced the only building in Taipei to collapse outright during the 9/21 earthquake of 1999. The original Dongxing Building was a twelve floor mixed-use tower completed in 1984. Inside were a hotel, a branch of First Commercial Bank, and apartments. Investigators later attributed the collapse to substandard concrete, poor workmanship, and design errors that left the structure without enough earthquake resistance. These kinds of failings were easier to get away with under the looser construction regime of the early 1980's. When the quake struck the tower pancaked, killing 87 people. It was the only fatal building collapse in Taipei City. The replacement, completed in 2009, was built on the same site and rehoused many of the families displaced by the disaster. The replacement Dongxing Building On another note the residents along these few blocks must have had a nightmare of things starting in 1999. First there was the building collapse, and then the railway line at their rear was tunneled, followed by the new MRT at their front! **Xinkuangshenyi (心曠神怡洋樓)** With it's location near a major station, the Nangang tech parks, and the Xinyi offices, Songshan has been under huge pressure from property developers. The riverside plots are especially in demand for apartment towers, given the views and the breeze (the new towers actually block the breeze and heat up the rest of the village however). Until 2021 there was an old villa here known as Xinkuangshenyi (which translates roughly as ‘feeling relaxed and happy’). It was built in 1928 as a two floor western style home and was one of the last historic riverside homes left in Taipei. The owner was the head of Songshan Village and he built it partly as a gathering place for local poets and writers. Although the outside was in my opinion a bit blocky the interior was apparently beautiful and contained one of the most delicately sculpted staircases in north Taiwan. For twenty years the house sat on the city's heritage watch-list and while it was listed it was never once inspected. A city councilor one day asked in a meeting why the cultural affairs department had spent two decades tracking a building it had never bothered to survey. Then the next day the developer demolished it, without warning and without a permit. The timing definitely seems a bit fishy to me! Officials turned up that afternoon and stuck a "provisional monument" notice onto the rubble but only a fragment was left standing. It has sat in limbo since and I have no idea what the future holds for it. There’s a good article on the case here. There is a generation of property company owners who started trading in the wild-west years of the 1980's and 90's, when toothless or corrupt authorities let them get away with almost anything. Some I think still believe the rules don't apply to them. This one also it seems used the cover of Taiwan's COVID outbreak. I'm glad they were stopped but I doubt the house can be rebuilt. **The Old Clinic** This is quite a somber looking building that was built towards the end of the Japanese era, apparently in 1934. It is firmly modernist and quite a rare early example. From the Raohe Market side it doesn't look particularly old but from the riverside road it has some quirkiness. I think the Raohe facade was modernized in the 1960's or 70's when the road was widened as it doesn't quite match the style of the side or rear of the building. I'm a big fan of the hexagonal windows. Originally the building was a clinic but it seems to be a mix of commercial and residential now. I’ve also seen it mentioned as well that it was a coal mine company office. In all this one is a bit of a mystery and it seems to have been a bit missed by the otherwise pretty thorough heritage community. **The Water God Temple (Shuifu Temple)** While this is a modern building from 1982 the deity inside is I think still worth a mention. The main gods here are the well-known Earth God (Tudigong) and the much rarer Water Master. In its early days Songshan was an important river port. Its original name comes from the Ketagalan word Malysyakkaw meaning ‘river bend’. Some of the river traders kept statues and images of the water god on their boats for protection. In 1860 one such trader was passing Songshan when his boat, carrying a water god statue, was drawn to shore of its own accord. He decided this was a message from the statue and so built a temple here. Mazu, a common goddess to find in water related temples The temple sits on a little triangle of land facing the river The Water God and a fierce dragon **The red brick house in the lane** This one was a real surprise and is really something a bit special. It's a pretty substantial red brick house with arched windows and what may have once been a terrace with a balustrade that has since been filled in with brick. This style of building is pretty rare in Taiwan and is generally only found at larger historic ports. I've seen a few like it in Tamsui and Anping, usually the homes of foreign traders who brought the style from elsewhere. As Songshan was not an international port I can only assume this was built by a local trader imitating the style. However this building is a mystery, even googling the exact address brings up nothing. I’ve also never seen it posted online on the usual heritage groups. It’s in a small alley that I doubt even residents of surrounding lanes even use much so I think that explains why it’s been missed. I’m unsure whether it’s inhabited currently or not, it has an air of neglect. **The old brick kiln** As mentioned in the introduction Songshan was a center for brick-making. The vast majority of these kilns have been removed and there is very little trace of the industry left. This one old kiln along the riverside is perhaps the only extant one that remains. It is hugely overgrown and quite hard to access, but it is mostly complete and the smokestack even remains, though it’s on private land. Like a couple of sites in this article this kiln is slightly over the border into Nangang District but it’s closer to the old urban Songshan core than Nangang’s. This article goes into some more depth and has some pictures from an exploration within. From when the vegetation was cut back The land between Songshan and Nangang Stations is a sea of cranes The kiln is very overgrown these days **The Qiaotou Zhang Family Old House** Not far from the cranes of the old railway maintenance yard re-development there is an old sanheyuan set in a large garden area. This area feels like a small, hidden away farming village with multiple single floor homes and vegetable gardens. The main house is still a private residence, and while it isn't a standout example of the type it's nice to see another of these mansions surviving against the odds in Taipei City. The estate was originally a farm, settled by migrants from Anxi in China, and the current building was constructed in 1925. Parts of the estate were expropriated on multiple occasions by the government during the Japanese era, leaving only the parcel of land around the house and a few outbuildings. As a result, the family’s fortunes waned and the house is today in a slightly rundown state. I’m not entirely sure where the Qiaotou (bridge head) part of their name comes from but I assume as the house is near the river that there was once an important bridge here. The house was once surrounded by brick kilns A few smaller buildings **The Taipower Maintenance Facility** This is a smaller industrial site located along the ribbon of industry that followed the railways. Other more famous complexes along this line include the Nangang Bottle Cap Factory and the Huashan Winery. This is a small site with a handful of historic buildings but it is also being restored into a cultural and arts complex. The main building is a restrained art-deco warehouse building that I really quite like. I'd noticed it just before fencing went up and most of the rest of the site was demolished in the late 2010’s. I'm happy it was saved and it looks much better than I expected it would. A more modern structure on the site is now the Ark Theater, which is apparently going to be a small arts theater. The site was a storage, equipment repair, and administrative site for the Taipower state-run power company. The earliest buildings were constructed towards the end of the Japanese era in the late 1930’s. For a look at how the site looked before demolition see the page here This building has become a small theater Pre-demolition A long warehouse with new social housing for the elderly behind it **Wufenpu** Wufenpu is not an especially old complex, most of the buildings that make it up date from the 60's or 70's, but it is a bit unusual within Taipei. There are very few covered street arcade market buildings in the city, actually there aren't that many in Taiwan generally. The area is a wholesale garment market geared to selling to businesses in bulk, but in many shops you can buy individual items. I think competition from the entrance of the likes of H&M to Taiwan has caused the quality of items in Wufenpu to go up. It is still a mire of bad English and oddness but walking through there for the first time in about seven years I did see more that I actually liked. It's still generally a women's clothing market and it could be fun if you're just browsing rather than looking for anything specific. I'm unsure whether the 'no trying on' rule that most shops used to have is still widespread. At this point in the day a thunderstorm was approaching so I was rushing to head home. And that just about covers the district. There are a few other pre-WW2 remnants but none are very notable. I expect everything privately owned to be demolished over the next ten or so years so I hope this acts as a record before that happens, especially of buildings like the red brick house that aren’t really documented elsewhere. A few red brick relics on Nangang Road The markers for all of these places are on the Hidden Taiwan Map. I have two IG's now, one covers my art and more city history stuff ( @tomrookart ) and the other is more of a hiking/outdoors/everything else one ( @tomrookalso ) . Please see the gallery on this site for my often Taiwan related art and if you like that some of it is available to purchase here