Tamsui

Red Line North:  Taipei is an inland city, sited on the Damshui River.  It commands a lowland basin fed my multiple streams and surrounded by mountains.  It is close to the sea, and I have always thought of it as a port, but it isn’t.  Its old port is Tamsui (Damshui) to the northeast (and its new port is Keelung to the northwest).  Today, Tamsui is the northern terminus of the MRT’s very-busy Red Line, about 30 minutes from center city.  The line follows a busy urban corridor:  river, mangroves, parks, trails on one side; tall mountains on the other; high-rises and ‘high streets’ down the middle.  The way urbanization has accommodated itself to steep topography reminded me of Hong Kong.  I won’t get to see the real mountains on this trip, but I was surprised to learn that some peaks exceed 10,000 feet.   That’s Rocky Mountain high.  It’s surprising because Taiwan is so small.  It’s not surprising since Taiwan finds itself along a convergent plate boundary.  It’s part of the circum-Pacific island arc, susceptible to earthquakes, but with no active volcanoes.  With as many people on this Maryland-sized island as there are in all of Australia, I hope the Republic’s government can resist pressures to turn the mountains over to the monarchs of rapacious capitalism. 

Tamsui:  The streets of Tamsui run parallel to the river, but they don’t snuggle up to the river.  Between shoreline and shops is a waterfront park.  On weekends, it is pervaded by a carnival-like atmosphere.  People come out from Taipei to enjoy themselves, to eat their way through the day, to buy things they didn’t know they even wanted, and to spend time with friends and family.  One street (probably others, too) offers all manner of interesting treats.  I had the best cream-filled cake, candied strawberries and tomatoes on a stick, and cubed guava served up in a small plastic bag, and the ever-popular among all, iced tea with lemon.  All of this was finger food, and I was full.   Some of you will know that I am not a fan of Chinese food, so I might rank this eat-and-walk the best meal I’ve had on the whole trip.  And not all of it was junk food!  Some was only half junk food:  the candied tomatoes, for instance.  You know what a candied apple is.  Instead of an apple, dip a cherry tomato into the same red glaze and serve it on a skewer:  that’s a candied tomato, and it’s surprisingly good.

Ferry Ride:  Last summer, I decided to consciously collect ferry rides since I seem to have already compiled a long list of them.   Along the waterfront in Tamsui, I saw two ferries ready to pull out.  I hopped on one and took it to Fisherman’s Wharf, maybe a mile or so downstream.  Cost:  50 dollars.  The ride was fun, the destination a disappointment: a concrete harbor, no fishermen (ok, maybe one), touristy shops, an elegant modern hotel, an empty square, a deserted bus stop, and one over-priced amusement ride that took you aloft.  The saving grace of this place was the public art:  a mermaid in the middle of a fountain, an I-Love-Tamsui sculpture, and a smiling, spouting whale.  Lest you think my judgment contradicts the judgment of the Taiwanese:  A short while after I arrived, I rode back with the same Taiwanese family that I came with.  Apparently, they couldn’t find anything to do there either.  In retrospect, the idea for this Fisherman’s Wharf seems to have been inspired by America, and it just does not seem to fit into Chinese culture.  And, why would someone come here when they could be having fun in the real Tamsui?  My regret for the day was that I didn’t have time for the historical precinct about a mile north of the MRT station.  It’s where the Spanish and the Dutch established the first fort and port on the Damshui River, and it was one of the first points of Christian missionary contact with Taiwan as well.