When You Come To A Fork In The Road…

One of the great things about Taipei is that it is surrounded by mountains. There are dozens of day hikes nearby just a quick ride on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit). This past drizzly and foggy Saturday Corbin, Carole, and I decided to take advantage of our first free weekend by taking a hike up one of Taipei’s most popular peaks – Elephant Mountain 象山.

Elephant Mountain is a fairly short hike – we were told only about 30-45 minutes from base to peak – but is almost entirely composed of steep staircases like these:

Despite the stairs, we made it up in under 25 minutes – pretty impressive if I might say so myself. The view from the top was great and we stopped to jump on the famous boulder and take the typical “I conquered this mountain” picture.

Corbin

Carole

Elephant Mountain

But, when we got to “the top” we realized that it really wasn’t the top of the mountain. It was just a famous spot that has a great view of the city. A nearby map showed a much more complex system of trails that lead to various other peaks. Among them was Mu Zhi Shan 拇指山. We estimated how long it would take to get to Mu Zhi Shan and figured it would be about another 45 minutes to the top and an hour to get back down. Given that it was still early, we decided to give it a shot.

The trail continued to be staircase after staircase after staircase, but lead into some really beautiful parts of the mountains. At one point we actually stumbled on a local folk religion temple where a couple of people were chanting before their dinner.

As we trekked along, there were several off shoots of the main path that led to scenic overlooks. We took a few of these paths but always returned to our main path to Mu Zhi Shan – except for one.

Still feeling adventurous, we followed a path up a steep winding staircase, but this one didn’t seem to lead to an overlook (at this point, I don’t know why we didn’t turn around). We kept going until about 10 minutes later we reached a little rest area with a table and a hand drawn map on a white board (wish I had taken a picture of the map to show how ridiculous it was). The map showed Mu Zhi Shan to the right, so we logically took the path to the right, but it still didn’t feel right – or correct. Fortunately, a few minutes later we came across three Taiwanese hikers (2 women and a man all maybe in their 60s) who started pointing and shouting at Corbin and Carole’s running shoes saying something about how they shouldn’t be wearing those because they’ll slip and fall. Meanwhile, I asked the man where Mu Zhi Shan was and they all three started laughing and saying, “Mu Zhi Shan? Mu Zhi Shan is not this way!” (In Chinese). The man told his companions to go ahead as he proceeded to take us back to the poorly drawn map to show us that we had to go left, not right, to go up and around to get to Mu Zhi Shan.

He gave us a few directions like “go 10 minutes up this path, then you will see [something in Chinese that we couldn’t understand] then make a right and you’ll see [something] go another 10 minutes to get to Mu Zhi Shan. Carole and I nodded and felt like we got the most of it. Seemed pretty straight forward, but he kept asking, “Do you understand?” Even though we replied yes, he didn’t seem convinced and kindly escorted us to the base of the path. Apparently the first object he was talking about was a hand railing. We thanked him kindly and he let us loose from there. About 2 minutes later we came across this:

Then another rope and another precarious climb then this view:

Finally, about 20 or 30 minutes later we reached a wider path and made a right. And after another 15 or 20 minutes we reached a sign that said 拇指山 “Thumb Mountain.” So that’s what Mu Zhi Shan means… As the three of us struggled to all fit on the peak at one time to take a picture, we realized why it’s called Thumb Mountain.

This is the view from the Temple in the previous pictures. Mu Zhi Shan is at the top of this mountain.

Look closely and you can see Taipei 101

So mysterious

We made it!

Small Thumb Mountain Peak

OK, yay we made it to the top! We had officially accomplished Corbin’s goal of hiking into the clouds, and were above Taipei 101 (the tall building in most of my pictures). But now, the fun part – getting back down. The man who helped us made it seem very straight forward, once we got to the top we would just have to continue following the path back down and cross Elephant Mountain again and be on our merry way. Which sounded great because it was already almost 6:00pm and starting to get dark.

In an attempt to wrap this long story up – I’ll just say the paths were not very well marked and we did not come down the same way we came up. We did not see Elephant Mountain, nor did we see anything that looked remotely familiar. We did see a shrine built into rock and an old man sitting pensively on a bench to which we wondered how the heck he was going to get down or if he was going to get down at all.

We ultimately came across a sign that pointed towards some street name, which we happily accepted as our exit. It dropped us off near some odd mix of a temple, restaurant, home, and antique shop underneath a highway. We had absolutely no idea where we were; we were tired, our legs were shaking, and the only thing we had eaten in the last 6 hours was a small banana that Corbin generously let Carole and me split. With no direction or idea of where to go, we looked up, saw Taipei 101 in the distance and walked in the most direct path towards the massive skyscraper as if it were the North Star.

A MUCH earned dinner:

蔥油餅Scallion Pancake

牛肉麵Beef Noodle Soup

豬肉餡餅Pork…Pie? Not sure what to call it

炒飯Salmon Fried Rice

 

 

1 day Later…

What a beautiful day! Who wants to go for a hike?!?! Ha. Ha.

First Week of Classes

National Chengchi University (NCCU) classes began this week. They run a little differently than what I’m used to in that all classes are taught once a week in 3 hour time periods. …Not sure how I feel about that yet, but it does open up my schedule quite a bit.

If I’m being honest, my classes got off to a rough start. My first class on Monday was called The History of Taiwan After WWII. It is a graduate level course taught through the Master’s Program in Asia-Pacific Studies. I was really looking forward to this class because, judging from the syllabus, I felt it would give me a good overview/understanding of why Taiwan is politically the way it is today. The end of WWII marked the beginning of the Chinese Martial law era in Taiwan — a time that I really do not know much about, but was certainly a foundational period for the development of the modern democratic state. Especially in the context of the recent presidential election (Tsai Ing-Wen became the first female president of Taiwan this past January), I am very curious about what historical factors influenced today’s Taiwan-China relations.

Aaaaanyway, so this class…was not exactly what I expected. The professor’s English was not very good and he was openly insecure about it. Furthermore, the syllabus he had posted did not match how he described the course in person. Instead of discussing the history of Taiwan from a political perspective, he planned to use Taiwanese film (which took off in popularity after WWII) as a lens to understand the cultural history. While this does sound interesting, it is not what I was expecting and I honestly could not sit for 3 hours on a Monday night (7:00-10:00pm I might add) listening to him stumble through his powerpoint. In the end, there weren’t even enough students enrolled in the class so the whole course had to be cancelled. Maybe not the best first impression of academics in Taiwan…

But, fortunately, first impressions are not always representative of the whole experience!

Tuesday was my first Chinese class. These are taught separately from the NCCU courses and are for CIEE (my U.S. program) students only. They are three times a week in 2-hour sessions in a class of 3 students. My teacher is great. Definitely one of the best (I would say the best, but no one can be better than Gao Laoshi in high school – who, by the way, graduated from NCCU!) Chinese teachers I’ve ever had. She speaks in Chinese the whole time but I can surprisingly usually follow her. I think my Chinese will really improve in this class.

The remainder of my classes so far are Science and Environmental Communication, The Economics of Fair Trade, Economic and Social Change in Taiwan, and Japanese Foreign Economic Relations. But by the end of next week I’ll have to drop one. They are all taught in English by Taiwanese professors (who thankfully, speak very good English) and are mixed international and local students. Many of the professors received their PhD’s from American universities and are highly accomplished writers as well. It is really incredible being in a class with students from all over the world – Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Czech Republic, France, and quite a few from Germany. Though it is funny being in a class where I am the only native English speaker.

Despite the rocky start to classes, I think I ended up with a good list. Also, all my classes are small (10-25 students) like at Davidson, so I’m looking forward to both this semester’s content as well as getting to know my professors and classmates.

Welcome Week

So much has happened this first week that I really can’t even begin to sum it up in words.  So please enjoy this collection of pictures that I may or may not have time to add captions to.

And So It Begins

My gate from LAX to Taipei was the very last one in the terminal. On my way to it I passed by flights departing for Singapore, Australia, Spain, and many more. Looking around I wondered who was going where and what emotions and feelings were running through their minds right at that moment. Were they going home? Vacation? Work? Travel? Were they happy? Sad? Overwhelmed? Relieved? Scared? I could only speculate about other people from my vantage point, but what I did know was how I was feeling. To answer the question I have been asked a couple dozen times, yes. I am excited. Very, VERY excited.

To kick off this blog I figured it would be helpful to just spit out answers to the most frequent questions I’ve been receiving, so here it goes.

Why Taiwan?

I wanted to go somewhere where I could practice Chinese. This narrows is down to basically China and Taiwan. I’ve been to China during high school and did not necessarily feel a strong inclination to spend a whole semester there. However, I continuously hear incredible things about Taiwan and how different it is from the Mainland. Plus, my high school Chinese teacher and many of my classmates are from Taiwan and they always told me about how awesome the food scene is on the tiny island and how friendly the people are. Upon further research I came to find that this miraculous island contains numerous opportunities for both my academic and personal interests: opportunities in the environmental social sciences, vast natural features including sublime mountains that run directly into sandy, blue beaches, and of course, food that can only be described after I’ve indulged in its deliciousness. Do make sure to check out the About page to read more about Taiwan and its background.

What will you be doing in Taiwan?

Studying, of course. The program is called Communications, Business, and Political Economy and is through CIEE (a third party American provider). I will be directly enrolling in classes at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei, Taiwan. NCCU has some of the best social science programs in all of Asia and is especially known for its business school. Classes roughly will include Social and Economic Change in Taiwan, The History of Taiwan After WWII, The Spatial Development of Mainland China, Economics of Fair Trade, and Mandarin Chinese.

Dorm or homestay?

Dorm with one roommate. I think Taiwanese.

How long will you be there?

Feb 16^th – June 26^th with plans to travel around Southeast Asia for a few weeks once the program ends.

You said you wanted to go somewhere where they speak Chinese…so do they speak Chinese or Taiwanese there?

While there is a Taiwanese language, its mostly only used by the older generations or people in the southern part of Taiwan. Mandarin is widely spoken, which I am familiar with. However, the tricky thing is the written language. I have learned simplified characters, but they use traditional in Taiwan. It will be an adjustment, but people tell me it isn’t too difficult to pick up.

What are you hoping to gain from this experience?

I have two main objectives in mind.

On the academic side: It would be nice to come out with an idea for a Senior Capstone research project. As an environmental studies major, I am always concerned about how different countries handle and view various environmental issues such as natural resource/wildlife/national park preservation, water use, food security, etc. However, recently I have become more interested in the role that business plays in combatting these issues. Taiwanese people are increasingly more aware of their environment and I wonder what role this plays in Taiwanese-Chinese business relations as well as Taiwan-Global relations.

On the personal side: I feel that Taiwan is the perfect size for a 5 month adventure. It’s not so big that I’ll only be able to see one tiny fraction of the country, but certainly not so small that I’ll get bored. I’m hoping to use my weekends and spare time to travel around and see as much of the island as possible – from national parks to road cycling to hiking to exploring indigenous communities to eating at all the night markets to snorkeling and watching wind surfers off the nearby island – there is a lot to see, do, and eat on this small island.

How Can I contact You?
facebook, email (siponthier@davidson.edu), whatsapp, skype (sierra.ponthier) basically anything except phone 🙂

Physical Address: 
Copy and paste this address and put my name at the top

That’s all for now, again, take a look at the About page for more information about Taiwan/The Isle Formosa.

Thanks for keeping up with me on this crazy adventure!!!