May 11th

May 11, 2023

Yingge with Ralph

My plan today had been to get a train south just before 10 o'clock and ride back from Zhubei, but Ralph emails me at 8:30 and suggests taking the bikes on his car for ride up Happy Happy Valley. It's twice as happy as your usual valley. Good idea. An hour later we're off, with our bikes secured to a rack on the back of his Toyota.

It's only about a 20-minute drive to Daxi and Ralph parks in a lot on the edge of town and we soon set off and ride beside a wide river that flows north to Taipei. Just as we're about to veer towards the main road, we see a new-ish information map and the start of a road that's recently been built. The high stanchions of the new bridge that we saw about a month or so ago are visible - the structure is only about 500 metres away - and temptation and curiosity get the better of us.

The new road winds to the bridge and once there, it's surprisingly busy with daytrippers on coach trips - many of them young foreigners, but some quite old. I take a snap of one man who looks to be around 80 or so, then help set his smartphone to photo mode and take selfies of us both.

There's a concrete path below that looks to lead somewhere, so we opt to wheel our bikes down some steps, then start riding to somewhere.

The sun comes and goes. It's humid.

There are very few people around and the park is clearly new, with many shrubs looking as though they need a few more years to become properly established. Wet areas have been created and the place is named an ecological park. It's turns out to be quite big.

We start to wonder if the path will actually go as far so as to connect to the riverside road that goes to Yingge, but it doesn't. It eventually bends slowly and rises slightly before coming to a tree-shaded gravel section, making us get off to wheel the bikes - unsure where we're going. After a few minutes there steps that drop down to a large, steel gate.

Thankfully the gate is not locked and once through we get soon back on the concrete route that we cycled on earlier and pedal back to the bridge. It's been 30-odd minutes well spent.

On a gravel path in a corner of the park

Rather than cycling to Happy Happy Valley, which will involve some long hills, we decide to obey the red signs and walk our bikes over the long footbridge, then cycle along a winding path through countryside towards the pottery town of Yingge. There's a Starbucks there, which Ralph and I went to last time.

It's almost noon when we arrive. Last time it was very busy, but today the place is empty and we grab seats on the ground floor after ordering drinks and a bite to eat.

We sit, drink and confer. From Yingge, we could cycle over the nearby river and pedal back to the car on its northern bank, but looking at the time and considering the stiff climb involved, we decide it's best to simply retrace our tracks.

In the town of Yingge, in New Taipei City

From Starbucks, we cruise down Yingge's main tourist street that's paved with smooth cobbles, past numerous shops selling all kinds of pottery, and at its end opt to go over a footbridge spanning both a street and the rail tracks, as it'll cut out some of the town's busy junctions.

The bridge is quite a complex structure and must be a couple of hundred metres long. It bends, twists and drops and eventually spits us out close to the town's pottery museum. The start of the riverside cycle path is only a minute away.

Just where the cycle path drops down from the adjacent road, workers are in the process of building a rising section that looks like it's going to be a cycle path over the wide river, but when we trace its route, it turns out to just tee into the road crossing. This comes as a big disappointment, because even though the road bridge is being been modified, it'll still be narrow and the traffic certainly won't be any slower.

Heading back south on the riverside bike path

The hot sunshine is draining, with the temperature being in the very high twenties. The incline is slightly up and when we reach a shelter, it seems like a good idea to stop for a break and a drink. We've got time.

It's just a few minutes later that we see the new footbridge and agree that if it's not very busy, we should ignore the large, red notice instructing cyclists to walk with bikes across. We're anarchists.

Anarchy lasts less than a minute. As we cruise over, loudspeaks give instructions in Chinese which we don't understand, but guess the message is telling us to get off and walk. A uniformed security guy approaches from the far end and sure enough asks us to do just that. It's a long bridge.

There's a small road leading away from the new section and we ride there to check it out. There's an old bridge that's blocked by a construction truck, but there's a gap for us to squeeze by. The rural lane rises quite steeply and Ralph has to push his bike, but it's just 50 metres and we're soon crusing along ,wondering where the hell we're going.

The lane T's into route 3, but that's OK as after a few minutes we get to a small turning that leads to a grid of lanes close to where the car is parked. It's been different, and variety is the spice of cycling.

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 2,876 km (1,786 miles)

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