Sun Moon Lake to Jiji

November 13, 2024

Downhill!

We had a purposely slow start today, since we were going a short distance downhill. We enjoyed the delicious buffet breakfast at our hotel that included western and Taiwanese foods. I ate a scallion pancake with my scrambled eggs. Fruit-wise, there were custard apples, guava, kumquats, oranges, and passion fruit juice. All delicious.

We descended to Jiji via Route 131 rather than the more direct Route 21. The road was nice and quiet with amazing views of the steep surrounding hills. I tried to only use my front derailleur, which was easy given our downhill trajectory.

Activities viewed en route included agriculture - a bit of tea up higher, but more fruit growing as we descended. Plus multiple temples and campsites too.

At one point when we were stopped, two elderly people on mobility scooters zoomed past us downhill, and shouted out ‘welcome to Taiwan’. They were too quick for us to get a photo.

There were several views of interesting power and water infrastructure. We were right below Sun Moon Lake, so we figure it’s all linked.

It was mighty hot even though we were going downhill. With most of our descending complete, we stopped at 7-Eleven in Shuili for snacks and to enjoy the AC.

Then we had an easy spin to Jiji, which is a busy fruit growing and touristy town.

Image not found :( — Lush and green was the story of the day.

We stopped at one of the temples and viewed their pond filled with giant koi.

I’m not usually keen on taking photos in tunnels. I’d rather just get through them. But this road was very quiet.

Bananas, dragon fruit, oranges, and guava seem to be the big four fruits around Jiji. These dragon fruits are protected too. Even some of the bananas were in bags on the trees. Dragon fruit fields are completely lit up at night, apparently to increase yield.

We still had time to kill before checking in to our accommodation, so stopped for delicious homemade ice cream and frozen yogurt before heading up a short but steep hill to our farm stay, then down the even steeper driveway. I forgot about my pledge not to use my rear derailleur, and it worked fine. Phew.

Ice cream made with local fruit. Delicious!

We passed multiple temples today. There were tour buses at this one.

We’ve been wondering about these loads of brush we’ve been seeing transported on these typical blue work trucks. Then we’ve observed people cutting off small nuts by hand. Today we got an answer - they are betel nuts. We haven’t seen much evidence of people chewing on them though.

Jiji was the epicentre of the September 21, 1999 magnitude 7.6 earthquake that killed over 2400 people in Taiwan and resulted in many changes to their building code. It was the deadliest earthquake here since the 1930s. The collapsed Wuchang Temple has been declared a heritage site and preserved.

We had our own cabin, with one room for the two beds. We thought it would be two rooms. But it was nice and quiet and all worked out great. Only one other cabin was occupied, but we didn’t spy the Australians who were in it. Upon check-in, the hosts presented us with bananas and oranges, both presumably very local. Their own? There’s a banana tree right outside our cabin.

We were only about 1.5 km from town, but had no cell service or wifi. Cell signals are generally very good in a Taiwan, but I assume they were blocked by the steep hill we climbed up and over.

To celebrate the day, we had beer on our screened in porch. We tried a new flavour of chips today - citrus ramen Lays, which tasted fine.

Our little cabin with a screened in porch.

Our delightful hosts drove us to town and bought us noodles and potstickers for dinner, plus hot & sour soup. They wouldn’t let us pay. They are another example of the kindness we’ve experienced in Taiwan. My sesame noodles were terrific. As usual, dinner was a fast affair - we were back from town by 6:30 pm.

We aren’t familiar with temple going customs. Our host Jenny says that some people go to temple daily. And we learned in Taipei that Taiwanese monks wear brown robes and are not permitted to marry or eat certain foods.

It was another fabulous day with warm temperatures and an even warmer welcome from Taiwanese people. We entertained ourselves until bedtime watching wildlife documentaries on tv (English with Chinese subtitles). Taiwanese tv ads are just as annoying as ours from home.

Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 330 km (205 miles)

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Rachael AndersonWe also found the Taiwanese people to be extremely friendly and welcoming.
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