January 25, 2022
January 25th
south to Dounan
After walking in a big circle last night, we eventually found a slightly expensive Thai restaurant that served small portions. Anyway, it was during the search for dinner that we spotted a nice Japanese-era building on the next block and our plan is to ride the short distance there once we've had our hotel breakfast.
There's no coffee at all, not even instant, so we drink warm soya milk while commenting on the tacky eighties-style dining room furniture in what is a fairly new hotel.
Outside there's a good deal of pale blue above and hopefully there's a big improvement on yesterday's damp weather.
An 85°C Bakery Cafe is just along Zhongshan Road, so we pedal there for coffee after taking some snaps of the green-painted Japanese building. It seems to be part of a modern care home and a couple of staff members give me a friendly wave from a window as I point and shoot.
Exploring Xiluo's Old Street is next on our itinerary. There's a temple half way along it and lanterns are strung across the road and I set up my tripod for a self-timed shot as there's little traffic at this hour to contend with.
We ride to Yangpin Road's eastern end, then return, but the old buildings are not as photogenic as I'd hoped. As in Lukang, it's the ones that have been neglected that offer better possibilities.
Perhaps its due to the complicated inheritance rules here - with all children and subsequently grandchildren supposedly getting a share of the family home - that ownership is vague. The result can be that nobody wants to take responsibility for maintenance of a house that's unoccupied and this is what seems to be the case along Xiluo's Old Street, with various buildings looking distinctly worse for wear.
Windows are smashed and woodwork is rotting away, and plants are shooting out from cracks in the structure. Through one broken upstairs window we can see a wall has collapsed and the bedroom furniture still has someone's dusty, weather-damaged clothing hanging from it.
On Google Maps I found some more old houses forming a small neighborhood on the west side of town and we manage to eventually locate the place.
After riding around, I take a snap of a wooden chair and metal footstool just outside one typical house that's been left to fend for itself. The front door is ajar and inside a small reception room dim red lights that flank a shrine have been left on. As the saying goes, the lights are on but no-one is home.
We find Route 28 and ride southwest, going past warehouses, paddies and farms and poly-tunnels where workers in wide-brimmed hats are busy packing veg. The landscape is dead flat and the sky is big. Thankfully it's got quite a lot of blue in it today.
Our goal is Huwei and we should get there before lunch.
Huwei has a few historical places and we head straight to where they're congregated. The building with a rectangular watch tower comes into view. It looks 1930s. The Hand Puppet museum opposite looks like a city hall, while the wooden Story House is a typical Japanese villa-style building. Presumably because of Covid, they're all closed.
Starbucks occupies part of the watch tower building, but there's a Louisa just a handful of block to the south, in the direction we'll ride, so that's where we go.
My lunch is rice burger while g's order gets misunderstood and he ends up with two sandwiches.
Huwei was nicknamed the Sugar Capital when Japan ruled Taiwan. There's a large working factory beside the road heading south out of town and we call in at a cafe which is housed in the former station. Its back gives a good view of the multiple rail lanes that helped bring the sweet product to and from the town and to get a better shot, I climb down and clamber over a row of stationary flat-bed wagons. Then someone blows a whistle and I see a guard who shouts 'danger' in my direction and waves for me to get away. Apparently these rail lines are still in use. Oops.
It was in the Japanese who built the sugar factory and the rail line that goes south. A long, steel bridge that carried trains over a river has been turned into one for people to walk across, but it looks OK for cyclists, too, and our tyres rumble over the new, metal pieces that are placed between old wood sleepers. It feels like an adventure.
Once on the southern bank, we ride up onto a wide, flood defense wall and enjoy an elevated view of the surrounding flat landscape as we make our way east.
Dounan train station is as far as this tour goes and it's not very far away.
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The sun is out and g takes his shirt off.
The flood defense wall becomes unrideable, but there's a service road next to it that's quiet and we cycle along that until we reach the edge of Dounan.
A sharp right takes us south and we move over one block onto a smaller road.
Finding the train station is easy and as luck would have it, a train that allows bikes is due in less than 20 minutes. After buying tickets we put some water from a dispenser into our bidons and gulp it down - drinking is currently not allowed on trains due to Covid.
Our bikes have to stay right with us because the train is just a commuter type and it stops at all stations. The AC seems to be turned up to max' as it's pretty chilly and we both add another layer, but still feel cool.
It's a four-hour journey and darkness falls before we arrive at my station.
Today's ride: 25 km (16 miles)
Total: 1,318 km (818 miles)
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