January 9th

January 9, 2023

Hukou

You may have read or seen reports about China's military daily infringing upon Taiwan's airspace, but recently it's Taiwan's manic driving that's been in the local news following some bad press from overseas. I think it was CNN that said it was 'a living hell' here for pedestrians and apparently some countries have issued travel advisories, warning their citizens to be aware of the dangers of traffic while walking around cities. I've got used to it all, but it's still pretty nerve-racking to walk about here.

Urban cycling is arguably even more nerve-racking than walking and as I ride towards the train station, a motor scooter veers right in front of me as I cross the ring road and we collide. Thankfully it's a slow motion incident and I brake hard and somehow manage not to fall over. However, the middleaged scooter rider does and she gives me a pained expression and rubs her knee, but I don't hang around to discuss her physical wellbeing. I have a train to catch: the 9:54 south to Fugang.

I've done some research using Google Maps and plotted a quiet route away from busy roads down to Hukou, which has a street lined with century-old buildings. For me this is a new ride, even though Fugang isn't very far away - just a 15-minute train journey. You might think why bother, but the train cuts out a lot of congested roads and saves me the best part of an hour of mostly urban (nerve-racking) cycling.

Unfortunately the weather isn't great today. The sky is overcast and it doesn't seem like that's going to change, but the temperature is slightly higher than last week and I'm wearing shorts. My red rain jacket comes off once at the station and I've have bought my ticket and I wonder if my merino wool top will feel too much. We'll see. It's not 10 o'clock yet.

The small Cannon camera I got back in August is something that I still haven't become fully accustomed with. I finally got around to downloading the manual last week and tried to figure out how to set it to take HDR shots. After 20-odd minutes I gave up, but accidently got it to take panoramic shots, which is something I want to try out on a row of old facades very close to Fugang's train station.

Once out of the station, I set up my tripod opposite the old buildings and turn the camera 90 degrees (to portrait) so that the tops of the roofs are included. After a couple of tries it's clear the panoramic option only works when the camera is in the usual landcscape position, so resort to taking a sequence of four portrait shots with the intention of stiching them together on Photoshop when I get home.

Fugang is a small, tranquil town and it takes me under five minutes to reach the countryside. Heading south, my goal is Hukou. There's no traffic.

As mentioned, my route is basically car-free. It turns here and there in a grid of lanes that serve farms, but I have screenshots of Google Maps on a 7" tablet and refer to those a few times and surprisingly don't get lost.

Although Hukou, like most places, has grown over the years, it's still a small town and something of a backwater. It's original core was developed around where a train staton used to be, but that got moved west many years ago and the old buildings were miraculously spared modernisation and revelopment. That's where I head.

The town's Old Street is straight, but where I get on it there's a short leg before there's a 90 bend. There are a few places thta look abandoned and I take as snap of one with turquoise paintwork before getting to the end of the main drag. Not many of the units are open. Some appear to be vacant. You get the impression that money was spent aing it attractive, but there's no obvious draw and while the facades look to have been doctored to make them more photogenic, it might have been best to have left them alone. Authenticity is in short supply.

Old Street (three snaps stitched together)

One place that gets my attention is a coffee shop. I peer inside and spot a big Italian-looking machine, so decide to give it a try. The owner appears and takes my order (cappuccino with chocolate cookies) before showing me to a garden area with a few tables. There's only me as a customer during the 15 minutes I sit there.

Refreshed, I venture towards the end of the street and stop at bunch of old stuff outside a shop. Some would say they're antiques, but it's just a mixture. There are six or more green-glazed bricks that would once built form ventilation and the women quotes me NT$200 each, which seems OK, and she wraps one up in newspaper and it goes in my saddlebag - just. There's not much space left with my red jacket stuffed in there, but at least it offers some additional protection.

I then notice the second strap has snapped off the saddlebag. The first broke a while ago. The red material has become very brittle, but the brick is wedged in and shouldn't fall out. I just need to replace the 1970s Carradice bag because although the actual canvas is still fine, the rest has had it.

A little furthr along is a shop that I see has a coupl of potter's wheels inside. The man is selling small tea cups for between NT$150 and NT$200, while teh nice teapots are up to NT$5,000. He kindly hands me a cup of strong Pu-er tea, which isn't my favorite, and I take his portrait before making tracks.

Antique shop along the Old Street in Hukou

I bought this glazed ventilation brick for NT$200 = almost US$7

Handmade tea cups that were NT$150 each - about US$5

There's a 7-Eleven on the main road (Highway 1) that cuts through town and I get a microwaved spag bol and a small carton of soya milk and look out the window for a while before crossing over the highway and riding northwest.

There are small rural lanes that take me to the railway tracks, which I cross over and find a small, bendy river. A service road runs along each bank and it's not long before I get to Hukou's fairly modern station.

My ticket home comes to NT$50 for me and the bike - about US$1.70 - which is very reasonable for a 30-minute journey. In the UK, you could multiply that cost by five. There's a wait of over 30 minutes before my train comes, but that's fine, and there's only me in the carriage with the bike racks. I'll be home at around three.

The 30-minute train journey back north cost NT$50 with the bike

Only me in the bike carriage on the 14:13 departure from Hukou

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 2,142 km (1,330 miles)

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