Monday, November 13, 2023 Taiwan Historic Tian Mu Trail & TaiZhiZui Restaurant
This was one of my favorite days of the whole six month trip. We were feeling grateful for our health, our 47-year marriage, and for the opportunity to travel. We walked from our B&B to the ZhiShan Metro station and hopped on bus 616 – local transportation is very convenient. The bus wound through TianMu and deposited us at the very bottom of the Historic TianMu Trail. The trail is guarded by ferocious stone monkey; don’t mess with Mama Monkey.
The route goes up to about 1000 feet above sea level. It winds past the Chinese Culture University on top of Yang Ming Mountain. There is a side dirt trail to a waterfall and sometimes one can see monkeys there. We walked on a great weather day – online reviews say that it is very humid and hot in summer. There are sulfur springs at the very top of the climb.
The Japanese colonizers ruled Taiwan from the end of the first war between China and Japan (1895) to the end of World War 2 (1945) coinciding with the second war between China and Japan and the Chinese civil war. Japanese built this big black pipe infrastructure to bring mountain water down to the Taipei basin. It is still working well. Steps are irregular – we paid attention while also enjoying the lush greenery all around.
The climb was rigorous for us – between 700 and 1000 stone steps and then a flat gravel trail. We came through rainy mist above the tall bamboo tops, waving in the wind. Our kids gave me these hiking boots for Mother’s Day so on each trip, I show them where the boots have taken me. “These boots were made for walking”
The climb was a challenge, but the gorgeous panoply Mother Nature provided was worth the effort. We could see the several mountains all around the basin of Taipei. Wonderful “moody” sky!
After the cool, misty climb, we found a cozy single-story restaurant built in the Japanese style, the TaiZhiZui, at the top of the mountain. Among other delights, Mike ordered an expensive seafood “jou” (“porridge” hardly describes it) – warming and delicious.
Mike looking handsome in his new charcoal gray pullover (bought at Costco San Diego on Day 24 when we were visiting our beautiful grandson, Matthew, and his “grandchild accessory” parents!). Mike is on the phone making plans for the next legs of our next trip – he did all the detail work. My job has been to cope with my language challenges (I’m operating at about 80% comprehension here at the beginning of our stay in Taiwan; hard) and to cooperate with him creating the trip he has wanted for so long (usually as easy as “cooperating” gets!).
Susan Olmstead Wang 