March 31, 2010

Chiufen (Nine Portions) Taiwan

Chiufen is an old gold mining village just outside Taipeh. We spent an afternoon there after a good big bowl of Taipeh's beef noodle. The road to this village is long and winding and at most times covered with mist. It was a lovely ride.

In spite of its being a very "movie studio like setting" today - the quaint mining town still has some of its old mining atmosphere. It gives the tourists a lot of opportunities to take photographs and taste the snacks sold in the two main streets .

This is Taiwan fragrant sausages fried and displayed on taro leaves (something that is really refreshing and interesting to me from Sarawak.)


This is the guide post in four languages...Jishan Street is a must visit street.

Branching from  the Jishan street are many alleys like this : alley going uphill would be from the seaward side and an alley going down hill would be going towards the sea. Very photographic.


Here's another alley going uphill.

Escargots being BBQed- TWN100 for three...you get them cut up in you eat from a paper cup.

The misty atmosphere and a view from one of the alleys give you an insight to the past : a church and a temple on two sides of a hill facing each other...but both looking up towards heaven.Both were started in the 1890's when gold was discovered here.

Nine families started their lives here and they used to buy provisions from the boats. Each time they travelled to the coast (which was by foot then) they would buy nine portions. Thus the name in Chinese : 9 portions (9 fen).

At the peak of gold mining in 1900's this place was called Mini Shanghai.

Today it has been made famous by movies like City of Sadness directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the Japanese animation movie, Spirit Away by Hayao Miyazaki used Chiufen as a model of the story background.

Today bus loads of tourists will descend on Chiufen to see its narrow Japanese styled streets lined with teahouses and souvenirs and snacks shops. And I would not mind going back that for a second visit - this time taking a whole day going over all the nooks and corners and even trying to go down to the sea and re-live those days when housewives trekked downhill to get nine portions of provisions!

(more photos later when the Internet is faster....we are facing some problems lately....)

March 30, 2010

Chiufen (Nine Portions) just outside Taipeh

My friends asked me what it was like to visit a gold mining town. Did I find gold nuggets?

Chiufen has such nice food!!
Image may contain: food

Chiufen is sea facing and located within the hills in northeastern Taiwan and is just outside Taipeh. To this day it is still considered a village.  At the beginning there were only nine families in Chiufen. Before the roads on land were built, all materials were transported via ships. The nine households would order nine portions every time shipments arrived from town. Hence, the place was called Chiufen, ‘chiu’ meaning ‘nine’ in Chinese.

When I visited Chiufen it was foggy and at the end of winter. However even though I was only wearing a thin jacket I felt quite warm because there were so many tourists around. We were almost shoulder to shoulder!!
When gold mining was at its peak at the beginning of 1900's the village was known as "mini-Shanghai" However, with the decline of gold mining activities in northern Taiwan, Chiufen has faded away.Movies made here made Chiufen famous e.g. City of Sadness directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the Japanese animation movie, Spirit Away by Hayao Miyazaki used Chiufen as a model of the story background.

Today bus loads of tourists will descend on Chiufen to see its narrow Japanese styled streets lined with teahouses and souvenirs and snacks shops.

Jin Ta Wan (Big Golden Bowl) or Really Big Bowl

One the best meals in Taiwan - beef noodles which came in a large bowl. The shop is called Chin Twa Wang...Really big Bowl. But the Chinese words are Jin Ta Wan.

The business is really good and wave after wave of tourists come into the shop. They have hundreds of waiters and waitresses.

Free flow of soup and noodles but not the beef or the pork chops. There are only two choices in the menu : beef or pork noodles. All in bowls of soup. So you cannot order kolok or dry . You cannot order goreng/fried.....

This is the signboard inside the shop.

Very thick healthy beef soup. You can add more spring onions and other ingredients which are placed on the table for you to help yourself.



This is a side dish of sea weed pickle.

Some dried pickled toufoo.

This is the pork noodle soup.


The whole range of side dishes for you and your friends. The shop also adds to the side dishes upon request.

This is the nice cold dessert sweet (transparent jelly with lotus paste).

this is the pork chop which goes with the pork noodle soup.

Lovely ladies from Miri!!

March 29, 2010

Saying "Sorry" : Taiwan politician


This is a normal street bus in Taipeh. I took this quick photo from my coach seat (which was unfortunately at the back) and straight away my tour guide told me the story.

An election candidate created an unforgettable incident and regrettable action when he "offered" " leg tail" ( post funeral meal) rice to the supporters.

This was a sad act and he asked for forgiveness. In five years' time he might stand for election again.....

This bus carries his request for forgiveness. He has taken out this advertisement for five years which is quite a hefty sum. But will they forgive him?


(No names mentioned in this post )

March 28, 2010

Tour Guide


Tour guides are usually very pleasant, well organized and eloquent.

He is really good. He promised to come to Miri to meet up with us...He considers us all his big sisters and brothers.

Chin Po Lou

An amazing Taiwan confectionary outlet and its superb nougats! Chin Po Luo Confections Co.

The Streets of Taipeh : motor cycles

There are a lot of things to do, people to watch and food to eat....in Taipeh.

It is often said to be the city where rich Overseas Chinese like to go.



There are lots of motor cycles in Taipei too.



Ordinary people ride buses like all of us.




Nice ride....

Air Asia Snack and Water


Travelling by Air Asia is not that luxurious. The seats are small and the service is poor. Everything has to be paid for. Even the small snack we  need on a 5 hour journey has to be paid for.

What is important is we get a small bottle of water too.

The bottle of water is too expensive. And we are not allowed to bring any water on board. This is strictly checked at the customs.

It is a pity that air travellers are abused in this way.

I hope one day  Air Asia will supply a free bottle of water to every passenger upon boarding.

In this way, when Every One Can Fly, we can say

Every ONE can Drink Free.

Foochow Funeral Rites and Customs : Hwang Lian


Relatives and friends can bring another kind of gifts for the grieving family to indicate their compassionate condolences and respect. Apart from these individuals or families associations of which  the deceased's family members (and in-laws) are members would also send these as tokens of their appreciation for the dearly departed who had contributed a lot to them in his/her life time in terms of cash donations or holding of certain positions. They would bring the correct length of materials (most shops in Sibu like Ta Sing would know how much to cut) to the bereaved family home and the clan committee or family would make the frame for the funeral procession. The materials are usually cut in the old  Chinese measure : suok chien (the Chinese yard) and suok suk (one and a quarter Chinese yard) etc...

(By the normal measurement the material is not enough to make a whole blouse which requires 2 yards or at least l.5 meters).

The materials would be framed up like in the photo..Hwang means "across" and lian means words or phrases written (on material/cloth.) The words would announce the deceased as "female" or "male" as the appropriate phrase would indicate "Great Mother Great Teacher" or "Responsible Wife Dutiful Mother" and I like this..:" Gracious lady Good family" or "Good Teacher of Good Children" etc.....a calligraphist would often be invited to write these gracious phrases (four characters). On lookers would read from the words and understand the significance of the funeral. The one who had passed away had done well for the community and the family in particular.

When I was young and studying at the Methodist Primary School I would learn all those words pasted on the cloth. The Hwang Lian would be lined up on the road in front of the church and some would even recline on the bamboo hedges. The bell of Masland church would toll slowly and sadly announcing a funeral and we would all be alerted to look out of our  classroom windows. The white mourners would slowly and respectfully walk into the church. What frightened me in those days were the gunny sack head coverings . The pianist would play mournful tunes or hymns slowly...and then the service would begin. I really liked some of my teachers who allowed us to look for a while. I was never scolded for losing my attention in class. I supposed the teachers knew that I was thinking about the funeral and death.

And I remember I had said to myself  more than once :"So much material in the procession!". In my young age I had measured the dead person's worth by the yardage! Perhaps that was the essence of this Hwang Lian in those days.

When the funeral is over all these special materials will be divided amongst the children and relatives as parting gifts. The volunteers would also be presented with some to take home as tokens of thanks. I remember when my grandfather passed away there were a lot of these hwang lian and we small children were asked to fold them. I did try to remove the paper squares but the glue was so good that the paper was stuck there for many years. Eventually my mother used up all her share of materials for making "stomach covers" or Too Heng or pillow cases. I had one skirt made in my Home Science class and indeed wore the skirt for many years. This shows how small I was then. I think many of my cousins cut small pieces up to make quilts and "hidden" pockets in their blouses. The older generations would consider these materials very "blessed".

The words would praise the deceased and would be part of the funeral. How long the Foochows of Sibu will keep this tradition? We will wait and see how strong the clan associations will maintain it and the attitude of each Foochow family.

Perhaps not many of the English and BM educated generation may want to continue this. What do you readers think?

March 27, 2010

Earth Hour March 27th 8:30 -9:30 p.m.

Sibu Tales : Beauties and Umbrellas

Image result for girls riding bicycle with open umbrellas
Photo Credit : Google.
The beautiful girls of Sibu were scared of the sun and they would always carry an umbrella everywhere they went. Pale skin was considered attract and genteel. When a match maker was asked to bring around photos of girls of marriageable age, the potential bride groom would always ask if the girl was fair skinned.

This fair skin perception caused a great deal of stress to girls who had darker complextion.

So a lot of girls would even ride a bicycle with an open umbrella. They needed an acrobat's skill to balance themselves on their bicycles and carry an umbrella at the same time.

Sibu was full of bicycles and cyclists carried their open umbrellas. The problem was so huge that many  car owners were scared to drive in Sibu.

One fatal accident occured when a girl student, on a bicycle was pulled by a bus when her umbrella was caught by the vehicle. She was dragged several meters and was killed immediately.
that me and my unopened umbrella.


Even with this kind of incidents, people continue to carry their umbrellas when they cycle.

Very Interesting facts of Sun Moon Lake


The best tea and herbal eggs in the world are found here.It probably has its origin here because of the mountain tea and herbs.


While swimming in Sun Moon Lake is usually not permitted, there is an annual 3-km race called the Swimming Carnival of Sun Moon Lake held around the Mid-Autumn Festival each year, and in recent years the participants have numbered in the tens of thousands. Other festivities held at the same time include fireworks, laser shows, and concerts.
The lake and its surrounding countryside have been designated one of thirteen National scenic areas in Taiwan.





This is the Jade Island or Lalu Island - holy ground of the Thao people. It used to be called Kwanghua Island by the Nationalist Government.




Lalu Hotel
The five-star Lalu Hotel overlooks the lake and is named after the indigenous Shao aboriginal settlement once located on the site. It dates back to 1901, and was a favoured summer getaway for the late president Chaing Kai-shek.

The 2002 version was designed by Australian architect Kerry Hill and is Taiwan's most expensive hotel. The Zen-style building has lots of wood and stone and is an all-suite property.

There are one- and two-bedroom suites as well as private villas which have their own pool and courtyard. The outdoor warm water infinity pool is 60m long. There are hot and cold whirlpools, herbal steam rooms, Swedish saunas and Japanese baths, all with lake views. The award-winning Lalu Spa offers Eastern and Western treatments.

The hotel has five restaurants and bars, a boutique and library.

Peacocks - in all their splendour



Enjoy the Foochow dialect song " Peacock Flying South "


There's a beautiful peacock farm near Sun Moon Lake which was initiated by President Chiang Kai Shek in 1968. Chiang was a man with aesthetic tastes and he spear headed many interesting developments in this part of Taiwan. One can say that he was a man before his time : a man who knew what the good life was all about. And he definitely left a good place for future travellers to enjoy . There are more than 200 peacocks in this zoo. And it was the first time I saw an albino peacock.





Pretty eyes...reminds me of the eye makeup of Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.




One can always learn to strut (John Travolta) as a peacock...proud and with such a fantastic flare of plumes...



It is hard to describe the dynamics involved in getting all these plumes or feathers up in such a majestic way......






I love the legend below...have always been a romantic at heart because our Chinese culture is just so full of such legends....

The legend A Peacock Flying to the Southeast was the work of an anonymous poet living in the Jian An period at the end of the Han Dynasty (196—219 AD). It is one of the collections of the Music Academy (yuefu) formed by the Eastern Han courts to gather literary works created largely but not exclusively by common people. Unlike a Western epic, Chinese poems of this genre, known as the "Han Yuefu songs," use vernacular language and depict mostly the average people. A typical yuefu song has regular five-syllable lines and both Mulan and A Peacock Flying to the Southeast follow this rule.

A Peacock Flying to the Southeast was a tragic love story of a young man named Jiao Zhongqing and his wife Liu Lanzhi. Although the newly weds loved each other very much, Zhongqing’s widowed and perhaps morbid mother could not stand Lanzhi coming between her and her son. Eventually she broke up the marriage. The young couple’s dream of coming together was shattered when Lanzhi’s mother and brother forced her to marry someone else. As a protest, they took their own lives, fulfilling their vow of living together in the other world.

It is alleged that the legend has its root in real life. In the Qinghuang County of Anhui Province, one can find a grave, known as the Peacock Tomb, believed to have entombed the couple. The word “peacock” comes from the first line of the poem, which is used to introduce the rest of the story, a style typical of the Han Yuefu songs. The image of "a lone peacock flying to the southeast, looking back every few miles," was used to accentuate the feelings of Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi forced apart by their oppressive families.

Adapted into different art forms including various national and local operas, A Peacock Flying to the Southeast is well-known to the Chinese and enjoys a prominent place in Chinese literary history. Yet none of the eminent literary critics ever mentioned it in their works before the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). A possible reason may be that the theme of defying the social order was not politically right and so each monarchy tried to discourage the legend's dissemination. However, its publicity has gained momentum since the turn of the twentieth century when women began to be awakened to the cause of their emancipation from a male-oriented society.
Story retold/ translated by Haiwang Yuan, ©2004
Last updated: March 27, 2004

Here's the albino peacock.....

Soh Mien on First Day of Lunar New Year

 Today 10.2.2024 is the first day of the New Lunar Year of the Dragon. Yes I have cooked the chicken and made the soh mien. Happy New Year!!...