花蓮之旅~ "I know that if odour were visible, as colour is, I'd see the summer garden in rainbow clouds." --Robert Bridges

This collection makes up the second part of my trip to Hualien County last week. It focuses on some of the photos I took that don't quite fit under a theme but do well to highlight the vivid colors and vitality of summer.

Taroko Gorge

Taroko Gorge, located in Taroko National Park (the part I visited is in Hualien County) is a breathtaking natural wonder--a 19-km-long canyon located in eastern Taiwan--and a popular tourist attraction. The beautiful turquoise hue of the water is due to its richness in minerals. The photos in this collection were taken at sites such as the Swallow Grotto (燕子口), famous for the holes in the rockface of the gorge that house swallows' nests, and the Lioufang Bridge (流芳橋). I captured the majority of the shots as I walked along the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑). Further along the trail, there are a deep pool, a waterfall and other attractions. However, due to the impending rain, we didn't walk on further.

深坑懷舊--Reminiscence of Shenkeng

Hi everyone. I'm currently on summer break in Taiwan. Yesterday, I went to Shenkeng with my mom, my grandma, and a couple more family members. It's a district made up of small towns that have become much more urbanized compared to back in the 60s and 70s. My mom's hometown, Shenkeng is part of the Taipei Basin and is surrounded by small mountains. What used to be my great-grandma's house and unpaved dirt roads are now a multitude of shop signs vying for business from tourists who flock here for Shenkeng's famous tofu, tea, tea oil and other attractions. This collection begins with shots of two old,red-brick 三合院, or traditional three-sectioned courtyard houses which housed (and still do) large families. Next, we move on to the Old Shenkeng Street (深坑老街), which is lined with restaurants and vendors' carts and tables. After lunch, we stopped in the courtyard garden of an abandoned restaurant, where I was lucky enough to capture shots of a pair of iridescent butterflies as they danced around flowering bushes. Our last stop was at a store at the side of the road which sold tea oil (苦茶油 and 茶籽油) and its byproducts. The machine is making fresh-pressed 苦茶油, or bitter tea oil, by compressing tea seeds, squeezing out their oil, and then spitting out the unneeded leaves and stems. These byproducts are then ground to a powder then then packaged and sold as a natural, environmentally friendly alternative to dish-washing liquid. You can also use this powder (茶籽粉) to wash fruits and vegetables. Contrarily, 茶籽油 (lit. "tea seed oil") is pressed using tea seeds that are specially grown and harvested from older tea plants. It's lighter in color, more translucent, and milder in flavor than bitter tea oil. Both types of oil are freshly pressed, poured into a metal vat as seen in the pictures, and then bottled. They contain absolutely no additives of any kind, and can be used as a simple "sauce" for noodles or blanched vegetables, as well as in stir-fries. The last several photos were taken outside the local park. If you're confused, the long brown things are the aerial roots of the banyan tree.