WU LIN in Winter

in recent few years, it is a routine that I has been visiting my son in Taiwan , I always like to take a few days off to travel around the Taiwan provinces for sighting and photography . This year 2008 , Michele Xiao Pei (daughter in law ) manage to arrange a short trip to a hilly tourist hot spot - Wu Lin 3 days inbound trip .though I went to this place in summer time before , but the scenery look in winter expect to be a totally amazingly, breath taking .
Before I went ,,I did have all concerns abt my kneel pains , mountains illness and winter flu made me sleepless for few nites to decide if I should go only with two of us. ( with my wife -Ling ) The pride in me is forcing me not to lose out in this small venture . I suddenly get encouraged, when I looked back in the memory the chances I have to allow to pass by .

A mild accident
武陵(wu lin )locates somewhere between E lan(宜兰)和Taichong (台中),it is on the high landed residence and huge fruit and vegetable farm area llke Camerlong in Malaysia ,but they re much higher and colder . It is in 20th of Nov now ，in Xingchu(新竹) the temp is at 20C。at that moment ,I would not like to ponder about how cold in Mt He Huan San(合欢山) at 3800 meters above sea level high , or close to 15,000 feet high , later , some one told me Mt He Huan San was as cold as below to ice frozen point at nite ....but, I was at the point of no return .
My son Aaron has sent us to Taipei Main Rail way Station East main gate(台北东大门车站)in the morning .he then went back , leaving us to wait for the tour bus there . There were 8 persons only include us in the team , at one glance, they are much younger than us, they re all typical taiwanese , tough , middle tall, with strong walking limbs .I whispered to my wife , they re much younger than us . Though Elin has a privilege to be born with a younger look , no one has noted that we re much senior until we re on the mountains.
The tour bus can take a 40 persons , but, they can afford to launch trip to Wu Lin at even 8 persons every day , it is unbelievable. Taiwanese buzz man are very daring , that must be the reason for them to stay rich in SE Asia 。Taiwan had a strong Taipon , and heavy rain disaster months ago , the rocky main road leading to WU Lin re not fully touched up ,the shaky and bumping bus has given me no chances to take steady pictures. Soon ,the surrounding temp has slipped to15degC and unpredictable mist has blurred the view most of the time . The" old" bus driver supposed to be expert in winding climbing road uphill, seemed to be able to view the mist and vistualize whatever traffics coming headway to us, Occasionally , they were talking loud ,as if they were very relaxed . .
Before we were about to reach Wu Lin Hotel , 20 mins drive away , we heard a knocking noise , the right head lamp of the bus has been smashed on the rocky hillside , the front door jammed up and unable to open . Ooop! so the winding ,misty uphill roads are tough to handle stay as dangerous job ,then the bus was stopped , the driver got down examining over on the right door and right lamp ,through the glass we could see that he cursed verbally with an unhappy look ,and finally he looked relieved , and continue to send us to the Hotel , God bless us and driver that we re okay , he will be able to handle the bus carefully on his way back to Taipei soon.

A nite in Wu Lin
When we unloaded our baggage from the bus, and all went up to a Hundai 7 seated car ,we had a new , tour guide to bring us around in the surrounding farms , and bushes,water falls, teas Supermarket , and mt climping , mountain camping spots There are apples farm ,Red Pears , flower farm, live World class rare fish species Those days I came here in Summer , the scenery was good , except it is uncolored portrait ,it is not that attracting .
Finally we were at the Dao Shan water falls start points ,every one of us need to walk to 4.3 km to see the marvelous winter water falls , normally it took 1.5 hours to reach the falls , to and fro. However for us , with my walking speed need 4.5 hours maybe more . Again , the pride in me again tell me , we have to pretend that we re ready to go , God bless us again,we walked in a distance of 1.5 km , we found that there is a mini waterfall, and suspension bridge , so ,that is the luck strike , we took many pictures , and come back to the starting point , the driver Mr Chuang is a nice man , he said he would send us back to Hotel , where we can do other things in Hotel like SPA, readings , and walk around in 200 meter to visit the tea supermarket . so we agreed . 。
Back to Hotel , we didnt go to room for rest ,we stay at gound floor and peep on every things in the surrounding , I took pictures on the mountains that surrounding the hotel, the temp is 11 degC at Noon. At Evening , we went back to room for a short break go down to 2nd floor for key chain gifts , wtih our pictures on .and went to the Cafe House for a buffet , the food were so good , I had to forget everythings and ate what ever I think is the best for the tastes .Forgive my sin one more times. amen, and we go back to room for a rest with warm air con , and we have a best nite sleep after so many years .

Old president Chiang Resort

The next day ,we packed to leave for next farm , Fu Shou Shan farm(富寿山农场), it is at 2000 meter sea level high ,the thick mist , and low oxygen content, and cold temp has made me a bit of discomfort .Tour guide brought us to Naples bushes,and then to Tian QI (天池), to visit the Lao Chiang Holiday resort .when we reached the car park, the mist is so strong, the mist has tranformed to tiny shower , itis so chilling. At one time ,I hesitated if I should go down , as Tour Guide told us , there was one old lady , suffered mountain illness, the face and hand had turned blackish like a dead body , it was so scaring .but, she recovered as healthy when she wasback to sea level . My inner pride forced me to go again , so ..........I walked along a slope side which was about 100 meter away ,
I breathed hard and walked slowly ,dragged my legs step by step ,I cant be worst in walking in my life ever before ..For few times , I have to stop and rest .
ho hooo, I have finally standing in front of the Holiday resort , which the President Chiang has once stayed here some 90 years ago, the building has faded in color and formed fungal here and there , but, the structure remain strong, and grand even now . President Chiang had defeated in the internal war with Communist parties and people army ,and retreated to this last ,only corner of the country deserted island "fomosa" ( beautiful island , which the Spanish named it )
In year 2007, Ah Bian when still in power as Taiwan president , he hated KMT Ma , also all the first founder of KMT , he disgraced Chiang Statute , his cementry,his co memory institutes , and change the name of any sign that can carry the links to the once founder man . The history of Chiang in Taiwan has displayed
the foundation effort of new economy in Taiwan societies , therefore , the critics for his ruling in Taiwan carries a more positive appraisal than the negative . The action of Ah Bian re pure political attack than anything .This particular resort that we have visited is one of the rare belongings that escaped
the crackdown due to her special location in the mountain . God bless the building .As a Chinese , I feel down , and disappointed to see the young generation today fail to learn and respect the first founder of today Taiwan .
　
　Note : Continued with next blog " the extremes"