More Information:

Location on Google Maps

2012 Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival Website [Chinese]

Posts from the 2009, 2010, and 2011 festivals.

Too Early

A stone’s throw from Fengguidou [風櫃斗] is Xinyi Township’s Liujia Plum Farm [柳家梅園].  Liujia is home to a huge plum farm which covers a small hillside. You may recognize this area from China Airline’s 2008 Calendar featuring supermodel Lin Chi-ling.

Two Pair

In addition to the plum trees, the road from the parking lot to the farm is lined with venders selling fresh vegetables, various plum products, refreshments, and grilled mountain boar.

Three’s Company

Getting There:

Location on Google Maps.

Directions: Follow Provincial HWY 21 towards Xinyi Township. Between Xinyi Elementary School and Xinyi Junior High School is a small sign pointing the way to Fengguidou [Mingde Street (明德街)]. A short distance after crossing Aiguo Bridge [愛國大橋] follow the winding Xinhe Industrial Road [信和產業道路]. At about 5 kilometers passed Fengguidou, turn left at Niuchoukeng Forest Road [牛稠坑林道].

Lonely

Plum King

Tucked away in the mountains of Xinyi Township, Fengguidou [風櫃斗] is an amazing area for seeing Plum Blossoms [梅花] every winter. I visited Fengguidou on New Year’s  Day this year and some of the plum trees were just starting to bloom. Here’s a small collection of photographs from the trip.

It’s a very lovely area if you can get there early. While the Plum Blossoms are in bloom, the narrow road up turns into a giant parking lot. This was my second visit to the area; the first was four years ago.

Balance

The Plum Blossom was designated as the national flower on July 24, 1964. The triple grouping of stamens [one long and two short] represents Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People, while the five petals symbolize the five branches of the ROC government [Taiwan Government Information Office].

Orb

Getting There:

Location on Google Maps.

Directions: Follow Provincial HWY 21 towards Xinyi Township. Between Xinyi Elementary School and Xinyi Junior High School is a small sign pointing the way to Fengguidou [Mingde Street (明德街)]. A short distance after crossing Aiguo Bridge [愛國大橋] follow the winding Xinhe Industrial Road [信和產業道路] to Fengguidou. Depending on the weather, the blossoms usually last from the beginning of the year through the Lunar New Year.

Backpetaling

Completely Unrelated Photo

Predictably, blogging was light and sporadic in 2011. However, there were a few gems here and there. These are my favorite posts of 2011:

• Like trains and factories? Then you’ll probably enjoy Chiayi’s Suantou Sugar Refinery just as much as I did.
• Snapped a few shots on the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway.
• Most of my cycling these days is limited to a small rotation of workout routes I tackle every Sunday. Every now-and-then I venture out with a camera – The 147 and 131 was one of those routes.
• The Anti-Drooling Ceremony and Zhua Zhou Activity were two traditional rites of passage our daughter went through.
• Made a brief stop at the Jhongsing Village Lotus Ponds.
• The National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung is fun for children of all ages!
• Took a trip up to Taipei to attend the International Flora Expo during its final week.
• Participated in Taiwan’s very first Google+ Photowalk on Double Ten.
• Saw monsters in the mountains.
• Strolled through a recently revitalized military dependents’ village.

Have a Happy New Year!

Euploea mulciber [端紫斑蝶]

Despite passing Puli’s Muh Sheng Museum of Entomology more than a dozen times I’ve never had the opportunity to step in until recently. If you’re into insects than you ‘ll likely thoroughly enjoy the museum. Outside the museum is a butterfly greenhouse while inside hosts a few display cases of various insects from Taiwan and around the world [including a walking stick about as long as my forearm]. The museum’s second floor houses display cases filled with several thousands of preserved insects. The most notable of these is an extremely rare hermaphrodite butterfly [one-half of its body is colorful while the other-half is dark].

While in the greenhouse, I snapped a few photographs of some of the caterpillars that were chomping away. The first caterpillar featured is of a Purple Crow [Euploea mulciber (端紫斑蝶)]. This butterfly along with three other subspecies make an incredible migration every spring from southern Taiwan to northern Taiwan for the breeding season. In the fall, the fly back south to hibernate [Taiwan Today - Preserving Taiwan's purple butterflies].

Danaus chrysippus [樺斑蝶]

The second caterpillar featured is that of a Plain Tiger [Danaus chrysippus (樺斑蝶)]. This species is widespread in Africa and Asia and extremely common in Taiwan. If you see a bright orange butterfly with a thin black border on its hind wing enclosing a series of semicircular spots chances are good you’re looking at a Plain Tiger. In Taiwan, they can be found throughout the year at low-altitudes.

Ideopsis similis [琉球青斑蝶]

The black caterpillar with white speckles pictured above is of a Ceylon Blue Glassy Tiger [Ideopsis similis (琉球青斑蝶)].  As a butterfly, it has dark brown wings with light cyan surface markings.  It’s often seen fluttering about at low-altitudes in Taiwan.

Papilio memnon heronus [大鳳蝶]

A Great Mormon [Papilio memnon heronus (大鳳蝶)] in its larvae stage is mimicry at its finest: it scares off potential predators with its snake-like appearance. Below is a photograph of the same pair one-step back to show their entire body lengths:

These two were very patient while I took pictures.  However, once they are butterflies, they very rarely stop.

A couple days after Josie’s first birthday she participated in an activity organized by Les Enphants held at Taichung’s Chung Hsing University.  We signed Josie up for the crawling competition and the Zhua Zhou activity [抓周].  There were also a few activities for toddlers.  The event was very well organized and we found the staff extremely helpful and professional.

It was a short wait before Josie’s turn so we let her do a few laps on the stage to warm-up.  Just prior to the beginning of the competition she seemed pretty eager to crawl across the mat.  However, when the race began she only crawled about a meter or so.  All the toys we waved and encouraging words we yelled from the finish line weren’t enough to coax her into continuing.  That’s still further than anyone else in the group with the exception of two babies who were disqualified after standing up and running to the finish line.

We missed our number for the Zhua Zhou activity, but we were squeezed in another group after a short wait.  Zhua Zhou [which literally translates to "pick" and  "anniversary"] is an activity held on a child’s first birthday.  In the activity, objects are placed on a tray and the object a child picks can indicate his or her future career and personality traits.

The tradition, said to have started during the Three Kingdoms period, arose following the death of Sun He, the prince of the Eastern Wu Kingdom. His father, the emperor Sun Quan, grew worried about which of his grandsons would succeed him, so a Wu citizen named Jing Yang suggested he place a few items on a plate and ask each of his grandsons to pick something. Sun Hao grabbed a bamboo slip – an ancient form of Chinese paper – in one hand, and an imperial belt – symbolizing royal power – in another. Both were deemed fortuitous choices that led to him being chosen as the new emperor. [The Zhua Zhou Way]

The meanings behind some items are pretty straight-forward while others require some knowledge of Chinese language or culture to understand:

• Measuring Tape – Designer / Architect
• Sword – Law Enforcement / Soldier
• Green Onion – Intelligent [green onion (蔥 cōng) and intelligent (聰 cōng) are homophones]
• Stethoscope – Doctor
• Abacus – Businessperson
• Chicken – Won’t have to worry about food
• Yuanbao [(元寶) money used in ancient China] – A life of fortune
• Book – Scholar
• Calligraphy Pen – Writer
• Stamp – Civil Servant
• Peanuts – Long Life
• Microphone – Entertainer
• Celery – Industrious [celery (芹 qín) and industrious (勤 qín) are homophones]

Our daughter picked the peanuts first followed by the stamp.  After waving both around for a brief period of time she decided to set down the stamp followed by the peanuts.  Afterwards, she picked up two microphones [for some reason our tray had two] and banged them together for a while.  She soon grew bored of the microphones and settled again for the peanuts.

Stamp + Microphone = Politician?

Josie didn’t show much competitive drive during the crawling competition and didn’t seemed thrilled during the zhua zhou activity.  She was most excited as she cheered and laughed at the sight of a person in an elephant costume walking by on our way out.