The farming community of Nanpu [南埔] on the lowlands while the unmistakable Ninety-Nine Peaks [九九峰] are visible in the center-right [View the large edition of the panorama].

Sunday morning’s weather was gray, cloudy, and drizzling. I headed in the direction of Nanpu because the skies over Baguashan [八卦山] looked a little more threatening. The climb up was the same as the previous visit. Instead of turning off the for the steep bike path down, I continued till my first rest stop – the Pingding Sacred Tree [坪頂神木].

Local governments all over Taiwan are feeding the cycling craze by adding paths and repaving roads like the one above to encourage physical fitness and rake in tourism dollars.

I shared tea and conversation with a group of cyclists resting there. One had recognized me from my morning commute from Jhongsing Village to Caotun.

I took a road that I figured would take me in the general direction of home. On the way, thanks to the weather, I was treated to a lovely view:

View the large.

A small community nestled in the hills:

Shortly after turning left here….

and taking a picture here…

I was passed by this pack of cyclists one last time [I don’t know who was following who, they would pass me going uphill but you better believe they were no match for me downhill]:

After seeing this I knew exactly where I was:

You may remember it from this post on Michael Turton’s blog.

It’s trips like this I wish I worked a four-day week:

Soon I came across a sign pointing to Jhongsing Village, down this lovely one-lane mountain road:

There’s Sun Thing Happening here:

It was about 9:15, it’s too bad Sun Thing Happening [陽光的事] wasn’t open yet as this is the only cafe from here to my house [with the exception of a brand new one a block from my house that I’ve never seen any customers inside] and I was really craving a hot coffee. I don’t know if the coffee is any good, but the name is catchy.

Won’t be taking this road home:

This road had collapsed from heavy rains during a typhoon two months ago. Being outside of Taipei City I am sure this is a low-priority to be fixed.

On the way down a passable road, I stopped by Guanyin Temple [觀音寺]:

These Cherry Blossoms [櫻花] are either very early or very late:
More damage from the previous typhoon, this time on a two-lane road with the sections of road missing about the width of an automobile:

As you can see from the picture below, the damage is far more extensive than the first photo reveals. It will probably be fixed around the same time the next typhoon season begins: