The actual tour starts
Yeliu
Along the northeast coast are rocky coastal lines with foamy cerulean blue waters. Along these roads and in parts of Hualien and Kenting, you will get to see many types of rubble mound (R-M) structures used in coastal line protection against erosion.
One of the most noticeable part of a R-M structure is call riprap. Riprap is a mixed assemblage of rubble, either dumped indiscriminately or deposited on the surface of a mound to protect the mound against erosion by waves and scouring by tidal action and underwater currents.
You would mostly see large cubical or rectilinear blocks of quarried stone of the prevalent types: tetrapods, tribars, and dolosse. No reinforcing steel or steel lifting eyes are used in dolosse and tetrapods; consequently, corrosion is not a problem, and unit cost is minimized. Dolos and tetrapod units are less vulnerable to damage during placement and storms than the various other types of concrete armor units.
From the tremendous amounts of R-M structures seen along the coast, I deem that Taiwan's coast is extremely vulnerable to erosion by strong wave action. On an interesting note I also noticed these concrete armours being placed along rivers even in Taroko Gorge.
At certain parts of the coast approaching Yeliu, you could see large rocks sticking out of the sea; these rocks continue along the sea underwater and you could see water being blown up from the sea as the waves crashes around the rocks.
According to our guide, the waters around Taiwan's coast can reach a depth of 4000m just a short distance from the shore. So, if you are not a strong swimmer, you are not advised to swim in these turbulent waters especially those in the Northeast Coast where the currents can travel at tremendous speeds under the deep waters and gush up and outwards when it hits the rocks creating a vacuum-like vortex called the “疯狗浪”。
“疯狗浪”的成因有以下几种说法：一是发生前海面相当平静，出现的征兆是海面突然降得很低，然后可以看到稍前方的海面上有排浪推近，如果及时发现，还有足够的时间躲开。发生时，有时达数层楼高，常将游客、钓客甚至车辆卷入海中，实在令人防不胜防。二是认为“疯狗浪”是一种长波浪，它是由各种不同方向的小波浪汇集而成，遇到礁石或是岸壁即突然强力撞袭而卷起猛浪，它也可能是由许多碎浪组合而成一条较长的波浪。
Chiufen
The story of why Chiufen is called Chiufen or translated in English means: Nine portions.
In the past, that area was sparsely populated by farms. So sparse that there were only nine families living on the mountain. As transportation and road infrastructure were undeveloped at that time, it was terribly inconvenient for the families to get their supplies from the foot of the mountain.
Being a closely knit community, whenever someone went down, they would in goodheartedness order nine portions of everything he/she need for the rest of the families and neighbours living up there. After sometime, the merchants became familiar with them and their odd request for nine portions of everything that they will automatically call out "Chiu-fen" when the person placed his/her orders and the name stuck.
One day one of the 'chiufen' was walking along the river where he found gold. when this piece of news spread, people from everywhere moved to Chiufen to join in the gold rush fever and the population burgeoned to over 4000 people. Even today, after the Japs took off with most of the gold mined in chiufen, the experts invited by the government to survey Chiufen which is located on a volcanic region, are still finding untapped gold resources that was previously technologically unattainable.
During cattail season, the whole mountain is covered with the white down of cattails.
Taiwan is truly blessed for possessing such an abundant supply of resources. According to our guide, Taiwan's climate can be divided into 3 temperate zones with a huge variance. Along the way, he also pointed out to us the 'Pixiu's standing guard at numerous entrances of the tunnels. Pixiu 貔貅 is male and is typically a luckbringer, a fortune bringer and a ward against all things bad for the living. Pixie 辟邪, is female and is typically seen carrying a young. The female animal is used for the dead and is buried together with the bodies. They can be found in ancestral graves. May's Seasonal Flower: 五月雪- 油桐花 Tung Blossom / Paulownia Flower / Princess Tree Blossom
This is a closeup. It is said that in Miaoli, whole mountains will be covered in a sheet of white when the flower is in bloom. When the wind blows through the mountain range, the petals of the Princess tree will be borne aloft from 'snowladen' trees into the air like twirling snowflakes in the cover of white, hence the name 五月雪 or May's Snowfall. Too bad I only got a glimpse of a lone Paulownia Tree while onboard the tourbus :(
Another area where you can find the blossom : http://www.hakka.gov.tw/
Astar Hotel
Very bad. I don't know if I'm influenced by my room lockout. I was intending to go out to get some water from the heated water cooler along the corridor coz I didn't dare to make use of the heavily scaled airpot and my friend got the same idea to do so but the door slammed on her before she had the opportunity to grab the keys by the door which we stick into the power switch in order to turn it on. Thats a very sticky door!
Worst of all the bus driver & the tour guide were settling up the bills at the reception when I went down to ask for help. The concierge used the master key to open the door for us. One Lesson Learnt: Always separate the hotel room key from the power switch on the keychain when possible and keep it on you at all times!! Room Number:5flr lastnumberA?
Toilet: found a hair inside the sealed comb package before I actually opened it for use. Didn't dare to use any of the complimentaries there. Only good thing was the hairdryer which was better than Yaward's which worked in one minute intervals then short circuited after a few blasts at our wet clothes.. Room
Can see the running track straight on and the Breakfast Room is on 2nd Floor, Right. can see ppl eating while I was brushing teeth.
At Yaward Directly opposite Breakfast Room Just walk straight down the corridor 203.
There is minor earthquake on 13th May 2007. Ade and Lp's sensations were true. The following is copied from Central Weather Bureau http://www.cwb.gov.tw/ "5月13日01時50分 4.9 宜蘭牛鬥地震站東偏南方 13.3 公里"
Kenting 457, Debao , FourPoints 711, Futurestar 713
Weather Conditions
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