Trip to Wulai

During the break between classes, I had the chance to do some traveling around Taiwan. Usually I was with my wife's relatives and they did a very good job taking care of me.

One of the best trips was to the village of Wulai, outside of Taipei up in the mountains. Wulai is one of the indigenous communities of the people who were in Taiwan before the migrations from the mainland that started up in the late 1600. Although they are sometimes called the "High Mountain People", they were originally coastal people who were pushed into the mountains by the migrants from the mainland. Their history parallels that of the American Indians.

Wulai has hot springs which are a big draw but they also have a narrow gauge railroad that was originally for the logging industry but is now for tourists. There is a nice waterfall at the end of the line. When we were there it had been drizzling the whole day so the waterfall was going good.

I doubt we ever exceeded the speed limit.

The waterfall

The history of the RR is given in a plaque, here's the early history:

And the later history(I think you can download the jpegs and magnify them in a browser and read the whole history.)

This area has had tourists for a long time since the 1960s because it was so close to Taipei. So there are shops selling indigeneous handicrafts. I always get nervous when the prices are "negotiable". When we were there(a weekday) the tourists were few and the shop owners were willing to bargain. They started at half the list price! Some people like to bargain, I don't so I just didn't buy anything.