Sunset at Gaomei

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I have wanted to visit the Gaomei Wetlands (高美濕地) for quite some time and it just so happened that on my way back from my recent trip to Nantou that I had a chance to stop in and check it out just before sunset. 

The problem was that I was completely unprepared and without a tripod and filters for my lenses, there was no way that I was going to get the photos that I’ve always wanted to get there. The wetlands are really beautiful and are really interesting for landscape photographers which is one of the reasons why I've always wanted to visit. 

Not having the proper gear didn’t really deter me though - I think its better sometimes to familiarize myself with a place and visit more than once so I know how to get what I want and what gear I need to bring with me to achieve those goals. 

To that effect I only planned to take a few shots of the beautiful sunset and share it with people. I’ll visit the wetlands again and go into better detail about them then, but I will give a brief introduction to the wetlands right now for people who don't know what they are. 

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Gaomei Wetlands

The Gaomei Wetlands are an over 300 hectare protected plot of land along the western coast of Taiwan in the Qingshui (清水) area of Taichung. They are a small part of the much larger Dadu Estuary Wildlife Habitat (大肚溪口野生動物保護區.) The wetlands have a special mix of mud and sand that make it possible for diverse biological habitats of fish, crabs, birds and invertebrates (animals not poiticians).  

The biological diversity and beautiful landscape are what makes the Gaomei wetlands popular with tourists and photographers alike. Tourists can walk down the boardwalk and soak their feet in the water or play on the sand while photographers spend a lot of their time shooting the landscape or using long telephoto lenses to shoot the birds which inhabit the area and feed on the crabs and other culinary delicacies that the wetlands have to offer. 

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Children playing

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Children playing. 

Part of Gaomei’s landscape includes the massive wind turbines that provide renewable energy to the people of Taiwan. During my most recent visit I noticed that a few of the turbines weren’t working, only to find out later that six of the eighteen turbines were destroyed by Typhoon Souledor and had not yet been repaired. 

Some people consider these turbines to be annoying and an eyesore ruining the beauty of natural landscapes like this, but I happen to like them and I'm never really bothered when they're around. It is easy to get shots of the wetlands however without the turbines crowding up your shot. 

If you plan on visiting Gaomei, be sure to remember to wear sandals (so you can get in the water) and wear a windbreaker as it can be incredibly windy near the coast. If you're a photographer like me, remember a tripod and some natural density filters to get yourself some good shots! 

I'll visit the wetlands again sometime this summer and when I do go, I'll go prepared meaning that the shots will be a lot better than what I'm sharing today! I hope you like what you see anyway.  

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Sanxia Old Street (三峽老街)

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Sanxia Old Street (三峽老街) otherwise known as San Jiao Yong Old Street (三角涌老街) is located in the Sanxia district of New Taipei City and is a popular old street for the residents of northern Taiwan. The street is about 260 meters long, but don't tell that to the people going on the weekends who will ultimately have to endure a massive traffic jam to get there!

The Sanxia area is steeped in history and there are several other notable attractions in the area that make the old street a worthwhile day trip out of the city. The street has a similar history to that of the Daxi Old Street (大溪老街) in Taoyuan and was once an economic powerhouse due to its location next to the Dabao River.

Sanxia had a long history of trade and exporting goods (mostly wood) from the mountains nearby to other parts of the island and to China which brought with it quite a lot of prosperity. When methods of transportation improved and transport by way of boat became less useful the town started to decline, merchants moved away and the economy suffered. 

The buildings we see today are a reflection of the former prestige of the town - Much like Daxi, Hukou and other old streets throughout the country, the facades of the buildings on the street were built in the baroque (巴洛克式風格) style. Sanxia stands out from the rest however due to the fact that the facades of the buildings were built uniformly in red brick and that both sides of the street have an arched sidewalk. The street was renovated by the local government in 2007 in an attempt to attract more tourists but that doesn't take away from the fact that the buildings on the street are said to be an excellent example of the architecture of the Japanese colonial era.

I’m not particularly a huge fan of crowds so I usually visit the street during weekdays - If you visit on weekdays like I do you won't get the full “old street” experience and not all of the stores will be open, but what you will get is the opportunity to take some great photos of this historic relic dating back to 1685. 

I've been to Sanxia Old Street dozens of times and I've found that I now enjoy walking along the road and checking out the wood carvings on the houses as well as the small alleys you might not notice if it were full of people.

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Weekend traffic

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Weekday traffic

On days when the street isn't that busy, the locals seem to be much more willing to have a chat and explain the history than they would if there were thousands of people walking along the road. On my last visit for example I was walking around alone shooting some stuff and I ran into an old man wearing a fedora who struck up a conversation with me. He told me I should pay close attention to a few things along the road and showed me an ancient “door bell” that was beside the door on his house. The door bell was a carved horse and was actually a bell that you would have pulled a string to ring which I never would have noticed on my own or even if I did think it was historically significant. 

These days the street is full of vendors selling traditional handicrafts, antiques, tea and kitschy things that tourists would buy. There are also tea houses, restaurants, shaved ice dessert places and the streets most popular product: A type of hard and sugary croissant called a “bulls horn” (牛角) that I can't say I'm particularly fond of. Whenever I visit the street I find that I don't spend any money and for me, I think that is a problem. The government invested a lot of money into the rejuvenation of the old street, so I think that it should be more than something that people just walk through once in a while. 

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Sanxia's famous bulls horns. 

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When Taiwanese people visit an old street, they expect to enjoy the history while following their stomachs to the place that has the best food. If you asked me about any of the old streets in Taiwan I would be able to tell you a few specific places to go and eat or have a drink. The problem with Sanxia is that the street itself doesn't really have that staple “famous” place to go and eat (save for the various vendors selling bulls horns) which is kind of a problem because it doesn't really offer anything particularly special like the others do.

The good thing however is that there are a lot of attractions in the area and the other parts of the town have some great places to eat. The Qingshui Zushi temple (清水祖師廟) is next to the old street and any visit to the street should also include a visit to one of Taiwan’s most beautiful temples designed by one of Taiwan's most famous artists.

If you enjoyed the art in the temple you may want to visit the Li Mei-Shu Memorial Gallery (李梅樹紀念館.) You may want to bike along the river path or enjoy the sunset on the banks of the river next to the temple. When you're hungry you may want to go to Batiao Sushi (八條壽司) a popular Japanese restaurant that serves up some pretty authentic dishes, fresh seafood and sushi.

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The town is also close enough to Yingge (鶯歌) with its pottery street (鶯歌老街) and museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館) and a trek up into the mountains following along the Dabao river (大豹溪) to places like Wuliaojian (五寮尖) one of my favourite hikes, the Great Roots Forestry Spa resort (大板根森林溫泉渡假村), the Cloud Forest Waterfall (雲森瀑布) and Manyueyuan forest park (滿月圓森林公園) are all highly recommended for filling up a day trip.

If you are planning a trip to Sanxia old street, I recommend taking public transportation or a scooter. If you travel by car it's likely that you will be struck in traffic for quite a while. You can takes buses from Taipei or Xindian and a train from Taipei to Yingge and then a bus or taxi to the street itself. If you have a scooter, the street isn't a long drive from the city and gives you more access to spots away from the old street.

The street is an excellent excursion out of the city and is great for experiencing a bit of the history of greater Taipei. If you're in the country for a short time, a visit to this old street is recommended more so than visiting any of the overcrowded museums. For me the best kind of museum is an interactive one and the Sanxia old street is about as interactive of an experience as you're going to get.

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)

2016 Tung Blossoms (客家桐花祭)

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In April and May forests in Taiwan turn white with the popular Tung Blossoms (油桐花) that line mountains and hillsides around the country. Locals often refer to Tung Blossoms as "April Snow" or "May Snow" (depending on when they are in full bloom) and their arrival attracts people from all over the country to places where they grow in abundance.

The Tung Tree (油桐樹) is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 20 meters tall and is endemic to south China and Burma. It was originally brought to Taiwan by the Japanese during the occupation period and was planted in mountainous areas in north-western Taiwan. The cultivation of the tree was important primarily to the Hakka people who lived in the areas where the trees were planted. The trees have thus had a long-lasting relationship with the Hakka people and that relationship continues to this day as the tree has become an important symbol of their culture.

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The importance of the tree originally was because of the economic benefits it brought - The seeds were instrumental in the production of Tung Oil (桐油) which was used to make paint, varnish, caulking and wood finish while the wood in turn was used for making everything from furniture to toothpicks. The economic benefits the tree brought rural communities allowed families to make ends meet. When those economic benefits eventually subsided, the tree transformed into the symbol of the Hakka people who drew parallels between the simplicity and hard working nature of  their culture and the tree as well as showing their respect for the economic prosperity the tree brought them.

In 2002 the Hakka Affairs Council (客家委員會) started the "Hakka Tung Blossom Festival" (客家桐花祭) an annual event that takes place during the blooming season as a method to promote and preserve Hakka culture as well as to help improve economic development and tourism in Hakka towns. The yearly event attracts large crowds of people in part to see the Tung Blossoms but also to experience Hakka culture and cuisine - especially in old town towns like Beipu, Daxi and Nanzhuang where there are popular "old streets" that already work quite hard to preserve Hakka culture. 

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May Snow （五月雪) 

The Tung blossom is just one of the various types of blossoms that bloom during the early parts of the year in Taiwan. Spring is a busy time of the year in Taiwan for people who appreciate this kind of things. The Tung blossom differentiates itself from the others though as it is the only one that "symbolizes" one of the cultures of the country. The Tung blossoms may not be as popular as cherry or plum blossoms (the national flower) but in recent years they have become an important part of the annual "Hanami" (flower viewing) habit of the Taiwanese people between January and May and as fas as I'm concerned, viewing the Tung blossoms and enjoying and some amazing Hakka food on the same day sounds like time well spent! 

I consider myself lucky living in Taoyuan (Literally: Peach Garden) where we start the year with cherry blossoms (櫻花) and then get peach (桃花), plum (梅花) and Tung blossoms shortly after. I never really have to go very far to see this stuff and it is convenient that I can often avoid the large crowds by travelling by scooter close to home and driving past all the traffic.

One of the coolest things about the Tung blossoms is that in areas where they grow in abundance they tend to turn hiking trails 'white' as the blossoms fall to the ground. This is somewhat similar to what happens in Japan with the Sakura snow referred to as Hanafubuki (花吹雪). Tung blossoms are different however because of their colour and give off an effect of snow falling in the forests which is beautiful as at any giving time hundreds of them are falling around you while you're hiking.

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Tung Blossoms in a small mountain stream. 

The festival has only been happening for fourteen years but in that time the blossoms have become popular with people of all ages. In the past few years though they have become quite popular with young Taiwanese couples who enjoy hiking into the mountains to have impromptu romantic photoshoots with the Tung Blossoms. You'll also notice that it is quite common that people along the hiking trails will spend time gathering some of the blossoms that have fallen on the ground and arranging them into hearts or Chinese characters such as the word for love (愛) as well as other shapes on the ground. Husbands or boyfriends even go as far as making a 'Tung blossom halo' that they put around their head of their partner. This is all quite new but with the help of the media, it has only fuelled the popularity of the Tung blossom festival. 

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Technically speaking, the problem with shooting Tung blossoms as opposed to Cherry or Plum blossoms is that the trees are typically on the side of mountains and are very tall. Cherry blossom trees are actually quite short and only ever reach about 10 meters tall making them extremely easy to take photos of while Tung blossoms are more of a pain in the ass as you can't get that close to them. This means that if you are like myself and want photos of the blossoms still on the tree, you are going to need the help of a telephoto lens of at least 300mm in focal length.

Most people however are unlike me and prefer taking shots of the blossoms as they fall to the ground and don't really focus on them too much while they're still on the trees. Apart from taking shots of the blossoms on the trees I prefer finding a hiking trail that has a river stream running through it so that I can get photos of the blossoms sitting in the water or just using my telephoto lens to take shots of the shapes all the other photographers spend a lot of time arranging.

Photography like all art is subjective and when it comes to this stuff there is no right or wrong way of taking photos - it is up to the person taking the shots and what they want to show. I prefer photos that are much more natural than something staged and you won't ever find me arranging the blossoms into hearts (but I'll still grab a quick shot or two if someone does the work for me)   

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The 2016 Tung Blossom festival is on until May 22nd (the blossoms may actually last longer than that) and apart from viewing the blossoms there are many activities planned during the weekends in Hakka towns throughout Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli (among others) where visitors will be able to experience Hakka culture, cuisine and art as well as traditional performances. This is an important time of the year for cultural promotion and preservation so if you have a chance, try to get out and enjoy some of the activities, some Hakka Lei Tea and of course the blossoms. 

Website: 2016 Hakka Tung Blossom Festival 

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)