Taiwan Tea Guy

I recently got a new ride (see picture) and needed to take it for a test ride, so I decided to head out to the Baojong tea capital of Taiwan, Pinglin.  This is the town that held the Baojong Tea Festival, and also has ‘the largest tea museum in the world’, or at least Taiwan. My previous bike was a 150cc Hartford (local brand) that I bought new and rode for 5 years. Although I’ve been very happy with it, it was time to move on, and Hartford’s new 200cc DT-style bike was an excellent choice. It has more power for handling the mountain road I live on, firmer suspension to smooth out Taiwan’s notorious streets, and rides higher than my 150, which is more comfortable for longer trips. If you’re looking for a new bike in Taiwan, take a look at this model before buying.

I headed out on highway 9 from Hsin Dien, which is a famous road for big bike (500cc +) clubs to cruise on. It’s in pretty good condition by Taiwan standards, and has lots of tight corners to take at speed. The only downside is there’s also a lot of truck traffic on that road, and they tend to take corners in the middle of the road. This LINK will take you to a Google map if you want to check out the route.

 

You always know you’re entering Pinglin township, because you’ll find a giant teapot welcoming you as you cross the border (I spotted 4 on this trip, but didn’t take photos of all of them). This is the one on Highway 9, marking one of the many borders with Shr Ding township (famous for it’s ‘stinky tofu’ (don’t ask)). There’s also a Kuan Yin ‘Goddess of Mercy’ shrine/rest area around the corner from here.

 

This ‘Kuan Yin’ is the same name used for my favorite roasted tea, Tieh Kuan Yin. Tieh means iron or metal (the color of the tea after processing) and Kuan Yin is the goddess of mercy. The name is sometimes translated to English as ‘Iron Buddha’ or ‘Iron Goddess’ tea. Anyway, after a brief rest, I headed on into Pingling (see Pinglin for more details).

 

Heading east out of town, I came to the main tea farm area. They’ve finally started putting up better maps & signage to the various farms (a response to increased tourism in the area), so I didn’t have to ride around completely blind. I didn’t have a specific destination in mind, but I needed to be back in Taipei in the afternoon. About 2km down the road from the maps, I was rewarded with a guy and his wife drying some oolong leaves they had just picked (see Oolong Tea Drying for a full report). I chatted with them for awhile and took photos, then headed up into the hills.

 

At the gate to South Mountain Temple there were some open tea fields, and I stopped again to take more photos. It was starting to get hot (in Taiwan, 9:30am – 2:00 is the hottest part of the day), and luckily a local vendor showed up with some ice cold ‘home brews’ to sell. You find these ‘mobile sales trucks’ all over Taiwan, selling everything from drinks, fruits, meats, cooked foods, to bedding, clothes, and furniture). The tea was actually pretty good, although I think my own ‘cold brew’ oolong probably beats it.

 

Tea fields are always a lot of fun to check out. If it hadn’t been such a hot day, I probably would have set up my travel set here and had tea for an hour or two. Here are some shots of the fields:

 

Here you can see the rock wall they build up to create level terraces for the tea plants.

 

 

 

 

 Here’s a wider view showing about 2/3 of the field. Notice the bamboo grove along the back of the field.

 

 

These shots here show closeups of some of the tea leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rested and refreshed, I continued my journey north to the town of Pingshi, and from there further north into Shijr (see map link above for route details). I had been on the road for about 4 hours at this point, and was getting desperate for a bathroom break (something along the lines of ‘dropping the kids at the pool’), when I ran across this little beauty right here. They’ve been opening up a lot of the mountain roads for tourists, clearing the vegetation back, putting in picnic tables, and now even porta-potties!. If you are brave, have a strong stomach, and the kids are in bed, you can check out all the details in my Potty Training post.

 

AT this point, it was already past 12, and I needed to head home, so I rode back through the hills to Mucha and from there into town. The new bike performed excellently, and I severely sunburned the backs of my hands. All in all, it was a morning well spent.

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 11:13 pm and is filed under My Tea Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.