Morning Blossoms in Tai'an Station

Look how crowded the tiny speck of cherry blossom lane is on a Monday morning? If we had gone on the weekend, this writer would be sitting in a car miles away waiting for a chance to visit Tai'an. Thank goodness I'm retired and can travel when most people cannot.

3-7-16

     On a day that we agreed to return the Mazda3 to the dealer in Feng-Yuan to replace the rubber seal around the repaired roof, we took advantage of the proximity and nice weather to go to Tai'an . It was the first trip we took in the car. 

People in Taiwan go wild when they see cherry blossoms. They are rarely seen here so when they come out, throngs flock to see them, even though they are nothing to look at compared with the multitude in Japan or even the Japanese Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden or the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C.It is that latent longing for  Japanese influences here that makes it so special to the multitude; at least
 the cherry blossoms weren't banned and still bloom.

Along the road that leads to the abandoned train station, you can find some local delicacies like these gaoliang sausages being made on the spot by these ladies 



Further along near the station we spotted the hand-painted sign on the side of a building of the train-car restaurant we were to later have lunch in. 

The Tai'an train station is just north of the Hou-Feng Station which makes a detour to the west for space to expand to two tracks. The abandoned section is the bike trail that crosses a bridge over a wide wash and a one-track tunnel through a mountain. Couples come here to take wedding photos at this quintessential Taiwan spot. 

Notice the error in this English history of the station, "...cession to Japan in 1985." If Japan had been here that long, Taiwan would have been developed much faster than by the Chinese administration that held back on developing Taiwan for so long so they could buy obsolete U.S. weapons to take back the Mainland.  

The restaurant near the new train station also offers hotel rooms in train cars. What could have been a great retro meal was tarnished by slow service with uncleared tables and a long wait for our sub-par meal. The bento (bien-dong) box lunches they sell on the Taiwan Railroad contain much tastier pork, vegetables, tea egg and rice than this place. Still it was a nice place to sit, in the retrofitted air conditioned cars, and relax before we drove the 45 minutes back south to our home in Beitun.