Season of the Silver Grass

In the autumn and early winter months, the Taiwanese like to take to the mountains freeing themselves from the carbon-monoxide laden poisons wafting down the streets of the city. (Ironically, by driving there, they just bring the deadly fumes along!) But if the fresh air can't entice you out of the city for a day of clean living, perhaps the scenery can.

Without traffic, an hour long bus ride will take you into the mountainous regions around Keelung (where I had my first tasty helping of squid balls, if you recall). As New England is famous for its foliage, this place has silver grass spotted along the mountains, dashing it with splendid colors of riches and grace. Contrasted brightly against these sweeping silver vistas is the vibrant blue ocean which, surprisingly, is gold at some times!! Oh yes, if riches be your interest, go no further my friends for thar be gold in these here mountains!

Upon arriving in this mountains, we were lucky enough to take a tour bus to five equally exciting, and equally stunning, points of interest. The first stop was a temple with the largest bronze statue of GuanGong in Southeast Asia. This is probably because there is a sausage stand right outside the temple, and if I was a God living next to that sausage stand, I would probably be the biggest statue too! They were sooooo good.

After the temple, it was a short walk in Heaven (literally, we passed through a gate demarcating the boundary between Heaven and Earth) to a small board walk clutching desperately to the side of a mountain. In turn, we were clutching desperately to the side of the boardwalk so we wouldn't fall off! Our perilous journey was rewarded (if you believe it actually was perilous, then all the power to you!) as we were offered stunning views of the mountain, silver grass, and of course, the Gold Ocean.

At the base of the mountain, there is an outlet where a stream lets into the ocean. The stream collects a sufficient number of minerals along its way that happen to be gold colored. Well, all these minerals are deposited into the sea resulting in a gold ocean. That isn't a beach you're looking at in the picture, that's gold in those waters!

But where does all this gold come from? The gold comes from the mountain, turning everything along the way a shiny gold color. At one point, the river billows over a cliff side resulting in a most breathtaking natural phenomenon- a Gold Waterfall. Set against the silver grass, it was like we were in a Burl Ives song. (I had to ask my mom who wrote the song "Silver and Gold." She really is the genius behind Taiwanablog.)

After the gold waterfall, we went down to an old smelting relic and then for a drive along the romantic highway. And with who better to share this romantic highway than with a very pretty girl- here is a photograph taken of Huiheng and me at the golden waterfall.

Once we got back to the first stop, we had some more Taiwanese sausages and then we decided to explore some of the areas around the Gold Ecological Park. We discovered that the park actually used to be an old Japanese mine where they would dig for gold in the mountains. Lucky for us, after a short stroll around the park and through blossoming cherry blossoms, we had the unique chance of entering the mine. Most people would say they "had" to wear hard hats. I, on the other hand, say I "got"to wear a hard hat. SO COOL! I looked like a real digger.

The mine was cramped and wet. There were times when the air circulation was poor, so I felt a little claustrophobic at times. And when water dripped on your face, you pulled a three stooges face wipe to get the the gross earth water out of your eyes. But when we exited the mine, we had ascended the mountain a bit, so we were greeted by a setting sun and a most romantic, and equally beautiful, view of the mountains and town lights below.

From your gold excavating, silver grass harvesting, water washing mountaineer of Keelung, Michael.