Tuesday, April 2, 2024

A trip to Hsinchu

I believe the area would accelerate the pace of reinventing itself, creating fresh scenes all the time.

Hsinchu is the city also the district area with a few towns, about a hundred kilometers from Taipei. It has been famous for fast-growing information technology industries since 1980. Hsinchu means “new bamboo” based on the meaning of Chinese characters.

When I arrived at the Hsinchu train station in the mid-afternoon,  I saw neither an abundance of natural plants like bamboo nor extremely modern city views like skyscrapers, nor IT innovation hubs with exciting digital displays. It was a mid-sized city with shops, restaurants, and different vehicles running in the street. I guess that was an old town area with considerably narrow streets and crowded traffic. The pedestrian lane was thoughtfully paved with slopes that convenience people to pull their luggage or prevent them from falling down, but lots of food stalls took the pedestrian area, causing some inconvenience. 

A city mixed with old and new: I walked through the downtown area near my hotel, like many cities in Taiwan. there were night markets with many food stalls that sold local snacks and all sorts of street foods. I just felt a little bit overwhelmed- there were too many eateries; should they be recategorized and refreshed to create a modern theme for the city area? I found a fruit store that sells all different kinds of local fresh fruits, bale mango dragon fruit grape apple kiwis watermelon, etc; they look very colorful I bought two Balas, and they tasted like green apples- sour and sweet.

Science Based Industry Park:
In the early morning of the second day, I headed to the Science Technology Industry Park. It’s truly a green environment as if I were coming to the botanical garden rather than an industrial park.

I visited the technology discovery center there. It introduced the history of this industry park, also demonstrated a few hardware pieces of computing accessories, optical fiber technology, photography technology, etc. That was a small collection, but it's educational. 

Lake of Solitude & Park: I had a nice lunch in the recreation center building there. Then I went to visit the lake of solitude and the nearby park inside the industrial technology center. It was a very beautiful mid-sized lake with gooses or swans, other birds swimming around, and turtles resting on the pieces of wood under the sunshine.

The peach blossoms spread around the lakeside. There was a small garden in which colorful flowers sparking fresh energy and creating fresh spring charm. I walked around and enjoyed the sustainable ecosystem integrated with the technology park. I also visited the nearby universities and headed back to the downtown area.

 Green Ecological World: On the third day, I went to the Green Ecological Park in the suburb of Hsinchu City. That was a very pleasant park with a variety of colorful pretty birds, other benevolent animals, and abundant tropical plants. Tourists were able to interact with beautiful animals such as Alpacas, sheep, peacocks, parrots, swans, chickens, rabbits, turtles, etc at a very close distance, to enhance natural harmony. There was a garden with different cactuses, some of which had grown a hundred years long, creating amazing scenes.

At about ten thirty in the morning, the Alpacas would be released from the fence, playing around in the meadow. The lady instructor reminded the tourists about some issues of how to approach the sheep safely. That was a lovely picture with humans and animals interacting with each other harmoniously.

 There are totally five theme parks inside. I think the bird park and cactus garden are the best. I didn’t see lots of beautiful butterflies flying over in the insect park. But I met many beautiful birds coming from worldwide, such as the Toco Toucan, bird of paradise, grey parrot; crowned pigeon, Mandarin duck, Vulturine Guineafowl, Golden-breasted Starling, Green Tursco, Scarlet ibis, Black winged stilt, Coconut lorikeet, Yellow-crowned parrot, chattering lory, Taiwan barbet, Violet Turaco, Great argus, etc. The atmosphere is vibrant with the flowers blossoming up to the hills. I like shancha flowers as the most beautiful ones.

If anything more I wish for in this beautiful park, that would be the large fruit garden with an abundance of fruits growing and maturing. Every day is a harvest time. Tourists can come by, help to sort them through, pick them up, and taste them all. Can you imagine what a wonderful time it could be?

Ocean Harbor: The next day, I also visited the fish harbor in Hsinchu, at which you could rent bikes to ride along the ocean coast. I didn’t go due to safety concerns as It was about 17 kilometers long and I was not so familiar with the local environment. I headed to the direct sales center, I thought it was like an outlet selling clothes or general merchandise but that was another food market with lots of stalls selling fried seafood. I guess the direct sales center means the fishermen directly sell the fish they captured and fried.

There were very few tourists in the morning. I sat near the harbor and tasted the flour-fried fish balls, and pondered around. The ocean wind was very strong, so I understood the other nickname of Hsinchu wind city. I was a bit disappointed as I couldn’t find the bus to run across the beautiful ocean coast.

Glass Artwork Museum & Hsinchu Park: In the afternoon, I visited the Glass Artwork Museum located inside Hsinchu Park. It took me quite a long walk to get there. There was a collection of glass-made artworks with human figures, vast animals, flowers, plants,  mountains, or other natural phenomena. The description of each artwork is eloquent with idioms to convey the meanings that the artists intended to express. Most of those messages advocated were blessings for a prosperous life, collaboration, and harmonization. Some articulated the scenes being designed vividly.

A dedicated senior staff introduced a few very special glass art pieces to us. You could see the different scenes from different angles on the same piece of glasswork because of light reflection and refraction phenomena. On the second floor, there was also a brief introduction to local glass works history and sustainability of glass recycling.

There was a limited collection of glass artworks made by a handful of artists (are they family members based on the introduction) in a two-floor building. The exhibition needs to attract more female and male artists to participate constantly, so more people would appreciate the impact of art in human society.

Just a few blocks away from Hsinchu Park, there was another night market at which people came by to buy snacks and drinks. Also, there were overwhelming food stalls that sold different street foods. I didn’t buy them as I felt a bit embarrassed about sitting on the street to eat. Is it the cultural difference? I also saw a few booths that sell plants and flower pods. Residents here like to cultivate plants and flowers.

Honestly speaking, the city of Hsinchu doesn’t look so new, as the city name indicated. But there were mountains and ocean coastlines with natural beauty in the large Hsinchu districts to attract tourists coming to explore. There were great places such as green farms and natural parks hidden in the suburbs. The public transportation systems couldn’t reach quite a lot of beautiful places.

It’s the time to say goodbye and there will be time to come by again, as lots of places waiting for me to discover. I believe the area would accelerate the pace of reinventing itself, creating fresh scenes all the time.





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