Saturday, April 12, 2014

The Southernmost Tip of Taiwan


by Lin Hsin-Chen


The entire February can be seen as the continuation of Chinese New Year in Taiwan. Planning for excursion becomes an important thing for every family. Sometimes it makes me confused about the significance of holidays. Approximately one-third of a year is holiday in Taiwan. I wonder if it’s necessary to have so many days off. I was puzzled about Europeans’ "slow living", but now I understand why people are yearn for it. If we have more holidays, we can slow down our pace to see the beautiful world and ‘digest’ our life experience. However, as a pragmatic person, I don’t like to dream away my time. For holidays, more is not always better!

I took a trip to the southernmost tip of Taiwan in mid-February, a good chance for me to relax, release pressure and see Nature. It’s one of the only national parks of Taiwan that limits the number of visitors, 200 people a day. What a happy policy that allows us to enjoy the beautiful scenery solitary and maybe find sea beans on the beach. Unfortunately, we encountered a fire that burned away the coastal plants in a few hours. It was horrible. Fire and water have no mercy.

The burnt plants make me curious. How fortunate to encounter such a rare learning opportunity. We found that the plants are still alive after being burned. Their roots and stems retain a lot of water, so only the leaves and skin are damaged. It’s hard to imagine that they are costal plant, screw pine. Taking off the beautiful appearance, they show their glorious light of life. Thanks to this special class.


The "Hahn" that deep in the heart might just like those burnt plants. It might only be transient “once”. All things will pass.

p.s. I started to appreciate black color, so I am going to make a black piece for this challenge.

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful sentiment, Lin, if only WE had the resiliency of some plants in Nature!

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    1. Thank you! Nature has always been a good teacher for us!

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  2. Ah, sea beans! What did you find? :) It is amazing how plants recover from fire. I know how surprised I was to learn that fire was a natural part of the life cycle for some species. Look forward to your black piece. - Martha

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    1. Thank you, Martha. Sorry for the late reply… I feel so tired after I came back to Taiwan from France. Maybe it’s because of aging… or maybe I really should pay more attention to my health. Anyway, I hope everyone is well.

      I was so attracted by the beach scene and focused on plant observation, so I didn't find sea beans… However, I found some wonderful things there. They were corals and shells. I will post the photos on V9’s Fcebook page :)

      Take care,
      Hsin-Chen

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