editorial

Just down the tracks from Taipei, the Taiwanese counties of Hsinchu and Miaoli provide a glimpse into the island’s rich Hakka culture.
Photography by Thomas Bird
<figure id="attachment_78395" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-78395" style="width: 588px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-78395" src="http://archive.destinasian.com/travel/wp-content/uploads/Lionshead2-665x831.jpg" alt="" width="588" height="734" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-78395" class="wp-caption-text">The ornate rooftop of Quanhua Temple—a Taoist temple of worship built on the flanks of Lion&#8217;s Head Mountain in 1900—and the adjacent Linggu Pagoda.</figcaption></figure>
As the train cruises toward the coast, the conurbation of greater Taipei dissipates into small towns and fields sandwiched between Taiwan’s mountainous interior and the sea. Soon enough Hsinchu hones into view, a city established by Hakka Chinese in the early 1700s. The Hakka are an interesting bunch. They’re not an ethnic minority per se, but a Han subgroup, sometimes referred to as “Chinese gypsies” because of their migratory heritage. They’re found in pockets throughout southern China and Southeast Asia and are known for their distinctive architecture, cuisine, and rituals; in Taiwan, they make up about 14 percent of the total population, concentrated mostly in and around the neighboring counties of Hsinchu and Miaoli. Which is where I’m headed. Having begun my career in China a decade ago with a rite-of-passage teaching gig in Huizhou, a Hakka town in Guangdong, I’m keen to get a taste of Hakka culture, Taiwan-style.
Hsinchu City, as it turns out, is a superficially modern place, made rich since the 1980s by a high-tech Science Park that is often dubbed Taiwan’s Silicon Valley. Nowadays, the city is known as much for its software as it is for its Hakka heritage, though the identikit high-rise suburbs accommodating the tech-heads have yet to fully eclipse the riches of Hsinchu’s past. 
I disembark at Hsinchu Station, which is said to be the oldest transport hub in Taiwan; the Japanese built it in 1913 during their occupation of the island, when much of Taiwan’s formative industrialization took place. From here I advance on foot, heading northwest past the old moat—now a lively public garden—and well-preserved East Gate. This double-eaved portal is all that remains of the 19th-century city ramparts; today, it’s the centerpiece of a busy roundabout. 
Fortunately, Hsinchu is pedestrian-friendly, and soon enough I’ve ventured beyond the facade of downtown’s shopping malls and restaurants. Just north of the East Gate, I find a 1930s cinema that has been lovingly reimagined as a movie museum where old Taiwanese films are screened nightly for film buffs. There are plenty of other early-20th-century buildings to photograph too, notably the charming red-brick city hall.
<figure id="attachment_133884" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-133884" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-133884 size-large" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Lions-Head-Taiwan-1024x683.jpg" alt="Overlooking the Zhonggang River Valley from peak of Lion's Head Mountain." width="750" height="500" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Lions-Head-Taiwan-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Lions-Head-Taiwan-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Lions-Head-Taiwan-768x512.jpg 768w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Lions-Head-Taiwan.jpg 1380w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-133884" class="wp-caption-text">Overlooking the Zhonggang River Valley from peak of Lion&#8217;s Head Mountain.</figcaption></figure>
I step deeper into the past along the evocative Qing-era arcades of Beimen Jie, the city’s ancient commercial drag. It is still lined with traditional medicine shops, an old puppet store, family shrines, and teahouses hawking the local specialty—Hakka cereal tea. But it’s the night market that proves the star attraction: a labyrinth of snack vendors hawking oyster omelets, pork meatballs, and rice noodles from the courtyard of Chenghuang Temple no less. In Taiwan, food and faith combine and it is sometimes hard to figure out which one is more esteemed. 
The Republic of China, as Taiwan is officially known, has a reputation for maintaining many traditions long lost to the People’s Republic, and while I munch my way through a spring roll or two, a pair of performers don elaborate costumes and begin to parade before us as if they were city guardsmen protecting imperial Hsinchu from Japanese pirates. One wears a white mask; the other, a black mask. I recognize the latter to be a likeness of the City God, whose scary effigy occupies the principle shrine at Chenghuang, the most venerated of the city’s temples.
The following day I catch a bus to what the tourist literature asserts is the “religious heart” of north Taiwan’s Hakka community: Fangliao Yimin Temple, constructed to commemorate the Hakka militia killed during an 18th-century rebellion. It’s an impressive hillside complex, its orange roofs adorned by bright colorful dragons and phoenixes that peer back at the cityscape of the coastal lowlands. The temple is perhaps best known for its controversial Yimin Festival, during which a legion of overfed hogs are killed, their carcasses then stretched over a metal cage for all to see. Animal rights activists are understandably outraged, though the Hakka faithful defend the sacrifice of “Pig Gods” as a traditional part of their culture. Thankfully, no swine are slain during my visit, and I am able to meditate quietly in the temple, which is dedicated to both Taoist and Buddhist saints, a common mélange in Taiwan.
<figure id="attachment_78398" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-78398" style="width: 496px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-78398" src="http://archive.destinasian.com/travel/wp-content/uploads/Hexing3-665x831.jpg" alt="" width="496" height="620" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-78398" class="wp-caption-text">A stop on the Neiwan Line, whose trains shuttle sightseers from Hsinchu City to the Hakka villages of Taiwan&#8217;s verdant interior.</figcaption></figure>
Another train takes me inland through Hsinchu County’s old industrial lands. This time I’m riding the Neiwan Line, a Japanese-built branch track that cuts past abandoned factories before giving way to the brilliant bamboo groves that presumably earned Hsinchu (meaning “New Bamboo”) its name. The railway is now popular with day-trippers heading to Neiwan village, its terminus, where they can soak up a landscape of verdant hills and crystalline streams while gorging on another Hakka specialty, ginger leaf–wrapped zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings), the most celebrated of which are handmade by local matriarchs Auntie Jane and Mama Luo.
After lunch, I stroll about town taking in handicraft stores before crossing a deep ravine via a suspension bridge. On the other side I discover, quite unexpectedly, the Venice-Neiwan Hot Springs Resort. Having been on the road for some time I’m in need of some pampering. After inquiring at the desk I discover it’s well within my means to pay for a good hour’s soak in a private hot tub. Who could resist?    
My next stop is Beipu Township, one of the oldest and best-preserved Hakka settlements in the region. 40 minutes by train and shuttle bus south of Hsinchu, it’s a delightfully pokey little place comprising just a few streets and tangled alleyways. The bulk of its heritage is clustered in the center, a mix of traditional red- and mud-brick houses. Many of these are linked to the wealthy Jiang family, including the evocative Tian Shuei Tang compound, a Hakka-style mansion dating back to 1832. 
Of course, this being Taiwan, eating out is the order of the day: every other house in Beipu has been decked out as a facsimile rural Hakka house with wooden signs advertising Hakka tea, fried mountain pork, or sticky rice pastry.
I gorge myself on tofu and rice before continuing south to my final destination, the Lion’s Head Mountain Scenic Area. This national park covers an impressive 242 square kilometers of forest-carpeted terrain in both Hsinchu and Miaoli counties. Popular with hikers, it’s also  an important place of pilgrimage for Taiwanese Buddhists.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-78397 aligncenter" src="http://archive.destinasian.com/travel/wp-content/uploads/Neiwan-train-665x831.jpg" alt="" width="498" height="623" />
For a road-weary wanderer for whom some seclusion is in order, Lion’s Head delivers. I find fabulous lodgings in the Shishan Dalou, a remarkable hotel built into the cliff face beneath the stunningly ornate Quanhua Temple. The furnishings are a bit dated but the staggering views of the river valley more than compensate. Also, my room includes three free vegan meals a day in the monastery’s humble canteen.
Despite the humidity, I spend the next few days hiking mountain paths, resting at isolated pavilions, and even clandestinely swimming in the rivers that cleave their way through the park’s lush expanse. The cacophony of insects and birds fills the forest with a character of its own—something almost spiritual, I sense. For having left thronging Taipei a week ago, I find myself some way beyond the humdrum human world. As always, the best journeys take us not just through space but time as well, and if you get it right, you learn something along the way, and feel it inside.
The Details
<h5 class="p4">Where to Stay</h5>
While Hsinchu City can be explored as a day trip from Taipei (it’s an hour away by express train), those wishing to use it as a hub for further explorations of the surrounding county will want to consider booking a room at the centrally located Sol Hotel (886-3/534-7266; doubles from US$165). Run by Quanhua Temple in the Lion’s Head Mountain Scenic Area, Shishan Dalou (886-3/782-2563; US$35) offers modest rooms with fine views of the valley below.
<h5 class="p4">Resources</h5>
For train schedules and trip planning, visit the Taiwan Railways Administration website at <a href="https://tip.railway.gov.tw/tra-tip-web/tip?lang=EN_US" target="_blank" rel="noopener">railway.gov.tw</a>.
This article originally appeared in the <a href="http://www.destinasian.com/magazine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October/November 2017</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“The Hakka Way”).

Overlooking the Zhonggang River Valley from peak of Lion's Head Mountain.

On the Trail of Taiwan’s Hakka