We took advantage of a school holiday to go on a day trip with Aunt Ivy to the ever-crowded city/county of Yilan. We made the half hour, eight mile long drive through the Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道), the ninth longest tunnel in the world, connecting Taipei to Yilan. The alternative is a vomit-filled two hour ride through narrow, twisty, winding mountain roads…pass.
We felt like we had entered the Emerald City once we crossed to the other side, as the year-round heavy rains in Yilan create a lush and verdant landscape. What a refreshing change from the city, surrounded by rice paddies and low lying houses with the Pacific Ocean on one side.
Being good Taiwanese citizens, the first thing we did was eat. Aunt Ivy took us to the Tiger Brand Rice Noodle Factory (虎牌米粉那個年代觀光工廠), where some of Taiwan’s most famous brand of rice noodles have been made since 1970. We learned all about how rice noodles are made, sampled some of the cooked noodles (simply steamed and tossed with a bit of sesame oil and soy sauce) and Jules had a chance to come up with his own packaging.
Once we learned all we could about rice noodles, we visited the National Center for Traditional Arts, designed to help preserve and promote Taiwan’s traditional arts. While there were some interesting, learning moment aspects to it, parts of it felt more like a toned-down theme park. The highlight was probably the candy man, who stretched out a melted blob of cane sugar, avoiding the ground by a centimeter, to become a crispy, light as air, caramel-tasting nugget. This nugget was then wrapped inside a rice paper tortilla along with crushed peanuts, black sesame seeds, cilantro and ice cream…yummmm!! This got two big thumbs up from Jules.
The most impressive part of Yilan for me was the scenery. Because it’s surrounded by mountains on three sides and an ocean on the other, it is its own tranquil world, far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city. Sadly, we weren’t able to make it to one of Yilan’s highlights, the Lanyang Museum (蘭陽博物館), before closing, but I was able to get some shots of its famous architecture before the sun went down. The geometric shape of the museum is modeled after the cuestas, certain rock formations, seen around the area.
You see what I mean by peaceful?
