Day 5 - Walking Around Daxi Old Street, The Long Walk South In Taiwan

 

Day 5 - Walking Around Daxi Old Street, The Long Walk South In Taiwan

We woke up this morning to a very rainy day.

It wasn’t a drizzle, it was a pouring rain where cars and buses splash the sidewalks and all the roads are a mess of dirty puddles.

We bought roasted sweet potatoes and Onigiri rice balls to eat for breakfast, and walked to the Starbucks to have our morning tea.

We then took the bus back to Daxi, where we had stopped walking yesterday.

While waiting for the bus, we saw a mother berating a small boy who was quietly sobbing, his glasses fogged from the heat and his tears.

Her voice was shrill and we wondered what he could have possibly done to deserve such harsh treatment…

The words of a philosopher came to my mind, that enemies frequently reincarnated as family members, in order to learn to love one another again… 

And through our connection we learn to recognize that we are all ONE, and that we can never be separated from each others.

What we give another is our gift to ourself, and if we offer pain to others, we give it ourselves. 

Getting off the bus, we ran to seek shelter from the rain, in order to put on our backpacks and open our umbrellas.

We didn’t have a long walk to get to our hotel in Daxi, where we planned to leave our backpacks and go explore the old street of Daxi.

Within minutes of starting to walk, our shoes were soaked from the muddy runoff of rainwater and the puddles were so huge, it didn’t make any sense trying to avoid them as we crossed the road.

The hotel is located a little bit off the old Daxi road, and I thought that we might not have many options for dinner in the area, even if we were willing to go out in the pouring rain.

I thought that it would be best if we just bought some things in the old town, and eat them for dinner in the room later.

The old streets that we’ve visited in previous times, all had local traditional snacks and foods that would make a tasty meal. 

I was happy that Jules had insisted that we do the long walk to Daxi yesterday, when it was at least dry.

It wouldn’t have been easy to do it today in the heavy rain. 

From our hotel, we crossed a very beautiful pedestrian bridge into the old town.

The bridge was recently restored, and we admired the stone carvings on both sides and the wide river we crossed.
 

Daxi was the earliest developed area in the Taoyuan district. 

The area’s history dates back to the late Qing Dynasty, when booming trade in camphor and tea had developed.

Small sailboats used to sail between the Dahan River and the Tamsui River, carrying goods and supplies, created a thriving trade with China.

Many local traders enjoyed great prosperity and success and they wanted to decorate their luxury homes with unique wood carvings and handmade wood furniture.

These wealthy traders imported wood carvers from China who built their houses and stayed living here.

During the Japanese occupation period of the Taisho era, Baroque architecture was the popular building style, and many of the stores along the main roads were built in the Baroque style.

The decorations on top of the stone buildings were not done only using the European motifs of birds, animals, flowers and plants of the 1600’s when the Baroque style was popular.

Instead they were decorated with both Baroque ornamentations and Chinese auspicious symbols like Chinese lions, dragons, swans, phoenixes, fish and bats.

On the facades of some old houses, there are Greek lintels, Roman columns, and arches.

Some of the buildings in the old Street were built relatively later, and these buildings are much better preserved. 

Specialty shops and food stands line both sides of the street, and the side streets are part of a local market selling fruit, vegetables, meats and other products.

It was the weekend and we saw many other tourists walking around with umbrellas. 

The beautiful old Temple was open, welcoming visitors.  

All sorts of deities stood on the altars, some with red faces and some with black, and we wished we knew more about each deity.

Daxi was once a center for wood carvings.

Remnants of Daxi’s illustrious past can still be seen in the traditional wooden furniture shops scattered around town. 

But the majority of the storefronts now are populated with other specialty shops and boutiques.

Daxi Old Street offers local delicacies, like Daxi’s famous version of sweet potato cake, local dried soybean curd, and malt peanut candy.

The Peanut Candy is one of the famous food stalls on Daxi Old Street. 

It has only two simple ingredients, peanuts and rice malt. 

Other traditional delicacies include tofu (bean curd) made  fresh, dried, smoked or preserved, rice cakes, tofu pudding, salty rice puddings and rice dumplings. 

We enjoyed the salty rice cakes with scallions sold by a sweet old grandmother, and bought some peanut candy to eat on days when we were on the road and needed a snack.

For lunch, we ate a vegetable soup, noodles and dumplings in a tiny vegan eatery.

Later in the afternoon, we walked around Daxi to an area of restored Japanese buildings, that were converted into a local museum with many wooden buildings.

During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan which lasted over fifty years, the Japanese built many administrative buildings that were later restored and repurposed.

The gardens surrounding the museum offered vast views of the valley and both sides of the wide river.

By early evening, we crossed the old Daxi bridge again, and made our way back to the hotel. 

We did not walk a lot today, but we got to see, understand and taste a bit of Daxi, old and new.

With love,

Tali

Today’s Stats:

Steps - 12,129

Daily Distance -  8 km.  

Total Distance To Date - 67 km