Fun from Sun Moon Lake
to Checheng
Michella Jade Weng, Host:
With this all-in-one pass,
you can ride the ropeway
get on a boat and ride
the bus.
Our first stop is a place
where walking around makes
you feel like you're walking
on a waterbed.
These
all-in-one passes
are quite convenient
and can save travelers
hundreds of NT.
So
here we are at the
Peat Soil Basin, just
two stops from Shuishe
Visitors Center.
Hey
you guys are going
to sink!
It's
said that the peat
soil here is tens
of meters deep and
tens of millions of
years old.
You
Jhao-min, Guide:This
used to be all peat
marsh, all water underneath.
In order to use the
land, farmers put
30 centimeters of
soil on top of it.
Later, grass started
growing, and we walk
on it, it feels like
the ground is moving.
Supposedly
aside from Sun Moon
Lake, there are only
two other places with
geologic formations
like this - the Netherlands
and Myanmar.
Now
we're getting back
on the bus and going
to Shuili, home of
the snake kiln since
1927.
Lin
Kuo-long
Shueili Snake Kiln
Owner
When my grandfather
first came, no one
lived in this area.
But he thought it
was good (for pottery)
so he decided to move
the whole family over
here.
In
its heyday, there
were eight pottery
factories in Shuili,
and all but this one
closed down when clay
pots were no longer
in demand. Now this
place is run for cultural
preservation.
Lin
Kuo-long
Shueili Snake Kiln
Owner
These holes here are
for wood to be passed
through to fuel the
fire and to control
temperature. Let's
go through there.
So this was for firing
pots this big?
Yes. We've been firing
them for 85 years
now.
And this kind of kiln
is from Fujian, you
say?
Fujian, China.
In the old days, there
were no water towers
in the countryside.
Every family needed
a clay vat. It held
a day's worth of water
for cooking, drinking,
laundry and bathing.
In times of war, we
made clay air raid
shelters during the
Japanese occupation
for soldiers to hide
in.
Anything
ceramic, from bowls
to underground vessels
in which soldiers
hid, was made here.
These days the wood
guzzling snake kiln
is fired only once
a year so that it
doesn't deteriorate.
But they also have
modern kilns to fire
the work of visitors
who want to try their
hand at wheel throwing.
There
are other off-the-beaten-path
places like this near
Sun Moon Lake, many
of which are easy
to reach via public
transportation. On
your next trip here,
you might find that
there is more to the
area than you originally
thought.
