100 Pearls of Eastern Taiwan

Michella Jade Weng, Presenter:
Hi, today we��re visiting 3 of the 100 places voted most beautiful and interesting in Taitung and Hualien. Our first stop is a Chishang blacksmith��s shop.

Pounding on red hot iron and drenched in sweat, this is Jheng Ming-sheng, a third generation blacksmith in Chishang.

Jheng Ming-sheng, Blacksmith:
Very few people know how to put steel in an iron blade these days.

Mr Jheng explains that this makes the blade harder and last longer.

This shop is not only open to the public, visitors also get to do some hammering too.

What do you think?
Tired?

This is another jewel of Chishang where the baker doesn��t use water in her bread, just fresh, local milk.

In addition, her dough is made of flour and water heated to 65 degrees Celcius, making the bread softer and moister.

Pan Jin-shiou, Baker:
My bread isn��t as fluffy because I don��t add any leavening agents.

And here is something else, just as natural, and just down the street.

Chishang is famous for rice, and this woman makes gelato with it.

Syu Yue-luan, Chef:
These are the ingredients for ice-cream: organic sugar, organic rice bran and milk from a local farm. Then you mix it well and add the rice porridge. Porridge itself is a bit sticky.

All natural rice gelato! It comes in various flavors, from milk to green tea to sweet potato. The ingredients, many of which are organic, are all produced locally.

Hualien and Taitung are full of interesting little places like these. Three down, 97 to go on the list. Looks like we��ll be having lots of fun for quite a while.