基隆から台北へ

51. From Keelung to Taihoku.

Taiwan Government Railway.

18 M. Several through trains daily in about 1 hr. One can get an indifferent, pick-up luncheon at one of the several small Japanese restaurants near the station, and a much better one at the Railway Hotel in Taihoku. Fruit-stands abound. The Chinese eatables and beverages should be avoided.

From Keelung the rly. passes through the scrawny suburbs direct into the hills, threading first the Chikushirei Tunnel (1818 ft. long), then crossing the Keelung River, a broad, placid arm of the Tamsui. Picturesque features are the many hybrid junks, with dragon-wing sails and pig-tailed, rat-eyed Chinese crews, that bring merchandise down from Tamsui Port. Lofty green hills that reflect their fine contours in the water rise here and there along the bank, and far up their sides nimble natives are seen at work on small patches of land snatched from the jungle and subjected to cultivation. After leaving (2 M.) Hatto, tall bamboos with feathery tops become prominent features in the landscape, which at all seasons is flecked with countless flowers. From this point onward the river parallels the rly. and fine glimpses are had of it almost to Taihoku. 4 M. Shichito. Many large handsome red blooms of Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis flank the rly., and while idealizing the poor stations impart a brighter aspect to the rather jejune country. As the valley broadens, knob-like tea-bushes are seen to dot the hill-slopes, and snow-white herons to step gingerly through, and sentinel, the paddy-fields. Dense jungles studded here and there with ripening bananas, and lumbering water-buffaloes, apprise the traveler that he is in a Chinese community of the upper tropics. The straw-thatched houses behind

bamboo fences and embowered in bizarre flowers are distinctively Chinese. An occasional red-brick structure is seen, like a yamen, with plaster dragons astride the ridge. The high-pitched roofs of red tiles are like those of old castles, and the blue vitrified gateways with penthouse roofs and uptilted corners are decidedly picturesque. They are the outposts of many such houses scattered through the island, and usually are the homes of Mongol aristocrats. Along the raised paths that delimn the rice-fields trot Cantonese coolies entirely naked save a restricted loin-cloth and a wide, home-made bamboo hat, carrying shoulder-poles, on each end of which is slung a bucket of water, a shallow basket with an expostulating black pig in it, a string of fish, a bunch of bananas, or enrichment for the fields.

The Rokuto Tunnel (454 ft. long) and the Goto (597 ft.) are passed, and a green but rough region traversed before (8 M.) Goto is reached. 9 M. Shiodome is a nondescript town surrounded by curious trees, unusual flowers, and wide tea plantations. Beyond the Nanko Tunnel (316 ft. long), the rly. traverses a region of hills and valleys with fine blue mts. on the sky-line. 12 M. Nanko, in a rice-growing district. The river now bends broadly to the right. Beyond (14 M.) Shakko, we enter the wide and beautiful Twatutia Valley, near the center of which, encircled by a diadem of green mts., stands (18 M.) Taihoku (120 ft.). See below.