台北から桃園・新竹・苗栗・台中（鹿港）・嘉義・台南（安平）経由で高雄へ

54. From Taihoku via Toyen, Shinchiku, Byoritsu, Taichu (Rokko), Kagi, and Tainan (Anping) to Takao.

Taiwan Government Railways.

231 M. Several Express trains daily in about 10 hours. For fares, time of departure, and other information see the Railway Time Table. Electric fans are installed in the clean, comfortable cars; the general equipment is similar in excellence to the Imperial Government Trains in Japan; the train employees are alert Japanese (many of them English-speaking), and one finds no discomforts of any kind. The fine fruit in great variety sold at the rly. stations is cheap and wholesome. Likewise the good food obtainable in the buffet-cars and at other places. At some of the stations a good bento is sold at reasonable prices. Japanese are also in charge of all the stations, and are helpful to foreigners in getting about. The best Inns in the wayside towns are always Japanese. The Chinese Inns are to be avoided. The most important Railway Branches are mentioned in their proper places in the Guidebook.

From Taihoku the rly. half-circles the capital, and after passing the Manka Station runs out through the tawdry suburbs toward the S.W. The broad Tamsui is crossed on the Shintenkei Bridge (1280 ft. long), and then a region so Chinese in all its outer aspects that the occasional Japanese house one sees seems out of place. Many blue-bloused Celestials, and blue-black water-buffaloes are descried at work in the fields of sugar-cane or rice or grain, for hereabout the land is intensively cultivated and almost every foot is made to produce something. Brightly clad Chinese damsels trip across the country paths, and the women who wash the family linen in pools and streams add color and picturesqueness. Not a few of the red-brick houses sit back in spacious, flower-embowered yards, and are marked by an air of prosperity and homely comfort curiously at variance with the squalor prevalent in China.

5 M. Itabashi (or Pankyo), a Chinese town with many quaint, peaked-roofed houses that recall suburbs of Peking and Shanghai, is celebrated locally for an attractive landscape-garden regarded as the chief 'sight.' Visitors are welcome, particularly those who come with a card of recommendation or who have taken the trouble to apply in advance for permission to see the garden.

There is a pretty lakelet, half-moon bridges, seductive vistas, fantastic rocks, miniature pagodas, winding paths, stunted or dwarf trees, lovely flowers, and the usual accompaniments of a formal Chinese Landscape-Garden. Aromatic tea is sometimes served to favored guests.

Travelers who wish to inspect the garden at their leisure can board a train in Taihoku in the morning and be back at the hotel by noon. One of the hotel boys will act as interpreter and guide.

From Itabashi the railway traverses a rich and productive region crossed and re-crossed by numerous streams. Considerable fine fruit is grown roundabout. The country usually is idealized by a wealth of flaming flowers, prominent among them the much liked Chinese hibiscus.

13 M. Oka. The roughish country beyond the green hills at the left, was, not so long ago, the resort of watchful and resourceful head-hunters. With great patience and equal firmness the Japanese authorities have convinced these wild primitives of the inconvenience and general undesirability of the head-hunting practices, and gradually they have been converted to progressive ways. The stranger often comes in contact with them on his trip through the island, but usually is unconscious of it. Only the residents know how to distinguish them from the civilized peoples, for neither their present habits nor their dress betray their wild ancestry.

As in other sections of the island, the country hereabout needs only intelligent cultivation to produce bountifully.

Regular rains, no cold; and a vivifying sun produce bountiful crops for the farmers.

18 M. Toyen stands on a wide, tree-dotted plain flecked with lakelets. 8 M. to the S.E. is the old town of Taikokan (Tofoham) amid pretty scenery. 20 M. Kanshikyaku. 23 M. Churi. 28 M. Heichin, with a big tea factory. Beyond (43 M.) Komo, the Hozan River is crossed on a bridge 1130 ft. long. The soil hereabout is a reddish-brown, and impregnated with iron which is thought to give a certain flavor to the tea that thrives so vigorously. The sea is visible at the far right. Many camphor trees grow on the slopes of the mts. at the far left. Stretches of the country recall the mesa-lands of New Mexico. 46 M. Shinchiku (Chinese, Teck-cham), seat of the Shinchiku prefectural government, is one of the oldest towns on the island. A branch rly. runs E. to the near-by town of Chikuto, and another W. to Kyuko, a port at the mouth of the Hozan River. -- The rly. now follows the sea for some distance. In the high mts. visible at the left are the strongholds of the head-hunting Atayal savages. Beyond (56 M.) Chikunan the line crosses the Chuko River, a mere trickle in the dry season, but a dangerous torrent after the summer rains.

64 M. Byoritsu (Chinese: Maoli), a prefectural town and the end of a rly. division, is the starting-point for (10 M., light rly.) Shikkoko, where there are numerous petroleum wells. Good bento is sold at the station, along with excellent persimmons packed in plaited baskets. The rly. now runs upward between hills covered with acacias, graceful bamboos, palmettoes, and pampas grass. 72 M. Dora. Beyond (77 M.) Sansa, in a mountainous region, we cross the Naisha-gawa on a bridge 114 ft. above the stream (the highest on the line).

Hence to (92 M.) Toyohara the construction work was very costly; nine tunnels pierce the hills and 3 rivers are crossed, the widest, the Taian, on a bridge 1663 ft. long. The highest point (1220 ft.) is marked by a signal-station. Five yrs. were necessary to complete the work, which was concluded in 1907. As the train emerges from No. 7 Tunnel (4126 ft. long) it crosses the dirty, slate-colored Taian, which flows past a strikingly picturesque promontory at the far right. Beyond (87 M.) Kori Tunnel No. 9 (4166 ft. long) is threaded, and the gray-black Taiko River is crossed on a steel bridge 1245 ft. long.

92 M. Toyohara (811 ft.), embowered in tropical trees, possesses the largest rice-market in Formosa. The graceful Areca-palms make pleasing figures in the landscape. A small rly. runs hence to Tosei at the E., and to Shako at the W. -- As the train proceeds southward the great barrier range is seen to fine advantage at the left, with Mt. Niitaka a prominent feature. Numerous swift streams course from it to the sea. 101 M. Taichu (314 ft.; pop. 42,000), a busy city capital of the prefecture of the same name, and the most important city in the

region, was known formerly as Taiwan-fu and from 1877 to 1895 was the capital of Central Formosa. Broad paddy-fields and a lazy river flank the town, which is a pleasing blend of Chinese and Japanese architecture and the center for a considerable trade in camphor, indigo, tobacco, and China grass (for making fine cloth). The Bank of Taiwan has a branch here, and the governmental administrative offices are near the station. The lively park at the S.E. edge of the town contains a pretty lakelet, summer-houses, etc. Conspicuous features of the environs are the silk-cotton trees (Bombax ceiba), the seeds of which are covered with a silky fiber too short for textile uses, but which are used by the Chinese for stuffing pillows, etc. Here thrive also several paper-producing plants, and the curious Candleberry (Aleurites cordata -- Jap. abura-giri), or Chinese varnish tree, the oil from the nuts of which is used in Polynesia for candles, and in China for painting.

From Taichu, the main line proceeds southwest toward the sea, passing the unimportant stations of (105 M.) Ujitsu, and (112 M.) Shoka (Chinese, Chang-wha), a jejune town founded in 1723. Many of the original stenches remain. The not overly pulchritudinous inhabitants are Amoy and Tswengchoo Haklos, who practice among themselves many primitive customs -- a prominent one an aversion to soap. The narrow streets are as odoriferous as some in old Shanghai. Over many of them are stretched flimsy temporary roofs which protect pedestrians from the sun and impart the tunnel-like aspect of Syrian bazaars. Head-hunters have raided the town on many occasions, and the Japanese bombarded and took it (commemorating monument on Hakkei Hill) Sept. 3, 1895. The only curios worth taking away are the quaint fans made of Areca leaves. -- Rokko (Lokiang), a sometime prominent shipping-port 7 M. to the W., was founded in the 10th cent. and seems not to have changed much. From it many piratical-looking junks, laden with rattan, pineapple, fiber, pith-paper, peanut oil, and other native products, sail for the mainland of China.

From Shoka the rly. goes due S. over a level, attractive region flecked here and there with cane- and paddy-fields, wild lilies and plumed pampas grass. The cloud-piercing giants of the Central Range rise grandly at the left. Poor stations and an occasional Chinese village break the regularity of the scene.

Vast quantities of rattan are produced hereabout and in other sections of the island, and much of this supple fibre used in making chairs for the 'foreign devil' at Hongkong and other Chinese places comes from Formosa. The poorest looking land responds at once to careful cultivation, and produces bountifully in return.

131 M. Nisui Jct., and point of departure for the Lake Candidius region described below.

The Shushu Branch Line (of the Government Railways) runs due E. from Nisui and flanks the Daikusuikei River. By taking this line, the traveler with time to spare and a willingness to rough it, may visit the most important of the Formosa Lakes, Jitsugetsutan (or Suisha, or Dragon Lake), referred to usually as Lake Candidius (named for Georgius Candidius, the first missionary to visit Formosa, in 1627), and regarded as one of the eight beauty spots of Taiwan. A guide is necessary. An English-speaking one can be obtained by applying to the manager of the Railway Hotel at Taihoku. By taking the express train from Taihoku in the evening one can be at Nisui the next morning. Change cars here for (18 M. in about 2 hrs.) Gai-shatei. Hence by push-car railway to (8 M.) Jitsugetsutan (in about 3 hrs.). Or, better still, to (18 M. in about 6 hrs.) Horisha, a drab town near the edge of the Savage Territory. Inns: Jitsugetsukan, Kobekan, in the Japanese style, with native food. Unless the traveler can be satisfied with this, provisions should be taken along.

The Lake (about 10 M. in circumference; 2400 ft. above sea level; largest in Taiwan and the most attractive) consists of two small lakes, the Moon and the Sun. When the near-by Mt. Suisha is reflected in its pellucid waters, one is reminded of the charming lakes in the Nikko highlands. A few reclaimed Peipohan savages dwell along its borders and fish its shallow waters. Their frail boats haunt the lake on moonlit nights, and their weird chants linger in one's memory. The catch is a spiny little, semi-transparent sardine, with dark meat.

About 20 M. (push car) from Jitsugetsutan is Musha (Inn: Sakurakan, Japanese style, 3 yen and up), celebrated locally for its cherry blossoms. Formerly it was inhabited by dangerous head-hunters, now domesticated. Here one can study them and their strange customs in safety. One may return to Jitsugetsutan or follow a mt. trail over the Central Ridge to the E. shore of the island.

Beyond Nisui the rly. crosses the Dakusui River on a bridge 2917 ft. long. The logs which come down from about (20 M.) Mt. Randai, are caught at various points by Chinese loggers and poled up converging streams to primitive sawmills. The river water sometimes is a repulsive slate color, with the dense, tragic, leaden pallor of death. 137 M. Rinnai. Visible at the far left is the noble

Niitaka-yama, or Mt. Morrison (so named, in 1857, by Mr. R. Swinhoe, in honor of the captain of the British steamship Alexander, first to enter the port of Anping). When Formosa was made a colonial possession the Emperor of Japan changed the name to Niitaka-yama (New High Mt.). The Chinese call it Gyokusan (jade, precious gem, etc.). It rises in the one-time Savage Territory 13,075 ft. toward the faultless sky, and some of the finest camphor-wood forests of the island belt its symmetrical sides. Kagi is the nearest station to it. Japanese guides can always be obtained there for the ascent, which is neither difficult nor dangerous.

162 M. Kagi. Next to Tainan it is the oldest settlement in South Formosa. The industrious Japanese have converted it into a busy, progressive, prefectural city, and have embellished it with many handsome buildings. Considerable indigo was formerly grown in the vicinity. A local specialty is bamboo-work, and paper made from bamboo-pith. A Chinese specialty is a jelly made from the fruit of the Aigyo (Ficus Pumila). Numerous light railways branch away from Kagi, the most important being the Mt. Ari Line, to (50 M.) Arisan.

Between Kagi and Mt. Ari (or Nimanaaira) the rly. crosses 70 bridges, threads 73 tunnels and innumerable cuts, and in order to reach the 7000 ft. level at Ari Station zigzags in a sinuous way up stiff mt. grades and occasionally circles obstructive peaks by means of spiral track. From (9 M.) Takezaki the grade in places is 1 in 20. From the slanting cars one looks down at times into magnificent gorges choked with splendid primeval forest trees hundreds of yrs. old and immensely tall. The trunks of some are 60 ft. in circumference, and not a few rise 50 ft. straight before putting out a single branch.

The Arisan Club opens its doors as a hotel for the convenience of travelers to the district.

From Kagi southward the rly. runs through a vast sugar-growing country watered by mt. streams. The numerous stations are small and call for no particular mention. As we approach Tainan the sea is visible at the far right, and numerous vessels are descried anchored in Anping Harbor.

200 M. Tainan (pop. 85,000), the one-time capital (Tainan-fu) of S. Formosa, now the administrative seat of Tainan Prefecture, stands in lat. 23° 6' N. and long. 129° 5' E. of Greenwich, and is one of the most important ports of the island.

Of the two Japanese inns (the Hotel Shishun-en, and the Asahi-kwan), the former (in the Hanasono-cho), 1/4 M. from the station, is perhaps the best (¥3 a day and upward), as tolerably good meat, eggs, crayfish, etc., can be had, along with a foreign table and knives, forks, etc. Japanese beds. Demand a mosquito-net, as this light militia of the air is a pest. -- The Climate is moist, hot, and unhealthy in summer, but cool, dry, and bracing in winter. Non-immune travelers should be careful of the drinking-water, and should never touch milk that has not been boiled. A good bottled mineral water is recommended, preferably the Clifford-Wilkinson Tansan, from the Takaradzuka Tansan Spring, near Kobe, Japan. See that the bottle bears this label.

To the Chinese (who form three fourths of the population) Tainan (or Taokien) is of great historical interest, for the old city walls (quadrangular, 20 ft. high, 5 M. long) and the mediaeval gates which pierce them were built by their progenitors (in 1723) as defensive measures against head-hunters from the near-by mts., and the no less bloodthirsty pirates from the sea. Hither in 1622 came the marauding Dutch under Cornelius Reyersz to build their twin forts which the great Teiseiko (Kokusenya) captured in 1662. The ruins of the first, Fort Zeelandia, erected in 1630, stand at Anping, while the more sturdy Providentia still does good service in Tainan as a military hospital. For nearly 200 yrs. the town (known formerly as Anping-Chin, or 'City of Peace') was the capital of Formosa, and its narrow streets and smoke-begrimed hongs bear all the ear-marks of a Chinese settlement. A light rly. extends from the station to the (2 1/2 M. at the W.) port of Anping, now but a simulacrum of its former self. Passengers who land here should endeavor to come ashore in the ship's boat rather

than employ the clumsy catamaran used by the natives in preference to the more comfortable sampan. They are often nothing but big rafts of bamboo lashed together and propelled either by a sail of woven matting or by a paddle. A light rail runs clear round them, and the passenger sits in a big tub near the center. -- Harbor works are in progress, but until the dangerous bar can be removed, ships that anchor in the roadstead in the typhoon season are kept in instant readiness to slip their cables and run for shelter to the Pescadores. The coast shoals rapidly, and during the S.W. monsoon (which blows during June-Sept.) there is such a heavy swell that the staunchest boats have difficulty in reaching the boat-camber near the lighthouse. The Osaka Shosen Kaisha (see p. 607) maintains a frequent service to Amoy, Swatow, and Hongkong, and to Yokohama.

The Tainan Museum (Hakubutsukwan), in Kaizan-cho, contains a collection of Formosan products, etc., inferior to that in the Taihoku Museum. Hard by is a shrine dedicated to Prince Kitashirakawa. The Kaizan Jinsha stands to the memory of Koxinga or Teiseiko (Kokusenya).

One notes many racial differences between the Chinese of this old S. stronghold and the present capital of Taihoku. Here, as in S. China, the familiar black Cantonese turban is more in evidence than the distinctive Ningpo, Peking, or Shanghai skull-cap.

The men possess the true Cantonese intolerance for, and hatred of the 'foreign devil' (wai-i' or fan-kwei -- 'external barbarian'), and they blink at them somewhat as an owl blinks at the light. Many of the native women wear complicated head-dresses interwoven with silver coins, seed pearls, jade pins, and ornaments of fine gold. Cross-breeds are common, and in their staring eyes one sees the half-wild look inseparably associated with savages of low mentality. True Formosans chew the betel-nut as incessantly as their Malayan prototypes, and some of them could be mistaken easily for Singapore folks. -- The older streets of Tainan are covered with matting awnings, to exclude the sun. At night they are thronged with a medley of Southern types plentifully besprinkled with reclaimed head-hunters. All seem to enjoy the infernal din caused by exploding fire-crackers and musicless Chinese music. The 7000 Japanese dwell in a section with wider streets, where the houses have porticoes that reach to the curb. The Joss-Houses of Tainan compare unfavorably with the dignified Buddhist temples of Nippon.

Southward from Tainan the rly. goes for miles through cane-fields that recall the wide cornfields of Kansas. Luscious tropical fruits grow in great profusion, prominent among them globular pumelos (Citrus decumana) almost as big as pumpkins. Among the fruits best liked by the natives is the parami, or Breadfruit of Asia (Artocarpus integrifolia). The delicious Manila mango of this region has the true turpentine flavor, and the small, sweet pineapples are as good as those of Java. Pomegranates, lichis, guavas, figs, oranges, bananas, splendid persimmons, and a host of minor fruits thrive luxuriantly and impart a material interest to the views. At certain of these southern stations various interesting racial types assemble to see the 'fire-spitting' engine of the 'foreign devil,' and here the hybrid Chinese seem to take on a languorous, lackadaisical air, as if in tune with the lush tropics.

Conspicuous features in the crowds, are greasy paterfamilias who view the world through huge tortoise-shell goggles and go laden with baskets of fruit, or shiny, well-browned roasted ducks in split bamboo wickers. The men elbow the women aside in the most ruthless manner, with a keen eye for number one; and a large disdain for the hindermost. At all the big stations one sees the silent power behind the throne in the shape of spruce, helmeted, beleggined, gloved, dignified, ceremonious, but unfailingly helpful Japanese military men. Compared to the benighted islanders they seem like beings from another and brighter world -- as in truth they are. As a rule they are as restless as a bug-professor in July -- mapping the country, classifying the plants, climbing unexplored mts., building waterworks, railways, and school-houses, and pushing their drag-nets closer and closer about the murderous savage tribes. On one's travels through the island one is scarcely ever out of hearing of be-spectacled and Panama-hatted entomologists, mineralogists, arborealogists, and others, who to-day are doing for Formosa what men like Kaempfer, Thunberg, Von Siebold, and others did for Japan.

229 M. Takao (Inns: Haruta-kwan, opposite the station; Takao Hotel, both in Japanese style, ¥5 and upward), a great shipping-port for Formosan products, has a well-sheltered harbor with breakwaters that cost upward of 20 million yen. The administrative buildings and the Foreign Concession are on the N. side; the native quarter and shops at the foot of the hill called Kigo (or Saracen Head). A Chinese fort anciently crowned the summit of this, and the town records teem with stories of the valor exhibited by the Chinese in its defense. A curious (and highly improbable) one relates that once when Japanese pirates attacked the port, the astute Mongolian commander filled a host of bamboo tubes with live wasps and set them afloat. The credulous Nipponese opened them in the belief that they were torpedoes, and were so badly stung that the Chinese captured them all! In later times (1895) the Japanese returned this compliment by taking the town, bag and baggage!

Takao is an important prefectural city of 40,000 inhabitants, and is known as a shipping-point for sugar and rice. One of the largest sugar mills on the island (The Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Co.) is near by. There is also an aviation field, a wireless station, etc. The odd weed which grows on the surface of the sea hereabout is called katanchu. The Bank of Taiwan has a branch here. The Osaka Shosen Kaisha maintains a frequent and efficient steamer service with Shanghai, Canton, Hongkong, Yokohama, etc.

The Branch Rly. to (14 M.) Heito is a link in the line which eventually will connect all the large towns of the E. coast.

For detailed information relating to this and other island rly. lines consult the Rly. Time Table.