In one of the most remote parts of Chiayi County, a hamlet shares the exact same name as a well-known center of tea production in New Taipei City.
Pinglin (坪林) in Dapu Township (大埔) is around 550m above sea level. The road to it is good enough for any car or motorcycle, and so few people live there that it’s an ideal place for the virus-afraid to go sightseeing.
I rode in from Yujing District (玉井) in Tainan, taking Provincial Highway 3 through Nansi (楠西) and above Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫). At the entrance to Chiayi Farm (嘉義農場), I halted briefly, curious if
Almost from the moment I left Tainan’s Guanmiao District (關廟) and entered Longci District (龍崎), I could hear the distinctive two-note screech of a crested serpent eagle.
These reptile-hunters are often heard and just as often seen in Taiwan’s foothills. Pedaling southeast on City Highway 182, I glimpsed one circling in the distance then I kept my head down and devoted myself to maintaining a reasonable speed on an uphill section. I’m not the kind of cyclist who relishes tough climbs, but I’ve always enjoyed Road 182. None of its gradients are brutal, and the scenery is a mix of
My goals were straightforward. I’d ride my motorcycle from my home in Tainan along back-country roads into Kaohsiung’s Tianliao (田寮) and Cishan (旗山) districts, then loop back through Yanchao (燕巢). I had a short list of places I wanted to visit along the way, and I was confident I’d stumble across a few more points of interest.
Turning off Provincial Highway 19A (19甲), I veered northeast on Tainan Local Road 163 (南163) until I saw a sign for Daping (大坪). Like 163, this second (and apparently unnumbered) road turned out to be a gently undulating rural delight. I passed a few
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