Randonautica Cycling Three— Fangbo Village, Fuxing Township
22nd June 2024
I went out with friends last night and didn’t return home until dawn. As the city was waking up, I thought my plans for the day were ruined. Waking up around noon after just a few hours of sleep, I felt groggy. I wanted to go for a cycle, but the comfort of my pillow and the cool air from the AC were tempting me to stay in bed. Besides, I needed to get a new back tyre for my bike, as the old one was worn smooth and couldn’t handle long rides. For only 350 NTD, I got the tyre changed. After lingering at home for a bit, cleaning the kitchen, the blue sky outside caught my eye. At that moment, I decided: I am going for a cycle.
The Randonautica app sent me coordinates on the outskirts of Fuxing Township, a less popular town compared to its neighbouring Lukang. The day was hot, but not as hot as it had been; I suppose I slept through the midday sun.
I left Changhua City over the railway bridge, trying to keep pace with my pedalling to make it easier to get to the other side. As I was on the incline, I got boxed in by passing cars, the barrier, and an elderly man pushing his overly full cart of recyclables. I was forced to slow to a snail’s pace and eventually had to stop, which was rather annoying when I was trying to get over the bridge in one go.
Navigating the backroads and canals out of the city, I wondered if there would be anything interesting at the location. I was eager to find out. The canals help distribute water across the county’s flatlands, stretching out like watery veins across the agricultural landscape. Often, roads run alongside these canals, allowing people to avoid the busier roads, which is beneficial for cyclists. However, I am a stickler for the route planner on these trips, and Google Maps decided that moments after I joined the canal road, I needed to immediately cycle away from it and head deeper into agricultural and industrial land.
If I had stuck to the canal road, I could have gotten close to where I needed to be. However, the idea of these adventures is to do as little planning as possible, to break away from what I am used to and allow Randonautica and Google Maps to take me down roads I wouldn’t normally go. That’s how I find these little quirky things along the way.
The larger canal looked pleasantly refreshing (though it probably wasn’t), and I watched fishtails flip out of the water. A breeze had come down the canal, and I am pretty sure that’s why I couldn’t move for a moment. Changhua County’s coastal towns are always breezier than the city. If I could feel that welcoming breeze from where I was, I couldn’t wait to get closer to the coastline.
The Changhua County countryside looks practically the same for the vast majority of it. If you like rice fields and industrial sites, then it is a must-see, especially as you cycle further west from the Baguashan mountains. That’s why, when you travel through it, especially by bike, you need to keep your eyes peeled for the little things. Here are some of the sights I saw.
With most of the roads in the countryside being under open sky, it is always welcome when roads are shaded by trees lining their length. As I cycled, the shade helped cool my warming skin. I momentarily took my eyes off the road and looked up into the branches above my head. One of my favourite little views was presented to me: I love watching the sun shine through the gaps in the branches, making the leaves look lit from within.
I had to leave the backroads and turn my bike westward onto Route 142. The road was much busier with weekenders heading towards Lukang Township. I considered going there after finishing my Randonaut adventure, but I decided against it; Lukang deserves its own blog and its own attention, being one of the oldest towns in Taiwan.
Road 142 was boring. Most of the time, I was trying my best to stay as far right as possible as car drivers sped down the road. Scooters also liked to pass too close; there is no such thing as personal space on a road in Taiwan.
As I passed by this shop, I thought it would be interesting to stop and show anyone reading this blog a type of store that you will find throughout Taiwan. This shop specializes in selling Buddhist items for people who have personal shrine rooms in their homes, or for families with a temple. It’s a unique place you won’t find elsewhere in the world, based on my travels.
I paused to admire the items displayed at the front of the shop. A woman came to the door, assuming I was a customer. She smiled when she realized I was a foreigner, likely not there to make a purchase. I complimented the shop, and she waved her hand with a smile. I decided not to go inside.
Finally, I got the chance to leave the main road and return to one of the country roads. I was almost at the coordinates, and my legs seemed to find new energy as I pedaled harder. Another sight that caught my eye was a common feature throughout Taiwan: Chinese-style gates that span over road entrances. I’m fascinated by the dragons and other characters sculpted onto them. They often seem to depict stories, though I’m not entirely sure about that.
A little further down the road, I reached the coordinates. The app led me to a small side road with the actual point right in the middle of someone’s field. Often with these Randonautica adventures, I find it’s not about reaching the exact point, but rather about the journey and what you discover along the way.
Fangbo Village, Fuxing Township, Changhua County.
The area was quite fascinating; the buildings appeared a bit rundown, with some abandoned. Most of the residents seemed elderly, often gathering under the shade of trees, chatting quietly and observing as this foreigner cycled past. I greeted them with a polite ‘Ni-Hao,’ but they merely stared as I went by.
In this area, there were old military structures — bunkers with potentially intriguing stories from past wars, now sitting in silence. Some of these structures had their walls painted a few years ago, while others appeared partially demolished; it’s unlikely the Japanese who built them envisioned them in this state. It was a truly random and unplanned place, uniquely different and surprisingly interesting. To top it off, there was even a disused helicopter — an unexpected sight for me that afternoon.
Though my journey is now done, I couldn’t leave Fuxing Township without showing you one of the most interesting temples in Taiwan.
SEASHELL TEMPLE
This is “Changhua Sea Shell Temple,” more formally known as the “Sanqing Sanyuan Temple. It is Taiwan’s earliest “Sea Shell Temple and, like Taichung’s Rainbow Village, is the creation of a single visionary who brought his dreams to life.
Constructed by a local man named Huang Chi-Chun, the temple took several decades to complete. Mr. Huang, who had spent much of his youth working in Taipei, returned to his childhood home in Changhua in 1978, purchased land, and ventured into the tropical fish farming business.
The thing is, Mr. Huang was a high school dropout, and after working his entire life to provide for his family, purchasing land and starting a business was no small feat. Fortunately, his fish farming business proved to be relatively successful, ensuring that his retirement savings were not completely wasted.
I’m sure Mr. Huang got the land for a really good price, considering it was situated next to a cemetery. Undoubtedly, his friends and family would have cautioned him about the hazards of such a location, but he was a bit of a quirky guy and didn’t pay much attention to the warnings.
Shortly after opening his fish farm, Mr. Huang began experiencing strange dreams in which images of a mysterious underwater temple visited him nearly every night. Memories from his days as a soldier also frequently surfaced in his dreams, including a vivid recollection of a time when a ranking officer presented him with statues of the “Three Pure Ones.”
The frequency of these dreams convinced Mr. Huang that something supernatural was at play, suggesting it was his duty to construct the temple exactly as it appeared in his visions.
Interestingly, Mr. Huang claims that once the temple was completed, his dreams suddenly ceased. He interpreted this as a sign of divine gratitude for the decades he spent on the project.
Similar to Noah building the Ark, Mr. Huang had little experience in temple design or construction techniques, relying on what he believed was divine assistance. Aside from hiring a few workers to help lay the temple’s foundation, he completed the rest of the construction single-handedly between 1978 and 1993.
To build the temple, Mr. Huang collected various species of mollusc shells from nearby waters and purchased a large quantity of sandstone from Hengchun in southern Taiwan.
I got this information from blogger — Josh Ellis Photography. (I just changed the writing a little).
So, that concludes my little late afternoon adventure. Sitting under a large tree outside the seashell temple, with a vast graveyard nearby, a warm breeze rustles the leaves above me. Something fell out of the tree and landed on my arm, but by the time I looked, it had vanished; all I could discern was that it had legs. Reflecting on the little things I saw, I felt satisfied that I hadn’t wasted the day at home. As I pondered, a woman swept away fallen leaves around me. She smiled and bowed; I returned the gesture. These weekend adventures are always worthwhile; I find joy in my new lifestyle of getting out of the house and cycling.
I wonder where the next Randonautica adventure will take me. Will it be a place full of fascination and wonder, or a disappointment like a rice field next to a rusting factory? Whatever it may be, I’m prepared for it.
The ride back to Changhua felt much shorter than my journey to Fuxing Township. Perhaps it was because I stowed away my phone and powered through the return along the main roads. I felt relaxed on the ride back; the sun was lower in the sky, and a warm breeze rustled through the surrounding rice fields, putting me in a meditative state, reminding me of childhood days out on the bike during the summer holidays. It was refreshing to be fully present, just me and my bike. As I neared the city’s edge, two children in the backseat of a car waved at me, with the boy even giving a thumbs-up as encouragement. Their gesture made me smile; you never know who you’ll encounter on the road.
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