Page 32 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 83

were thinning, as quite a few people travelled home
after the show, but we enjoyed the evening, nonetheless.
We looked forward to the Monday mystery tour
WE LOOKED arranged for us. Last time we were in Taiwan, we were
FORWARD TO taken to a beautiful museum housing a whole range of
incredibly valuable and ancient items brought out of
THE MONDAY China from the Forbidden City for safekeeping after
Japan invaded in the 1930s and never returned. We
MYSTERY were also taken to a coastal area with some very
TOUR famous stone “mushrooms”, huge rocks shaped by
wind and water probably thousands of years ago.
ARRANGED However, this time we were in a completely different

FOR US area of Taiwan, so we had no idea what to expect.
We duly boarded a bus on Monday morning and were
taken on a tour of Hsinchu (New Bamboo). We went
first to a remote cultural site in the mountains where the
entire industry is in growing, harvesting and drying
persimmons. These were different in shape from the Above:
The Hakka village entrance
Right: and square.
We had the process of
drying persimmons Right:
explained to us, once dried
The local Hakka ladies are
they keep well and taste well known for their strong
like dried apricots.
sense of identity, unique
culture and language.
Below:
High up in the mountains
the entire industry is
growing, harvesting and
drying persimmons.
fruit we see in Australia, shaped more like plum
tomatoes, elongated and smaller than the usual variety,
which look more like large, smooth-skinned mandarins.
Once dried completely, they keep well and are very
THE LOCAL tasty, rather like dried apricots. The local people
PEOPLE involved are a significant ethnic group in Taiwan,
representing approximately 15 to 20% of the
INVOLVED ARE population, culturally separated and speaking a dialect

A SIGNIFICANT called Hakka. They migrated from mainland China
originally and are known for their strong sense of
ETHNIC GROUP identity, emphasis on education and unique culture and
IN TAIWAN language. We next visited another Hakka cultural area,
laid out like an entire village with interesting shops
and a very special museum showing old agricultural
implements, a huge statue in the centre (we had no
idea who it was meant to be but it was very impressive)
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