TAIPEI PART III: the Maokong Mountains

By far, the best thing we did in Taiwan was our journey to the end of the MRT line and the gondola across the Maokong Mountains. It was our last day in Taipei and taking the gondola was a whim, a small dot at the end of the map next to the Taipei Zoo. I'm not sure I mentioned before, but the Taipei metro system is quite beautiful. The line to the zoo is elevated, much like the L in Chicago. As we sat on the train for the twenty minutes it took to reach the end of the line I felt so peaceful, tall houses and trees gliding by.

The last stop was full of small children and high school couples visiting the Zoo on a Saturday afternoon. We passed them by and continued three or four blocks to the gondola which was only 50 TWD each way (about $1.75). I had expected the gondola to go from the bottom to the top of a mountain. What we found instead was a trip across several mountain peaks traveling about 4 kilometers above the tree tops. It was a misty kind of afternoon, just cool enough to have us wearing sweaters, and the view from the gondola carriage was breathtaking. If I thought the train was peaceful, it was nothing to the meditative feel of riding the gondola. It was heading on to late afternoon by this time so that, as we rounded one peak the mountains would be suddenly suffused in gold.

We finally disembarked to find ourselves in a small cliffside village. Half-farming town, half carnival I wished we had had more time to spend there. Between fields and orchards were wedged numerous tea houses, hiking paths and sweets stalls. Feeling in the spirit I bought a large bag of cotton candy as we wandered along the only street in town.

Maokong Tea Houses

The fields, the foods and then the fall.

If we had brought stronger shoes and warmer clothes we might have wandered onto the hiking paths, leading off to more temples and tea houses, but the day was cooling quickly. As we walked further it felt like drifting into the realm of Spirited Away. Stairs disappearing into leaves led up and down in every direction and next to the road — rainboots in tree branches and overgrown motorbikes. If not Spirited Away then at least we saw something akin to Forster's India, whose jungle swallows everything with no thought of civilization.

Our final stop was a tea house, clutched at the bottom of a long stairwell. It was there we learned that we were in the town of Mucha and that this mountain, and all the others around it, is famous for green tea. All those fields we passed, along the road and in the gondola, were tea fields. At the cafe we were able to try hot tea, tea cakes, tea souffle and tea ice cream. The owner of the cafe is a baker whose dream is to bring the flavor of Mucha, his hometown, to the world. Sitting in the chill air of the cafe, sipping the scalding tea which made that small town famous will surely be one of my strongest memories of Taiwan.

The Mucha Tea House.