The Trip to Alishan in Taiwan

It was the fourth day of our trip to Taiwan, bright but cold. After a good breakfast we put on our jackets and gloves, pulled on our hats and got into a car. We travelled for about two hours, up, and up, and up the mountain road.

We finally arrived at the top of the mountain. It was Christmas Day. So imagine my joy to see icicles (冰柱) hanging from branches and the whiteness of the scenery. Indeed, it was my first Christmas in the northern hemisphere(半球)and, guess what? It even started snowing too. How amazingly exciting for me to have Christmas in my grandmother’s hometown, and to experience icicles and snow. Alishan is really beautiful, especially seen from this dizzy height. After Sun parked the car, we got out and looked down through the trees. It hadn’t snowed hard enough so there was no snow on the ground, just loads of pine needles. There was a most wonderful smell of pine sap (松液) drifting up to us from the ground. It was very quiet, except for the twittering of birds, and the odd car passing along the road. Quietness in Taiwan is something to treasure.

Over the road was a small stall so we went over to it. They were selling some drink steaming hot in paper cups, too hot to hold immediately. We jumped around to get warm. There was a cool wind blowing up the side of the mountain, and the clouds above us were moving along quickly. I could imagine there was quite a strong wind blowing up there, so I was glad we were down on the ground! The drink cooled down fairly rapidly. I picked up my share and, wow, what a lovely smell was coming from it. It was the smell of ginger(姜). I took a sip. How delicious, and so this was ginger tea, which I had never tried before. It warmed my body so quickly that I could feel the heat travel right down to my fingers and to my toes. This was very good stuff. And then it was time to leave as we were going down to Hualian to eat hot pot, and drink some Shaoxing rice wine.