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Mazu | 馬祖

November 1, 2022

Recently, I’ve been very busy with ICL. In the past two weeks I participated in two separate trips, both of which were a lot of fun! The first one was a day trip to Miaoli and Hsinchu, two counties about an hour from Taipei. The school in Hsinchu was the school that I serve, so I was able to meet my students in person. My ICL partner and I prepared small gift bags with goldfish crackers and a small halloween decoration to share with the kids. They were so cute! After my trip, I reunited with my friends from my Yilan trip and went to Haidilao hotpot…it was really great! Haidilao is most famous for their service and a performance of hand-pulled noodles done at your table. It was such a fun way to reunite!

Terrarium from a school visit in Miaoli

My students, Terry, Johnny, and Roy with my partner Kathleen and I

My students, again! They're in third grade in Xinchu

Haidilao hotpot with my Yilan friends

My second trip this week was to Mazu, a series of islands off the northwest coast of Taiwan. The islands are very close to China—I could see mainland China from my hotel room. The islands have some really interesting history. Due to their proximity to China, they were a key part of the Chinese civil war. When the Nationalists were driven off of mainland China, some of them settled in the Mazu islands. As a result of their strategic military location, the islands are smattered with various bunkers, tunnels, and anti-communist slogans.

Our trip started with a flight to one of the larger islands, Nangan. The original plan was to stay overnight on Nangan and catch a ferry to Dongyin, a smaller island about two hours away where the school is located. However, the wind was too strong in the Taiwan strait, so the ferry ended up getting canceled, essentially turning our school visit into a three day vacation.

Our plane to Nangan, operated by Uni Air

Temple right next to our hotel

Mainland China on the horizon

枕戈待旦, essentially meaning "always ready for battle", slogan faces China

After dropping our stuff at our hotel on Nangan, we went on a long walk to explore some of the island. Our first stop was the Matsu Battlefield Culture Museum (勝利堡媽祖戰地文化博物館), a museum placed inside an old fort. After stopping here, we climbed up Yuntaishan (雲臺山) to watch a glorious sunset before grabbing dinner in town. I ate 紅棗炒飯, fried rice made with jujube (see the food page for reference), or Chinese red date. This unique seasoning gave the rice a beautiful red color, but didn’t affect the flavor too much. After finishing off the meal with some ice cream from FamilyMart, we played some games before going to bed.

Sunset at the top of 雲臺山

Next to the 雲臺山 marker

With some new friends!

Since we couldn’t go to Dongyin, we decided to take a half-day trip to Beigan, the other large island north of Nangan. The two islands are quite close to each other, so the boat ride was only 15 minutes. I’m really glad we didn’t go to Dongyin, because the water was very choppy…it was a very rough 15 minute ferry ride. Once we arrived on Beigan, we walked around to various points of interest on the southern part of the island. One of the most interesting places was the Mazu broadcasting tower. This is not to be confused with the Beishan broadcasting tower on Kinmen (another set of islands belonging to Taiwan, near China). In the past, this tower was used to blast propaganda at China. The one on Beigan is no longer functional, but the one on Kinmen is (which is crazy to me). Near the tower, they had a smaller speaker and microphone you could speak into. While it didn’t broadcast all the way to China, it was fun to try it out!

In front of a Matsu sign on a beach

Small temple in the distance

Mazu broadcasting tower

Speaker for your own broadcasts...sadly it doesn't point at China which is visible on the horizon

Me in a bunker

After the broadcasting tower, we walked to Qinbi village. It was built in the late Qing dynasty by the Chen clan from Fujian province in China. The small buildings are built into the mountainside with narrow lanes and stairs. The buildings also have a lot of anti-commuist slogans that transport you to a completely different era. Currently, many of the buildings have been converted into cute homestays for tourists. The village is also equipped with a small 7-11!

After seeing the village, we took a hike up and over a small mountain in the middle of the island, and went to find lunch. We’d hoped to find a restaurant in the town, but sadly, everything was closed. Thankfully, there was another 7-11 near the visitor’s center, so we went there and had a hodge-podge convenience store lunch. After lunch, it was time to head back to Nangan to skype the students on Dongyin, so after stopping at a couple more temples, we headed back to the ferry terminal.

7-11 in Qinbi village

Qinbi village from a distance

7-11 lunch

Our skype session with the students was a bit of a let-down, especially since we were excited to see them in person. Nonetheless, it was still fun to briefly connect with them online. After the skype session, we visited the Beihai Tunnel (北海坑道). This tunnel was built in 1968 to dock small military boats and conceal Taiwan’s military power. We also visited the Dahan Strongpoint (大漢據點), another fort on the side of a mountain. From one of the gun platforms, we got a lovely view of the sunset over the ocean. For dinner, we went into a small town on the other side of the island from our hotel and I tried 老酒麵綫, or vermicelli with pork and broth with Mazu liquor, a local specialty. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and Hannah and I watched some comedy before heading to bed after a long day.

Dahan strongpoint

Skype session with students on Dongyin

Beihai tunnel

On the third day of our trip, we took a tour around Nangan to some of the more famous tourist sites, arranged by the ICL staff. The highlights included breakfast at Jieshou Shizi morning market, the statue of the sea goddess Mazu, Tunnel 88 (where famous Kaoliang liquor is aged), the Iron Fort, and Jintai village where we had a chance to walk on the beach.

The Goddess Mazu

Interior of Mazu temple

Exterior of Mazu temple

Entrance to Tunnel 88

Inside of tunnel 88

Hannah at the beach before leaving Nangan

Overall, I really enjoyed the trip to Mazu. It is a place with a really interesting history and is so different from the city. Would I go back? Unless I was with someone who was really interested in what the island had to offer, I don’t feel like I need to go back. Apart from seeing the tourist sites, there isn’t much to do, simply due to the fact that the towns are so small. Despite this, I’m really thankful for the opportunity I had to go, and enjoyed getting a small taste of local life and food! See below for pictures of all the local foods I tried on the trip!

紅棗炒飯 red date fried rice

老酒麵綫

地瓜餃 sweet potato dumplings

馬祖漢堡 "mazu hamburger"

Some other updates from the past couple of weeks:

Taipei is very rainy. This is what our typical 7 day forecast looks like (see below). An umbrella is essential to staying dry. Ideally, it is also very portable…it’s always wise to bring it even if there is no rain in the forecast. When I first came to Taiwan, I didn’t have an umbrella so I bought a very cheap and flimsy one. It fell apart a couple of weeks ago, so my ICL partner went with me to an umbrella shop (yes, they have full shops with only umbrellas) to buy a new one. This is the best umbrella I’ve owned! It’s quite sturdy, portable, and I really like the color. I could be an ambassador for this umbrella shop :) With all the rain, we don’t get much sun, so it was nice to spend three days in Mazu followed by two absolutely glorious days of weather in Taipei. Now we’re back to rain for the foreseeable future.

A number of places in Taiwan have commemorative stamps that you can collect when you visit. A few years ago, Taipei Metro launched a stamp for each MRT station, so Hannah and I have been collecting the stamps as we go around Taipei in a small passport-sized book. It’s a fun, unique, and inexpensive souvenir!

Umbrella army

This week's forecast

MRT commemorative stamps

Stamps from Mazu temple

I also went with a friend to get a personalized stamp with my Chinese name. These stamps are used in place of signatures for many official functions in Taiwan. The owner of the shop we went to has been making these stamps for over 30 years, so it was really special to watch him make the stamp.

Outside the stamp shop

My stamp (left) with my friend's stamp

Final product! Mine is the top.

As usual, I’ve updated the food and boba pages! Check out all the incredible food I’ve had recently!

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