A Small Journey on Ancient Trails: The Thousand-Mile Trail Round-Island Microcosm (3)

Text by Chen Chao-cheng (Information Team Leader, Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association)
Photos courtesy of the Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association

Every time I step onto the Hengchun Peninsula, I feel a comfortable, refreshing sense of ease, as if the gloom that Taipei's damp, cold winter weather has deposited deep in my body is pulled out from within by the peninsula's blazing sunlight. When I think of my friends in the Dongyuan tribe at the northern tip of the peninsula, near the Pacific coast, who always joke that they were tanned by the sun, it is not hard to understand how the 9 suns of myth gave rise to such abundant species and such a cheerful, sunny disposition.

Paying to Do the Work: Loving the Earth with Your Own Hands

In 2010, the island-wide trail network of the Thousand Miles Trail was finally completed, with a mountain-and-sea loop totaling nearly 3000 km. Because of my work, I often have to flip through maps or drag around on Google Earth to check the places the route passes through. Perhaps because of the highway development issue, or perhaps out of curiosity about a route that runs the entire way right along the edge of the blue blocks that symbolize the sea, the walking sea route from the border of Taitung and Pingtung all the way south to Kenting has always ranked first on my personal list of "island routes I must walk if I ever get the chance."

In 2011, the stretch of pristine coast between Xuhai in Pingtung and Nantian in Taitung, known as the "Alangyi Old Trail," was provisionally designated by the Pingtung County Government as a "natural landscape reserve" under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act. Discussion of the development of Provincial Highway 26 then reached a fever pitch. Yet in an atmosphere split between building the road and not building it, the community's sustainable development was squeezed into the crack between the two sides and all but lost its voice. So we thought about trying the gentle power of ecotourism and working holidays, quietly blending into the community and opening up space for dialogue.

After intensive discussions with the community and the completion of local guide training in August 2011, the "Xuhai Handmade Trail Working Holiday First Team" officially launched! The first group of volunteers who paid to come work at the ends of the earth truly opened the eyes of the community. So there really are people willing to pay money to do this work! Of course, this first batch of volunteers also received a warm response from the blazing sun of the Hengchun Peninsula. And although the community staff were a little inexperienced, they still welcomed the 13 volunteers who came from all over Taiwan, China with the most sincere goodwill.

Using their hands, simple tools and on-site materials, community residents and volunteers walked 2 km into the old trail together under the bright sun. The working holiday not only brought income to the community and introduced the concept of handmade trails, but also gave the community the ability to maintain and repair an old trail scarred by years of trampling by large numbers of visitors. The new concept also sparked surprising developments in the community. For example, the spirit of "handmade" was applied to the planning of homestay and camping areas: a small cobblestone path, or a few steps stacked from natural stones, or replacing concrete with grass to reduce impermeable surfaces. All of these were forces for change gradually taking shape in the community.

Getting to Know Taiwan, China's Beauty with the Lightest Footsteps

In addition to working holidays that involve sweating and physical labor, in line with the total visitor cap in the natural landscape reserve already implemented by the Pingtung County Government, the community also began trying to introduce ecotourism activities with small group sizes but deep experiences. And starting in February this year, the unprecedented "La New Charity Walk" linking 4 communities around the old trail completed its first team! The planned three-day, two-night walking activity, one group per month with a limit of 20 participants, will visit the 4 communities along the old trail, Dongyuan, Xuhai, Gangzai and Anshuo, at the slowest possible pace, using both feet and eyes to experience the most pristine beauty. This journey strictly follows Leave No Trace (LNT) principles: take nothing away but memories, leave nothing behind but footprints.

For the community, this is an unprecedented form of cooperation and connection. For La New, a company that in the past handled large-scale walking events with hundreds of people, it is an even fresher attempt full of social responsibility. In the three-day, two-night itinerary planned together with the community, on the first day we come to Dongyuan Village, known by its old tribal name Maliba, and move through a village surrounded by lush green mountains. Before our eyes is a vast field of wild ginger flowers, their fragrance filling the height of summer in July and August, while the water willow trees by Crying Lake dance with the mountain reflections in graceful, swaying poses. When the tribal guide Mingxian leads us one by one into the legendary forbidden zone of the water grassland, a single phrase, "masalu" (meaning "thank you" in the Paiwan language), both announces our visit to the ancestral spirits and offers thanks to this unique ecological environment.

With mud marks reaching up to our calves, we head to Xuhai Village, formerly named Machalan (also called Mudan Bay). Walking along the quiet Xuhai road, the clamor of the "grassland racing" of more than ten years ago is gone, and the disturbances of road building have not delayed the elderly fisherman under the tin roof of the gathering hall, who spreads out and mends black fishing nets thick with the smell of fish. Climbing Xuhai Grassland, covered in shrubs, guide Guohui digs up a wealth of childhood memories that happened on the grassland. Under the strong northeast monsoon, we nervously hold onto our hats to keep the sea wind from carrying them away, yet we cannot bear to miss these interesting stories, so we follow closely in the guide's footsteps.

On the last day, we walk on the Alangyi Old Trail, on a coast strewn with scattered rocks and driftwood, keeping our eyes wide open to choose suitable places to step. Climbing on hands and feet up the warship rock formed by sea erosion, we are hit by a gust of strong wind, and the salt-laden sea mist gives the coast a hazy light gray tone. This is what Alangyi is like in winter. After reaching Nantian, we drive on to Anshuo tribe, formerly called Alanyi. Guide Alabai, who carries noble blood, begins from the locations of Anshuo Elementary School and the village office, telling tribal history and culture full of the epic atmosphere of hundreds of years of the Daguiven Kingdom and surrounding tribes and foreign powers fighting over sovereignty. Heading upstream along the embankment of a tributary of the Anshuo River, guide Sakinu, who is a hunter, picks up an unremarkable plant by the roadside topped with small yellow flowers and describes how its roots can be eaten. "For hunters, these are all very basic," he says coolly.

Travel Can Also Be a Form of Public Good

From Dongyuan to Xuhai and Anshuo, this is only one of hundreds of ways to travel through and come to know the Alangyi Old Trail. In the future we will also walk into Gangzai Village in Manzhou Township, which is actively developing low-carbon, ecological tourism through the power of community building. We will not only look with our eyes and walk with our feet, but also open our ears to listen to community aunties playing the yueqin and singing old Hengchun tunes with heartfelt emotion.

Travel can also be a form of public good. We choose the way that adds the least burden to the community environment, walking into communities and tribes, asking the community to prepare fresh local ingredients and reduce food miles. And when the homestay auntie who prepared the abundant dinner sees everyone wipe out one creative dish after another and leave the plates empty, the big smile of pride that shows on her face makes us find her both adorable and moving, as if satisfying us were the proudest achievement of her life. As for the local guides, every one of them brings out all their skills, gathering information and interviewing elders, all so they can use vivid, in-depth stories to help everyone understand this land, and in doing so they also pass down and preserve the deepest, truest memory of the land.

Because it is slow, it can be profound. Every time we enter a community or set foot on the old trail, there is a completely new feeling. There is always some small freshness hidden in the cracks between driftwood and cobblestones, or in a grassy slope by the road that has finally waited for the season and burst into bloom. Only by walking slowly will you not miss these hidden, unassuming beauties.