Taipei On the River

What really attracted me to the hotel and neighborhood where we stayed was the river. The Keelung River cuts through the city while the Danshui River runs along the western border. For reasons I will never understand, Chinese people do not particularly care about waterfront property. Beaches and rivers in China and Taiwan are often treated like toilets. The Keelung River is famous for being a public sewer.

Part of Zhongshan's renovation was the construction of several riverside parks. There were long stretches of empty land near the river, since no one likes living on the water, so someone eventually decided to turn a few swamps and patches of nothing into recreation areas. The parks are mostly long stretches of green with walking, jogging and bicycle paths. There are a few sporting fields here and there and, ironically, a park for dogs to run around without their leashes. It is ironic because, like China, dogs in Taiwan run around without leashes anyway. Stray dogs and pets are everywhere. I have rarely seen any on a leash. Strays kill more than a few children every year in China. I don't know what the statistics are in Taiwan.

Close to one of the park entrances, and throughout the city, are Youbike stations; a public bicycle sharing system that is much easier to use than I expected. Lily and I have MRT Easycards, which are just like MTR Octopus cards. If you have an Easycard, you scan it on the Youbike kiosk and enter your phone number. Within seconds, they sent a message with a number code that we entered into the kiosk. That activated our Easycards. You can also activate them online, but doing it at the machine was easy. Once your card has been activated, you can scan it at whichever bicycle you want. When you return it to any station, you scan your card again and it deducts whatever the fee is, depending on how long you had the bike. The prices are low. It starts out at something like NT$5 (HK$1.50) for the first half hour, NT$10 (HK$2.50) for each half hour under 4 hours, NT$20 (HK$5.50) for each half hour between 4-8 hours, NT$40 (HK$10.50) for each half hour after 8 hours.

I don't know what they would do if we stole the bikes. Easycards are anonymous. We bought them at vending machines with cash. There is no way for any government agency to identify who owns a card. People without Easycards can rent the bikes with credit cards. They can be charged for stolen bikes. We returned ours, of course, but what would they have done if we had not?

The bikes were nothing special. They were typical city bikes with adequate brakes and adjustable seats. That is really all you need. The park where we rode those bikes was exceptional. There were separate roads for cars, bicycles and joggers. In a Chinese city, that is beyond important. The only reason I don't own a bicycle is because I live in Hong Kong. Riding a bike in the city is suicidal. There are plenty of mountain trails in the New Territories and some of the islands, but mountains are too advanced for me. The safest trails and bike paths require an MTR ride, so it's easier to rent a bike when you get there than to bring your own. I would love to be able to ride a bike from my apartment to wherever I'm going, but that would require some very busy and dangerous streets.

Yingfeng Riverside Park in Taipei required almost no riding on city streets, except for half a block from the bike station to the park. The park is flat, so if you are looking for an extreme challenge, it's not for you. But it is the best place for a calm, relaxing and safe bike ride that I have ever seen in East Asia. The most dangerous aspect of our bicycle time was the blaring sun, but we are both used to that. Hats and sunscreen usually do the trick. That was probably also why the park was always empty. I'm sure it gets crowded on cloudy weekends, and more people mean more accidents.

Between sweating in the park, riding trains in the rain and swimming at the hotel, it was a pretty wet trip.