Peddling Down the Keelung

On 28 February 2020, I went to Taipei with my sister, Lily. We had both been to Taipei, but never on a holiday. February 28 is a public holiday in Taiwan, commemorating the 228 massacre. As such, we went to the 228 Peace Memorial Park, a block from the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. We had been there before, but never on 2/28. If you want to go to 228 Peace Park, that is really the day to go. It was something different.

More often than not, the park is a quiet little place to get away from the traffic of Taipei. It is small, so you can hear the city wherever you are in the park, but there are no cars or scooters allowed inside. That makes it much safer. On 2/28, it gets busy.

The current president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing Wen, gave a speech. I don't know anything about her or her policies, but I like how she broke a lot of the rules. Not only does she not have a penis, she does not have a husband, did not climb up the traditional ladder of political power, and she is the only president of Taiwan to have any native Taiwanese ancestry. She was elected with 56% of the votes in a three way race. That's pretty good. The KMT candidate came in second with 31%. Also, she was named after the English language. That beats the previous president, whose name literally translates to Nine English Horses. More importantly, Tsai has always been an outspoken critic of the government handling of the 228 aftermath. Previous presidents mostly said, “It was a terrible tragedy, but what can you do?” If you are going to watch any Taiwan president give a 228 speech, Tsai is the one.

Lily and I have been to Taipei a few times. I always tell people who go to Tokyo that they should concentrate on one neighborhood on each visit and go to a different neighborhood on the next visit, since the city is so large. I rarely take my own advice, however, and usually stay in Shibuya whenever I go. For Taipei, a much smaller city than Tokyo, I do it the Tokyo way. We and/or I have stayed in Xinyi, Zhongzheng, Da'an, Zhongshan and now Nangang.

Xinyi is just east of downtown, with most of the important commercial buildings. Zhongzheng is downtown, with most of the important government buildings. Da'an is downtown, with most of the educational institutions and more than a few night markets. Zhongshan is downtown, with most of the important brothels.

Nangang is nowhere near downtown and as far east as you can go without leaving Taipei. You have to climb mountains to get any farther east. Its claim to fame seems to be a large convention and exhibition center. What I liked about Nangang was all the transportation. The high speed train station, slow speed train station, MRT station and bus station are all in one large complex. Just outside the station were an endless line of taxis and a row of Youbikes. Lily and I both have MRT cards from a previous trip, with which we could rent bikes, ride trains and buses, and generally use like an Octopus.

We stayed at the Place Taipei, which was an unusually clean hotel. Probably because it opened in March 2019. It was yet another typical business hotel, something Taipei has in abundance, but the location was excellent. The Nangang super station was an easy 15 minute walk away, the Nangang Exhibition Center MRT station was five minutes away and the Nangang Software Park MRT station was across the street from the hotel. Most hotels in Taipei are surrounded by food, but this one was in a newer neighborhood, so most of the food was more upscale. Fortunately, this was Taiwan. Finding cheaper everyday food is always easy.

There were Youbike stations at Nangang Software Park, Nangang MRT and the shopping mall just south of the hotel. It was an easy neighborhood to walk around, but not particularly safe for bicyclists. We were never going to ride around the streets anyway. Two blocks from the hotel was the Keelung River, which has miles and miles of riverside parks with walking and bicycle paths.

From the Nanhu Bridge, we rode west along the north bank of the river. We passed a dozen playgrounds and athletic fields before we reached Zhongshan. We immediately recognized the Marriott, where we stayed on our last trip to Taipei. As the tallest building on the horizon, it was hard to miss. The last time we rode bikes east of that hotel, we had to turn around when the river paths ended somewhere in Neihu. Between then and now, they have extended the paths to at least Nangang. We did not even realize we were at the same place until we hit the Zhongshan path.

Now that we knew where we were, we knew that the bike path would continue into Shilin, so we kept riding west. The Zhongshan stretch of the river was easily the busiest part. There were more playgrounds, basketball courts, tennis courts, baseball diamonds and picnic grounds than at any other stretch of the river. More importantly, there were parking lots. I have no idea where anyone parks at other points along the river. Probably somewhere that cannot be seen from the river. But just south of the Marriott, they can park all along Meiti Park. Ample parking and the fact that this was the Sunday of a three day weekend meant this section of the river was far more crowded than any other. We could race at our top speeds in Nangang and Neihu, if we were so inclined. In Zhongshan, we had to slow down considerably for foot traffic, and often stop.

Past the tennis courts, the crowds disappeared. Possibly because there was no more parking that far west. More likely because the level road quickly became hilly. The downhill part was pretty easy. Uphill required more effort on a bicycle. Hitting the hill at speed was pretty much impossible because there was a sharp turn in the path just before the hill. You have no choice but to attack the hill almost at a standing stop. Beyond all that, it leveled off again as the river runs north. The change in direction also brought an added bonus of a nice breeze, at least both of the times I have ridden a bicycle along this river. Trees also provided the only shade along the paths, other than a few bridges passing overhead. This was Taipei, so it was never cold, but this was easily the coldest stretch along the riverside parks.

The paths continued, but the parks ended at a smaller parking lot and tiny basketball court. Beyond the last parking lot, the parks started up again. They were smaller than the Zhongshan parks, but looked pretty much the same. As the Keelung River continues north, a tributary and the bike paths veer east. The parks pretty much ended for good at some kind of dyke/water pumping station. It was not all that scenic, but the paths continued, and so did we. The tributary was smaller than the river, as tributaries usually are, and the area became more industrial than green. We took that as our sign to turn around and head back. It looked like the bicycle path was going to end in about a kilometer anyway.

Before going back, we were headed east, but there was no way that path was going to get us back to Nangang. Not only does the river not flow in a circle, but there are mountains between Shilin and Nangang. The easiest ways to get back were either to return the bikes at the nearest Youbike station and take the MRT red line to the blue line to Nangang, or simply ride back whence we came. We had plenty of time, plenty of water and the weather was on our side.

According to Hong Kong Google, Taipei was going to rain all weekend. Friday started out cloudy, but quickly shifted to sunny and hot. Without a hat, I would have gotten sunburned. Saturday was pretty much the same as Friday morning. It was not until late Sunday afternoon that the clouds started to get gloomy. We headed to the airport before 17:00, so whether it was going to rain that night or not, it had nothing to do with us.