03/06 Journal

It was almost 11 o’clock at night when we arriving the hotel in Hualien. Maybe, it was too late so the area in front of Hualien Train Station was not lively. However, there were many hotels for the tourists. The famous 曾記麻糬 was opened in front of the station. I walked to there to buy some delicious magi(麻糬) for my family to comfort our exhausted bodies.

The next day, we went to the most beautiful scene of the trip, Meqmeqi(慕谷慕魚). It was an area in mountains of Tai Power(台電) in County Sioulin(秀林鄉). In early times, the area was forbidden entering by government because it was one of important power plants in east Taiwan. Recently, the area has opened for tourists but they need to have an applicant for entering restricted mountain areas. The area was named after Meqmeqi in memory of a sheik of aboriginal ancestors. Three hundred years ago, Meqmeqi led his people to walk through Central Mountains(中央山脈) from Nantou(南投) to Hualien and settled down there. There was an aboriginal village in Meqmeqi and the villagers were Taroko(太魯閣族).