Bao Island Storyteller: Journey to the West

Episode 75 stays in the Miaoli mountain district at Tai'an Hot Springs — where sodium bicarbonate springs bubble up from the valley floor, steam drifts between green mountain walls, and the water leaves your skin silky smooth. Over a sizzling plate of Hakka stir-fry and a perfectly wobbly onsen egg, we reach the single most chaotic sequence in Journey to the West: Sun Wukong being inhaled into a B...

Episode 74 comes down from the mountains to Miaoli's coast — windmills standing along the seaside bluffs of Houlong Cape, and then inland to the sunny Feiniu Ranch with its Jersey cows and famous rich ice cream. We lick ivory-pale soft-serve from grass-fed cows in a breezy field, and eat Hakka tang yuan — glutinous rice balls in a sweet ginger broth — before turning into the Tai'an mountain area f...

Episode 73 takes us into the mountain valley of Nanzhuang in Miaoli's eastern hills — a quiet Hakka village tucked between green ridges where the Zhonggang River flows past, and the famous Osmanthus Lane fills the air with sweet floral fragrance when the flowers bloom. We sip osmanthus brew — honey-preserved osmanthus blossoms diluted with ice water, delicate and floral — and eat Hakka mochi duste...

Episode 72 winds up into the forested hills of Nanzhuang — a Hakka mountain township in southern Miaoli where osmanthus trees line every street and the old wooden shophouses smell of flower tea and sesame. We stay at a treehouse resort built on stilts above a mountain stream, eat Hakka ban tiao — smooth flat rice noodles in a fragrant broth — and osmanthus honey cake. The story: seven spider spiri...

Episode 71 rolls into Miaoli's Sanyi Township — famous for camphor-wood sculpture, dramatic mountain scenery, and the sweetest strawberries in Taiwan. Today we pedal the scenic Old Shanline Rail Bike through tunnels and across mountain bridges, stop at the earthquake-shattered arches of Longteng Broken Bridge, and eat strawberry wine and strawberry mochi from nearby Dahu. The story: a mysterious d...

Episode seventy takes us all the way up to Wuling Farm and Snow Mountain in Taichung's Heping District — Taiwan's highest-altitude agricultural area, where cherry blossoms bloom in winter and the alpine cirque of Snow Mountain looks like it belongs in a painting. Over ripe Lishan peaches and a bowl of crisp sweet Wuling cabbage, we follow Sun Wukong at his sneakiest: disguised as a fly no bigger t...

Episode sixty-nine takes us to Lihpao Resort in Houli — Taichung's biggest theme park and outlet complex, where the energy is big and busy and everything is designed for a great day out. Over another perfect sun cake and a freshly baked Dajia taro pastry, we follow the showdown between Sun Wukong and a demon who has been hiding in the palace as a Taoist doctor — and who, it turns out, is the very...

Episode sixty-eight takes us to Yizhong Street Night Market — Taichung's student food paradise in the North District, where cheap snacks, bubble tea, and food that's best eaten while walking fill every narrow alley. Over Taichung's legendary bubble shaved ice tea and a flaky sun cake fresh from the oven, we hear Chapter Sixty-Eight: Sun Wukong pulls off the most improbable medical diagnosis in his...

Episode sixty-seven lands us at Fengjia Night Market — Taiwan's biggest, busiest, most chaotic night market, right next to Feng Chia University in Taichung's Xitun District. Over a sizzling big-sausage-wrapped-in-small-sausage and a loaded cheese potato, we hear how Sun Wukong dealt with a village-terrorizing python using possibly the most ridiculous strategy in the whole book: he walked straight...

Episode sixty-six rolls down to two small towns in Nantou that share a quiet, enduring steadiness — Jiji, where a century-old wooden railway station still stands after being painstakingly rebuilt from earthquake rubble, and Zhushan, home to the Zitong Temple (Purple South Temple), one of the most-visited wealth temples in Taiwan. Over braised dried bamboo shoots that deepen with every simmer and b...

Episode 65 rises to the highest reaches of the Taiwan road trip — Cingjing Farm, where sheep graze on green hillsides that look like New Zealand, and Hehuanshan's Wuling Pass at 3,275 metres, the highest point reachable by paved road in Taiwan. Over a Cingjing cloud bento packed with mountain-grown vegetables and braised meats, and a plate of stir-fried alpine cabbage so sweet it tastes like desse...

Episode 64 takes us into one of Taiwan's most distinctive landscapes — the Xitou Nature Education Area in Nantou's Lugu Township, where towering Moso bamboo grows twenty metres tall and the wind through the canopy sounds like a thousand people whispering. We eat bamboo tube rice with its gentle bamboo fragrance baked right into the sticky rice, and stir-fried mountain celery — crisp, slightly bitt...

Episode 63 brings us to Sun Moon Lake in Nantou's Yuchi Township — Taiwan's largest alpine lake at over 700 metres elevation, where the northern half is round like a sun and the southern half curves like a crescent moon. In the morning mist the water becomes a mirror and you feel like you are standing inside a painting. We crack open a Shao tribe grandma's tea egg — the shell veined with dark line...

Episode 62 arrives at Sun Moon Lake — Taiwan's most famous mountain lake, home of the Thao indigenous people, and the source of one of Taiwan's most celebrated teas. Between a cable car ride to Nine Tribes Cultural Village and an afternoon at the Tea Tea Tea museum learning about the lake's red tea heritage, we settle in with tea-smoked eggs from a Thao elder's roadside pot and cups of warm, honey...

Episode 61 brings us to Puli — the geographic heart of Taiwan, tucked in the mountains of Nantou County. Known for its incredibly clean water and the famous Shaoxing rice wine brewed from it, Puli is the kind of mountain town that rewards those who drive past the tourist shortcuts. At the Baolhu Earth God Temple and a chocolate castle inspired by local cacao, we settle in with Shaoxing-braised dis...

Episode sixty lands us in Tianwei — Taiwan's self-declared flower capital, where the roads are lined with nurseries and the air smells of things blooming. At Chengmei Culture Park, surrounded by flowers in every season, we follow Sun Wukong through chapter sixty's elaborate game of disguise, counter-disguise, and the moment where having the real fan in your hand still isn't enough — because the pe...

Episode fifty-nine brings us to Lukang — the jewel of Changhua County, a harbour town frozen beautifully in the eighteenth century. Walking the narrow lanes of Lukang Old Street, past temples with dragon-coil pillars and incense shops that have been open for two hundred years, we visit both the famous Mazu Temple and the magnificent Longshan Temple. Over a pillow-soft Changhua meat ball and a bowl...

Episode fifty-eight takes us up into the mountains of Yunlin to Gukeng — Taiwan's most famous coffee village, where hundred-year-old camphor trees form a cathedral-like green tunnel over the road. Walking through the green tunnel, past coffee farms in the mountain mist, and up to the Pink Bubbles scenic overlook, we hear the Buddha explain what the six-eared macaque really is — and watch Sun Wukon...

Episode fifty-seven takes us into the heart of Yunlin County — to Huwei, where the old sugar factory heritage park preserves a century of industrial history, and to Beigang Chaotian Temple, the most famous Mazu temple in all of Taiwan. Over cups of Gukeng mountain coffee and bamboo tube rice eaten in the temple courtyard, we encounter the most philosophically disturbing chapter in all of Journey t...

Episode fifty-six takes us to Dalin — a quiet old market town in southern Chiayi County, the kind of place where the morning market has been happening in the same spot for eighty years and the old temples still anchor the community. Dalin is unhurried and unpretentious, a farming hub that feeds a whole district. Over crispy fried tofu skin and bowls of sesame oil chicken, we follow what might be S...

Episode 55 takes us into the tea hills of Meishan and Fanlu — the foothills of Alishan, where tea terraces climb the mountainsides in perfect green rows and the Alishan Highway winds through fog and bamboo groves. These quiet farming villages sit between the lowlands and the high peaks, at the altitude where tea grows best: cool nights, warm days, and mist that never fully lifts. Over a second rou...

Episode 54 takes us up into Alishan — one of Taiwan's most beloved mountain destinations. We ride the forest railway through cedar and cypress, walk the Sacred Tree trail among thousand-year-old giants, and stand on the Er-yanping overlook where the morning mist fills the valleys like an ocean. Over bamboo tube rice cooked in fire-roasted green bamboo and smoky wild boar sausage from a roadside gr...

Episode 53 takes us to Chiayi City — the gateway to Taiwan's mountain country and the undisputed capital of turkey rice. We explore Aimu Village, a wood culture museum built inside an old timber warehouse where the scent of hinoki cypress still lingers, and visit Jiuhuashan Dizang Temple, one of the most important Dizang (Ksitigarbha) temples in Taiwan, where incense has been burning since the Jap...

Episode 52 takes us to the north Tainan countryside — to Houbi and Baihe, where Guanziling Hot Springs offers one of only a handful of mud hot springs in the entire world. The grey, silky mud water coats your skin and the surrounding hills are dotted with temples and old resort inns. Over Guanziling hot spring eggs with amber yolks and hearty Houbi harvest rice, we untangle Chapter 52 — the follow...

Episode 51 drives north from Tainan city into the foothills, stopping at Yujing — the mango capital of Taiwan — and the famous Water-Fire Same Source in Baihe, where a natural gas seep burns above a flowing spring, fire and water coexisting at the same spot. Over Yujing mango ice and hot spring eggs, we follow Sun Wukong into one of his most humbling episodes: fire doesn't work. Water doesn't work...