The scenery changes from city high rises to layered mountain ridges on the 30-minute drive to the Malingkeng Recreational Agriculture Area in Keelung’s Qidu District, a secret hideaway in Taipei’s backyard. Spending just half a day here, you can walk beautiful trails lined with blooming tung trees, play in a riverside park, and visit an old bridge built with glutinous rice. You can also take in the area’s mining relics and gain a sense of how the old timers here used to live while exploring secret places known only to locals.
On an early spring morning, not long after sunrise, Maling’s undulating ridges seem sprinkled with gold dust.
A debt to the Earth God
At the Fude Temple, not far from the visitor center, we are greeted by a smiling Lin Feihai, director general of the Marcy Community Development Association. Born and raised nearby, Lin is an expert on the local culture: “That Earth God temple has a long history. Miners used to believe that their wealth was borrowed from the Earth God, so they were accustomed to going there to pray.” Owners would build Earth God temples near the mines to keep the good times rolling. This small temple was built by three brothers of Keelung’s Yan family, then one of Taiwan’s five most illustrious clans. The brothers also came up with the couplet flanking the temple’s doorway.
For a time, the area around here flourished. But when the coal mines closed, Maling returned to being both a quiet backwater and something of a marvelous fairyland.
Still standing after many decades, this bridge pier was built using mortar made with sticky rice. Its longevity bears witness to the wisdom of earlier generations in understanding how to coexist with nature. The rocks under the bridge feature unusual “giant’s kettle” potholes.
Sticky rice bridge
With Lin and the community association’s chairwoman, Do Shojen, we drive to the locally famous Cuigu (“emerald valley”) Bridge.
Lin points downstream: “That’s the water intake for the Liudu Water Treatment Plant right there, so you know that the water here is especially clean.” A glance under the bridge shows that the water is indeed crystal clear. Formosan stripe dace and Taiwan torrent carp, species that are extremely sensitive to water quality, inhabit the creek. Lin and other locals carry out patrols, confronting anyone they deem suspicious. If they discover that someone has released non-native species such as tilapia, they mobilize immediately, working through the night to catch the fish. The entire village is committed to these patrols to protect the native fish.
The Cuigu Bridge looks brand new, but there is in fact an historical attraction underneath it: the remains of an old “glutinous rice bridge.” A stout hexagonal pier stands under the bridge deck. Back in the day this was built by locals from stone blocks held together with a mortar composed of glutinous rice mixed with red lime, brown sugar, and other materials. The construction method may seem primitive, but the pier has survived countless typhoons since 1949.
“The techniques used by our forefathers were outstanding,” says Lin. “Upstream there were piers constructed of concrete that were destroyed by typhoons.” From Fumin Riverside Park, you can see rubble in the creek from those toppled concrete bridges. Yet this pier made using glutinous rice still stands erect after many decades of exposure to torrents and typhoons. It is indeed remarkable that rice has weathered better than concrete.
From the bridge, you can see a famous local landmark: Mt. Shishi (“stone lion”). The year that Lin graduated from Maling Elementary School, his entire class climbed that peak. It was a typical trip for a graduating class of the era. Maling Elementary is more than a century old. In recent years it almost closed because of declining enrollment. Now it has turned into a “forest elementary school”—one much loved by the Taipei parents who send their children there.
Coke ovens from a past boom
The coke ovens next to Changtan Pavilion on Dahua Industrial Road are easy to find. There are 24 of them, each made of rectangular blocks of stone built into the grassy slope. Together they suggest an old city wall or military fortification. Locals used to pyrolyze coal here to make coke. The top-grade stuff went to China Steel, whereas coke of lower quality was sold to ironsmiths. With the rising popularity of gas as a fuel, this method of coke-making fell out of use, so today the ovens stand only as reminders of what once was.
When Maling’s tung tree blossoms drop in May, they add to the romantic atmosphere.
May snow: Tung tree blossoms
Of course, you cannot come to Maling in the spring without admiring the tung tree blossoms. “These days all my old classmates want up-to-date reports about their blooming. I always use the most beautiful tree as an index.” Lin’s index tree is in Fumin Riverside Park, where the paths wind gracefully among tung trees. The most famous giant tree grows on the riverbank. When the trees are blossoming, its snow-white petals can be seen drifting down onto the water, a sight that recalls beautiful lines of classical Chinese poetry.
Walking uphill from the park for about five minutes, you come to a secret garden. No signs on the road announce its existence. Rather, there are just some simple ropes to climb down to the creek bed, where the babbling water awaits. Next to a large rock there is a deep emerald pool.
When Lin was little, he would often come here with friends. They would jump into the pool from the rock or mount a swing suspended from a tree. Because of the shape of a rock next to the creek, they used to call the place “Coffin Cave.” “In fact, Maling is also known as the ‘witch’s tomb’ because it is so secluded,” Lin explains. It’s hard to disagree. The place does indeed have much of the aura of a mysterious witches’ hideout.
Stephanie’s Amoureux Maison
Having explored all morning, our stomachs are rumbling. We ascend the Ride Mine Trail and arrive at Stephanie’s Amoureux Maison, which is set amid a rose garden. The unique Western-style building was designed and built by Do Shojen herself. Decorated in the European style, the dining room features displays of curios collected from around the world and provides expansive views. With its big arched windows that start at floor level and its beige sofas, the room offers a stylishly relaxed atmosphere.
After enjoying an exquisite set meal, we order pineapple iced tea and some soothing orange and cinnamon infusion, lazily taking in the charming European-style garden. What bliss! Before waving goodbye to Maling, we wander over to the famed Fangyu Farm, where we bump into its owner, Yang-Zheng Jinman. She points us to some shelves where there is a magnificent array of pomelo and cinnamon floral waters that she makes herself. We end up bringing home several monkey-head mushrooms grown on the farm.
For more pictures, please click《Relics, Riverbeds, and Rose Gardens—A Day Trip to Maling》
