Beauty reveals itself in different ways

There’s something satisfying about looking at the small blue circle on Google Maps and seeing how far I’ve come. I’ve raced down Taiwan’s west side. Five days. Five hundred kilometres has brought me to Checheng, where the country narrows near the bottom, and the furthest south I’ll travel.  

I left Kaohsiung this morning after having a second serving of calamari at my hotel’s breakfast buffet. Leading me out of Taiwan’s second largest city was a ten-lane road and a long stretch of red lights. Thankfully, one of those lanes was dedicated for bicycles and scooters, whose riders here seemed more intense than elsewhere. They’d come upon me and zip past like swarms of bees.

Soon, the city gave way to heavy industry—power plants, petrochemical refineries, steel plants, and other infrastructure that I know little how it all works, yet intrigues me, nonetheless. Think chimneys and piping affixed to massive structures and fleets of large transport trucks seemingly choregraphed on the roads to service everything. The landscape was industrial, but not dirty in the way one might imagine.

On the outskirts of Taiwan’s second largest city

Things are made in Taiwan. And making things isn’t always beautiful. But beauty shows itself in unexpected ways. Like the people who would give me the thumbs up, as I cycled past, or those on scooters who would do the same while waiting at a traffic light. And beauty forced me to stop and admire the Dexing Temple in Fangliao.

Dexing Temple

Beauty was taking a break and wishing there was a toilet nearby, only to see a colourful building close by with two urinals.

Pushing on further south, the mountains began revealing themselves in the afternoon haze, like a ship coming out of the fog. And beauty was seeing the sky change colour from hues of blue and gray to something more dramatic that only the setting sun can create.

Outside the window of my hotel room, I can see the mountains rise up from the edge of the sea. It’s a reminder of the challenge that is coming, as I traverse this natural barrier to the east coast. But that’s for another day, because tomorrow will be a beautiful rest day.