First, a little background.A couple of years ago I went on a trip with my fellow teachers to Alishan. On the ride back home, we passed within about 15km of Jio Jio Fong; the highway was elevated quite a bit, and this little range of mountains sits across a flat plain. It looked like a bunch of nosecones piled up in the distance. I was entranced. I asked, and was told this was "Jio Jio Fong," meaning "Ninety-nine Peaks." I made up my mind that I'd get there one day, by hook or crook, and I did.
This is my first picture of the range. It looked different from my recollection. People told me the 1999 earthquake disrupted the ecosystem here, and that they'd gone bald. I think they were bald when I originally saw them, but they seem to have gotten quite fuzzy in the interim.
I was hoping to find a campground, but didn't. I wandered in to what
appeared to be a relatively recent development; a particularly trim
and attractive subdivision with small family farms, mostly orchards,
and some grapes. It's called Pinglin (perhaps you could translate
this, "Flatbush"). We see here a public building of some kind, and it
had a curious red sign in front.
I whipped out my electronic dictionary and looked it up. It says,
roughly, "Nasty dogs wander around these premises, so you don't want
to walk around here by yourself."
Here's another shot from the highway. And here are some general shots
from a little excursion I took one day, across the highway:
