Fostering Taiwan–Japan friendship
For international travelers who come to walk the Tamsui–Kavalan Trails, Chou Sheng-hsin notes that the trailheads of all four friendship trails can be reached by train, the trails can be hiked by individuals on their own, and one can complete all four trails in three days.
She recommends that hikers start by walking the Nuandong Valley Trail on the morning of the first day and hit the Paoma Historic Trail in the afternoon. They can stay overnight in the hot springs resort town of Jiaoxi in Yilan County. On the second day visitors can take a train from Jiaoxi to Fulong in New Taipei City and walk the Caoling Historic Trail, returning to Taipei by train that evening. On the third day they can take a train to Houdong in New Taipei’s Ruifang District and visit the Ruifang-Ruisan Coal Preparation Plant heritage site, then walk the Jinzibei Historic Trail from the nearby trailhead and return to Taipei by train from Mudan Station.
As for the Miyagi Olle Trails, this year a number of travel agencies in Taiwan, including Hillmont Tours and Lai Ou International Travel Service, expect to organize hiking tours there.
Lai Ou president Weng Ming-sheng, who has been in the travel business for over 30 years and has walked Olle Trails in Japan, Korea, and Mongolia, notes that in autumn the Osaki/Naruko Hot Spring Trail is carpeted with maple leaves, making it highly therapeutic. Or one can visit the Oku-Matsushima Trail at sunset and get 360-degree panoramic views, or go to Kesennuma Fishing Port, which once boasted one of the world’s three most productive fishing grounds. The experience of visiting such places by walking is deeply moving.
Chou Sheng-hsin says that Miyagi Prefecture has already developed a fifth route, the Murata Trail, and is planning to increase the number of trails to eight. They are in talks with Korea’s Olle Trails about their project and have also expressed a desire to continue to create friendship trails with Taiwan. Thus there is every likelihood that their four new trails will be paired with four more of the Tamsui–Kavalan Trails, writing a new chapter in the story of friendship trails.
Furthermore, there are 18 Olle Trails on the Japanese island of Kyushu, and officials there have already approached TMI Trail about signing friendship trail agreements. Mutual visits between the two sides are expected to take place this year, with Taiwan putting forward sections of the Raknus Selu Trail as potential partners.
Whether one is talking about a new chapter or a new story, hiking enhances the friendship between Taiwan and Japan, and the two sides will continue to move forward in the future.
Along the Kesennuma/Karakuwa Trail in Japan one can see symbols of the Taiwan–Japan friendship trails agreements—a stone pillar with coupled dipteris fern logos for Taiwan’s Tamsui–Kavalan Trails and a red horse for Japan’s Miyagi Olle Trails.