The Danshui Experience

Our First Cultural Outting



On Sunday, September 7th we decided to meet some of Matt's coworkers, their families and friends at the coastal town of Danshui. Danshui is just about a half hour from Taipei and the rail system is such easy and relaxing way to travel. So, we packed up the girl a few snacks and we were on our way.






A little history...according to Tara's interpretation of "The Rough Guide to Taiwan"



The name Danshui literally means, "fresh water" and is thought to have been given this name by early Chinese seafarers. The settlement was established around Fort Santo Domingo by the Spanish in 1628 and later occupied by the Dutch. By 1662 the Dutch were driven off as more Chinese immigrants started to arrive. Danshui boomed after the Treaty of Beijing opened up the port to foreign trade in 1860. Soon thereafter, Robert Swinhow, a British vice consul arrived and started a full-fledged customs office. This enabled Danshui to become a bustling port exporting Oolong and Baozhong teas. Unfortunately, Danshui's harbour lacked deep waters so it began to lose precedence to Keelung by the 1920's. Today it is home to a healthy tourist trade as well as home to two universities and a growing number of Taipei commuters. It's also well known for beautiful sunsets.

How the day went...


As you're reading this, please keep in mind that we have only been parents for 20 months. 20 months is hardly enough time to know exactly what you are supposed to do with your child in a foreign country without a car, right? So we may have made a poor decision, but it was based on a prior experience that in hindsight was not at all related to how things would go on this particular day...and so the story goes. Here's how it all went down.


We made the executive decision NOT to bring Caitlin's stroller. Somehow we had the impression that we were going to a park-like place (I, in some dreamy far off moment of wonder thought we were going to the beach!) . Someplace that Caitlin could run a-muck. Hmmmm. Not so much (insert Borat accent here! It will make you laugh, just do it!). This was more like being on the boardwalk at the Jersey shore on the 4th of July in 4,000 degree heat and 200% humidity. There were people everywhere. There was a river on one side and make shift sort of shops, concessions, carnivalish games and zillions of people consuming entire grilled squid on a stick or 2 foot high ice cream sort of things (someplace where any American would totally expect to find milk, but alas no milk in this "ice cream") while texting on their cell phones on the other. There were loud speakers with Chinese gibberish belching out random advertisements and music. There were balloon makers and junk sellers. This was no place for a toddler to have any sort of freedom.

In all this chaos, we still managed to be the center of attention. Well perhaps not we, but she. Oh and the 7 foot tall white guy we were with, Adam. Adam has self proclaimed that he is the biggest guy in Taiwan and we can claim for Caitlin that she is the cutest. Caitlin gets a lot of attention in our everyday travels, but nothing like this. People were stopping and staring. They wanted her picture, to touch her hair or to simply get her attention. The poor girl was just dying to jump in the river and play with the "bubbles." She kept asking me for her "soooouit" and pointing to her body (as if to show me where it should be).


We forgot to feed the poor girl a snack, but kept her very well hydrated on sugary lemonade. By 5:00pm, she had enough "fun" and we left the crowd to head home. Caitlin slept soundly on the lap of luxury (her daddy) the entire train ride home.











Caitlin sleeping on her daddy

Thank goodness for guide books otherwise I would have never known were we'd been!!