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July 22, 2008 – The Taiwanese dawn greeted me as I got up at the very early hour of 5 AM, eager for my trip to Hualien (花蓮), Taiwan (台灣). Even though I had been getting up early the last few days here in Taipei (台北), what made this early wakeup call different was that I had to be at Taipei’s Songshan Airport (台北松山機場) by 6 AM for my flight to Hualien. I met two of my local Deaf friends, Kang (陳康) and Gates (許庭榮), at the gate, and talked about how excited we were to see one of the most beautiful spots on the Taiwanese coast.

As our plane took off and flew for less than 30 minutes, we looked out the windows and wondered what Hualien would look like from the air. But suddenly, the world’s tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101 (台北101), came into our view and we were baffled! We wondered if we had gotten on the wrong plane, or if something had gone wrong with the plane. We returned to Songshan Airport, and Kang asked the flight hostess what was going on; it turned out there had been a minor mechanic problem with the plane, and that we would have to get off the plane and switch to another plane. After taking off in the new plane, we finally arrived in Hualien, an hour late. I felt sorry for Chou-Ying Yang (楊疇英), a Deaf Hualien native, because he had to wait for us an hour late at the airport for us, but he didn’t mind.

Leaving the airport, I got to learn more about who Chou is and what he does. He’s a very well known stone carver in Taiwan, in general – not only do the Deaf come to see him, but hearing people also do business with him, as well. Chou drove us down to his shop, which was located only a mile away from the airport. We entered his workspace, right behind his house, and saw what he worked on everyday. He showed us all of his stone creations, made from marble, red stone, jade, you name them. The next thing we saw was how he went through the process of stone carving, with his carving tools. It was truly an amazing experience.

Chou then took us to visit a noodle shop owned by a Deaf Hualien native, located in the heart of Hualien City. When we arrived, the owner and his wife, an adorable pair, greeted us and brought us inside. The owner showed us the machine that’s used to make fresh noodles everyday. We were also introduced to the two staff members working at the shop. While there, we started thinking of food, and Chou said he really wanted to take us to a famous restaurant, in business for 70 years, with incredible won ton soup. He said that we would love the soup, and even say it’s the best won ton soup ever. Sure enough, it really did taste better than my favorite restaurant’s soup (that restaurant is in San Francisco)!

From there, we went on to the Hualien Fish Market (花蓮魚市場), in the eastern part of the city. Outside of the market, you’ll see freshly-caught fish be unloaded from the fishing boats, which was a fascinating sight for me. Inside the market, you can actually pick out your favorite type of seafood and have the chef cook it any way you like. We had a chance to stop by a local seafood restaurant to taste their ocean sunfish (曼波魚). It tasted so soft, like lobster meat! It was a great meal for us.

We went back into the heart of the city, where we dined some more at a sushi bar. To our surprise, the sushi there was really cheap! Just one order of sushi cost us only one US dollar, whereas in the United States it’d usually cost us four to six dollars. The sushi was definitely worth it! Then we went on to an amazing Japan-style guesthouse, where Chou and the noodle store owner joined me for a chat over tea. There I had the opportunity to tell them more about myself, which was quite a change for me because I’d spent the last few days seeing and learning about their world. I showed them my photos and videos, and described my travels around the world, what I had experienced on these travels. It was a very illuminating discussion, and a great way to end the night in Hualien.