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July 23, 2008 – After getting a good night’s sleep on an authentic Japanese bed (it had a thin mattress) placed on a bamboo floor, Chou-Ying Yang (楊疇英) came by to pick me up for the 3 hour drive to Guanshan (關山). While on the road, we saw a “fruit stand” that only sold guava, and pulled over. The guava was very fresh, and delicious! It hit the spot really well. Hitting the road once again, I got to see some of the rice paddies (rice fields) that are all over Taiwan, away from the cities, as we passed by a Taiwanese tea plantation.

After the detour, we finally arrived in Guanshan, eager to be out of the car. It was then that I learned about the meaning of the town’s name. Guanshan, in Chinese, means Closed Mountain, and describes the area around which the Beinan River flows through, in between Coast Mountain in the east and the Central Mountain Range, in the west. Looking around, I could see how beautiful and geographically diverse the region was. It was a nice beginning to my day in Guanshan. Chou’s older Deaf sister, Yue-Mei (楊月梅), met us at the intersection, on her scooter, and signaled to us to come and hurry up! But she disappeared on us, going too fast for us, and we had to catch up to her at our destination, which was one of the rice paddies in the Guanshan area. Catching up with Yue-Mei, we met 3 other Deaf locals, one being Yue-Mei’s husband, there.

At the rice paddy, I got to understand how technology changed the way they worked the paddy. It was incredible luck for me, because today was the day for rice farmers to plant rice seeds. I hopped onto their tractor, and rode it around the paddy. I even had a chance to put some rice seeds into the machine that planted the seeds all around the field. Back when technology like tractors and rice planting machines didn’t exist, rice farmers had to plant each seed by hand. It would usually take them 1 to 2 days to finish the planting. It was extremely exhausting for them, and they had to deal with their backs hurting from bending over all day. Now, they can do the whole field within 2 hours without hurting their backs. However, they still do some “manual” hand work for some “missing” spots that the machine missed in its seed-planting routine, which usually happens in the corners of the field.

Leaving the first rice paddy, Yue-Mei once again told me to hurry up, and pulled me onto her scooter. Riding behind her, I saw firsthand how she drove. She’s a very aggressive driver, let me tell you! And so we went to yet another paddy, which was in the process of being harvested. There, I saw how they cut apart the 3’ tall stalks in a machine, and then dump the rice from the stalks into a truck. I definitely can’t wait for my videos to be posted when I get back, because then I’ll be able to share with you the fascinating process of where rice begins and ends!

The last stop on the tour was the processing factory (關山鎮農會製造米廠). The factory’s task was to process the rice one last time before they go into the bag and are exported out to other countries. I bought a small packet of rice, for me to cook when I return home. Rice wine was also another purchase, for me to celebrate our time together with Chou-Ying and the Hualien noodle store owner, whom I met yesterday. I wanted to show them how much appreciation I had for them being my guides and giving me a whole new experience, before I returned to Taipei (台北).

Yue-Mei then took us to her home, because she wanted to cook us a home-cooked meal using her own rice. The rice was amazing! It was very soft, and tasted so perfect. We chatted for some time about the rice I had in India and in the United States. When I talked about the minute rice from the United States, she became puzzled. I was asked as to whether the rice was “fake or real”, and Yue-Mei was like, “no way!” The collective opinion of the dinner guests was that the minute rice was a really dumb way to eat. When Chou mentioned how much I loved sushi, they asked me about visiting Japan, and I told them I’d never been to Japan. They were puzzled yet again, because they weren’t sure how I could love sushi and not have visited Japan already! We had a good time talking about that, and laughed really hard about the US using “instant” rice. She was disappointed that we had to leave so soon, but told me about how thrilled she was to have an American visiting her hometown.

To end the day, we stopped by the Li Chuan Clam Fishery (立川漁場), which is best known for its clams. In Taiwan, the essence of clams makes for a popular food supplement because of their proteins and minerals, such as calcium and phosphorus, and they’re sold in liquid, pill, and powder form. Chou and I had a heck of a time wading into the knee-deep pond looking for clams, but he found some right away while I vainly tried to look for them with my naked eyes. We had a good laugh, and he taught me how to locate the clams. I finally found some, using his special technology, and we brought our clams to a nearby restaurant so they could cook the clams for us. They added their special sauce and flavors into our clams, and the clams really melted into our mouths quickly, it was that good! We shared many jokes about our day at the rice paddies, and so on. Night was coming, and as we walked away from the restaurant, we found that it was so incredibly dark we could only see the light from the restaurant. And so, as our bedtime came for us, I drifted off to sleep thinking about how excited I was to have a chance to interview the Hualien (花蓮) Deaf noodle store owner tomorrow, and go on a trip to Taroko National Park (大魯閣國家公園), too.