It was four o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived in Hsinchu, and the weather was slightly cool. Arrive at the hotel and settle your luggage, return to Hsinchu Station, and take the shuttle bus to Neiwan.
Hsinchu Railway Station was completed in 1913. It has the longest history and the highest artistic evaluation among the existing stations in Taiwan. It is listed as a national first-class historic site. Walking through the modern Taichung Railway Station, I suddenly feel that the Hsinchu Station in the twilight is gorgeous and unassuming.
Compared with the high-speed rail and Taiwan Railway, the shuttle bus is a more convenient choice. Swipe the card to enter the station, there are many shifts, and the flexibility is great. If you are not in a hurry, you can sit on the bench on the platform and wait for the bus in a daze.
In addition to the famous Taiwan Railway Bento, there are many good-quality dishes in the station, such as Zhengxian, because it originated in Taipei, the ingredients, types, taste and price are better than what we usually eat, especially the dipping sauce, fresh and not salty.
People can be seen everywhere on the platform, holding bento and eating it calmly, eating sitting, standing, squatting, with different postures, dizzying.
A box of fresh Kung Fu, and the train is coming.
The appearance and interior of the shuttle bus almost satisfy all my good memories of trains. The green leather car is my favorite. It is small in size, not many compartments, with sliding doors and a large interior space.
It was just after school, and many middle school students came up together. It seemed that they commuted between various stations on the Neiwan branch line and Hsinchu every day, and the shuttle bus became a commuter bus.
The carriage comes alive, chatting and laughing, whispering, sharing snacks, or opening a book to sketch. During the 13-stop journey, the students got off the bus one after another along the way, and arrived in Neiwan in about an hour. There were very few passengers on the bus, and it was getting dark.
The imagined Neiwan Old Street should be similar to other night markets, the more lively the night is, the old street houses, the shouts of vendors, and street lights are mixed together, which is the flavor of the market that I have seen along the way.
It turned out that the brightest place at this time is the train station. Although the old street is close at hand, most of the stalls have gone back to their homes. Only a few are still lit, and they are also closing their stalls, busy making dinner. A lady who sells bean curds was very surprised when she saw me, a foreigner, barging in at night, and said, "We're going back when you come here at this time!"
"Isn't this the night market?" I was also curious.
"It only opens during the day. If there are customers during the day, if there are no guests at night, come back tomorrow!"
I don't know why, but I feel a little joy in my heart. This is what an old street should look like. There are things to do during the day, and the night is calm, calm and unhurried, with its own order.
There was only one staff member on duty at the station. After asking about the train number to go back, I sat down and looked carefully at this miniature station with a bit of literary temperament. The waiting room, ticket office, and ticket gate are all together, but you don't think it's cramped, but rather exquisite. Although the sparrow is small, the necessary facilities such as automatic ticket vending machines and vending machines are all available. When you go out, turn right and you will find the bathroom, which is clean and tidy. The door and window frames are all made of wood, painted red benches, old-fashioned electric fans, and the window sills have obvious signs of modification, adding charging sockets and places for placing mobile phones. Although low-key and simple, it has been polished over time, but the charm still exists and is well preserved, which shows the confidence of the past.
In the 1950s, Neiwan became a prosperous transportation operation center with coal mines and logging industries, and the completion of the station pushed the development speed of Neiwan to a peak. It is conceivable that this place was crowded with people, merchants, guests, and special trains came and went. Later, with the decline of the forestry and coal mining industries, the grand occasion in Neiwan also changed from noisy to calm.
Floating ups and downs is not the keynote of life. In the face of the patchwork history, I feel the insignificance of the individual. I feel that time flies and changes rapidly. Only by grasping the present.
When I came, it was a special train for students, but when I went back, it turned into a special train for cartoons. The bright yellow color and childish fun added a touch of warmth to the coldness of early spring. Get off at Zhuzhong, wait for a few minutes in transit, and change to another style of small train. When I was young, when I went to the park, other people would ride on the merry-go-round. I liked to drill into the cockpits of small spaceships and cars, but Ding Kemao’s space gave me a sense of belonging, just like Hong Kong’s Ding Ding car, which can go back and forth Sitting all afternoon is not boring. At night, these flowing landscapes run along the branch line of the Inner Bay, full of vitality.
The next day's itinerary went very smoothly. We continued to shuttle between the mountains and forests along the Neiwan branch line, and we reached the Neiwan through a long tunnel.
The old street at noon is not as noisy as imagined, and there are few tourists. They mainly concentrate on the stalls with wild ginger pork dumplings, purple jade vegetable buns, Hakka Leicha and Hakka mochi. These Hakka-style delicacies have become unique in Neiwan Old Street. The charm.
Go down the steps at the exit, turn left, and walk in, you will reach the Neiwan Suspension Bridge. When you cross it, there are trees along the way, and you can climb mountains. The other end of the suspension bridge is a small Hakka village, hidden among the mountains and forests, which is a paradise.
A very hidden alley exit quickly caught my attention. A child ran out of it, wearing the same clothes. Could it be a school? But the door is really small. I thought there would be security guards coming out to stop me. After waiting for a while, there was no sign of the security guard, so I walked in with a mother.
There are steps when you come in, and there are hand-painted versions on both sides, "Ten Drums of Dreams" and "My Life in School". Walk up the steps, and then go up a slope, and you will see the playground.
Compared with many elementary schools in the mainland, Neiwan Elementary School at the foot of the mountain is small and compact. The school was established in 1946, formerly known as the Nanhe Mandarin Institute. There are six ordinary classes in the school, 11 teachers, 4 workers and others, and less than 100 students. There is 1 principal's office, 1 office, 6 ordinary classrooms, and 3 specialist classrooms. There are 1 kitchen, dining room, and auditorium each, and 2 toilets.
However, the big dream of the little boy is to "cultivate masters who are diligent, loving, innovative, practical, and have learning ability and competitiveness, so that children can live a healthy and happy life." Morality, environment, reading, and sports are the school The direction of educating people advocated.
During the lunch break, there were bursts of drumming from the direction of the school, which seemed to come from the mountains. Thinking of the hand-painted color illustration of "Ten Drums of Dreams" that I saw when I first entered the door, it turned out to be a beautiful legend——
A girl named Mengmeng transferred to Neiwan Elementary School and joined the school's famous Ten Drum Team, but she didn't play drums very well and was often laughed at by her seniors and sisters. Mengmeng was very sad, and ran to the tung tree to cry, and met a fairy sister, who gave her a pair of drum sticks. The next day, Mengmeng went to school with her drumsticks. After playing one song after another, it was like a godsend. The students were very surprised. The night before the competition, the little girl dreamed about the fairy sister again, and the fairy told her that she was actually the guardian of the ten drums, and encouraged her to practice hard and never relax. The results of the competition can be imagined, Mengmeng became famous, and Neiwan Elementary School has since won the reputation of "Ten Drums of Dreams", and the school's Ten Drums team is famous far and wide.
Ten drums have a very deep soil in Taiwan. The character "ten" means that the drum sticks overlap, which gathers the energy of the ten directions and endows drums with greater vitality. The main spirit is to inherit the local culture of Taiwan. Neiwan is surrounded by mountains and rivers with a long history and rich local education resources. The Ten Drum Team is not a simple drum band in Neiwan Elementary School.
After coming out of the elementary school, I walked along the old street for a while, and finally ate the tofu curd from the elder sister’s house. I praised her for her good eyes. The black twisted twist recognized me as soon as she saw it. The elder sister said, I remember it , you are the one who asked me why this place is not a night market, I immediately remembered.
Passed by the Neiwan Theater, but didn’t go in. The Japanese style of the 1950s was built for the prosperity of the Neiwan logging industry and coal mining industry. It was deserted with the decline of the industry, and was even abandoned for a while. Now it is mentioned, its nostalgia The value of sightseeing far exceeds its original function, and occasionally the crew will come to take the location.
I sat in the square in front of the station for more than half an hour, eating snacks bought from the old street (there is a delicious thing I forgot the name, made with a big pot of old soup, all kinds of dried beans), Watching pedestrians coming and going, children crying, adults yelling, the old street finally reveals the familiar face of the fireworks in the market, but from time to time, I still think of the drums in the school.
There were still few people on the train going back, and I happily boarded the first carriage. The driver has already sat down, and there are coats, schoolbags and a glass of water on the chairs beside him. Walked over and asked tentatively: "Can I sit here, will it affect your driving?"
The driver gave me a puzzled look, then said yes, pointed to the clothes on the chair, and motioned for me to hand them over to him.
The outside world is gradually enlarged in my field of vision. Through the window in front of me, I have changed from a bystander to a participant. I follow the train to start and accelerate, turn around, travel through the mountains, stop and stop, everything is closely related to myself.
When the car stopped in Hsinchu, the driver carefully checked the facilities in the cab and organized his belongings in an orderly manner. I thanked him, and he smiled and said, I also went home from get off work.
When a person is traveling, no matter how much scenery there is, he cannot have a panoramic view. Perhaps it is not the beautiful scenery that is moving. That suspension bridge is no different from an ordinary bridge, but more people are delighted to see the beautiful scenery on the other side of the bridge. The ten drums of the elementary school are the school drum team we participated in when we were young, but I heard its endless rhythm and the call from the countryside. The big sister's bowl of bean curd, the train driver's kind thoughts, all unexpected encounters are like reunion after a long absence. Only when you have beauty in your heart can it be transformed into a unique scenery.
