3 - Keelung（基隆）
There's a certain movie called Millenium Mambo. In the opening scene, we see the back of a young woman. Surrounding her on all sides are these blinding blue lights, and rows of semicircular windows stretching out infinitely on both sides. She seems to be encased in some bullet train of the future. An ambient rock song plays. The floaty camera clings tightly to the woman's silhouette as she struts through the snaking chamber, hair swinging at her back. Then, the same woman, ten years later, begins to recount her turbulent times of youth. Rooted in the present moment, yet tinged with compassionate nostalgia, these two minutes of cinema are nothing short of magical. When I found out that they were filmed on a pedestrian bridge in Keelung, visiting the rainy port town became an obsession.
Thanks to a certain friend from the United States who was working there around the 2/28 holiday, I found a perfect excuse to make the trip. On the train ride from Qidu to Keelung, heading through the final tunnel before the destination, my heart grew giddy. A longstanding dream was finally being fulfilled. The bridge itself was modest, tucked away by the back side of the railway station. It was largely devoid of foot traffic, save for a photographer and his beautiful muse who were paying homage to Hou Hsiao-hsien. I walked through the bridge once, and then slowly back across again, taking the same route Shu Qi had taken in Milennium Mambo. The experience was every bit as satisfying as I'd expected. Then I set off for my friend's apartment, stopping at the night market along the way to grab some cold noodles. It was the most crowded one I have seen in all of Taiwan.
I had a happy time in Keelung. The skies were perfectly clear the next day, quite a miracle for a city known as one of the wettest and gloomiest in the world. My friend and I rented scooters and rode to the KEELUNG sign. From there, we could see the entire city. It was surrounded by steep hills on three sides and speckled with colorful houses. On the fourth side, there were rows of cargo cranes that stretched all the way to the mouth of the sea. We rode thirty minutes down the coast to the Heping Geopark, and then thirty minutes further to the incomparable Cape Bitou. The northern coast was much more craggy than the eastern coast by Hualien, and slightly more modest in scale, but very charming all the same. Later, we took the road inland, up the hills, past Golden Waterfall, over to Jiufen. The former mining town was overrun with tourists and felt tacky and touristy. Cozy, cute, and lively little Keelung is more my cup of tea.