Tea Plantation at SanYee (三義)

This is where Tzu Chi tea was grown and cultivated. It’s about 40 minutes walk away from SanYee train station, with the last 20 minutes hiking up the hills. As this place quite high up, the tea plantation field can be quite cooling in the morning.

As this is the summer harvest, the tea leaves would be made into red tea or known as 紅茶. The harvest must be during the sunny days and before noon. The harvest can be in either mechanical harvesting or handpicked harvesting.

During the handpick harvesting, hundreds of Tzu Chi volunteers from around ZhangHua (彰化) county would come here to pick the tea leaves. It would yield nearly a tonne of fresh picks in one morning of harvesting.

As the harvest is seasonal, it doesn’t mean that you’ll get the tea you want all year round. Since the harvest is limited to this small field, stock is very much limited. Plus, no insecticides were used for this plantation.

So the next time you drink JingSi tea, remember to appreciate your cup of tea as your last.

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Vineyard at Da Chun (大村)

I guess you could really plant grapes in Taiwan, and they're actually quite sweet. I dropped by Da Chun (大村) village of Zhang Hua (彰化) county last Friday for a visit, and was surprised by the fact that grapes can grow quite well in hot weather of Taiwan. They can produce fruits twice a year, during the summer and winter. A quick search on Google and I found that you can actually grow them in Malaysia’s hot weather too!

While it is nice to harvest them, growing grapes demand a lot of hard work and patience, a bit of luck too. Too much rain or sun, and it affects the produce.

 

 

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Closer to Nature

A decision to wake up at 5 in the morning was never a mistake. The bicycle ride to FeiCui Valley (翡翠谷) at Mugumuyu (慕古慕魚) was only about an hour away. But the sun was already burning by the time I depart at 5:45am. Nonetheless, the view along the bicycle path was breath-taking. No wonder Hualien County is the must see place in Taiwan.

You have to hike up FeiCui Valley to enjoy the waterfall, and the water is extremely clear. A dip in the pool of water was certainly refreshing. 

I suspect that the water is slightly alkaline as the torrent rushes through limestone. If you intend to visit this place, remember to bring the brightest torchlight you can get as you’ll have to pass through a dark tunnel before you can actually hike up the valley.

On my way back, stopped by a field for some photographs.

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Not As Expected

Sometimes life is not as you expect it to be. You can plan ahead, but you can never control or determine how others will treat your plan or what you’re about to do. However, if you find that what you plan for is worth fighting for, then go ahead for it. And if you meet someone that is trying to put you down, I guess the best way to handle it is by ignoring the person.

Believe it or not, most people around you are just trying to put you down. Just because you can’t do it, or achieve it, it doesn’t mean that you should splash cold water on someone else’s enthusiasm. For the past few days I was hogged down by the fact that I’m not doing very well in Organic Chemistry. It wasn’t because I can’t answer the questions well, but it’s because of one teacher who decided not to conduct the exam the right way. Plus, this bias teacher award scores based on how he liked the students and penalise students who are not to his liking.

When the results were released, I was somehow infuriated and disappointed. I guess some teachers are just like that. They can’t teach their students well and they want the students to fail like him. Not that I’ve failed my exam, but the way he treats the others just shows how unprofessional this person is.

Sometimes life will throw you challenges and some times you just can’t change the fact that some other people are like that. So let me share this quote:

“Everybody is a genius, But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

Today, I reinforced this thought to myself – Do not waste time entertaining pessimist people. And do not let others decide how well you are performing, because you yourself know how well you are. Might as well surround yourself with people who are supportive and willing to give you a push whenever you are down. You live because of yourself and not in the eyes of the other people. In fact, they do not have the rights to judge who you are!

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The Day After Tomorrow

I still recall the first time I watched this movie, when it was about 8 years back. The movie seemed like a made-up story, somehow unreal and fictional. However, was it really that far fetched?

These past few years of extreme weather and unpredicted change of seasons prompted me to review this movie again. Perhaps it may not be another ice age, nor would it be like the crazy havoc in the movie “2012”, but one certain thing we should really reflect is, how much have we done to help our Earth?

I’m sorry to say that we are just parasites to this planet. This is very true. We consume without thinking about the consequences, and we use Earth resources to our liking. With global recession right now, who is going to pay for the debt? Believe it or not, our mother Earth has to pay for it. And who gets the money out of these resources? Think about it.

Balance of life is extremely crucial to the survival of mankind. We have gone slack, lazy, selfish and wasteful. Our greed for convenience has lead us to some unnecessary exploitations and waste, which include the waste of energy and natural resources. Just because you decided not to switch off the lights because of your convenience, you are just using up what we ought to leave for our children. And just because you decided to use a plastic or paper bag to put in your groceries when you forgot your shopping bag, unnecessary garbage is produced.

This is not the responsibility for one person. Stop pointing fingers at other people, start doing it yourself, influence others to do it. Everyone is responsible for it. You can make a difference.

 

P/S: Please watch “The Inconvenience Truth" for a complete understanding of our climate system.

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Beginning of a Journey

Time flies and people change. For the better I hope. As life is full of knowledge and wisdom, I could not help but awe the magnificent journey of self-discovery.

As the journey towards becoming a medical doctor begins, I do not believe that I need to give up the opportunity of learning others. After all, life is all about learning from each other.

The art of healing may not necessarily be just technical skills, but how one’s attitude towards life matters more than anything else. Here, I present you ARTISTIC MEDICINE, where some experiences of mine may perhaps help you along the way, to discover that a balanced growth is just like a tree – the trunk as your core, branches and roots as your support.

Thank you for your visit, and I hope that in the future, we could discuss ways to help each other improve and learn in life.

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