Tongshih (東石) is a small place and not much happens during the week, although the oyster fisherman and the oyster shuckers are at work seven days a week. But on weekends, busloads of tourists from around the island make their way to Tongshih's newly-rebuilt harbor area, walking along oceanside boardwalks and dining on tasty dishes of oyster omelets at several popular eateries that do most of their business on Saturdays and Sundays.

Everywhere you go in Tongshih, by motorscooter, taxi or bus, there are frontyards and backyards full of oyster shells. And as you can surmise, Tongshih's main industry is its oyster farms and wholesale fish market near the port.

When I drove by the fish market, the scene inside the large

building reminded me of fish markets I had seen in Japan, where local restaurant owners lined up to buy as much fresh fish as pos sible for their shops in southern and central Taiwan.

Laura Tsao, who grew up in Tongshih and then moved to Chiayi City to raise three children, has resettled in her hometown and works in the insurance business in nearby Putzu township. "It was wonderful to grow up in a place like this," she told this reporter over a lunch of oyster cakes and oyster omelets during a recent visit. "Even now, when I come home from work in the evenings, I like to walk along the ocean boardwalk with my two dogs and savor the fresh air and watch the setting sun. It's a magical place, and my parents are still here, too."

Tongshih is about as small as small villages can get and still be villages. There are no coffee shops, no cinemas, no department stores -- just a few tea shops, two convenience stores and a half dozen oyster-themed sidewalk eateries. There's nothing fancy about Tongshih, but that's not why people come here.

They come here, and by the hundreds on weekends, by bus and by car, to enjoy the ocean views, walk in the fresh air while they listen to waves breaking along the shore and gaze out at the long flat horizon of the Taiwan Strait. If you look hard enough, you can see Penghu (澎湖) and the coast of China, locals say, but I think they were kidding me, because all I could see was an endless gray ocean.

For Alexa Chen and her younger sister Myra, both junior high school students in Tongshih, living in such a secluded, rural area has its good points and its bad points, they said. "We love living near the ocean," said Alexa, 14. "It's fun to walk along the harbor and watch the fishing boats coming and going."

Myra said that sometimes life is boring in Tongshih, and that she hopes to go to high school in Chiayi City in the future. "We don't even have a movie theater here," she said in a tiny tea shop her aunt runs on weekends. "There is absolutely nothing to do here!"But for the hundreds of tourists who descend on rural Tongshih every weekend, all year round, the seaside village doesn't need a cinema or a department store. It's a place to refresh the spirit and enjoy smalltown life in a place that is about as close to nowhere as you can get in southern Taiwan. But the village and its fishing port have their charms, and the sunset is something to write home about.

If you come to Tongshih, bring your camera, bring a good appetite for seafood and oyster cakes, and most of all, leave your tired city life behind and get ready for a weekend of pure relaxation.

An adventurous way to visit Tongshih on the weekends is by rented motorscooter from Chiayi train station's ubiquitous scooter rental shops. For just NT$400, you can rent a scooter for the day, take a leisurely drive out to Tongshih over the flatlands of western Chiayi County and tour the village and port area with the convenience of having your own wheels. Stay for the evening sunset, chow down on some good oyster omelets and then had back to Chiayi in the tranquil evening darkness.

To get there:

By train: Both the High Speed Railway and the Taiwan Railway have station stops at Taibao or Chiayi City.

By bus: Ruses run to Tongshi from Chiayi City and Taibao every hour, costing NT$100 one way.

By taxi: Ask a taxi driver in Chiayi City to take you to Tongshih for the afternoon; a one way group fare is around NT$500 for up to five people. Trip takes just 45 minutes.

By car or scooter: From Chiayi City, take Route 168 to Tongshih along a scenic farmland and fishpond route.