The Mangrove Forest of Hongmaogang

A few minutes along the road beside the little river estuary towards the sea, however, another series of walkways across a second area of thick mangroves is far quieter. Follow the plank walk, and when it rejoins the narrow road at the far end, continue ahead for a few meters to Hongmaogang's beach.

Not many people choose to swim here, as the beach is of unappealing shingle, but there's a pleasant, long pedestrian promenade popular with strollers and locals with dogs to exercise, while most weekends around mid-afternoon, vendors selling coffee, soup, BBQ sausages and what-not stream in and set up their trailers to cater for the crowds that come here at dusk to enjoy a fantastic sunset over the Taiwan Strait.

One place the crowds never make it to is the neighboring hamlet of Fengkang (鳳坑村), a short walk beyond the southern extremity of the boardwalk across the mangrove swamp. The village is dotted with lovely old three-winged Hakka houses, sadly in various stages of dereliction, but it's not for the architecture but for its trees that the place is known.

The village is dotted with the distinctive, gnarled forms of over a hundred old Chinese Hackberry (朴樹) trees, which guidebooks proudly state is the largest number to be found in any single place in Taiwan. They're grown for their tiny globular fruit, which are a popular ingredient in Hakka cooking, but the trees themselves (some of which are two hundred years old) are striking, even beautiful, looking a little like outsize bonsai growing beside the road.

A short walk around the loose collection of old houses that forms the 'center' of the village will reveal plenty of these attractively wizened old things, but the real reason to come here is to enjoy one of northern Taiwan's quietest backwater areas. This place is as unspoilt and traditional as it gets in northern Taiwan.

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