With frequent earthquakes hitting Taitung and Hualien over the past couple of days, our scheduled trip to Lishan had to be postponed. We really hope things settle down soon so it won’t impact the high-mountain winter tea harvest coming up in two weeks.
Nantou and Chiayi also experienced quite strong shaking this time. Because the tea-growing regions have steep terrain, many areas suffered rockfalls and landslides from the earthquakes. Not to mention the Lixing Industrial Road, the Central Cross-Island Highway also saw plenty of rockfalls this time around. At the 77K mark near Lingfu Bridge on the way from Lishan to Xinjiayang, there was a massive landslide.
Actually, this area has been prone to collapses for a long time, and every time I pass through, it’s pretty nerve-wracking. This latest earthquake in Taitung and Hualien brought down another wave of rocks. Tea farmers in Xinjiayang mentioned that today (September 19) there were still collapses happening, and it might take a few days just to clear everything out. That’s starting to make me a bit worried. Since a lot of the tea from Xinjiayang is transported near Fushoushan Farm / HuaGung for processing, if the roads are blocked during harvest season, we’re going to have a serious problem. (The photos below were taken at the 77K mark back in early August.)
We plan to find time next week to visit the tea region again, and hopefully, the seismic activity will quiet down by then. To our friends in Hualien and Taitung—especially those in Fuli, Chishang, Guanshan, Zhuoxi, Wanrong, and Changbin—please stay safe and take extra precautions over the next few days.
