Visiting Yuanlin Station on Youbike    
    Photo and text / Jingsiou Vanguard Team  2015.2.2

      Path: Jingsiou Elementary School-National Yuanlin Senior High School-Yuanlin Blvd.-Yuanlu Rd.-Taiwan Sugar Bike Path-Juguang Rd.-Xinyi St.-South Yuanlin Station-Xinsheng Rd.-Nanhe St.-Zhishan Park-Jingsiou Elementary School.

      We walked from the school and diagonally crossed the street to National Yuanlin Senior High School to check out Youbikes. We

 Reflection

carefully crossed the 30-meter wide Yuanlin Blvd. and headed west to cross the Yuanlu Rd., where we entered Taiwan Sugar Bike Path. We slowly rode the bikes along the driveway inside the laneways. The pathway was covered with red bricks. The pathway surface was smooth but not wide. Sometimes flowers and trees were luxuriant but sometimes weeds ran on both sides of the pathway. The game facilities imitating a railroad behind Yuanlin were torn and tattered. Diverse scenes were attached to one single railroad.

      We rode bikes to get close to Yuanlin Sugar Railway. Whatever we have seen and heard triggered lots of thinking and discussions among us. Overall, the environment was not clean and tidy enough. Even though we have volunteered as a cleaning service beside the Sugar Railroad with many residents joining us in cleaning the environment together, the job needs to be done continuously.

 

        We then carefully crossed Juguang Rd.’s five-way intersection, moved forward along Sugar Railway, crossed Xinyi St. five-road intersection, and finally came to Hsin-yu’s aunt’s house in South Yuanlin Station. Grandpa Liao, who has been interviewed before in the barbershop, was watering his flowers. We stopped to chat with him regarding the recent developments of South Yuanlin Station, and then kept moving forward. We have been here several times, so it felt like we went back in time to the old and beautiful secret base.

      We took a right turn at the signal interrupter of South Yuanlin Station into Xinsheng Rd., and then moved straight forward. We came to the old address of the now-removed Taiwan Sugar Yuanlin Station, and the residents kindly told us that the street was closed. Some heavy machinery was working beneath the elevated bridge. The small alley we were in belonged to six families who were negotiating against the demolition. We did not know how the negotiation could be completed. We finally went along the west street of the elevated bridge, turned into Zhishan Park to return our Youbikes, and finished our 3-hour tour for visiting Yuanlin Sugar Railway by bike.

      This time we used both our legs to study the beauty of the railway in our hometown, and triggered the topic of caring for Yuanlin Railway Community Environment. Anyways, we are little but we are ambitious. We invited everyone to visit the railway in Yuanlin through our passion for action.