Last month, I was in Taiwan for about a week with Mum. We spent a few days at Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), which we used as a base to visit our places, including Alishan (阿里山). The mornings and evenings were blissfully quiet without the hordes of tourists arriving by mid-morning.
One thing I did not expect to see were signs for 'Assamese Black Tea' products, including this one for 'Assamese Black Tea' egg rolls.
This signboard near the Shuishe visitor centre also mentioned 'Assam Black Tea Cuisine'.
What I didn't realise was that in 1925 (or 1926), black tea from Assam was brought by the Japanese to the Sun Moon Lake area for cultivation. Apparently, the climate and soil conditions of the area are similar to those of Assam and so the tea thrived here. I have to admit, the area did remind me a little of North-east India, but mainly because of the extensive betel nut (areca nut) plantations filling the valleys! Today, black tea production still continues, albeit on a smaller scale. There's a Sun Moon Lake Antique Assam Tea Farm in nearby Yuchi (鱼池) if you're interested in learning more about tea cultivation in the area.
I should also mention that the area around Sun Moon Lake was previously inhabited mainly by the Thao (pronounced [θau]), many of whom continue to live close to the lake. They are the smallest group out of the 14 officially recognised aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. The Thao language, an Austronesian language, is critically endangered - Robert Blust estimated that there were only about 15 remaining fluent speakers living in the village of Barawbaw (now commonly known as Ita Thao (伊達邵), seen in the photos above from across the lake) when he published his dictionary of the Thao language back in 2003. Despite Blust's amazing efforts in making what is perhaps the most comprehensive dictionary of a Formosan language, the language unfortunately looks to be moribund, if not already extinct. Blust also was thankful that the community emerged mostly unscathed from the deadly 1999 earthquake which caused massive damage around the country.
On a final note, the day Mum and I left Sun Moon Lake, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck the region. We had just left the lake by bus and had arrived at the Taichung High Speed Railway station. The quake struck while we were waiting for our train to take us back to Taoyuan to catch our flight back to Singapore. The section of the high speed railway we were supposed to travel on was shut down for several hours while inspections took place. However, thanks to some very helpful locals, and Taiwan's amazing intercity transport network, we managed to catch a bus straight from Taichung to the Taoyuan International Airport to catch our flight home.
