2/26 Tamsui

p.113-116

1. the wide river [Tamsui River]: “Doesn’t that look like the Yangtze River?” / You ignored the single-ridge southern Min-style houses, with their slanted roofs, agreeing that it was a San Francisco sort of view, even though neither of you had ever been there.
2. sandbars with the small egrets, buffalo herons, and night herons: “Clear streams meander through the Hanyang Woods/Fragrant grasses spread across Parrot Islet.”
3. when a sea of fiery red flowers covered the flame tree, you felt as if you were in Spain or some small Mediterranean town.

p.123-127

1. Qing history vs. French navy
2. the low, cloudy sky: reminded you of Ryan’s Daughter…The French Lieutenant’s Woman…repressed, dark, gloomy England
3. the Samaritan who drowned while trying to save someone at Xinghuadian [Li Shuangze]

p.173-174

1. your secret garden
2. Mackay Hospital
3. Zhenli Street vs. four-lane Zhongshan Road
4. you were lost
5. During the Taiyuan Reign of the Jin Dynasty a fisherman of Wuling once rowed upstream, unmindful of the distance he had gone…
6. you never went back

p.204-209

1. Dadu Road: small-town America
2. the Tamsui MTR [typo of MRT] Line’s cement wall vs. the mangroves and the river
3. Wether it was an official from the central or a local government, from the ruling party or the opposition, everyone vied to see who loved this island more. It was indeed no easy feat to love this island that much.
4. the sixteen-year-old Iwasato Masao [Li Denghui / Lee Teng-hui]]
5. Dadu Road: old trees that looked like injured veterans…show no signs of putting down roots