So, because I couldn't find a picture of the Fulong (福隆) train station, I decided to take a walk down in Fulong. En route, I strolled down the sand beach and visited them sand sculptures... before some of them... yet to be completed.
Before entering, I was told that I had to carry my behind up this Rainbow Bridge (彩虹橋)... to get to the beach where the sand sculptures are... It didn't look like all that big a bridge at the first sight...
At least, not until when I set of my foot on it...
Inching away, wondering to myself how much longer it was to take before I get to see the sand sculptures on the beach.
It's gotta be about 3 decades since I last came to visit the Fulong beach. In between my snooping around the sand sculptures, I got my feet wet in the Pacific ocean.
Up to this point and much later, the Fulong beach was the background where the 2013 Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival (2013 福隆國際沙雕藝術季) takes place and that bridge was but a bridge I had to move my sorry behind over with many a stop to cross some water...
Then, as I was looking for some information online about Fulong train station and Fulong beach a day or two later, I learned that that water I had to crossover is the Shuangsi River. Due to the change of the waterway of the Shuangsi River from year to year, in some years, the bridge goes directly into the sea... while other, like this year, the bridge lead to the beach surround by the Shuangsi River on one side and the Pacific ocean on the other.
This beach itself was already a famous one during the era of Japanese occupation and it was formerly known as the Aodi beach (澳底海水浴場). In recent year, the sand of the beach has diminished gradually, which was suspected to be related to the staithe built to transport equipment for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant of Taiwan. Apparently, the diminishing sand beach had caused some problems to hold the Ho-hai-yan Rock Festival (貢寮國際海洋音樂祭), which has taken place on the Fulong beach for years. Essentially, the receding shoreline leaves insufficient beach to hold the concerts... thus... the need to move sand from somewhere else to build a bigger beach.
So... the beach and the bridge turned to be some interesting object to me... as a result of the things I learned... unaware of when on site. I decided to find some pictures showing myselves what it be like for the bridge to go directly into the water... river or ocean.
Knowing something about the bridge and the beach now, I am surely happy that I took a picture of this seemingly ordinary bridge... and... this came to my mind...
The Rainbow bridge we see here was build in 1994, what about before 1994? I remember vaguely that when we went down the beach when I was a kid, there was a pretty beaten down old bridge and I remember the adults had mention the irregular site of the beach... though... memory is a strange thing... (therefore... the entire research on eyewitness testimony).
I looking all over the internet till... finally... I found this clip online to show that... in 1968... a different bridge was in place... although I don't know whether this was the bridge I saw then. (And, I asked my dad about the bridge today and he recalled there to be a simple bridge taking people to the beach... Maybe what he remembered is this bridge in the following picture.)
So it concludes my blah blah blah on how my thought of taking a picture of the Fulong station led me to the 2013 Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival (2013 福隆國際沙雕藝術季) and to the sight of the old beach bridge in 1968.
Hope it would give you some background information shall you decide to visit the Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival or the Fulong beach.
5/2/2013
Before entering, I was told that I had to carry my behind up this Rainbow Bridge (彩虹橋)... to get to the beach where the sand sculptures are... It didn't look like all that big a bridge at the first sight...
At least, not until when I set of my foot on it...
Inching away, wondering to myself how much longer it was to take before I get to see the sand sculptures on the beach.
It's gotta be about 3 decades since I last came to visit the Fulong beach. In between my snooping around the sand sculptures, I got my feet wet in the Pacific ocean.
Up to this point and much later, the Fulong beach was the background where the 2013 Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival (2013 福隆國際沙雕藝術季) takes place and that bridge was but a bridge I had to move my sorry behind over with many a stop to cross some water...
Then, as I was looking for some information online about Fulong train station and Fulong beach a day or two later, I learned that that water I had to crossover is the Shuangsi River. Due to the change of the waterway of the Shuangsi River from year to year, in some years, the bridge goes directly into the sea... while other, like this year, the bridge lead to the beach surround by the Shuangsi River on one side and the Pacific ocean on the other.
This beach itself was already a famous one during the era of Japanese occupation and it was formerly known as the Aodi beach (澳底海水浴場). In recent year, the sand of the beach has diminished gradually, which was suspected to be related to the staithe built to transport equipment for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant of Taiwan. Apparently, the diminishing sand beach had caused some problems to hold the Ho-hai-yan Rock Festival (貢寮國際海洋音樂祭), which has taken place on the Fulong beach for years. Essentially, the receding shoreline leaves insufficient beach to hold the concerts... thus... the need to move sand from somewhere else to build a bigger beach.
So... the beach and the bridge turned to be some interesting object to me... as a result of the things I learned... unaware of when on site. I decided to find some pictures showing myselves what it be like for the bridge to go directly into the water... river or ocean.
 |
| As of 5/2/2013, in the picture I took, the Rainbow bridge goes over the Shuangsi River and lands on the sand beach. |
 |
| In some years, the bridge goes into the water... (look almost like the river to me)... |
 |
| In some other years, the bridge goes into... not quite sure the sea or the river... Pacific ocean perhaps? |
The Rainbow bridge we see here was build in 1994, what about before 1994? I remember vaguely that when we went down the beach when I was a kid, there was a pretty beaten down old bridge and I remember the adults had mention the irregular site of the beach... though... memory is a strange thing... (therefore... the entire research on eyewitness testimony).
I looking all over the internet till... finally... I found this clip online to show that... in 1968... a different bridge was in place... although I don't know whether this was the bridge I saw then. (And, I asked my dad about the bridge today and he recalled there to be a simple bridge taking people to the beach... Maybe what he remembered is this bridge in the following picture.)
 |
| See the bridge there... standing strong as of 1968... a screenshot taken from the following clip at time 1:07. |
So it concludes my blah blah blah on how my thought of taking a picture of the Fulong station led me to the 2013 Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival (2013 福隆國際沙雕藝術季) and to the sight of the old beach bridge in 1968.
Hope it would give you some background information shall you decide to visit the Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival or the Fulong beach.
 |
| Do you see what I am seeing now? |
5/2/2013
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