Keelung: Colorful fishing village with environmental attitude
Goodbyes are always hard but every end comes with a new beginning. Couple days after I said goodbye to Jiaxian, I headed to Keelung, North coast of Taiwan.
This is the second week I have been staying at the community called Pataw, translated Witch in indigenous tribe's language. A reason? In the foggy weather, people believed in witches living in this place. :)
The village is located south of Keelung city and used to be separated from the mainland. Recently built National Marine Science and Technology Museum is now a major connection between them.The museum used to be a hydroelectric water plant. Because of its discharging dirt and causing pollution in a local neighbourhood, the plant was closed.
Pataw Besides the fact, the community runs the hostel at calm and cozy fishing village called Chang tan, it is also part of the environmental community in this city. Pataw provides two-days package that consists of accommodation and tour with a guide around this village with the explanation how this community works and its endeavour to the local environment. , composed of young people is part of another community which the main goal is connected with ocean friendly treatments and issues including fishing tactics and maintaining the coast clean.
The first thing to mention is a wood coin business. You can buy one wood coin made by Pataw for 10 NTD (0,3 €) and pay in local vendors for food or drinks with this payment. By that way, Pataw tries to help aboriginals whose salary is about 5000 NTD ( less than 200 €). In the end of a month, shoppers collect their coins and change that for New Taiwanese dollars from Pataw community.
My favorite place at this village is a small harbour with old, colorful and fairy boats. Each boat has hundreds of quite huge light bulbs above. And each bulb costs about 10 000 NTD (about 300 €). Those bulbs have the purpose of luring the fish close to a boat.
Fishermen catch fish without using fishing nets in belief not to seize the small baby fish and destroy corals and plankton on the bottom of the ocean. They work with fish-hooks to get only the adult fish. Also, during the tour time you participate in cleaning the coast. You get two bags, one is for recycling, another for a trash. When we saw glass bottle wrapped by small crabs houses we had a little dilemma where to place it.
Afterward, you hear and learn more about ocean pollution and how important is to maintain the ocean unpolluted from Pataw crew.
The last activity what can be done as a part of the tour is making a jelly from 石花 seaweed. This jelly is mostly used as an ingredient cold drink or shaved ice. The procedure starts with a fisherman who picks the seaweed from a bottom of the ocean. In that time, a seaweed has a dark red color. It takes about 7 days of drying it out in the sun and also few times of rinsing it before it comes to yellowish white. Along the coast, you could notice several paths covered by yellow seaweed and If you are not informed before, you could easily step on it. What locals don't really appreciate. Of course, I did so on my first day here.
Back to the procedure. When the seaweed is dried and yellow, it needs to boil in a pot. The main part for the jelly is the leftover liquid. As soon as the leftover liquid cools down it would become a jelly. And this product can be used as well as in sour drinks or shaved ice. It contributes to your skin health and helps your body to cool down in this heat.
