Uncle's "Learning on Walking"

I had a text message with the store manager earlier, and he said that he had just attended a lecture by a rising star in Hong Kong's walking studies (yes, that's Huang Yuxuan, the author of "Hong Kong Walking Studies" and "Urban Walking Studies - Taking Hong Kong as a Starting Point"). I asked if there were any seniors who were walking students, but he didn’t know. Soon, I looked at the desk and saw a book lying there that I had bought for a while, and suddenly I realized that he was the senior from the walking school! He is Teacher Li Qingzhi.

There are two floors of my bookcase for books about architecture and trains. There are architects I like, such as Corbusier, Tadao Ando, ​​Yoshifumi Nakamura, and teacher Li Qingzhi. After checking the website, I found that I have read/collected all the books published by Mr. Li Qingzhi, such as "Building a House in Baja", "Railway Architecture Walk", "Tadao Ando's Architectural Labyrinth", "The Speed ​​of Travel", "The Soul" He has been his long-term reader for more than 10 years. This year he published a new book, "Uncle Ojisan on the Road", and I bought it and read it.

This book can be described as a high-end uncle’s version of traveling around Taiwan: During the epidemic, the teacher and his friend each drove a Suzuki Jimny to visit the coast of Taiwan. The teacher mentioned in the book why he chose the Suzuki Jimny. This car is not perfect and has many flaws. The only advantage is that it can be modified and equipped with simple equipment to turn it into a station wagon. The two of them rode horses like cowboys in the West, using maps instead of GPS to explore everywhere and look for secrets.

Even if you have a car, you may not know how to get to the secret spot that the uncles are looking for. For example, you have to leave the planned highway and drive along the coast to find the huge sea caves. Another thing that impressed me deeply was the "Temple of Five Blessings" in Tanaka. It is not like the one on the pond, surrounded by rice ears, but it is an ancient temple submerged in mud, with only the roof remaining. The teacher bought an aerial camera and took photos from a high place. The bare fields and the temple with exposed roofs felt like they were waiting to be discovered, and at the same time, they felt the power of nature.

The teacher has a master's degree in architecture, so naturally there is a chapter on architecture. For example, he introduced that the train station has been transformed into a coffee shop, with a warehouse next to it. The warehouse was like Lei Shengchun [Note 1], but it retained that old feeling. After seeing the conservation methods on the "other side" (which does not mean that it is one-sided), I felt sad when I came back to see us.

The teacher's words make people think about what kind of life we ​​want to live. The teacher saw the power of nature and felt that human abilities are limited. This is particularly interesting coming from an architect. Because many architects would like to design a grand and unique building. But a good architect will think about how the building integrates with the environment.

Through text and pictures, it not only introduces the landscape of Taiwan, but also allows readers (including me) to reflect again on the meaning of life. The nutrients accumulated during the journey will become wisdom in the future, as he wrote at the end of the book:

After many days of off-road driving, the uncles who came back from around the island looked very tired, but they felt very happy because they had gained a lot! It confirms what Haruki Murakami said: "Travel is mostly quite tiring. But some knowledge can only be learned personally after being tired; some joy can only be obtained after exhaustion. This is what I get from continuing to travel. Truth!" (page 207)

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[Note 1] Lei Shengchun (Wiki)——
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E9%9B%B7%E7%94%9F%E6%98%A5

"Uncle Ojisan on the Road" (from the blog)——
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010954796