Meinong and its Paper Umbrellas

Meinong is a Hakka farming town on the plain below the southern mountains, and it kept two trades that most of Taiwan lost. The first is the oiled paper umbrella, brought from Guangdong in the 1920s: bamboo ribs assembled by hand, covered in mulberry paper, painted, then sealed with tung oil so that the thing actually sheds rain. Several workshops still make them and will show you the stages. The second is tobacco, which shaped the landscape, and the tall brick curing barns with their raised roof vents still stand among the fields although the crop has gone. The town also cooks well, with bantiao, wide flat rice noodles, as its staple dish.

What you actually see

• The umbrella workshops - bamboo ribs, mulberry paper and tung oil, worked by hand.
• The tobacco barns - brick curing sheds with raised roof vents among the fields.
• Bantiao noodles - broad flat rice noodles served in broth or fried.
• The Hakka cultural museum - a small collection on local farming and settlement.

When to go

October to April; the plain is hot and exposed in summer and much of the visit involves cycling or walking between scattered sites. The umbrella workshops keep daytime hours and are quieter on weekdays, when you are more likely to see work in progress rather than a sales floor. Bicycles are the practical way to move around.

Honest expectations

The sites are scattered across farmland, and without a bicycle or a scooter the day becomes tedious. Some workshops now assemble imported parts and paint them locally, and telling the difference takes direct questions. The umbrellas are decorative rather than practical and awkward to carry home. Public transport from Kaohsiung is slow and infrequent.

Nearby

Qishan's old street and the Meinong lake are both close by.