Ilan Lan Yang Museum

Yesterday I went to the Lang Yan Museum in Ilan on the Northeast coast.

www.lym.gov.tw

The eastern coast of Ilan use to be quite isolated from the more populated western coast. But since the HsuehShan (ShueShan, XueShan ) Tunnel was built in 2006, the development on the eastern coast has boomed.

http://mikeess-trip.blogspot.com/2011/03/sao-mu-second-weekend.html

and

http://tainanchineseclass.blogspot.com/2010/01/trip-to-ilan-1.html

It is a very modern building modeled on the geological cuesta that are prevalent on this side of Taiwan where the collision of the Philippine's plate with the Eurasian plate has tillted the older layers of rock. The Museum covers the history of the Ilan area from 5 million years ago when Taiwan emerged as an island off the coast of Asia until now. It covers the unique flora and fauna of this mountainous area close to the ocean. And the native people who were there before the immigration of the Chinese(Han) people.

For me, the machines of the last 100 years used around Ilan were the most interesting.

A human operated water lifter for the rice fields.

 A rice thrasher.

 A Diesel engine from the fishing fleet.

 A rope twisting machines for fibrous shipping lines.

I am glad to have relatives and friend that will take me to such interesting places.

The people of Ilan are rightly proud of their new Museum.