Take a stroll past the old houses near the Xinhai Tunnel... the new cross is now only half intact.

▲ Xinhai Tunnel, Taipei City. (Photo / from Wikimedia Commons)

By Hua Fu Xiao Shu Tong (Little Page Boy from Washington)

The incident probably happened around 2006? Back then, the area around the Xinhai Tunnel wasn’t as it is today—there used to be numerous “nightclubs” in the vicinity. Many homes along Xinhai Road were situated right next to graves and tombstones, and the nearby Xinhai Tunnel was rife with all kinds of legends.

Due to these unique geographical factors at the time, some politicians hoped to improve the local living environment. Because of work requirements, I followed one such politician to interview residents in the alleys off Xinhai Road.

The weather that day was poor, with light rain falling. The politician held an umbrella and kept saying, “Oh my—look at all these graves,” and “There’s even a tombstone here, we really need to improve this place quickly!” while listening to the locals vent their grievances.

At that time, I had a small, semi-transparent cross hanging from my bag—it was newly bought the day before, about the size of a ten-dollar coin. It accompanied me as I moved between the graveyard and the homes that day.

After finishing the day’s schedule and returning home, I looked down—and to my surprise, the seemingly sturdy cross had cracked in two. While the upper half, still attached to the string, remained on my bag, the lower half had vanished without a trace. Yet during the entire interview, my bag hadn’t been bumped or squeezed by any external force, yet the brand-new cross had indeed been reduced to just half.

To this day, the environment behind Xinhai Road has improved significantly, with many new construction projects having sprung up. But I still don’t know why the cross broke on its own, nor do I know if it helped “block” some kind of disaster...