A Xinjiang woman travels to Taiwan; her writer daughter says: 'My mom has started a new life after coming back'

▲ The bright mountain and sea scenery of Taiwan often leaves mainland travelers amazed. (Photo / from the official website of Northeast Coast & Yilan Coast National Scenic Area)

Travel Center / Compiled Report

For people in Taiwan, the beautiful landscapes and tasty food here are long familiar and taken for granted. But for many foreign tourists, Taiwan remains a mysterious and captivating place. Li Juan, a well-known female writer from the mainland, wanted to broaden the horizons of her mother, who had lived in the countryside for years, so she signed her up for a seven-day tour around Taiwan. Unexpectedly, this trip to Taiwan completely changed Mom Li’s outlook on life.

To document her mother’s transformation, Li Juan also wrote vividly about it in“Ever Since My Mom Returned from Her Taiwan Trip, She’s Started a New Life”— a piece that, through the eyes of an elderly rural woman from the mainland, also shows us a different side of Taiwan as seen by Chinese tourists.

For an island nation like Taiwan, “the sea” is our closest mother. But for people living deep in the inland of the mainland, the ocean seems like something that only exists in pictures or on TV. In Li Juan’s article, it’s mentioned that Mom Li, who had never traveled far before, felt uneasy the first time she saw the sea — [She said, “That’s so dangerous, why not put up some railings or something? You have no idea how big those waves are. When the water recedes, anyone who can’t run fast enough will definitely get swept away. Can you swim? Swimming’s useless — it’s so deep, how could you swim?”She also happily added, “When no one was looking, I secretly tasted the seawater. Yep, it’s salty, just like they say!”]

▲ Not only natural beauty, but also culture and art are reasons many mainland travelers love Taiwan. (Photo / by reporter Chen Ruizhong)

Such lovely and vivid stories kept happening throughout Mom Li’s seven-day trip to Taiwan. Not only did she break tradition by buying her daughter an expensive Chanel lipstick and various souvenirs, she also learned all kinds of scarf-tying techniques from Taiwanese scarf vendors.

After returning to Hongdun Township, Mom Li still couldn’t stop thinking about Taiwan. Whenever neighbors brought up any topic, she could always turn the conversation back to her Taiwan trip. When the neighbors mentioned food, she’d immediately say:“Hey！The whatever-it-was in Taiwan — that’s what you call delicious!”; when the topic turned to weather, she’d say:“It rains every single day in Taiwan!”And, of course, the story would eventually circle back to her seven-day island-rounding tour.

In addition, Li Juan’s article also mentions that Mom Li developed a love for traveling, began rethinking the family budget just to prepare for her next trip, and even planned to buy a swimsuit, a backpack, a sun hat, and all kinds of travel gear — she even called to book a trip to the Maldives.

Below is“Ever Since My Mom Returned from Her Taiwan Trip, She’s Started a New Life”Summary

Ever since my mom returned from her Taiwan trip, she’s been looking down on the mainland — complaining that Urumqi is too noisy one minute and Hongdun Township too dirty the next. All day long, she acts like “life is simply unbearable.” But once she’s done complaining, she changes clothes and dives right into chores like cleaning the cowshed or shoveling chicken manure — no hesitation.

For half a year afterward, no matter who she talked to, she’d manage to steer the conversation toward Taiwan by the third or fourth sentence.

If someone said, “The dish at that certain shop is pretty good,” she’d immediately chime in, “Hey！The whatever-it-was in Taiwan — that’s what you call delicious!” Then she’d go on about Taiwanese snacks and her seven-day island tour.

Someone else: “It hasn’t rained in ages.” Her: “It rains every single day in Taiwan!” Then she’d talk about the rain in Taiwan and eventually loop back to her seven-day trip.

Someone: “I’ve been sick these past couple days.” Her: “I’m not feeling great either, I was so exhausted after coming back from Taiwan, I lay around for days.” Then it’s back to the seven-day tour.

The thing is, she lives in a place like the Third Brigade of Hongdun Township, surrounded by honest farmers who’ve probably only been to Urumqi their whole lives. And here you are, talking to them about Taiwan — what’s that about?

Fortunately, the people around her are simple farmers. When they meet someone like my mom, they just naively envy her. No matter how many times they hear the stories, they react with the same surprise as if hearing them for the first time.

It all started with a class reunion. Class reunions are never a good thing. Forty years after graduation, everyone met, caught up on old times, and, as usual, began to show off. When my mom came back, she was in low spirits. She said she looked the oldest among all her classmates, with the most gray hair. Looking old was one thing, but she also couldn’t get a word in during conversations. Those old folks, the moment they opened their mouths, were talking about Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, or at the very least, Jiuzhaigou. As for her, she hadn’t been anywhere, and to make matters worse, her hair was the whitest.

As soon as she got home, she bought some hair dye, but that didn’t really help. So I asked a friend in the travel agency to sign her up for a senior group tour around Taiwan.

So here’s how it went: one day in early winter late last year, my mom packed a woven bag and put on a new pair of shoes, then set off for Taiwan. It was the first real trip of her life. It almost became a turning point for her entire existence.

The first thing she did when she got back was pull out a Chanel lipstick and hand it to me, saying casually, “It’s only a little over two hundred yuan, cheap, right? Back home, it’d be at least three or four hundred.” — Before this, no matter how thirsty she got while out, she wouldn’t spend money on a bottle of mineral water. She’d just endure it and wait until she got home to drink boiled water.

That was during the final shopping session. Everyone else was going wild in the duty-free shops, while my mom stood to the side waiting, looking utterly confused. One elderly woman said, “Are you stupid? This is so cheap. If you buy it back home, it’ll cost you an arm and a leg!”

But to my mom, those things didn’t seem cheap either—a wallet for eight thousand yuan, an eyebrow pencil for five or six hundred.

(Later, I was just baffled. I had clearly signed my mom up for a senior group tour, not a mistresses’ group. What on earth were they all spending money on…)

Other elderly women tried persuading her from a different angle: “Money, you can’t take it with you when you’re born or when you die. We’re already this age, so if not now, when?”

My mom is a person with dignity. In the end, she couldn’t hold out any longer and finally joined the crowd. After picking for a long time, she bought a lipstick.

This tiny little thing—if you say it’s expensive, well, it’s still just over two hundred yuan, which she could afford. If you say it’s cheap, well, it’s just a tiny little thing. So she protected both her pride and her wallet. My mom is quite strategic.

Aside from that, she also bought a bunch of rare souvenirs from small vendors at various scenic spots in Taiwan. Luckily, the woven bag she brought was big enough. But not long after, I saw the exact same items in various malls and supermarkets in Altay. The prices were similar too.

In Taiwan, she was close to the ocean for the first time and felt quite worried.

She said, “It’s so dangerous, why don’t they put up railings or something? You have no idea how big those waves are. When the water recedes, anyone who can’t run fast enough will definitely get swept away. Can you swim? Swimming’s useless, it’s so deep, how could you swim!”

She also happily said, “When no one was looking, I secretly tasted the seawater. Yep, it’s salty, just like they say!”

She also said, “The wind by the sea is so strong. There’s a little shelter set up, and everyone goes in to eat. When one group is eating, another group waits nearby. It’s amazing!”

Me: “What’s so amazing about that? It’s just eating by the sea.”

Her: “I mean, the boss’s business is amazing!”

Earlier, she had read Zhu Tianyi’s book *My Mountain Home Animal Friends* and was utterly enchanted by it.

She said, “Every time I went to a place with mountains, I’d look hard, search hard, really wanting to find that family and go say hello. Lots of mountains have that kind of asphalt road she talked about, thin and winding into the forest. I bet it’s definitely at the end of the road. I even told all the elderly folks around me—old men and women—about that family.”

Finally, she said, “Buy me a house in Taiwan, okay?”

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