I don't know if it's because of my "advanced years" or the faded rows of facing seats in my cars or the aging stations along my tracks--my nostalgic aura you might call it--but whenever they shoot a movie, a TV show, or a music video with a scene where somebody's thinking back about their first love or the pain of breaking up, it seems like nine times out of ten they wind up picking me for a background. If you don't believe it, just ask Hou Hsiao-hsien and K'o I-cheng, the directors, or Huang I-kung, who does TV.

I'm 21.2 kilometers long in all, from Taipei to Tamsui, and I've got eight mouths to gulp up passengers along the way: Shuanglien, Yuanshan, Shihlin, Shihpai, Peitou, Chungi, Kuantu, and Chuwei. I'm a major means of transportation around here, whether you're talking about students going to class in the city or commuters on their way to work.

Oh my gosh, here I've been rambling on and on, and I still haven't introduced myself. I'm a railroad, and my name's the Taipei-Tamsui line. Ever since they said they were going to tear me down to build the Taipei rapid transit, I've been feeling a little down. And I've been thinking about writing my memoirs, in case some day nobody believes the way I once was, in my prime. It's not showing off. I just want to leave a record is all.

Here's how I go. I start out from Taipei station, and before you know it I'm in Shuanglien. Next comes Yuanshan, which is the only stop on the line with a new station. After that comes Shihlin, a classy little suburb that happens to have Taiwan's biggest night market. That's where I once heard a passenger on the platform tell a friend: "When I lived in Tamsui, I used to take the train to Shihlin so I could eat double-wrapped flapjacks. You can't find 'em anywhere else. Those years I was in the U.S. I even used to dream about it."

After Shihlin I have to trudge part way up the mountains to Peitou, where the hot springs are. And right after that comes Wangchia Temple and Chungi. That's a temporary stop they set up for the people who go there to pray.

Then I come to Kuantu, just before the tunnel. Taipei City turns into Taipei County on the other side. And then there's Chuwei. That's a mangrove area, same as Kuantu. There are lots of birds there.

And after Chuwei comes Tamsui, the last stop.

Tamsui's seen a lot of uninvited guests come and go in its day--the Spanish, the Dutch, the English, the French, and the Japanese have all been there at one time or another--and it shows up in the buildings, which come in all styles.

Smack on top of the hill over the town is Fort Santo Domingo, which faces Kuanyin Mountain and gazes off in the distance at the mouth of the Tamsui River. It's been peering down at the people of Tamsui as they go about their business for 358 years.

About half a kilometer west of the fort is what's left of a cannon emplacement. It's got four Chinese characters carved over the door. They mean "Key to the Portals of the North," and Tamsui really was the strategic key to the whole north of Taiwan in the old days.

"The Taipei-Tamsui line has been a blessing to Tamsui and a catalyst to the other towns it runs through. But its passenger and cargo loads are on the decline, and even a railroad starts to feel the effects of old age." That's what Tzeng An-ning once said about me. He's an old friend of mine who's been working at the Tamsui station now for 33 years.

The worst thing that ever happened to me was back in the early seventies. I was involved in some big accidents at my crossings at Nanking West Road and Chang An West Road in Taipei, and people started calling me names in the newspapers. They said I was Taipei's appendix--meaning I was useless and ought to be chopped out.

Then I started hearing rumors that the city government wanted to tear me down and build a modern rapid transit system in my place.

"In ten more years perhaps, the residents of Shihlin, Peitou, and Tamsui will no longer need to jam into crowded buses and trains. Instead they will be able to ride in comfort on the convenient rapid transit, with cars running every two or three minutes." That's the bright future described in something called the "Taipei Metropolitan Mass Rapid Transportation System Development Plan of 1978." Ten years have gone by, and I'm still taking life one day at a time, waiting for the big day.

Well, the city's new Department of Rapid Transit Systems now says work will get started in 1988 and be finished in 1992. The system's going to run on electricity, they say, and it'll be in three sections: underground from Taipei to Yuanshan, elevated from there to Fuhsing Kang, and ground level the rest of the way to Tamsui.

Some time ago, word got around that January 1st, 1988, was going to be my retirement date--the day they tear me down. A lot of my old friends who heard the news hurried back to see me, and some of them wrote articles in the papers recalling our old times together. The next thing you know the Department of Rapid Transit Systems found they weren't ready and put things off till June 1st, but from what I hear there probably won't be any more postponements. So June 1st is the day I say goodbye for good, a day that marks the start of a new era for transportation in Taipei.

Well, you shouldn't go on and on about the old days and the way things were, I guess.

If I've left behind fond memories and warm feelings in the hearts of some people, then all the years of hard work will have been worth it.

[Picture]

The Taipei-Tamsui Rapid Transit System

[Picture Caption]

Around the bend is Tamsui. The cars and I go along together here.

Take a look at all these passengers of mine. I may be old but I've still got a kick or two left.

I've been wrapped up with many people's childhoods. Like this kid reading a comic book on the floor--bet he still remembers me when he grows up.

I "disgorged" these passengers at Tamsui. What are they staring at?

So long, friends!

This is my Tamsui terminal, where I spend the night before heading back to Taipei early the next morning. Same as me, it's going to disappear too.

The Taipei-Tamsui Rapid Transit System.

Take a look at all these passengers of mine. I may be old but I've still got a kick or two left.

I've been wrapped up with many people's childhoods. Like this kid reading a comic book on the floor--bet he still remembers me when he grows up.

I "disgorged" these passengers at Tamsui. What are they staring at?

So long, friends!

This is my Tamsui terminal, where I spend the night before heading back to Taipei early the next morning. Same as me, it's going to disappear too.