When it comes to traveling around the island, no one beats her!
Chuang Chien-wei, also called Cherry, is an attendant on the round the island Formosa Star Luxury Train Tour. Born in 1983, she graduated from Shih Chien University’s Department of Applied Science of Living. After graduation, she worked for ezTravel, an online travel agency, where she works on the Taiwan Railway Administration’s around Taiwan tourist train. Her train departs at 8:12am from Taipei Main Station and stops in Yilan, Hualien, Taitung, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Tainan, Changhua and then all the way up north and returns to Taipei at 9:32pm. The next day she does the same trip the other way round. In three years of working here, she has served thousands of passengers and traveled around Taiwan more than 200 times.
“Cherry, it’s you again!” is a greeting she hears frequently. Former acting Kaohsiung mayor Yeh Chu-lan, movie star Chang Chen and singer Afalean Lu have all traveled on her train. Trips sometimes last two or three days, and sometimes she meets passengers again at some station the next day. Passengers say she has traveled around Taiwan more than anyone else.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Liberty Times 自由時報記者黃旭磊
Chuang said she has come across many unusual passengers. A middle-aged man who got on the train at Taipei Station didn’t get off at all. He just sat there and watched the scenery through his window. He brought a computer and some magazines. In the evening, after having made it around the island, he got off again in Taipei. A group of foreigners with tickets for the whole trip got off when they saw beautiful scenery, a very pleasant way of traveling. Then there was an overseas Chinese from Australia who traveled around Taiwan for four days, all on the train.
Chuang said the scenery from the window in the restaurant car changes depending on the season. The scenery in the Hualien and Taitung area has left the deepest impression on her. When the weather is good, she can even see Green Island and Orchid Island in the Pacific Ocean. On the west coast, she can see Siaoliouciou Island. The sea melts into the sky and the scenery is like a beautiful painting.
She has worked three years on the train. She serves dumplings, lunchboxes and drinks, and makes broadcasts in Mandarin, English and Japanese at each stop. She stands up all day long at work, so when she arrives home, she says: “I traveled around Taiwan again,” then she falls asleep. That’s how hard she works.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU)
說到環島，沒人比得上她！
環島之星觀光列車隨車服務員莊千薇或“Cherry“，七十二年次，實踐大學生活應用科學系畢業後到易遊網工作，工作就是「環島一圈」，早上八點十二分從台北車站發車，宜蘭、花蓮、台東、屏東、高雄、台南、彰化一路北上，晚間九點三十二分回到台北，隔天反向再一圈，工作三年來，服務過上千旅客，繞行台灣超過兩百趟。
「Cherry，又看到你了！」是她經常聽到的。前高雄市代理市長葉菊蘭、影星張震及歌星盧學叡都坐過她的車，而他們的行程有兩天，也有三天，有時隔一天在車站又遇到，旅客說她是環島最多圈的女孩。
莊千薇曾遇過不少特殊的客人，一名中年男子於台北上車後，卻沒有下車過，坐在車上透過車窗看風景，自備電腦及幾本雜誌，環島一圈後，晚上又在台北下車；也有一群外籍人士，買全程票，風景好就下車，相當愜意。另有澳洲華僑，環島旅遊，四天都坐火車。
她說，餐車車窗外，四季景色隨時在變，印象最深的是花東風景，天氣好時，太平洋那端綠島、蘭嶼盡收眼底。西岸可看到台灣海峽的小琉球，海天一色、美景如畫。
三年來的鐵道生涯，車上送包子、便當、飲料及每站中英日文廣播，站著工作一整天，因此回家打完招呼：「我又環島一周了」，倒頭就睡，正是工作辛苦的寫照。
（自由時報記者黃旭磊）
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