If one visits Lishan (梨山) scenic resort at an altitude of 2,000m in the mountains of Greater Taichung’s Heping District (和平), one might bump into a Japanese woman who speaks in fluent Mandarin about the history of the area.
Chiaki Ota, 30, has been working at the counter of the Lishan Guest House and also as a tour guide and interpreter for nearly two years.
On one occasion, some Japanese tourists visiting Lishan for the first time met her there and she helped them during their trip. Later, they returned to the mountain resort and brought some of their friends.
Ota learned about Taiwan from exchange students at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, where she studied. After graduating, she visited Taiwan once or twice each year for sightseeing or to meet friends.
After working in Japan for three years, Ota decided to come to Taiwan to study Mandarin.
She said that she found a job at the Lishan Guest House by happenstance.
She attended an activity for making zongzi — rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival — while studying Chinese at Tunghai University in Taichung.
Ota met a Lishan Guest House employee there and learned that there were job vacancies, so she applied.
Ota, a native of Nayoro in Hokkaido, said she found that Lishan’s air reminded her of her hometown, and that the climate — which is not as hot as most other places in Taiwan — suited her.
Nayoro is about 200km northeast of Hokkaido’s largest city, Sapporo.
She said Taiwan’s mountain areas are gorgeous and that she feels very lucky to work in Lishan.
Lishan Guest House was Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) residence in central Taiwan and was also used to receive foreign dignitaries in the 1960s and 1970s.
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