Last Day in Taiwan: Hand-made Paper and Fan Making
June 15, 2024 While breakfast is usually not a topic of blogging, I wanted to start by appreciating the waitress at the Puli Ease Hotel where we were staying. This incredibly kind and caring lady saw how rushed our breakfast was, and put in the extra effort to ensure we could take our food to-go, and then gave us more food from the buffet to-go. This was a level of helpfulness I had never seen before, and she was truly incredibly kind and helpful. But moving on from breakfast, we left the hotel (to the goodbye waves of the waitstaff) and headed towards a paper-making factory. This factory still made paper the traditional way, and gave us a new perspective on how such a frequently-used daily item is made. We learned how the inner bark of the tree is harvested, soaked, boiled, bleached, and shredded to make pulp, and then we got to actually make the paper from there. Using traditional trays and bamboo mats, we scooped up wood pulp and water, then shook it to distribute evenly. After ac