Chishang is famous for rice. The township lies in the southern part of the East Rift Valley, in Taitung county, where the plain is flat and wide and the mountains stand back on either side, and its paddies are some of the most photographed in Taiwan. The rice grown here has a reputation across the island for its taste, which locals put down to the clean water from the mountains, the cool nights and the rich soil. In summer the fields glow a vivid green, and at harvest they turn gold, with the Central Range rising blue behind them.
One road has become a celebrity. A straight, narrow lane running through the paddies is lined on one side with tall trees and on the other with open fields, and it is known for a coffee advertisement that showed a man sitting under a tree beside it. Visitors now hire bicycles and ride along it, and the lane is busy at weekends. The surrounding countryside is flat enough that cycling is the usual way to explore, and many people leave their cars and take a bike around the villages.
The town has another claim to fame: the railway lunchbox. Chishang station sells boxed meals of rice, pork and pickles that have been a station tradition for decades, and travellers eat them on the platform or on the train. They are simple, filling and cheap, and people do queue up for them. The town also holds a small museum devoted to rice and a harvest festival.
For riders, the roads in the valley are very good: Highway 9 and the quiet farm lanes alongside it offer easy, flat riding, with soft bends and constant mountain views. Traffic is light outside holiday periods. Watch for bicycles, farm tractors and school pupils, and for sudden showers, which can leave the lanes slick. Autumn and early winter, with clear air and golden fields, are the best times; summer is hot and humid, and typhoons may come in late summer.
Fuel and food are no problem in Chishang and nearby towns, and you will find plenty of small restaurants serving noodles, pork and local vegetables. Stop for a lunchbox at the station and eat it in the sun, with the mountains beyond the fields.