I look forward to bringing educational and fun experiences in Asia to my granddaughter Mila, who lives in Oklahoma, USA. She can learn about the world vicariously through all my adventures. I got a flat stuffed toy to join me. She is reversible. One side is a little girl and the other is a ladybug. I call her LadyB. I sent the same toy to Mila, which she can name as she sees fit. My Chinese name is Gonggong (公公), which means grandfather in Chinese.

I want to also share my China life with other youngsters and adults, so enjoy the stories. Hopefully you can show them around.

I posted the first 15 on Facebook and got many complaints from fans who hate it, don’t use it or got banned. Not just them, but Facebook – not to mention Instagram, Reddit, Quora, Substack, TikTok, X and YouTube – also heavily shadow ban me, as you can see below, so I decided to start posting them on China Rising Radio Sinoland, where I have the artistic freedom that you deserve to fully enjoy. Catching up with #8 here.

Typical Facebook censorship. All three of their explanations are utter BS. It’s there, but you have to dig to get to it.

ADVENTURES IN ASIA WITH LADYB AND GONGGONG
Story #8: Puli Town is our town.

Puli Town, Nantou County, Taiwan Province, China

Dear Granddaughter Mila,

Welcome to our new home, Puli Town, Taiwan Province, China! It is 24° north of the equator. What a coincidence, your Grandmother Maflor and I lived in Shenzhen, China, 2016-2019, and guess what, both cities are at the same latitude! Even more interesting, this is the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer.

Puli Town. Notice all the solar water heaters on the rooftops. They save tons of energy and money. Also see the church. Taiwanese are 4% Christian and 79% Buddhist/Daoist/Confucist, with the rest undeclared. Taiwan has 11 mosques and two synagogues, for the small populations of their followers.

LadyB and I love it here. It is very green, with flowers everywhere, so she can be her ladybug self and go hog wild! To our east are forest-covered foothills that often have tufts of clouds hanging in them, like ornaments on a Christmas tree. Behind those foothills, about a one-hour drive away is the Taiwan Mountain Range, which reaches a nose-bleed 4,000 meters above sea level (masl). Imagine that, four kilometers tall! Can you climb that high?

Puli Town: behind those clouds are 4,000-meter mountain peaks.

Puli is 450masl, we live at 530masl; we are only 100m away from those forested foothills. In fact, our neighborhood gets its water from the streams flowing down the mountains. We went up on a foothill lookout to take the video below, which is at 650masl.

Puli Town: we found a really beautiful place to live. The big building at the start of the clip on a foothill is a huge Buddhist temple overlooking the city. We live very close to there. Everywhere we turn, there are Buddhist/Daoist/Confucist temples, including many small local “Land God” temples that dot the countryside. More on those later.

By Mainland China standards, Puli is very small, only 85,000 residents. Nearby Nantou has 105,000 souls. It is our county seat. Further down on the west coast below us, about 40km away is Taicheng, which has 1,000,000 inhabitants. It’s hard to believe that the total population of Taiwan Province has fewer people (23,000,000) than cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai or Chongqing in Mainland China!

Puli Town: trees, flowers and gardens are everywhere you turn. Off to the right up on a foothill is another huge Buddhist/Daoist/Confucist temple gazing down below.

Like the rest of China, the Taiwanese people are fabulously kind, polite and honest. It is very relaxing, super safe and clean, with excellent infrastructure. Puli’s air quality is first rate and the food is to die for. Maybe now you can appreciate why we chose to live here.

By car/bus, we live 30km from a very famous lake in Asia, called Sun-Moon Lake. It is a huge tourist attraction, so on the weekends and holidays, Puli’s hotels fill up with visitors from all over the island. It is a must see site for foreign travelers. We haven’t gone yet, but you can bet we will do a story on it.

Hopefully, you can visit to see for yourself. We know you will L-O-V-E it here! Did you know your mother spent her first five years growing up in China? She can tell you stories about her life here. Your Aunt Chara spent the first six months of her life in China, before we moved to France. Then, she studied and worked on the Mainland 2010-2019, so she’s a real Sino-pro!

LadyB waves hello to you! Love, Grandfather Gonggong