How a New Hualien Resident Began

July 2006 — I moved to Hualien.

I had no idea yet just how lively, how colorful, Hualien's Julys could be.

That July, at Meilun Athletic Field, the joint Harvest Festival. Two days, six round trips, chasing the light for nearly eight hours. As a total newcomer to the city, it was my first time seeing, up close, the smiles, the dance steps, and the sheer joy of our Indigenous friends.

That fall, the Hualien International Stone Sculpture Festival — "Treading Stone, Building Dreams."

Well over a decade later, the stones of Hualien are still singing.

The stone, waiting to "return to weightlessness," to hear again that love song between the mountains and the sea.

Before moving to Hualien, I was already a photographer. After moving here, my lens turned toward this land instead.

Two years later, in 2008, Errantry Lodge opened its doors.

The name "photography-style guesthouse" didn't come out of nowhere — we fell in love with Hualien first, and everything else followed.