Driving south along the freeway, you leave behind moist northern Taiwan and reach the Huoyan Mountains of Miaoli County. This dry, barren land presents a scene of nothing but landslip-scarred brown earth. But the cold windward upper slopes of the mountains are the lonely stronghold of the "minority people" among Taiwan's pines--the masson pine (Pinus massoniana).
由高速公路南下，離開濕氣濃重的北台灣，車經苗栗火炎山，這片乾旱的不毛之地，前景雖是崩塌的黃土地，山上冷冷的迎風面，卻全是台灣松樹裡的「少數族群」馬尾松落落盤據。