New Use for a Bear Canister 舊物新用

When we were packing to come to Taiwan, we sold off a lot of stuff, including Mark's beloved (if lightly used) ice axe, our snowshoes (<sob!>), our camping chairs and our two burner camping stove. Little did we know how handy all but the ice axe and snowshoes would be during our first weeks in the new house!
One of the items we actually didn't part with was our bear canister! We picked up a "Bear Vault" a couple of years ago because we were going in and out of Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Sequoia/Kings Canyon a lot, and needed something to keep our food safe. It's got a clever lid that bears can't open, even with four-inch claws, and it locks the scent of food inside very effectively. Since we still had it after all the boxes were packed, Ping suggested we bring it in the luggage. Okay. But what kind of bears would we find in Beitou?


Thank goodness we brought it! Since we still don't have a refrigerator, we are most grateful to have the bear canister for food storage. Beitou has bears, indeed, but these are very, very different.

Around here, they're referred to as "Xiao Qiang" (pronounced as two single syllables: "Shyaoh Chyahng"). Sometimes they're called other names, often amidst a string of invectives. In the U.S., they're known as "cockroaches." We like the Chinese name because it means "Little Strong."

Chinese characters for xiao qiang lower right courtesy of Ping.

Sealed drain and Bear Vault. "Security" by any name is just as sweet.

Everything around here has to be prepped to avoid the incursion of Xiao Qiang. We taped off or caulked all possible openings to the outside. We keep clutter to a minimum--not easy to do when we have no closets or kitchen right now. Since Xiao Qiang uses the drains, the house is built with drain covers that can lock closed (see above). They're not completely sealed, but they'll keep out the biggest intruders, at least.

Back in the Central Valley of California, our most formidable intruder was the ant. We used the bear canister to keep them out, too, and it worked great. Now we use the bear canister to secure our valuable edibles from Xiao Qiang.

The refrigerator should be delivered in a couple more weeks. Till then, we have the Bear Vault! Whew!