re cross bikes, the main appeal for me is that they are designed with the idea of bouncing around on grass, dirt, whatever, so they are tougher than road bikes, and the front forks and rear part of the bike is set up so that larger tires can be put on. On my bike, especially as I put thinner 28 slicks on, there is a ton of space for much much larger tires, which could be really handy if the roads you are going to be on are very rough.
Cantilever brakes make it easy to fit on fenders (many touring bikes have these type brakes)
The 2010 Tricross , while listed as a cross bike, is more shaped like a tourer--in comparing it to my old touring bike, they both have the same wheelbase, chainstay length (so I knew I wouldnt hit my heels on my panniers, which was never a problem) and in the end, while I was concerned that it might be a very fast steering bike, it steers quicker than my touring bike, but is not twitchy at all, and is entirely comfortable for all day long rides, day after day (have done a six day trip on it)
I know Specialized brought in a diff true "cross racer" model ( the Crux?) which has more aggressive geometry. Some other cross bikes are like this too, so shorter chainstays etc so more potential issues with heelstrike on bags, and/or not having eyelets at all for racks.
About fit--again, I went looking at bikes with my tourer dimensions as a baseline, I knew I wanted a slightly shorter toptube and "seat to handlebar" distance than my tourer (it had had always a bit too much reach) , so it was easy for me to "know" what would fit me properly. I was lucky in that the stock handlebar stem on the Tricross was bang on for the reach for me, but you being taller, remember that if the frame is fairly close to fitting you well, it is easy to change the stock stem to a longer one, or shorter. In a good bike store, they will change this out free of charge and it takes literally minutes to do.
From you photos, you probably do hit steep hills, so I would be very wary of bikes with not low enough gearing. Check out the Sheldon Brown gear calculator to see what gearing you have on your present bike to get an idea of what you are used to, so you can compare other bike ideas with their gearing--
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/index.html
--change "wheel size" to your size, and change "gear units" to "gear inches" and then fill in your front and rear gears to get a graph showing the "gear inch" amount for each gear. The tricross with a 30 granny gear and a 32 rear largest tooth gives about 25 gear inches. For really steep hills and a whole load of crap on your bike, you would want lower, like 21 ish, but unloaded, this 25 gear inch is not bad.
By using this gear calculator, you can directly compare bikes with a "X" number of gear inches of the lowest gears (or highest or whatever) and like I said, if you do this for your present bike, you will have a real world idea of what you use, and what you need. Attached is my Tricross gearing chart.
There are perhaps other light touring bikes out there that would be appealing to you, with gearing that would be low enough for your uses, for less money than a Tricross, which would leave you more money for racks, panniers etc. Mine btw cost nearly $1400 Canadian. One thing for you is that if you ship a bike from the states back to Taiwan, there will be an extra fee , plus you do have to make sure it is packed properly and there always is a risk of damage travelling by air (I mean there always is, but its another factor to consider, plus transport in Taiwan to where you live etc)
cheers