Taiwan trip 2010 (Day 1)

   So I went to Taiwan with two of my high school friends between June 12th to 19th, in a total of 8 days. It was part of the personal 'celebration' of getting my Bachelor of Science in chemistry, or rather, a long break between schools. I travelled with Ben and Calvin. None of us had ever been to Taiwan so we had to plan ahead and we would try hard not to kill each other in those eight days (we were rather peaceful so no damage was done). We tried to avoid the popular  tourist destinations such as Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Kenting in order to see the local impression of Taiwan. I have read a lot about Taiwan in books and news. It is culturally similar to Hong Kong, as we both use the traditional Chinese scripts. I always think of Taiwan as one of the last refugees of the classical Chinese culture so I would like to experience something unique about Taiwan, its history, scenery and cultures a little bit. I felt Taipei and Kaohsiung are big metropolis so it would be similar to Hong Kong, and Kenting would be full of tourists in the summer time. Our destinations included Taichung, Nantou County, and Tainan. I originally included Chaiyi as well, but realised that it would be a much better idea to spend more time and have a deeper experiemence. I want to give my gratitude to Ben and Calvin for their time, permission of using their photographs, and putting up with my shit in those eight days.

Day 1:

Hong Kong -> Taichung -> Fengyuen

Day 2:

Fengyuen -> Dongshih -> Taichung

Day 3:

Taichung

Day 4:

Taichung -> Chinjing Farm

Day 5:

Chinjing Farm -> Puli -> Tainan

Day 6:

Tainan

Day 7:

Tainan -> Taichung

Day 8:
Taichung -> Hong Kong

Taichung Ching Chuang Kang Airport - a former Republic of China Air Force base. Also one of the three airports in Taiwan that serves passenger to fly internationally. Small, compact, but practical.

A view of street in Shalu, right outside of the airport terminal. Gloomy, rainy day but we were optimistic.

We flew into Taichung Airport from Hong Kong International Airport and I was amazed how tiny the airport was, despite it serves as an international airport. The weather was not as good as we hoped, as it was raining for the first three days our trip, which means our trip in Taichung. Our first destination was Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts. Before we headed to Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts, we had our lunch in a nicely decorated Mediterranean-themed restaurant called Santorini.

The interior of the Santorini. We ate on the ground floor, but there are three stories altogether with different themes.

This is what I ordered. I forgot the name but the right cheese covered dish was supposed to be pasta.

A seafood dish with shrimp and clams with some spaghetti noodles.

Another dish that I did not remember what it was.

Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts is a comprehensive art museum that shows different kinds of arts ranging from 16th century to modern arts. Each of their art work is divided into different category. No pictures were taken since photography is not allowed in the museum. One major difference I have noticed between the art in Hong Kong and Art in Taiwan was the amount of support of local artists between two places. Hong Kong Museum of Art does have many Chinese exhibits, but is lack of artworks from modern artists from Hong Kong. Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts, does however, had a balanced amount of exhibits from western, Chinese, and local Taiwanese artists, they do have promotions on local artists hanging outside of their museums.

The building of the art museum and its promotion for some of its limited time exhibits.

Some sculptures in front of the museum.

A nice walk from the museum to the Taichung station, where we hopped on the train to go to Fengyuen.

Since we were planning to go to Dungshih Forest Park in the early morning of the 2nd day and we had to get up earlier to get the bus, we decided to stay in spend the night in Fungyuen, which has direct bus route to Dungshih. Fengyuen is a medium-size city that is located northeast of Taichung city and was called Toyohara during its colonial period by Japan. It took only 25 minutes for the train to go to Fengyuen to Taichung. In case if you have not seen, a night market in Taiwan is refered as a section of a district that is offered to people to hang out and enjoy themselves at night. We went to Temple East Night Market. It is named so because it is near Tsz Chi Temple. We hung out and enjoyed the food in Temple East Night Market. The night market was quite crowded, despite that fact that there was rain earlier in the day. I ate so much that I was almost unable to walk on that night. Then we stayed in a hotel called "Good Hotel".

Fengyuen's Tsz Chi Temple that the night market is named after.

All kinds of cheap, delicious food stalls on both sides of the alley.