Taiwan Trip 2010 (Day 2)

Fengyuan -> Dongshi -> Taichung  

   We got up and had breakfast early in the morning because we had to catch an early bus. The rain was wonderfully heavy and our feet were soaked by the time we finished walking from the hotel to the breakfast canteen. After that, we packed up and took the bus to Dongshi Forest (東勢林場).

Ben's breakfast sandwich. Actually tasted much better than it looked.

   The bus took about half an hour from Fengyuan Main Bus Station to Dongshi Forest. Due to the heavy tropical rain (luckily there was less rain in the afternoon), we were the only tourist-passengers in the bus. The bus driver was middle-aged man that looked like in his 50's. He was nice and I had some nice chat with him about Taichung and he showed us around the raining scenery around the route.

Tea trees in rainy day. Can't imagine how pretty the site could be if it were sunny.

   Dongshi Forest is a forest-themed garden which is located in the mid-slope of a mountain. Needless to say, it is full of different kinds of trees. it was originally set up during the colonial days of Taiwan, as a site to harvest timber and it became an orchard. Later, it was redeveloped into a theme park with tea trees and flowers.

Jasmine flower

    Due to the rain and low expectations in tourists, only some of the vendors were opened. We were offered some Tieguanyin Tea in Gung Fu tea utensils, along with some delicious bake mushrooms as snacks. We were persuaded to buy some bake mushrooms and after some hike under the rainstorm, we headed to the main building of Dongzhi Forest, after mosquitoes had sucked enough blood from my legs.

Gung Fu Cha. VERY concentrated tea in small cup. Kind of like espresso version of tea.

     We took the bus to Fengyuan Main Bus Station at around 16:00, and we decided to take the train from Fengyuan to Taichung Main Station. Our hotel of choice, in Taichung, Nan Pei Hotel, was conveniently located next to the Taichung Main Station, and its location was its only merit. The room was infested with mosquitoes and the wall was moldy. I thought it would be okay for just three nights, as long as there was a place to sleep. Ben swore he would never take these kinds of hotels again, no matter how cheap it was.

Don't mess with the stream in tropical rain.

     After checking in, we decided to take a walk and headed north to Taichung Park. We stumbled and found the Taichung First High School Night Market and the Eslite Book Store (the biggest chain bookstore in Taiwan with all kinds of collection). We hung out for awhile and walked back to Nam Pei Hotel at around midnight. And that was the end of our second day of the trip. I would like to visit Dongshi Forest another time, but in the right season.

   

   

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.