Taiwan Trip 2010 (Day 7)

Day 7

Tainan → Taichung

So we got up and prepared our last full day in Taiwan. After we had some breakfast in the hostel, we decided to go visit the sights in Central-western District (the heart of the city government and some sights) of Tainan, along with a little bit of the Eastern District (the two districts are separately by the main railway).

We first went to a place called Chekam Tower. It is one of the most famous attractions in Tainan and many restaurants were built around it to accommodate the tourists. Chekam Tower had a long history and was the second fort built by the Dutch colonists after Fort Zeelandia in Anping District. The Japanese later conquered Taiwan from the Qing Dynasty in 1895 and demolished the fort, and rebuilt the fort in the Japanese architecture style.

Chekam Tower

We encountered a large group of kindergarten students walking around the site. Most of them seemed to enjoy themselves and it was fun to see the different personalities between different kids. Most of the kids were well behaved, and yet, I felt the teachers had a lot of responsibilities, as it was not easy to oversee more than twenty 5 year old kids.

After we saw the Chekam Tower, we walked about three hundred meters to the Confucius Temple. There are many Confucius temples in Taiwan. The one in Central-western District of Taiwan was probably the most famous of them all, thanks to the architecture styles and the number of exhibits. The Confucius had a traditional Chinese style building layout. There was not much to see inside the temple, besides that fact that were some alters who were dedicated to Confucius and his disciples. There were also some interesting ancient Chinese musical instruments that I have never seen before.

One of the buildings in the Confucius Temple

Some of the displayed musical instruments

We were hungry and decided to grab some snacks, after we spent the morning visiting Chekam Tower and Confucius Temple. We went to a grocery store, where steam buns were their specialties. I ordered a matsutake flavoured bun with bamboo sticks and it was absolutely delicious. The aroma lasted in my mouth for many minutes.

We tried to catch a bus to the Tainan Main Train Station so we could headed to the East District. Unfortunately, the public transportation in Taiwan was very poor and nothing came for half and hour. We gave up and flagged down a taxi instead. The ride took about five minutes and we headed to the East side.

We still had about three hours to burn before we have to catch the train to Taichung. We went to see the campus of National Chengkung University (NCKU). NCKU is the most prestigious university in southern Taiwan and has a campus that is pretty enough to be considered a sightseeing attraction. After touring the campus, we felt hungry again and walked to a pedestrian-only shopping street for a quick fix.

Part of the campus of NCKU

We ordered some very good fried rice for a very cheap price in a fast food style restaurant around the shopping street. The restaurant probably served cafetaria style so everything is quick. I chatted to one of the restaurant staff who was also a student at NCKU. She seemed pretty excited when she knew that that we were from Hong Kong. However, she enjoyed the shopping parts of Hong Kong, because Hong Kong has very little restriction on exports and imports. After we finished with our lunch, we headed to Tainan Park and saw three male ducks (presumably bachelors or brothers) hanging out together. They walked and swam together and I thought that was cute. Kelvin, Ben, and I hung out in park until 3 in the afternoon, when we decided to get on the northbound bus to Taichung.

Tainan Park

Very pretty blooming lotus flower in Tainan Park. Photo credit to Calvin

One of the better ways to spend the hot afternoon in Tainan Park

The bus arrived Taichung at approximately 18:00 in the evening. We headed for a dinner in a local night market and went to Eslite Bookstore souvenir shopping around Taichung First High School district. Then we headed back to nap for the last morning.

Back to Taichung and the night market crowd again!

Taiwan Trip 2010 (Day 6)

Tainan

     We spent the entire 6th day in Tainan. Tainan was the old capital of Taiwan before the it was moved to Taipei. It is known for its slow pace of life, traditions rituals, large amount of people who speaks Taiwanese instead of Mandarin, sweet by delicious food, salt mines and old architectures. It is also the home of National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), one of the top four universities in Taiwan. Tainan has a very flat terrain, and is very hot in the summer. During colonial days, parts of the beach in Tainan were used to harvest salt. Enough of the background trivia.

      We decided to borrow the bicycles from the hotel for the rest of the day. We

Hotel bikes, not very fast but does its job

had done so because we thought it was fun to ride a bicycle in a small city. Also, the public transportation system in Tainan is very poor and most people get around by mopeds. Most roads in Taiwan have a lane that is dedicated to mopeds, and it is perfectly fine for bicycles to use the moped lanes. Since this is Tainan and we did not know what to do, we decided to do what most tourists do - eating and sightseeing. Fortunately, we had a book of coupons for the eateries and attractions, and therefore we can afford to buy more.

     After we had a brief breakfast in the hotel, the first place we decided to stop
by was the breakfast place that specializes in fish soup and decided to have a second breakfast. Ben and Calvin bought a bowl, and I biked to other store to buy a vegetarian soup. The owner was nice enough to give me a bowl for me to eat with my friends. The soup was very good, according to my friends, but we were all sweating with the combination of heat and the hot soup.

The ever cool Anping Tree House. I felt like I was in another dimension

The main tower of Ford Zeelandia

     We biked to Anping district and first dropped by the Anping Tree House and the Tait Hong, a Anglo trading company. Anping Tree House was not an actual tree, but an old abandoned house surrounded by the long roots, and the city decided to turn let it be and turned it into a city attraction. The Tree House provided nice shades under the blazing sun and it was a cool maze. On the other hand, the Tai Hong was converted into a museum which explains the history of Taiwan, from the Dutch colonial period to the current. Republic of China regime.

     The next place we decided to stop by was Fort Anping/Fort Zeelandia. It was
the first fort built in Taiwan by the Dutch colonist in 1624, in order for the colonists to defend themselves against the aboriginals. The fort that is standing today was actually built by the Japanese, as the original fort was demolished by the Japanese when Taiwan was Japan's colony. We also found a ruin but it was still 'work in progress'. From the tower of the fort, one can enjoy the view of the mangrove, Taiwan Strait, and Tainan city.

One of the digged ruins near Ford Zeelandia

View of Tainan from the tower of Ford Zeelandia

The mangrove with egerts

      We biked along the canal toward the west until we found some small snacks. I had a raisin rum flavoured ice cream at Rabbits Ice Cream.

Ice Cream from Rabbit's

Then we went to Anping tofu shop to enjoy some tofu dessert.

The soft tofu dessert with adzuki means. Good for cooling ourselves down during hot days but the tofu is not silky enough for my taste

We finally reached the beach and saw the Taiwan Strait. The other side of the land would be Fujian province of People's Republic of China. We biked south and walked around another site of interest called Eternal Golden Castle.

One of the entrance/exit of Eternal Golden Castle

It was built in the Qing Dynasty and was served as a cannon firing site. Now it is simply a park composed with fortified areas. My tire was blew up and I had to push the bicycle back to the hotel. Fortunately, the hotel manager said it was okay and he let me ride another bicycle.

Taiwan Strait facing west

       We walked to the Huayuen Night Market, which is considered the largest night market in Tainan. It has a very festive atmosphere but we were too exhausted to enjoy it after riding bicycle all day under the blazing sun. We grabbed some food, and walked back to sleep in the hotel.

Huayuen Night Market

Taiwan Trip 2010 (Day 5)

Cingjing Farms -> Puli -> Taichung -> Tainan

    After we got up, we walked to the Yunnan style Daipaidong for some delicious breakfast. I couldn't taste the Yunnanese food but the food was very good. We caught the bus and headed down west to Puli.

Morning soup to warm up for the day in the mountain

Daipaidong

    Puli is located in the geographical centre of Taiwan and it was devastated in the earthquake happened on 21 Sept 1998. More than 90% of the buildings in town was destroyed and the town has to be rebuilt. Puli is a transportation hub to a number of rural attractions in central Taiwan because of its approximate location. Puli is known for its wine, rice, crispy clean water running from the mountains. It is very easy to navigate through the town centre, as there are two main commercial streets that intersects each other with a roundabout.

a main street of Puli

     The first stop we stopped by was the Puli Winery. It was a short walk from the bus station we got off. The building itself is no longer an active winery. The building have two floors, where the ground floor is for vendors and promotions, the second floor is a museum that explains the history of its famous wine.

Shrine to the wine god

Wine

     Once we enter the building, we tried the distilled the 120 and then the 60 proof distilled Shaoxing wine samples. They were too strong for me and tasted like rubbing alcohol. We also tried the Shaoxing ice pop, and it tasted great and I could taste the aroma of Shaoxing wine in the ice pop. 

     The second floor has some historical info about the wine, but one thing that bothered my mind was that I saw a piece of porcelain with the portrait of the young Chen Sui-bien and his wife Wu shu-chen. It reminded me how politics has destroy the soul of a once young, ambitious young man. Maybe he lost himself and fell victim of power and temptations. Finally Chen went to prison for corruption, his incompetency as a President was also quite memorable. Oh well.

Chen Sui-bian and Wushu-chen

     Once we got out of the building, we went to a souvenir store near the parking lot and chatted with a lady who worked there as a storekeeper. I learned that she was originally from Puli. She moved out of Puli to pursuit a 'better' life in the city. She helped to rebuild Puli from the earthquake and she decided to stay in Puli for the love of her hometown. I thought that was a fascinating story. 

     We had a quick lunch in a rice vermicelli restaurant. I also bought some dried vermicelli to take home and I was teased by Ben and Calvin the rest of the trip. Finally we arrived back to Taichung at 4PM, and took a bus to Tainan (literally South Taiwan). The hotel driver picked us up and drove us to the hotel as we checked in. 

Busy Tainan street at night

      The hotel allowed us to borrow the bicycles for free! I always thought bicycle would be a great way to explore a small-medium size city such as Tainan. We rode to a night market, enjoyed the local atmosphere, and came back to the hotel.

A night market in Tainan