Taiwan Round Island Trip

After spending a few days in Taipei, we met up with the tour group that we signed up with in Canada. I heard from my aunt that there are many tours now a days from the US, Canada and Australia for overseas Chinese where the tour fees are quite cheap. Of course with the price that you pay, you might not get the best food and accommodation, but actually the food and accommodation is not that bad. On this trip there was like I think just one hotel that was really run down and old, but it looked like most of the hotels in that area were just as old.

right: found a souvenir with my family name "KAN", it's rare to see this in souvenir shops as Kan is not a common Chinese family name.

It was like a 8 or 10 day trip.... but it's so long that there's a lot of stuff that I don't remember now.... hopefully this post will still be complete.

Day 1: Taoyuan > Chiayi


First thing in the morning we started making our way to Chiayi (which is in between Taichung and Tainan areas), on the way we stopped at Sun Moon Lake which is a lake and recreational area on top of a mountain. This is a spot that is famous for the scenery and in the summer people like to come here to escape from the heat in the city - but actually I found this place to be quite hot anyways. Also I wasn't that impressed when we got there.... hahaha... I think I've seen too many of these lakes on a mountain. But now that I am looking at the photos on my computer, they look a lot nicer than when I was actually there. I think I didn't enjoy it so much cuz of the heat.

 

Also there are lots of things to do, and I think I would have probably enjoyed it a lot more if we stayed there for 2 or 3 days and went on some hikes, enjoyed some food, and visited some of the surrounding attractions.

 left: small street in the central area of Sun Moon Lake

right: tea leaves egg - this one is special because there's mushrooms added to the marinade

Before leaving from Sun Moon Lake, we went to visit a temple. Man Mo Temple (can't really explain what kind of temple it is.... I don't think it's a temple for a god, but more for good fortune in studies?) It was nice though cuz the sun was setting so we got really nice photos... haha!

Day 2: Chiayi > Kaohsiung

The next day we made our way up Alishan (Ali Mountain), which is very famous - there's even a traditional folk song about the girls from Alishan. When you hear people talk about why they go to Alishan, most of the time they say they go there to see the sunrise, it's known to be very beautiful, and also you will see the sea of clouds at other times which is also very beautiful. Our tour didn't wake up early enough to see the sunrise, but the scenery is still nice.

right: owls are a good omen to some of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan

Alishan is also well known for the tea leaves that are grown there and the oolong tea that's produced from the mountain are some of the most expensive teas.

left: one of the homes on alishan

right: binlang trees 

Taiwan has a lot of aboriginal tribes and on Alishan the Tsou tribe have lived there for a long time. We visited their cultural center and got to watch their cultural dance, understand a bit more about their life, had their food for lunch and also got to taste their tea.

above: the guys in this tribe make funny faces when they were dancing, this is the first time I've seen cultural dances where the dancers made faces... it's refreshing, otherwise it wouldn't be much different from other tribes and minority dances (cuz the dance steps are pretty similar) click the photos to enlarge

tea leaves planted on the mountain

 above right: the logo on the cup is the tribe's greeting "Yuyupas" which means rich and safe

In their mini-museum, they had some paintings which were really interesting. I asked about the paintings and one of the stories is about the creation of the Tsou tribe. A god blew wind and the leaves from the tree formed the men and women of the Tsou tribe.

In another painting, the fish tried to eat the Tsou tribe so they ran up Yushan (Jade Mountain) and then two shrimps came to chase away the huge fish. And because there was no fire up on the mountain so the blue bird carried fire to the Tsou people, but it caught on fire and died. So in remembrance and to show their gratefulness, the clothes of the Tsou tribe use the four colours of the bird - blue, red, black, white.

 there were lots of greenery and pretty flowers in bloom all over the mountain

Going down Alishan

Then we made our way to Kaohsiung, where we visited the old British Consulate in Takou. It's right on the edge of the water on a small hill and overlooks the harbour. The sunset from here is really nice.

That night for dinner, our tour guide brought us to the Liuhe Night Market and treated us to a snack called Qilixiang (7 li fragrance) - it's actually the chicken's butt! :S .... I tried it... haha... and it's just very fatty... there's almost no meat, but the marinade was really good. :D

 These are the food we tried...

 above left and middle: fried mushroom with salt & pepper; above right: papaya milk - very famous drink

below left and right: Coffin Bread/Toast - thick cut toast that's been deep fried and then hollowed out and filled with a chicken and vegetable cream soup

 These we DIDN'T try... but they look good!

 above left: Taiwanese Beef Noodles; above right: Stinky Tofu

 above and below: fresh seafood made to order

 below left: big sausage in little sausage - a normal sausage wrapped in glutinous rice and then grilled

below right: Roast squid!

We tried some of the snacks that we didn't try in Taipei - because there are some that are only available in Kaohsiung. Each area's night market has some of their own distinct dishes.

Our hotel that night was really nice.... (it was also nice the night before but I didn't take photos).

 above: this is my first time in a hotel room where the adapters

are suitable for any plugs! but apparently this is becoming more common

however I still haven't seen it anywhere else after this hotel

Day 3: Kaohsiung > Taitung

Before leaving Kaohsiung we visited a pagoda tower which is symbolic but I don't really remember why... hahaha... one of the pagoda towers is a tiger and one is a dragon - both very powerful and scary animals in Chinese folklore. It was nice.... but really hot, and there's nothing much to see in the area.

view from the top of the pagoda, would have been nice if the lotus flowers were in bloom

the temple across the road, just thought this photo is nice with the pink scooter in the foreground... hehe

Then we went to Din Tai Fung for lunch before leaving Kaohsiung.... hahaha... good thing we didn't spend time waiting in Taipei..... we didn't have to wait as long at this one and I'm sure the food is similar in taste and quality.

After lunch, we started making our way to Taitung (which is the east side of the island), we passed by Tainan (the south side of the island) briefly and got off for a rest stop.... you can see that it really looks more tropical here. The heat was even worse!

But I heard that Tainan and in particular Kenting is really a nice place to spend a holiday. One day we will be back to spend more time leisurely.

Once we rounded the "corner" from the southern tip and started going north along the coast of the Pacific, you have a different feeling when you look out the window. It really feels like you're in California or in Canada when you look out at the Pacific.... it just looks so nice to have the sea beside you as you drive along....

The eastern side of Taiwan is less developed than the west coast so most of the cities are further apart and the hotel we stayed in that night was a hot spring hotel, but it's so old and they didn't renovate it. The shower also used hot spring water so while you shower it smells like rotten eggs.... LOL!

Day 4: Taitung > Hualian

On our way from Taitung to Hualian, we pass by some mountain caves, so we made a stop to visit the caves, but actually it's just nice to sit and start out at the sea. We had really nice weather and there was a strong breeze from the ocean.

Going around the island we actually cross over the Tropic of Cancer, once when we were heading south from Taipei and then now as we head north from Taitung to Hualian we cross back over from the tropics to the northern hemisphere.

this photo marks the tropics of cancer

left of this photo: the tropics

right of this photo: the northern hemisphere

Hualian is a well known place for retirement now, lots of people like to move to hualian (or have a second home there).

Day 5: Hualian > Yilan > Taipei

On our way to Taipei we stopped at the Taroko Gorge, this place is part of the mountain passage way that is part of the main highway that goes all around the island. The reason why there is this part of the highway was during the Japanese Occupation era they started building this as part of their "Aboriginal Pacification" plan.

The highway from Hualian to Taipei is known to be one of the most dangerous parts to in Taiwan..... so we ended up taking a train instead.... hahaha... but this is one of the attractions as well. To take the train instead of always sitting on a tour bus.

exterior of train station

We took the train to Yilan, and went to the Yehliu GeoPark for lunch and to see the natural coastal features. Because of the types of rock in the area and from wind and water erosion, there are many strangely shaped rocks. If you use your imagination some of those rocks look like animals, people, objects etc.

do you see a gorilla?

For dinner we were free to go out on our own, so we got one-person hotpots again, in the food court at the 101 Building.

 Taiwan is a contested island - They claim independence but China is adamant that Taiwan is part of China....

left: Pro-China grandpa waves flag and plays the Chinese national anthem

right: Pro-Taiwan grandpa holds the Taiwanese flag and blasts Taiwan's national anthem and pre-recorded message

Then we went to Raohe Night Market (which is known to be one of the best in Taipei - some say it's better than Shilin Night Market) for more food!
There's a LOT of food there, we didn't try everything that I took photos of.

above left: the first store at Raohe sells peppered pork buns, there's a HUGE line up

below left: flame grilled beef - very yummy!!!!

 above: this looks interesting, but I didn't try it

seems like it's a QQ popsicle - QQ in Taiwan is anything

that's a bit chewy/jelly-like

 above: hand-drawn designs

below: face mask in all sorts of colour and designs

 above: better photo of the flame grilled beef

below left: dumplings; below right: peppered pork bun

Day 6: Taipei city tour - Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, National Revolutionary Martyr's Shrine, National Palace Museum

 At Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and National Revolutionary Martyr's Shrine you can see the change of guards ceremony, but the Sun Yat-sen one is the best because it's inside a building (YEAH air con!!!) and also cuz there's a second and third floor so you don't have to be on the first floor with the rest of the crowd. We went to all three, but after the Sun Yat-sen one I wasn't interested in seeing the change of guards at the other two places... Plus if you've seen it in other countries... it's pretty similar. :D

Sun Yat-sen museum - this is the only photo, I only got as far as this...

But I did enjoy visiting the museum at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial - there are even volunteers there who are VERY happy to walk you around the museum and explain all about Sun Yat-sen's life. I wish we had more time, I had to cut off the volunteer about 10 minutes in and leave....

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial also had a few halls with the history of how Taiwan was formed and about Chiang Kai-shek and his first lady Soong Mei-ling, that was interesting too. But the National Revolutionary Martyr's Shrine is really boring and it's all out in the open so now where to hide from the sun!

 above: the square in front of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial,

on the right is the National Concert Hall,

on the left is the National Theatre

below: National Revolutionary Martyr's Shrine - I didn't even walk all the way to the building at the top of the photo

Lastly, we made a stop at the National Palace Museum (no photos inside), which houses the most Chinese ancient artifacts in the world. It's so different from other museums because it's PACKED full of tourists, students, locals etc. They have so many items that they can never display all of it at the same time. For some reason, Chinese people really like jade, so all the tour groups specifically go to see a small white cabbage carved out of white jade..... not that amazing..... this is another place that would be good to explore on your own... but there probably won't be any time when this museum is quiet and peaceful for you to enjoy the exhibits.

So that's all! That's our round island trip. There are definitely places that are worth a second visit, but they can wait... hehe...