Taiwan #4 - The Heart of Asia: Kaohsiung

Day 5

Continuing from previous posts (1, 2, 3) of my Taiwan trip, we took a bus down south to Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung is the 2nd most populous city in Taiwan, after Taipei & is the island largest industrial centre. Halfway, we stopped at Hakka village in Meinong for visit & had authentic Hakka lunch meal. This small community village allows you to experience the richness of Hakka culture & way of life.

At Hakka village entrance

Next is to Fo Guang Shan Monastery, the most popular tourist attraction in Kaohsiung. This centre is affiliated to Fo Guang Shan & is the largest monastery in Taiwan. Founded by Master Hsing Yun in 1967, this Buddhist movement since, has expanded rapidly throughout the world with its humanistic Buddhist teachings. The monastery covers more than 100 hectares & opened to public since 2011. You just need to be impressed with the building structures, sculptures & drawings with  detailed information given to each of them. One will need more than a day to fully explore the place & read all teachings signs, erected all over the place.

Majestic statue of Buddha & His disciples

Majestic pavilions with the large Buddha statue erected

The layout of whole area, covering over 100 hectares

We checked into E-Da Royal Hotel. This 5-star hotel is located within the vicinity of the E-Da World, an integrated park consists of an indoor & outdoor theme parks, outlet malls, university & even international school. It is the largest tourist resort in Taiwan & hosted many international events. Spent the whole evening, taking on the rides in the outdoor theme park & window shopping at the premium outlet mall. A must-ride in this theme park is the Taiwan Formosa ride. This indoor ride offers you a bird-eye view of all the natural attractions in the whole of Taiwan, providing the up/down movements as if you are flying on a paraglide. Another notable mention is the "Booster". This ride brings you up in the air in & making a 360 degrees (a few turns actually) turn up in the air. A first timer bounds to have his/her voice cracks for screaming out in fear throughout the ride.

The "Booster" ride. Two words: Terrifying excitement

Colourful ferris wheel at night

As mentioned in previous posts, we had dinner with Dad's long lost cousins & other relatives in Taipei. This time, with another bigger sets of cousins & relatives based in Kaohsiung. Apparently, some cousins of mine are already of grandparents status. It was a happy & emotional reunion for Dad & us, being able to see so many of them making efforts to meet us on a weekday night.

Definitely the biggest round table I've seen so far. Great for reunion purpose

The Kaohsiung gang. Seriously, I still don't know where is their standing in the family tree, just call them long-lost relatives from Dad's side...:p

Day 6 & 7

The next day was a full day tour of Kaohsiung city attractions. First stop was the Lotus Lake, located at the centre of the town. This scenic lake is well noted for its profusion of temples with the Confucius temple at the north edge & in the south, the Dragon & Tiger Pagodas and the Spring & Autumn Pavillions.

Papaya milk tea. A must-try in Taiwan if you're a milk tea fan



The pagodas in Lotus Lake

The pavilion with Guan Yu (Lord Guan)'s statue behind

Next, we took a short ferry ride to the Qijin island. This island is known by locals (not really well known by foreign tourists yet) for its seafood industry & slowly turning into a tourist attraction. Has seafood lunch along its famoud Qijin Seafood street. Spent the afternoon in the New Juejiang shopping street & the night, strolling along Love River after dinner. With the vibrant skylights, sightseeing cruise & riverbanks activities, the scene at night along the river was a sight to behold, taking after Beijing's Silk River or Bangkok's Chao Phraya river style.

Seafood on display for steamboat meal in Qijin Seafood Street

Leaving Qijin island on a ferry

New Juejiang shopping street

Night light at Love River

For the last day, we went to the largest mall in Kaohsiung, Dream Mall for lunch before departing for Kuala Lumpur. With fun loving people & fun loving, helpful local guide Jin Lee coupled with good food & attractive places as well, this is truly an enjoyable & memorable trip. Definitely wont be the last time I will be visiting Taiwan, for there are plenty more places yet to be explored & plenty more foods yet to be tasted. Hot springs next perhaps...

Taiwan #3 - The Heart of Asia: Cingjing, Nantou

Day 4

Continuing the blog posts (1 & 2) of previous trip to Taiwan last March. On Day 4, we went up to Cingjing. Cingjing is located at the Renai township of Nantou county in central Taiwan. With altitude of 1750m above the sea, the average temperature in Cingjing ranges from 5 degrees - 20 degrees, depending on which month you are visiting. Opened since 1961, the whole area consists of multiple tourist attractions. Our first stop is Small Swiss Garden. It's called "Taiwan's Little Switzerland" and "Paradise in the Mist" due to its Northern European influenced landscapes & ambience.

With Mum at the entrance of the garden

One of many flowers planted

Dad & Aunty Susie dancing to the Hokkien folk song

After lunch, we went up to the most popular attraction of the place, called "Green Green Grassland". This wide grassy plain spreads over hills with herds of sheep grazing on the land. The view was simply breathtaking, overlooking mountains with distinct cooling air. One look, you will be mistakenly thinking you're in New Zealand. There's sheep shearing show, with sheep shearers hired from New Zealand hairdressing those furry animals. With a Mandarin speaking Kiwi as host of the show, you will be amused with his funny antics with the sheeps. By this time, cool mists came out of nowhere & covered the whole place & it was rather cold by then.



Nope. This is not the land of Lord of the Rings but this is the land of Acer & Jay Chou

Good weather allowing us to have beautiful view of the mountains beneath the clouds

How not to love these cute animals

Our next stop was for an afternoon tea session in Old England Manor hotel. This English themed mansion is definitely majestic sight to behold & a must-visit place if you're in Cingjing. It's hard not to be impressed with the detailed architecture & interiors in the hotel. I felt as though I was transported back in time to the days of old England. The Victorian style afternoon tea was served with a 3 tier tower, consists of scones, sandwiches, deserts & a pot of Earl Grey tea. Me being a pastries lover, this is simply heaven & you just want the time to stop right there. Most of pastries are great, being freshly made from the kitchen.

To be or not to be, that is the question. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

English mansion

Afternoon tea. This is heavenly sent for a pastry lover

We checked into this Shangri-La Hanging Garden rest house (no relations to the Shangri-La hotel chain). The warn hue, decoration of the bouquets & romantic music from the lobby creates an elegant & comfortable ambiance.

The exterior of the hotel

Temperature outside hotel but my record showed its 9 degrees out there !!!

Stayed overnight in extremely cold weather before checking out & departing to Kaohsiung (our last stop) the next day


TO BE CONTINUED....