Lover's Bridge.~

Tamshui Fisherman's Wharf, a scenic spot at the western tip of Tamsui is one of Taiwan's most famous bridges. Lover's Bridge began construction on Febuary 14th which eventually gained it this sweet nickname. In Taiwan it is the one place every wedding couple MUST have pictures taken at.

The total length is approximately 196 meters and the walk across takes approximately 3 minutes. (which is a long walk when your directly in the sun!)

After walking along the dock for a bit we hoped on a little tour boat which gave us a ride to a seaside market with lots of carnival games. Joey seems to have lost his sense of manliness.. I won him a toy by shooting little pellets at a balloon. He spent 200$ (6$) for 20 tries to get a giraffe with a claw machine. He didn't win of course, but his friend Julian tried once and won =P. Poor joey decided to then try shooting balloons with a bow and arrow.. He missed all his shots. I tried 5 times and only missed once! =P poor poor joey.

He also got a sunburn!

Hongmaocheng.~

Today happened to be very sunny so when I looked out the window I was certain I should where shorts. But since we were going to the oceanside Joey insisted I wear jeans.. and I stupidly followed his advice. We had to walk in 30+ humid heat up a long hill to Fort Santo Domingo.

Fuerte Santo Domingo, or Fort San Domingo, was originally a wooden fort built by the Spanish in 1629 at Tamsui on the northwestern coast of Taiwan. On a night in 1636, a group of local people, angered by the taxes that the Spanish governor had imposed, successfully attacked the fort and demolished it. In 1637, the Spanish rebuilt the fort using stone and raised the walls' height to twenty feet or more. In 1642, the Dutch expelled the Spaniards from nearby Keelung. The Spanish fort in Tamsui had by then already been razed by the Spanish themselves. The Dutch built a new fort on the site, called Fort Anthonio.

In 1644, they replaced it by the structure still standing today, also called Fort Anthonio. The locals called the Dutch "the red-haired people", which led to the compound's Chinese name, Hongmaocheng ("fort of the red-haired"). From 1683 to 1867 the Qing Dynasty Chinese government controlled the fort and during this time (1724) built a stone wall with four gates around it, of which only one (main) gate survives.

Formosa.~

Day Four: Believe it or not, we woke up even earlier today! I cant believe we actually managed to drag ourselves out of bed and be out the door by 5:45am! We skipped the bus and took a 2 hour train ride up the east coast of Taiwan to Hualien. Hualien is for sure one of my favorite cities that we have visited here in Taiwan. Its more like the comox valley in the way that it has farms and a small town, atmosphere.

We met up with a new bus driver in Hualian, and oh my gosh! HE WAS SO OLD! It looked like his grandchildren must have had children by then! I was so scared that he was going to crash when we were winding through some Mt roads in Taroko National Park. But thankfully we had him driving and not another bus driver. Many of the roads thin down to one lane which caused another tour bus to hit a car and crash into the cliff wall. Thankfully they hadnt gone off the edge (it was about a hundred meter drop on the other side of the road which they had crashed!).
This is the Swallow Grotto Trail which overlooks river. You cant see it in the picture but theres hundreds of swallows living in small caves carved into the cliff side.

Half way up the Mountain we were let off the bus to travel up ceperate roots. With our tour group, we walked through the Tunnel of Nine Turns, which is bassically a huge tunnel blasted into the side of the Mountain with some astounding outlooks. We had to wear these helmets to protect us against rocks that commonly fall onto tourists. Mine was a little too big for me so lucky none fell on me.

With limited funds and technology, carving through the extremly difficult cliff face proved to be a very dangerous task. 225 men lost their lives contructing this road way and many others were injoured for life. One of the workers is known to have said "Building the Central Cross-Island Highway was more dangerous than fighting a war. In a way you know where the enemy is, but working on a highway, no one could predict when an accident was going to happen."

After lunch we were allowed to walk up to this Pagoda set high into the hillside. Saddly Joey had a bad tummy ache and we only managed to walk up about half way. (It was funny seeing the elderly people in our tour group walk all the way to the top when Joey wasnt able to!) The views which we did see were amazing though!

The last stop of our tour was the Eternal Spring Shrine.

Joey was very pleased to play with the cold water which never stops flowing out of the mountain. That reminds me of one of the Manderin words I know! 水, Shuǐ (pronounced like sway) which means water.

Formosa.~

Day three: Today we woke up even earlier! We drove down the last of the western coast of Taiwan and made it to the very bottom.

We spent most of the day in Kenting National Park looking at many of the scenic views. Too bad it was so hot because we couldn't leave the bus for very long with so many elderly people on our tour (Joey included).

Now what could all of these tourists be crowding up in the heat to look at?

Its a bunch of dead coral reef that apparently looks like a cat! And not the bit that you would expect.. I had to have Joey point out to me what everyone was so excited to see.

Seeing that cat was defiantly worth missing this beach ... =(

We finally made it to the southern tip of Taiwan! It was so nice to stand in the cool ocean breeze on that extra hot summer day.

This is one of Taiwan's most famous light houses. It was built by the Americans a really long time ago because they kept crashing their ships into the coast. Any sailors who made it to shore would have been fine living on the plenty of fresh produce in the area. But unfortunately the Taiwanese aboriginals were cannibals!

Formosa.~

Day Two: We woke up very early to get onto the bus again for another long trip down south to Tainan city.

Our first stop of the day was Chihkan Tower. The Tower was built by the Dutch to serve as their administrative center, and was originally known as Fort Provintia. The walls were once 453 feet around and 36 feet in height. The walls of this stronghold were made of bricks imported from Java, while the walls of buildings were made from rock-hard bricks of oyster shell lime mixed with sugar water and rice paste.

Here you can see a monument built to represent the Taiwanese gaining control over the dutch building.

After the Taiwanese gained control of this building they changed the outer appearance to make it look like their own building and not the dutch.

Our next stop of the day was General Koxinga's Shrine. A Ming loyalist and the arch commander of the Ming troops on the maritime front for the later monarchs of the withering dynasty, the Koxinga devoted the last 16 years of his life to resisting the conquest of China by the nomadic Manchus. Upon defeating the forces of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) on Formosa in last campaign in 1661-1662, the Koxinga took over the island in order to support his grand campaign against the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty.

So basically this scary looking guy was a very famous Taiwanese general. What I found interesting was how he was born. While his mother was at the end of her pregnancy she went on a walk along the coast to encourage him into birth. This worked a little too and Koxinga was born on a small rocky island on which his mother had been walking. Here it is believed that all important people must be born in an unusual way. His dad was also a pirate!

For dinner we stopped by at Taiwan's 3rd largest night market. I LOVE night markets! There a little scary at first with all the people pushing and shoving but they are so much fun. Unlike Courtenay, stores dont begin to open up until about 4-5pm so there is always somthing to do in the evenings. The food is terrible for you but so good and everything is so inexpensive (most likely because its not exactly 100% legal?)

Formosa.~

Day One: We traveled down south by bullet train from Taipei city to the famous Sun Moon Lake.

The colours in the lake were astounding, but the hazy sky made it impossible for me to get a great shot of just how beautiful it was. That is the most frustrating part of Taiwan! The air is so thick with pollution that its very hard to see.

After a long train/bus ride it seemed like a great idea to stretch our legs and see the Tse-En Pagoda which overlooks Sun Moon Lake. However, in 30+ weather walking uphill for 700meters was exhausting! But it was so worth it! This building was beautiful and the outlook was gorgeous. Sadly, a prior earthquake made it too dangerous for us to enter the pagoda.

Thankfully, the next stop was a short walk up a flight of stairs. This is the gateway of the Holy Monk shrine, which like the pagoda, provides a great outlook across the lake.

This building was defiantly one of the most beautiful I have seen. It was dedicated to a highly respected Buddhist monk who travelled by foot to all of the holy sites in Asia. Every building in the shrine had so much detail!

Our last stop was the Wunwu temple. Although we were told our tour would be in English, our tour guide decided to speak Mandarin instead. (Which had me very annoyed! I payed a lot of money! and then he expected a tip.. which I gave him.) Therefor I know very little about the sites we went too. Here is something about the Wunwu Temple:
http://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/en/03000573.aspx

I love going into temples and seeing all of the exotic and beautiful flowers which are brought here. Although there are always so many people, both tourists and those participating in the religion, the temples are so peaceful.

Although we say on a bus for much of it, the first day of our left us so tired! It was nice to lay down on a comfy bed and drink some bubble tea. This is a must try for those who haven't tried it yet! Its basically cool tea with little tapioca balls at the bottom. It doesn't seem so appealing now that Ive described it but its one of my favorites here in Taiwan.

Highway to Hell. ~

Huang Shui Tou, or Hell Valley is one of Taiwan's most famous hot springs located in Taipei. Located next to an oceanic trench and volcanic system in a tectonic collision zone, Taiwan has evolved a unique environment that produces high-temperature springs with crystal-clear water, usually both clean and safe to drink.

After a long bus ride we reached the hot springs, and omg.. it was beautiful but the sulphur rich water smelt like rotting eggs! Speaking of eggs, the water is so hot that some of the Taiwanese would come here to boil their eggs.

At 100+C, the water is very dangerous and many people have fallen in while cooking their eggs! (Hence the name Hell's Valley) We bought our from someone who has many years of experience boiling eggs. Other then the brown spots on the shell, our egg tasted like any other boiled egg, but apparently it improves your health?

The locals collect down stream from hells valley to soak in the cooling water. It is believed that the sulphur in the water helps with arthritis and revitalizes the skin.