This was the fourth time I’ve visited Taiwan in the last 7 years. On previous trips, studying, teaching or leadership programs, or family have been the main focuses. Well, family was the priority this time too (see the previous post), but this was also the first time I brought a camera intent on producing some photographs. My family helped by taking us all around the island and saving some time to visit some noteworthy locations along the way.

Day 1 – Taipei 台北 – zoo and mountains

I think Taiwanese are much fonder than Americans than cute cuddly creatures, so naturally it was big news when a panda cub was born recently. Thus, our first stop: Taipei Zoo! We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the cub, but we came several months too early, as they are still nursing the cub before letting it live in a public exhibit. And what an exhibit it will be! They were building an enormous arena-like display just for the panda cub, it appears. We did watch an adult panda happily munching on some bamboo, though. Also present were koalas, big cats, rhinos and more.

From there, we rode the relatively new gondolas up the mountain to Maokong 貓空, enjoying some pretty spectacular views of the rolling green hills along the way, even in the dead of winter. Taiwan, forever a tropical island.

Maokong is mostly a mecca for mountain tea drinkers, but the place received its name from a small area where the river formed many little potholes in its path. It was already dreary with the dense cloud cover and the sun was setting quickly, but raced down the hiking path and made it just in time. We all took turns stepping out onto the rocks, but it was really slippery!

Later that night, we dropped by Long Shan Temple 龍山寺, the big on in Taipei. Even at 8 pm it was very active, filled with the caretakers, tourists, and students praying for good scores on their exams. My family said our prayers too.

Day 2 was all family business.

Day 3 – Taipei 台北 – Tamsui

After a drive up to a mountainside mausoleum, we paid a visit to Tamsui (Danshuei 淡水), one of Taiwan’s top natural tourist destination. In that neighborhood, there stood red brick buildings built by Dutch settlers long ago, although many of the buildings have been converted.

Later, we dined in the Tamsui nightmarket and strolled along the historic waterfront. Honestly, coming from the beaches of Santa Barbara and having lived by San Francisco, I thought it wasn’t anything special, but I guess it’s quite the treat for the Taipei dwellers who live in a basin of smog…

Day 4 – Kaohsiung 高雄

Taipei gives me the impression of an oriental New York. It’s lively, bright, crowded noisy, filled with the best universities, the richest culture, the most money. In the past, I’ve stayed deep the metropolis of Taipei City, sticking close to the brilliantly efficient and impressively crowded subway lines.

Kaohsiung, on the other hand, might be a Taiwanese Chicago, just with fewer skyscrapers and no winter. It’s Taiwan’s second biggest city (this factoid once won me a t-shirt, among other things), and is a fundamentally a port city. Commerce was key there, and the city planning feels grandiose and sprawled.

They have a few big lakes and on them are a few random sizable statues. Here’s one of them.

We drove up the big mountain of Kaohsiung, then visited the old British Consulate (where they used to tax the shipping operation, apparently) on a cliff overlooking the port in hopes of catching the sunset. To my surprise, and to the general grudging dismay of most Taiwanese people, the place was overflowing with tourists from Mainland China! I suppose they were hoping to catch the sunset too, but the overcast was unyielding.

Day 5 – around Kaohsiung 高雄

Fo Guang Shan 佛光山, a magnificent Buddhist monastery. I remember looking at the map, seeing a Buddha statue bigger than the surrounding buildings, and thinking for sure that was wrong. Then my uncle was like “nope, that’s right.” Sure enough, at the end of the pavilion was an enormous golden Buddha, probably the biggest statue I’ve ever seen.

Moon world 月世界 is a wacky mountainous region where water runoffs carve weird striations into the rocky cliffs. It looks out of this world, hence the name.

In the evening, my cousins and uncle made a big deal out of visiting the main subway station in downtown Kaohsiung. Called Formosa Boulevard Station or something, it has this cool lit-up mural on the ceiling that depicts a mythological genesis story.

For the center of a metropolis, the station did feel quite serene (it probably helped that it was 9 pm at night), but the atmosphere was interrupted by this random terrible erhu player dressed in a pink puppet costume. You can see her in that picture.

Day 6 – Tainan 台南

Merry Christmas! Very few people in Taiwan cared!

To continue comparing Taiwan cities to US cities, Tainan would be Boston. It has a smaller and older feel. Everywhere we turned, there seemed to be a temple nestled in between houses and businesses.

I’ve always been a fan of photographing trees, although it’s pretty challenging when it’s cloudy and turns the sky into a horrendous backlighting light box. Taiwan, and Tainan especially, has these magnificent banyan trees everywhere. They’re sometimes a little stout, but the branches grow in knobbly bunches, and then the older branches throw down feelers that plant themselves into the ground and sprout new roots. The entire thing is stringy, strong, and lots of fun to climb.

Day 7 – Taipei 台北 – mini HTLC reunion!

In the evening, I met with Judy, Linda, George, Bradley, and Eugene, friends from HTLC 1.5 years ago. It was an impromptu gathering; Judy saw on FB that I was coming to Taiwan and coordinated it. The reason I didn’t meet with anyone else was that I knew I was heavily booked the entire trip with family functions, so this only happened because we corresponded after I arrived in Taiwan. Yeah, internet!

The highlight of dinner was catching up with everyone. some of us rode the new MRT line to Taipei 101. Specifically, we decided to trek up the stairs of Xiang Shan 象山 for a view of Taipei 101 from the top of a mountain. The hike was dark and somewhat grueling.

But near the top, we found a clearing with many big boulders, probably around 10 feet tall each. Following my lead (and my affinity for climbing stuff), we all made our way up the boulders and snapped this pretty nice shot:

Day 8 –  Taipei 台北 – touring with friends

My brother, dad, and I passed through the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial 國立國父紀念館 for like… five minutes.

Later that night, my brother and I joined forces my mom’s best friend’s daughter. Apparently, her family stayed in America with ours for an entire week some 16 years ago. I don’t remember it at all (having been 7 at the time), but she still remembers me (being a little older), so that was a little embarrassing!

She and her middle school friend showed us around Ximending 西門町, apparently the Harajuku of Taipei where all the teenagers go to hang out. They were spot on with the evaluation, I’d say.

Day 9 – Taichung 台中

This was the end! We took a train to Taichung, where we attended a very fancy dinner party (i.e. a wedding) in the evening. We spent so little time there otherwise that I don’t even know how to draw a bad analogy to a marginally similar American city…

Day 10 – Airport 機場 – farewell

This trip to Taiwan reminded of how fortunate I am to be such a globetrotter. 11 years it’s been since my dad has visited his own home country, and I’ve been twice in the past 5 years. That’s not to mention the many other countries I’ve visited and all the transcontinental excursions I’ve undertaken. Hopefully in the near future I get to travel much more. Maybe I’ll be back in Taiwan before I know it.

Part 1 – Family

Part 3 – Food