Traveling to TaiZhong
After classes on Friday, I took a 3 hour bus ride over to TaiZhong, which is where my friend Sheri lives. She drove me around so I could see what the city looks like at night and took me to a night market for dinner. We headed back to her house and got some rest since we had to prepare for the long day ahead. We woke up at around 8AM on Saturday and headed for Puli. Puli is known for having some of the strongest earthquakes in all of Taiwan. The area is known to have experienced some of the worst natural disasters such as earthquakes and landslides, but the residents of Puli remain determined to keep Puli an important contributor to Taiwan’s economic growth.
There is a large tourist area at Puli which means, lots of shopping. Since Puli has a very famous wine/beer factory, lots of the food there is made with some kind of alcohol. I had a red bean popsicle which tasted more like beer than red bean. Another popular attraction is the Liquor Urn Tunnel which teaches the history of how Chinese people used to make alcohol. The tunnel is made up of traditional wine barrels and looks somewhat like a maze. There were many pictures on display there that portrayed the aftermath of earthquakes in Puli and the kind of damages the residents of Puli were faced with. There are also a lot of Chinese antiques such as old bikes, barrel carts, movie ticket booths, and convenient stores which they displayed to portray the everyday life of residents years ago.
We briefly visited Wen Wu Temple which is the largest temple I’ve seen in Taiwan since I’ve been here. The temple receives donations from multiple organizations; it also receives donations from Japan which is why there is some Japanese influence in the architecture of the temple. We then went sightseeing at Sun Moon Bay which is in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places in Taiwan. The sun was glistening across the bay and the blue water looked crystal clear. The lake was named Sun Moon Bay because half the lake looks round like a sun and the other half of the lake is crescent shaped, like a moon. We drove around the entire lake and stopped at the pier which also had a beautiful view. The tourist shops there sold traditional Chinese raincoats, spoons and mugs, all which were handmade from scratch. We spent the entire night shopping and eating (my 2 favorite things to do in Taiwan!) at a popular night market in TaiZhong.
The next day, we headed out for Lukang which is an area near TaiZhong with a lot of historic buildings and of course, good food! Since Lukang is right by the ocean, it was really windy but had a lot of great seafood. We first had Lukang’s famous oyster pancakes, which I’m not really a fan of but others seem to love it. A lot of the houses in Lukang were built during the Ching dynasty and not only are they still in existence, people still live in them! Some houses are in better condition than others but most of the houses are pretty run down. We then took a stroll down Nine-Turns Lane. Since Lukang is really windy, the architects who built Nine-Turns Lane thought of building a residential area with tall walls and small streets to prevent the wind from coming in. The area is somewhat lke a maze and guess what? The plan worked! You can walk through Nine-Turns Lane feeling nothing but a gentle breeze every once in a while. We continued to walk around Lukang, checking out the tourist shops (there seems to be tourist shops everywhere you go in Taiwan) and appreciating the history and beauty of these traditional Chinese homes. This is where my weekend came to a close. I am back in Taipei studying for a midterm that’s coming up. Wish me luck!
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