It’s summer and yes, the days are getting longer, and with Taiwan’s northern tip so close, and the Fugueijiao Lighthouse newly open to the public since last summer ~ who can resist popping by before it closes at 6:00 pm?! This was the lighthouse yesterday, and in the far distance to the right, you can just make out the shipwrecked container ship that is still there just along the coast….. Looking splendid eh?! Continue reading Just popping by….
A trip yesterday to the Nanzhuang district 南庄鄉 in the far NE corner of Miaoli County 苗栗縣, central Taiwan ~ kind of the middle of a very beautiful nowhere! Our diocesan women’s group and seniors group organized a great trip for almost 60 lovely people from our churches in northern Taiwan ~ up into the misty mountains of Miaoli. Here we all are, along with Bishop Lai, his wife Lily, her aunt, plus several other clergy and clergy spouses! That part of Miaoli is famous for 2 main groups of people who live there, the Hakka people and the indigenous aboriginal … Continue reading Miaoli’s Mysterious Misty Mountains….
Alishan has two 7- Eleven Stores, and claims they are the second highest in Taiwan ~ and Taiwan’s #1 highest post office too. Another must see! And Taiwan’s #1 highest elementary school. Wow, that’s quite something! 2,195 metres above sea-level, that’s over 7,000 feet. Imagine that eh? But of course, none of these reasons are really why Alishan is so popular. It’s very well up on the list of THE places to visit in Taiwan. Tourists from all over Asia and especially Mainland China, zillions of people have it on their list. Alishan is famous, very famous. We’re talking about an area of … Continue reading Alishan 阿里山 2016
Culture Shock. You’d never believe it. Yep, for a northerner (that’s me), the south of Taiwan is quite a culture shock ha ha! Everything works just like in the north, but at a much more stately pace. Nobody seems to be in a rush to go anywhere. There’s just as many traffic lights, but hardly any cars or buses or even people waiting at them. It’s just, so, well, quiet! And spread out. In the north, all the old one-storey Japanese houses are now largely gone, replaced by multi-storey apartment blocks, but in the south, they’re still lived in, so … Continue reading True Southern Hospitality @ St. Mark’s Church, Pingtung 台灣聖公會屏東聖馬可堂!
The deadliest typhoon in Taiwan’s history, Typhoon Morakot on August 8, 2009, resulted in the deadliest mudslide ever, in the Pingpu village of Siaolin (Xiaolin) 小林, up in the mountains of southern Taiwan, about 90 minutes drive NE of Kaohsiung City. A stunningly beautiful area – but on that tragic day in 2009, disaster struck and up to 700 people lost their lives when the village was completely buried by the mud, as were the roads, bridges, agricultural land, schools and temples…. Now 7 years later, and a huge amount of reconstruction has been going on. People have been rehoused in several … Continue reading 7 years after Typhoon Morakot ~ up beyond 甲仙 Jiasian to 小林 Siaolin and 錫安山 Holy Mt. Zion!
‘Far over the misty mountains cold / To dungeons deep and caverns old / We must away ere break of day / To seek the pale enchanted gold’….. And so we did ~ venture forth that is, in the footsteps of The Hobbit and his friends, to the misty mountains cold, dungeons deep and caverns old ~ there’s plenty of them in the mountains above Keelung, and plenty have sadly lost their lives in those caverns mining the gold. And copper. The old gold mining town of Jinguashi 金瓜石 is located right there, right in the misty mountains, and just above it is Teapot … Continue reading Teapot Mountain 茶壺山 ~ very misty, very muddy, but hey, very fun!
Yes, we even saw the famous Blue Tears (藍眼淚) of Matsu, honest! And they were AMAZING! And the only reason we saw them was because of that terrible Typhoon Dujuan that hit us on the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival weekend at the end of September. Sometimes, y’know, even typhoons have a silver lining! Every year, the Diocese of Taiwan organizes a trip for a few days to visit somewhere interesting ~ mostly for the older people, but anyone is welcome, and several invite their friends and family, who may or may not be church members, so we have a lovely variety! And … Continue reading 馬祖 Matsu Islands: Boats, Beauty and, yes, Blue Tears!
An Indian Summer (or in Chinese, known as an Autumn Tiger!) ~ Yippee! Yes, a whole 3 days so far of temps up to 32°C, with blue skies, blue seas and butterflies ~ time to get the sunglasses, sun cream and sun hats back out, YES! And if there’s one place in Taiwan where a fine day is rare, it’s the N.E coast and the mountains above Keelung. I was up there 2 months ago to climb Teapot Mountain 茶壺山 and Banpingshan 半平山(check out that blog post here) and at the time, thought that if there’s ever a fine day again, that’s … Continue reading Mt. Keelung基隆山, Jinguashi金瓜石 POW Camp and Jiufen九份
Ah yes, a sunny spell at last ~ and this is the view yesterday from the bus at 6:45 am, down towards Tamsui and over to Guanyin Shan Mountain…. and that’s only a small proportion of all the new high-rise apartment buildings in Tamsui, it adds up to a lot of people! Ah, blue sky ~ love it! Continue reading Tamsui ~ in all it’s glory!
Catherine Lee 