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When updating my guidebook, I had to drop a few locations to make space for new attractions such as the Buddha Memorial Centre, and also so I could expand my coverage of, among other places, the East Rift Valley. One place I cut out is Budai Seafood Market (布袋漁市) in Chiayi County, pictured here.
It's still
worth going to if you enjoy eating super-fresh seafood, as within the
market there are around 40 restaurants, none of which are very
expensive. Late morning to early afternoon is the best time to go; don't
expect English to be spoken or English-language menus, but this isn't a problem as most
eateries have picture menus and/or tanks from which you can select the
creature(s) you want to enjoy.
Photographers take note: Even if you don't much like seafood, you may find the market worth visiting for visual reasons. The market is very easy to find, being on Zhongshan Road, the main road through the town to its port. Buses from Chiayi City and Xinying in Tainan stop within 20m.
The publisher of my guidebook has posted sizable chunks of the second edition on their website alongside some gorgeous images of Taiwan. In addition to information about how to get to Taiwan and how to travel from place to place once you've arrived, there's an abridged version of the history section, plus segments on highlight destinations such as Little Liuqiu and Shei-Pa National Park.
I took the photo above in Jinmen Hall (金門館) - a seldom visited late 18th-century place of worship in the historic town Lugang - about five years ago, and thought it appropriate as the World Cup is now being played in Brazil...
Since the beginning of this month there's a direct bus between Tainan and Foguangshan, which is good news for tourists into cultural attractions who'd rather skip downtown Kaohsiung. The bus is #8050, and - assuming traffic isn't unusually heavy - takes 1 hour 40 minutes one way (adult fare NTD207). It replaces the old #9122 service.
There are only six services per day. These leave Tainan TRA Station at 06.25, 09.10, 10.10, 14.10, 17.10 and 18.50. The route is quite scenic as it follows Road 182 through Neimen (venue of the Songjiang Battle Array), then Highway 3 into Qishan (where you can board a bus to Meinong). There's no need to change buses in Qishan; stay onboard for the few minutes it spends at Qishan's bus station. The final part of the journey, from Qishan to the monastery, takes less than 15 minutes. In the opposite direction, the first bus setting out from Foguangshan is at 06.15, the last at 16.45.
A week ago in Taipei I had time to kill before meeting a friend for dinner, so for the first time I explored Taipei City Hakka Cultural Park (臺北市客家文化主題公園), a short walk from Taipower Building MRT Station.
It's not a huge green space - just 4.03 hectares - but it is beautifully laid out and maintained. There's a farming demonstration area where rice is grown, a waterwheel, a number of pavilions where you can shelter from the sun or the rain, and a walkway/bikeway that goes over the levee to link with the cycle trails along the Danshui River. There are replicas of the tobacco-curing barns which still dot Meinong in Kaohsiung, and of the oblation furnaces in which Hakka people used to ritually burn any paper bearing written words.
The photo above comes from the park's thorough and bilingual website. Right next to the park you'll find the Taipei City Hakka Music and Theatre Centre, and the Hakka Cultural Centre.
Egrets cluster on a fishing vessel at Kezailiao Harbour (蚵仔寮漁港), Kaohsiung. The port here is pretty small but attracts a lot of visitors on weekends. Some buy superfresh seafood which they take home and cook, others enjoy meals or snacks at the adjacent eateries. For some more photos and details how to get to Kezailiao by public transport, see this blogger's writeup on the place.
Oyster omelettes are one of Taiwan's most popular street snacks, and Tainan's Huayuan Night Market (aka Flowers Night Market, 花園夜市), where these omelettes were being prepared, is one of south Taiwan's most-crowded night markets. In fact, it's usually so jammed with people - and not so near the city centre - that I haven't put it in my guidebook.
If you want to make your own oyster omelettes, here's a recipe.
Also known as the Huatung Valley (花東縱谷), because it includes large parts of Hualien and Taitung counties, the East Rift Valley is a mainly agricultural region in Taiwan's thinly-populated east. The weather is often cloudy, and unlike Taiwan's west (and southwest in particular), the wet and dry seasons aren't pronounced.
There isn't much traffic and some of the valley's most attractive routes, such as Road 193, are quite narrow, so a motorcycle is the ideal vehicle for exploring. Here are the wheels I used last October, parked near Luoshan Waterfall (羅山瀑布). The waterfall is just visible in the background. The sign to the right of the motorcycle asks Buddhists not to release fish, turtles and other creatures into the pond. This tradition, known as 'mercy release', causes environmental problems beyond the suffering and premature death of the animals set free
On this trip I made it to one place I'd never been before: Taiyuan Hidden Valley (pictured above). It's very pretty, but tourists are told to not feed the slightly aggressive macaque population; at the time of my visit the local government had stationed a worker by the bridge specifically to educate outsiders that feeding encouraged bad behavior and could make the animals sick.
For photos taken during a train journey through the East Rift Valley, go here.
