June 30
- Kate Ross
- Jul 6, 2019
- 4 min read
Wow. I've been living in Taipei, Taiwan for an entire MONTH. That's bizarre.
From last post it might have been evident that over the weekend I wanted to do a lot of things, that was mostly because I somehow managed to prep all of my homework for that Monday earlier. Yay for me, because I managed to explore much of Taipei its surroundings.
Last Sunday, I decided to travel to Keelung (pronounced Ji-long) in hopes of visiting their iconic night market and the famous Queen's Head (located about an hour north of the city). And I did just that.
I left Taipei by way of (you guessed it) train, because everything is easily connected by Taiwan's amazing train system! A quick 45-50 minutes later I was in Taiwan's second largest sea port, following Kaoshiung on the southern coast.
My first goal when I arrived was to find the correct bus to get me up to Yehliu Geopark. Although the train system is super set and very easy to figure out in Taiwan, buses are not. They are VERY confusing. (1) You don't know where they are, (2) you have no idea when they are going to come or even if they're going to come, and (3) in Taiwan you don't know if you have to swipe your card when you get on, when you get off, or both. To say the least its EXTREMELY CONFUSING.
After walking up and down the streets a few times, and visiting like three different bus stops, I managed to find the correct bus stop and the bus thankfully came quickly after. And with that, I was on my way to seeing an iconic landmark on the northern coast of Taiwan. With many twists and turns along the mountain path up to Yehliu, I saw some gorgeous scenery, and then the bus dumped us off at a teeny little bus stop. To get to the park, I had to walk 15 minutes through (I guess it was) a seaport town.
When I turned the corner from this gorgeous view of the port, all of the sudden I was able to tell that I was at a very big tourist destination. This rock that I had come to see was ICONIC. I got my ticket to enter, and then I was in the park...along with what seemed like hundreds (dare I say thousands) of other tourists.
Walking through the park was very interesting. There were many unique rock formations that you could get right up close with. The best part in my opinion were the sea of Asian's with their umbrella's trying to protect their skin from the blistering sun. The heat here in Taiwan is nothing like that of Phoenix, but humidity is horrific.
Everyone who enters the park MUST see the Queen's Head. People line up just to take pictures next to the rock (I did) as well.
People come from all over to take pictures next to this rock, partially because of how unique it is. However, recently the queen's neck has been (I'm not entirely sure the correct word, but) thinning. People have been getting worried that someday soon the entire structure will collapse because her neck won't be strong enough to hold up the head.
Sound like someone you know Mom???
The rest of the park was very cool. I could have stayed looking at these unique rock formations for much longer than I did. However, it was ridiculously hot, and I wanted to see some other things in Keelung and I was worried about time. So I went back to the teeny bus stop and waited for probably a half hour for the next bus to come and take me back to Keelung.
Once back in the city I was headed towards ZhongZheng Park. The reason why I headed here was simply because I saw pictures that looked cool. I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I am very happy I ventured there. After what seemed like an absurd amount of steps from the base I reached the top.
To reach the actual top, I had to climb stair case after stair case up a huge hill. The view of the city was worth the climb.
This park has a few very iconic Keelung buildings and features. Between the 25-meter high statue of the Goddess of Mercy and the ornate Buddhist temple I'm not entirely sure which one I was more excited to have seen.
There was an entire park at the top of the hill surrounding the giant statues. They even had little carnival music and games for small children to play at.
The first image (pardon the quality) is of the giant statue through a reflection in binocular eye pieces, that are at the park to look out into the distance to see panoramic Keelung.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what this building is. However, I feel as if it is a MUST see if visiting Keelung.
My final stop of the day was to see the famous Keelung Miaokou Night Market, most well known for their yellow lanterns that line the street. This night market was obviously a very famous tourist spot for those that visit Keelung. I noticed that after a day of being in a port filled with a lot of sea food that I had a lot of fruit based drinks and snacks, along with a lot of veggies. I felt as if this city was less pork heavy (don't get me wrong. There was still a lot of pork but just LESS), and more seafood and shellfish heavy.
The day in Keelung and Yehliu was very fun and I'm happy that I went out and saw the things that I did. It was extremely busy though.
Stay tuned for update on Week 3 of classes!
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