Wulai [烏來] is a small town nestled in the hills of Taipei County on the Nanshi River [南勢溪]. The town is a great place to enjoy a hot spring, do some nature sightseeing, and experience Atayal aboriginal culture.
Continue reading
Category Archives: Taipei County
Tucheng Tung Blossom Festival
On Sunday, we headed to Tucheng for the final day of the 2000 2009 Tucheng Tung Blossom Festival [土城桐花節]. Although the last day of the festival has passed, there should still be plenty of blossoms to see if you head over there in the next week or so.
Continue reading
Jinguashi – The Gold Ecological Park
Located on the northeast coast of Taiwan, Jinguashi [金瓜石] was once a booming gold and copper mining town. The once prosperous area took a major plunge after the mines exhausted. However, in recent years the area has reinvented itself as a popular tourist destination. Jinguashi is home to the Gold Ecological Park [黃金博物園區], which preserves Taiwan’s mining history and serves as a venue for environmental education.
Yingge Ceramics Museum
The Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum [臺北縣立鶯歌陶瓷博物館] is a great stop for anyone wishing to get out of Taipei City for a day. Cathy and I took my parents there while they were visiting Taiwan and we all loved it. Signs are in both Chinese and English, there’s an audio-tour, and it’s easily accessible by train or bus!
Continue reading
Gimme a Five!
I went out for a late breakfast and discovered a crowd of Ma Ying-jeou’s [馬英九] supporters lined up along the street. Turns out the Kuomintang election caravan of noise was scheduled to roar through Zhonghe City!
Continue reading
An Evening in Jiufen
We took an afternoon bus to Jiufen [九份] on Saturday. Jiufen was once a prosperous gold mining town. When the goldmines were exhausted shortly after World War II, interest in the town took a dive. The town has reinvented itself as a tourist destination following the release of A City of Sadness [悲情城市], Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s [侯孝賢] 1989 film which was the first to depict the 228 Massacre and the Kuomintang’s era of White Terror.
Continue reading
Caoling Trail – Taiwan’s Beautiful Northeast Coast
On Tuesday, I took a train to Fulong Station [福隆車站] to enjoy a walk along the Caoling Trail [草嶺古道]. The Caoling Trail once served as an important link between Danshui and Yilan. The area I hiked is the only surviving section of this historic trail. I learned of this trail from a post by David Reid a while back. I had been determined to go ever since reading about it. Luckily, due to recent events, I don’t have to work on Tuesdays until I move next month, so I have a little extra free time on my hands.
Continue reading
Three pans for your weekend enjoyment
View the large
First, a couple pans taken in Danshui a couple weeks ago. I haven’t been out much to explore the functions of my camera on account of running into a bit of a health problem recently, so here goes:
Continue reading
Typhoon Sepat
I left this morning (the first time I left my apartment since Friday evening) to see if there was any damage. Thankfully, the only damage I saw was a few downed trees and branches as I walked through Zhonghe No. 4 Park [中和四號公園]. The sidewalk had mostly been cleared by the time I went out for breakfast at the civilized hour of 10 am.
Continue reading
Nikon D40
Seems lately a big portion of the Taiwan Blogsphere is upgrading or contemplating upgrading their digital cameras: Michael [Turton] purchased a Canon Powershot S5 IS, Holly bought a Canon EOS 400D, Andres is contemplating between Canon and Nikon, and it seems Carrie is thinking about going DSLR.
As a reward to myself for taking on extra teaching hours over the summer, I finally broke down and purchased a Nikon D40.
