⛴{Trip} Taiwan Travel -- Trip to MATSU, Day 1, DONGYIN (馬祖東引)
First day of our recent trip to the islands of Matsu near the mainland China coast. Dongyin and Xiyin are great islands!
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Music by Lee Rosevere (
Gear used for this video
Camera:
Panasonic Lumix GH4:
Lenses:
PANASONIC LUMIX G X Vario Lens, 12-35mm:
PANASONIC LUMIX G Vario Lens, 100-300mm:
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8:
Panasonic DMW-MS2:
Timeline (if you want to go directly to certain parts of the video)
00:20 Keelung Railway Station (基隆火車站)
00:40 West Passenger Terminal (西岸旅客碼頭)
01:30 Keelung Harbor/Tai Ma Ferry (台馬輪)
02:30 Zhongzhu Harbor (中柱港)
03:30 Haijiao Guesthouse on Xiyin Island (西引海角民宿)
04:30 Zhongyi Temple (忠義廟)
05:00 Inside Haijiao Guesthouse
05:50 Breakfast at guesthouse
06:30 Reclining Alligator or Crouching Crocodile Island (靜伏鱷魚)
06:50 Sanshan Stronghold or Stronghold No. 33 (三山據點)
08:20 Dongyin Visitor Center (東引遊客中心)
09:00 Dongyin Lighthouse (東引燈塔)
10:20 Taibai Echo Cliff (太白天聲)
13:50 Suicide Cliff or Lienuyikeng Cliff (烈女義坑)
14:20 Dongyin Distillery (東引酒廠)
15:20 A Thread of Sky or Yixiantian Cliff (一線天)
16:30 Lunch at Dongyin Visitor Center (東引遊客中心)
17:00 Northernmost Frontier (國之北疆)
19:00 Andong Tunnel (安東坑道)
20:10 Indian Head & Puppy Head (印地安人與小狗頭)
23:30 Main village of Dongyin
25:20 Tianhou Temple (天后宮)
25:30 Zhongzheng Gate (忠誠門)
25:50 Yanxiu Tidal Echo (燕秀潮音)
26:30 Rat Sands Stone Forest (老鼠沙石林)
27:10 Dinner at Zhen Shan Mei Restaurant (珍膳美餐廳)
28:10 Dongyin Visitor Center (東引遊客中心)
Info about Keelung-Matsu ferry
(Chinese)
Our guesthouse
Dongyin Haijiao (東引海角民宿)
Tel: 0928-267-242 / 0836-76-268
Add: 137, Zhongliao Village, Dongyin, Lianchiang County (連江縣東引中柳村137號)
(Chinese)
Restaurant where we had dinner
Zhen Shan Mei (珍膳美餐廳)
Tel: 0836-77-289
Add: 93 Lehua Village, Dongyin, Lianchiang County (連江縣東引樂華村93號)
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Also watch the latest video on this channel: {Trip} LALASHAN on the Northern Cross-Island Highway (北橫拉拉山)
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Dongyin
Dongyin is actually two islands, joined by a causeway. Two hours from Nangan by ferry, this is Taiwan’s northernmost point, a windswept outpost of tremendous natural beauty, with Matsu’s most thrilling scenery, a place of lofty granite cliffs and rocky spurs projecting out into the teal-green sea.
The cape-tip is at the northern end of a peninsula called the Reclining Alligator – the resemblance is indeed striking – and atop the alligator’s well-defined snout, at the peninsula’s southern tip, is Stronghold No. 33. The highlight of this abandoned facility is the decommissioned US-made twin-barrel M1 40mm anti-aircraft gun on display, which a signboard tells you “weighs 51,350 pounds, has a range of 11,000 meters, (and can fire) 160 rounds per minute.”
The Andong Tunnel, on the east side of Dongyin Island, is a superlative work of engineering, shooting right through a small mountain and exiting far down below at sea level. The area outside the entrance is protected habitat for the Black-tailed Gull and Black-naped Tern. Inside the tunnel are now-unused barracks, bathrooms, a kitchen, a meeting hall … even a pigsty.
Located at the easternmost tip of Dongyin Island, the brilliant-white Dongyong Lighthouse’s physical setting – stark, lonely beauty. The lighthouse is perched, at first glance seemingly quite precariously, on the precipitous-angle flank of a mountain, the great sea looming before, nothing in view. The mountain’s upper half looms behind and above, nothing of human creation in view. On the dizzyingly steep complex walkways, you look straight down into the sea at your feet. Completed in 1877, designed by an Englishman in 18th-century British style, this lighthouse is Taiwan’s northernmost national heritage site.
A stone-step trail behind the lighthouse leads to the Suicide Cliff, where ocean waves have cut deep into a mountainside, sculpting a vertical 100-meter-high wall on one side. The site is so-named because, according to island lore, pirates infested the local waters during much of the imperial Qing dynasty, and during one attack a Dongyin woman, her husband killed, chose to leap from the cliff rather than surrender her chastity.
A Thread of Sky, a deep and exceedingly narrow sea-erosion trench, splices two giant blocks of granite, towering rock walls facing each other just meters apart. The outer block is being cut from the mainland like a slice of birthday cake. Fallen slabs high up actually connect the cliffs in places. From the bottom only a thin, bright-blue ribbon of sky is seen.
Matsu, Taiwan - World Travel
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Video: Matsu, Taiwan from JOHN LEE
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Three days in the city of Kaohsiung doing sightseeing and exploring some of the tourist attractions there. Was a good trip. :)
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Thanks for asking. We are a small publishing company (Vision) based in Taipei. We produce an English magazine (Travel in Taiwan) introducing you to Taiwan as a travel destination. Read it! Lot of useful information. We also have a website with lots of articles about Taiwan. Visit it! We try to make a video or two every week.
Let us know what you think about this channel and what you would like to see about Taiwan. All the best to you!
Music by Blue Dot Sessions (
The Tree House (樹屋旅店)
Add: No. 132, Liuhe 2nd Rd., Qianjin District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市前金區六合二路132號)
Tel: (07) 287-8800
Website: the-tree-house.hotel.com.tw (Chinese)
Just Sleep Kaohsiung Zhongzheng (捷絲旅高雄中正館)
Add: No. 134, Zhongzheng 1st Rd., Lingya District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市苓雅區中正一路134號)
Tel: (07) 972-3568
Website: justsleep.com.tw
Now and Then by N.Y.B.C.
Add: Dayi Warehouse C9-19, Pier-2 Art Center; No. 2, Dayi St., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City (高雄駁二大義倉庫C9-19; 高雄市鹽埕區大義街2號)
Tel: (07) 531-6999
Website: facebook.com/nowandthenbynybc
Good Day Tea House and Sky Lounge (好好生活館)
Add: No. 78, Kunming St., Qianzhen District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市前鎮區崑明街78號)
Tel: (07) 535-4319
Website: facebook.com/gooddaycafe80
Ice Shop
Ki A Peng Sian (枝仔冰城) (Pier-2 Art Center Branch)
Add: No. 8-2, Dayong Rd., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市鹽埕區大勇路8-2號)
Tel: (07) 521-1149
Website: kaps.com.tw (Chinese)
85 Sky Tower 高雄85大樓
Dadong Arts Center 大東文化藝術中心
Gushan Ferry Pier 鼓山渡輪碼頭
Hongmaogang Cultural Park 紅毛港文化園區
Kaohsiung Exhibition Center 高雄展覽館
Kaohsiung Main Public Library 高雄市立圖書總館
Kaohsiung Martyrs’ Shrine 高雄市忠烈祠
Kevin Lin 林俊昇
Love River 愛河
Pier-2 Art Center 駁二藝術特區
Qijin Island 旗津島
Qihou Battery 旗后砲台
Qihou Lighthouse 旗後燈塔
Rainbow Church 彩虹教堂
Shoushan 壽山
Shoushan Lover’s Observatory 壽山情人觀景
“Star of Qianzhen” 前鎮之星
Tianhou Temple 天后宮
The British Consulate at Takow 打狗英國領事館
Travel in Taiwan (2016, 1/2)
Have your camera ready when boarding the ferry to Qijin Island at Gushan Ferry Pier. Locals stream onto the lower parking-lot deck on scooters (you go to the upper deck, via a separate entrance). The ride across the narrow, ship-packed Kaohsiung Harbor is so quick that many don’t bother to get off their machines. Qijin Island is a 9km-long silt-created giant sandbar that serves as a breakwater and defines the harbor’s form. Its tourist area is on the north end, beyond the ferry pier.
Qihou Lighthouse, a snow-white 11-meter-high Baroque-style tower erected by the Japanese in 1916, stands at the edge of a sea-facing cliff guarding the harbor’s exceedingly narrow north-end mouth. Enthralling views of the busy harbor can be enjoyed as ships squeeze by below. The old Qihou Battery, on the west side of the hill, was built by a justifiably anxious Qing Dynasty government in the 1870s, fearful of invasion by the Japanese or Western powers.
The young, expansive, and still-growing Pier-2 Art Center (pier-2.khcc.gov.tw), a special zone that is at the heart of the city’s cultural-creative bloom, has become one of its most popular attractions. The numerous old, renovated Kaohsiung Harbor warehouses here, long abandoned, were formerly used to store such goods as fish meal and granulated sugar. Today they are cultural-creative incubator stages for domestic and international exhibitions, festivals, live indoor and outdoor musical, theatrical, and busker performances, and large-scale outdoor installation artworks and graffiti-style/3D murals, many wonderfully quirky and whimsical, some created by artists-in-residence.
The king of Kaohsiung has long been, and remains, the lofty 85 Sky Tower, which looks like a giant spacecraft propped atop two massive booster rockets, ready to launch. Two spanking-new structures, Kaohsiung Exhibition Center (kecc.com.tw) and Kaohsiung Main Public Library (ksml.edu.tw), are within easy walking distance. The park-surrounded harborside exhibition facility looks like a paean to Beijing’s iconic Bird’s Nest. Be sure to visit the green library’s lovely 8F rooftop hanging garden, which has a fine broad view of the harbor and Qijin.
What’s not to love about the Love River? On my first few visits, in the 1990s, it was a brackish “waterway” in which the water moved little, if at all. Today, thanks to dedicated eco-engineering, it is clean, the waters flow freely, and fish have returned. The landscaped banks are lined with benches, bike- and pedestrian-friendly paths, and attractive lamp lighting. The mood is best at night, when the cafés, bars, and small eateries are brightly lit up.
Iris Goes to Taiwan: GREEN ISLAND
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I traveled to Taiwan last summer and went to a beautiful island known as Green Island. Traveling is truly a life changing experience because you are put in an environment where everything is new and captivating. It allows us to take a fresh breath of air away from our daily lives and it's important to do so to live a happy and healthy life! I hope you all enjoy this video and look forward to more!
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{Trip} Taiwan Travel -- MATSU Islands, BEIGAN and NANGAN/馬祖北竿南竿
This is a video of our trip to the Matsu islands in the summer of 2012. Hope you get an idea of what it's like to travel to this lesser known area of Taiwan.
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More info about Matsu:
Matsu National Scenic Area website
Tai-Ma Ferry website (Chinese)
We stayed at:
Chinbe No. 25 Guesthouse (芹壁村25號)
Add: 25, Qinbi Village, Beigan Township (北竿鄉芹壁村25號)
Tel: 08365-56280/0975-421-178
Website:
We ate at:
Da Zhong Restaurant (大眾飲食店)
Add: 80, Matsu Village, Nangan Township (南竿鄉馬祖村80號)
Tel: 0836-22185
A-Po Fish Noodle (阿婆魚麵)
Add: 168, Tangqi Village, Beigan Township (北竿鄉塘岐村168號)
Tel: 0836-56359
We bought souvenirs at:
Xie He Foods (Master Fa) (協和食品行 [發師傅])
Add: 229, Tangqi Village, Beigan Township (北竿鄉塘岐村229號)
Tel: 0836-55236/0933-095-034
Website: 083655236.com.tw (Chinese)
Matsu Specialty Center (台灣菸酒海產金銀買賣店)
Add: 233, Tangqi Village, Beigan Township (北竿鄉塘岐村233號)
Tel: 0836-55412
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Also watch the latest video on this channel: {Trip} LALASHAN on the Northern Cross-Island Highway (北橫拉拉山)
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Jiufen Village, Taiwan
From Taipei, Taiwan be sure to visit Jiufen Village.
Situated in northern Taiwan, Jiufen Village is a great place to explore the country's cultural history. Wander through Jiufen Old Street, where you can find signs of the Japanese occupation, ancient teahouses, food stalls, handicrafts, and the town's time as a gold mining hub. Book with a guide for further insight into the village's history.
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On the third day of our Kaohsiung trip we visited the E-Da World theme park in Kaohsiung.
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WHO ARE WE?
Thanks for asking. We are a small publishing company (Vision) based in Taipei. We produce an English magazine (Travel in Taiwan) introducing you to Taiwan as a travel destination. Read it! Lot of useful information. We also have a website with lots of articles about Taiwan. Visit it! We try to make a video or two every week.
Let us know what you think about this channel and what you would like to see about Taiwan. All the best to you!
E-Da World (義大世界)
Add: No. 12, Sec. 1, Xuecheng Rd., Dashu District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市大樹區學城路一段12號)
Tel: 0800-656-077
Website:
Music by The Polish Ambassador (
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Also watch the latest video on this channel: {Trip} LALASHAN on the Northern Cross-Island Highway (北橫拉拉山)
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Travel in Taiwan (2016, Jan/Feb)
By Rick Charette
We finished up our southern inspection tour with an afternoon of rollicking good fun at the wildly successful E-Da World (edaworld.com.tw), located close to the city core in the Kaohsiung countryside. The young park, according to Kevin Lin, GM of EDA Development Co., was brought into existence with two foundation ideas in mind: to serve as a benchmark model of international standards and sophistication for Taiwan’s rebranding Kaohsiung/Tainan region, and to provide a destination for families, with all members’ wide-ranging needs and desires catered to.
The theme-park area has rides, games, and all sorts of other entertainment. The adjoining mall has scores of upscale brand-name outlets and a moderately-priced youth-oriented section. The large upscale hotel has numerous superb restaurants, spa facilities, and many other attractions. There’s also a baseball driving range, a golf range, and many other recreational facilities. We spent our afternoon (give yourself a full day if at all possible) riding the giant rooftop ferris wheel, thrilling 55-meter-high rollercoaster, and scenic monorail, enjoying a skate on the mall’s ice rink, watching the Halloween-theme parade and show with players costumed, incongruously, a la Mad Max and The Nutcracker, snacking way too much … and much, much else that I just don’t have time to tell you about.
The Last Three Years Traveling in Taiwan (臺灣旅遊)
A little recap of our recent travels for the magazine Travel in Taiwan. We are not getting tired of going to places on this fascinating island and its offshore islands.
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Music: Scott Holmes (
Gear used for this video
Camera:
Panasonic Lumix GH4:
Lenses:
PANASONIC LUMIX G X Vario Lens, 12-35mm:
PANASONIC LUMIX G Vario Lens, 100-300mm:
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8:
Panasonic DMW-MS2:
Among the places you see in this video are:
Kaohsiung 高雄
Hualien 花蓮
Taichung 台中
Taitung 台東
Penghu 澎湖
Lanyu 蘭嶼
Kinmen 金門
Tainan 台南
Lishan 梨山
Matsu 馬祖
Alihsan 阿里山
Sun Moon Lake 日月潭
and a few more in between.
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Also watch the latest video on this channel: {Trip} LALASHAN on the Northern Cross-Island Highway (北橫拉拉山)
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⛴{Trip} Taiwan Travel -- KEELUNG 1-Day Trip/基隆 一日遊
On this short trip, we visited a few places in Keelung and had lunch at a dubious restaurant. :)
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WHO ARE WE?
Thanks for asking. We are a small publishing company (Vision) based in Taipei. We produce an English magazine (Travel in Taiwan) introducing you to Taiwan as a travel destination. Read it! Lot of useful information. We also have a website with lots of articles about Taiwan. Visit it! We try to make a video or two every week.
Let us know what you think about this channel and what you would like to see about Taiwan. All the best to you!
Music: “The Natives Are Restless” by Don Tiki (
Badouzi 八斗子
Baimiwong Fort 白米甕炮臺
Heping Island Park 和平島公園
Keelung 基隆
Keelung Harbor 基隆港
Wangyou Valley 望幽谷
Travel in Taiwan (2015, 7/8)
Wangyou Valley
The sun is blazing as we arrive at a trail in eastern Keelung that will take us down a hill into Wangyou Valley – a rare sight in what is known as Taiwan’s rainy city. Slowly we descend the steps. Coastal plants cover the edges of the trail, their leaves thick and waxy to retain moisture in the salty sea air. Purple-headed thistles spring up among other wildflowers. White trumpet-nosed blooms cling to the steep cliffs. Bulbuls, white-eyes, babblers, and thrushes duck and weave among the dense thickets. Serpent eagles and goshawks soar above a coast that has been ravaged year after year, century after century by typhoons, monsoon rains, and crashing waves.
Peppered, too, amongst the hills are remnants of Keelung’s military past: pillbox guard posts and fortified lookouts peep from the undergrowth, fighting a losing battle against Mother Nature. After climbing to the top of one of the valley’s several peaks, we see the small fishing harbor of Badouzi on the left beyond, while ahead of us stretches the wide expanse of the East China Sea.
Heping Island
To the northwest of Wangyou Valley lies Heping Island. In 1626, the Spanish arrived on this island, declared it Spanish territory, and built a fortification – Fort San Salvador – on the southwestern side. The fort and any traces of the Spanish on Heping Island have, unfortunately, been largely lost to history, but a small snapshot of the island’s colonial years can be seen in the geo park on its northern side. Much like at nearby Yeliu (with its famous Queen’s Head Rock), the main attractions in the park are the divertingly shaped sandstone rocks along the sea’s edge.
Follow the path around the park and you’ll come across the Cave of Foreign Words, a 20-meter-long natural tunnel that pierces a small headland near the eastern edge of the park. Inside the cave there is, purportedly, some 17th-century graffiti left by the Dutch, who took over Fort San Salvador in the 1640s.
Baimiweng Fort
One of several old fortifications perched upon the hilltops around Keelung, Baimiweng commands a spectacular view of both the harbor and the sea. The small, winding lane that leads to the fort is a bit difficult to find, even for Keelungers, says Wang, who, with a painter’s romantic eye, goes on to compare the challenging ascent up the narrow, twisting road to the journey up to the citadel of Évora Monte in Portugal. Reaching the fortifications, you’re confronted with a spectacular vista and four large semi-circular gun emplacements, each of which was capable in its time of hosting a 5.65-meter-long cannon able to fire a steel shell 8.8 kilometers at enemy battleships. Though the current fortifications date back only to the early 1900s, Wang writes that fortifications have been built on this location since the 17th-century colonial conflicts between the Spanish and the Dutch, a fact attested by the fort’s alternate name, Holland Castle. “From here the night view of the harbor is breathtaking,” Wang writes, “and on the other side, far out to sea, you can see freighters slowly entering the harbor, while further away still you can see the sun setting.”
Central Keelung & Harbor
As a busy, working container port, central Keelung is a churning organism of cranes and freight containers, trundling cargo ships and busy-bee tugboats. The narrow streets and alleys that creep out from the narrow central harbor can become, especially on weekends, breathtakingly crowded – a situation abetted by the fact that the nearby Miaokou Night Market is one of the most famous in Taiwan.
A fun day in the city of Hsinchu, visiting a few interesting places, such as the city gate and small railway stations close to the coast.
00:50 New Tile House Hakka Cultural District 新瓦屋客家文化保存區
03:30 Yingxi Gate 迎曦門
05:25 Hsinchu Art Gallery and Reclamation Hall
05:45 Old Hsinchu Prefectural Hall 新竹州廳
06:50 Hsinchu City Fire Museum 消防博物館
07:45 Shi Family Fish Balls 石家魚丸
08:30 Zhulian Temple 竹蓮寺
09:35 Qiding 崎頂
10:15 Landscape Platform 觀景台
12:25 Zimu Tunnel 子母隧道
15:40 Xiangshan 香山
16:25 Xiangshan Tianhou Temple 香山天后宮
18:00 Xiangshan Wetland 香山濕地
Website:
Travel in Taiwan:
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WHO ARE WE?
We are a small publishing company (Vision) based in Taipei. We produce an English magazine (Travel in Taiwan) introducing you to Taiwan as a travel destination. Read it! Lot of useful information. We also have a website with lots of articles about Taiwan. Visit it! We try to make a video or two every week. Let us know what you think about this channel and what you would like to see about Taiwan. All the best to you!
From Travel in Taiwan magazine 2018-7-8:
New Tile House Hakka Cultural District
The New Tile House Hakka Cultural District is neither new, nor a single house, but rather a cluster of single-story buildings made of bricks (some fired, some mud) and tiles. Not much happens here on weekdays, but visit on a weekend and you might see cultural groups presenting music or dance performances.
Add: No. 123, Sec. 1, Wenxing Rd., Zhubei City, Hsinchu County
(新竹縣竹北市文興路一段123號)
Website: facebook.com/events/1107455919331421/
Old Hsinchu Prefectural Hall
Unlike similar official buildings in Tainan and Taichung, the Old Hsinchu Prefectural Hall continues to play a key role in local government, and is where the city’s mayor has his office.
Add: No. 120, Zhongzheng Rd., Hsinchu City (新竹市中正路120號)
Hsinchu City Fire Museum
The museum, inside a functioning fire station, contains bilingual displays that cover both the history of the local firefighting service and how best to survive a conflagration.
Add: No. 4, Zhongshan Road, Hsinchu City (新竹市中山路4號)
Website: hcfd.gov.tw/museum
Shi Family Fish Balls
Located southwest of Hsinchu Railway Station, this restaurant has been praised by hundreds of netizens. It's an old-school eatery: There’s no English sign or menu, and not one dollar has been wasted on fancying up the décor.
Add: No. 27, Xingxue St., Hsinchu City (新竹市興學街27號)
Website: sfishball.com.tw (Chinese)
Zhulian Temple
This hall of worship is at the Buddhist end of the theological spectrum, but you’ll also see traditional folk practices. One is the casting of pairs of crescent-shaped wood blocks known to Taiwanese-speakers as poe.
Add: No. 100, Zhulian St., Hsinchu City (新竹市竹蓮街100號)
Qiding Station
There's no staff at this station, nor vending machines from which you can buy tickets. Hsinchu to Qiding is NT$21.
Landscape Platform
It takes just a few minutes to get from the station to the platform. Gazing out over the Taiwan Strait, as the wind turbines that dot this stretch of coast slowly rotated and the occasional express train rumbled past, was a soothing experience.
Zimu Tunnel
When this railway line was double-tracked in the early 1970s, it was moved slightly closer to the sea because the tunnels (there are actually two) were too narrow. Exemplars of the solid infrastructure built during the 1895-1945 Japanese colonial period, they're now preserved as part of a walkway/bike trail. The first tunnel is 67m long, the second nearly double that. No flashlights are needed; there's enough natural light for you to see where you're walking.
Xiangshan Station
The lovingly maintained station building in Xiangshan is an attraction in its own right. Dating from 1928, it’s the only remaining Japanese-era railway stop in Taiwan that was built using cypress from the Alishan area in the central mountains.
Xiangshan Tianhou Temple
The current building dates from the 1920s, but there’s been a shrine on this site since sometime in the late 17th century, when Han Chinese from Fujian (the mainland China province closest to Taiwan) began to settle on the coast here. Like the majority of Taiwan’s folk shrines, this temple houses effigies of several deities, but the principal object of veneration is Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea.
#Hsinchu #Taiwan #Taiwaneverything