Kaohsiung to Tainan

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Sorry for not keeping up my blog the last few days. I have been to Tainan(south) several time to visit local attractions.
What I have noticed is that there are so many temples(buddish, Daois) in Taiwan. Every time you turn around a corner, you will most likely encounter a temple. There are some small local ones and others that are decorated with gold gilted statues and carvings, reliefs and painting that fit for the emperor. You will see local worshipers burning incents and paper money in special incent stand/or kiln.
I have been up to the Joaying(kaohsiung) Train station. Very mordern structure with the exception of limited public parking as it is privately own and they have sold lots of parking space to businesses. Have not yet tried the high speed fast traint to Taipei which will now only take you 2 hours. The blue ticket will cost about 1265 NT(new Taiwan Money) while the yellow ticket will cost about 965 NT.
Yesterday I had a chance to visit the Taiwan Indigenous People Culture Park in the PingDong province just North East of Kaohsiung. It is situated in the mountain area. There are 14 indigenous groups in Taiwan mainland and on a small island called Lanyi. The Amis is the largest group which number at 182877. They all have colorful customs and love to sing and dance. There is an indoor theatre in the park which showcase the tribal singing and dancing. They kept some of the traditional habitat with either stone houses or straw huts. I noticed there was a totem pole on the entrance to the park similar to our North American Indian's. There are two suspension bridges that link the villages going down the hill.
Today, I joined the tour with students from the villages that suffered damages from last year's mudslides to the ChiMei Museum in Tainan. It is a private museum that is free but need to make appointment. Many European sculptures, painting, and musical instruments. In the afternoon, we went to the Salt Museum and the Salt mountain. Taiwan used to be a major exporter of Salt to Japan but now they mostly import their salt from abroad. Now they use the old salt farm land for fishing. There is also a black-face Spoonbill reserve in Tainan. The Black-faced Spoonbill are endangered species with only 1200 or so in the world mostly in the Korea, south China coastal region including Taiwan. They winter in Tainan but will fly back to Korea in the summer time.

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Photos

Twin Pagoda in Lotus pond
In Kaohsiung

Busy Morning Market Scene
Busy morning markets with loads of vegetables, fruits, meats and household items in Kaohsiung

Detail: Temple architecture
Many feature of Chinese temple architecture

Burning Ghost Money
Chinese belief that burning the ghost money for your deceased relatives so they can live comfortably

Bird eggs Snack
snack stand around the temple

Areca Palm aka Pineng
Taiwanese love to chew on the Areca Nut wrap in beta leave and lime. It supposed to work as stimulant/caffein to keep you awake during long distance driving. you will notice many Pineng stand along the roads in the country sides.

Totem Pole
at the entrance to the Taiwan Indigenous people park in Tainan

Trible habitat
in side the Taiwan Indigenous people's park

Amis male customs
One of the Indigenous people in Taiwan

Rising
One of the interesting sultpture in side the park with female half top connected to tree roots on the ground to make it looks like she is wearing long skirt

Tree with breasts
Does it not look like breasts on this tree trunk?

Landscape
around the Indigenous park in Tainan

Dried River Bed
the lack of rainfall during the winter in Taiwan has resulted in very dry river bed.

Comments

[Irene]

Keep sharing your pictures...
We are keeping track of your marvelous adventure -- we thought of you at Beth's and your lovely choice of books - Ahab- (I'm trying desparately to forget the name) and you know we all loved it (NOT!). Stay save! Irene

[linda Nusdorfer]

Exciting
what a wonderful adventure. Sounds interesting. Pics look great. Ln

[Michelle]

Hey Lan Ye!! =] I wish I could go to the night market lols It looks like so much fun! The suspension bridge is so scary looking!! Can't wait to see more uploaded pictures. Don't forget to say hi to Nina and them for me!

[linda Nusdorfer]

Beautiful pic
what a great adventure. Love the pic's Enjoy.