A NEW COUNTRY FOR 3 OUT OF 4
Today was our last stop. The ship docked in the container cargo port this morning because a Chinese cruise ship, the SuperStar Virgo, had rights to the passenger terminal. Christine and Jan, our private guides, picked us up after we took the first shuttle to downtown Keelung.
First stop was Chung Cheng Park, a beautiful temple complex with a large statue of Buddha and great views.
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| Confucius |
--> Next we headed up the coast and saw some interesting geological rocks.
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| Our guide, Christine |
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Yehliu Geopark has some interesting rock
formations that have been given names and some fossilized sand dollars.
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| a propaganda statue of man who allegedly drowned trying to save a young man |
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| The Princess |
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| Running Tiger |
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| guard who blows his whistle at anyone touching the formations |
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| The Elephant (that looks more like a hippo) |
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| Sandal |
--> The drive took us inland and up into the mountains. -->I told Jan we would like to see one Chinese temple, so we stopped at a really pretty Tao temple.
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| Chinese Checkers |
We made a few stops along the way for a few agricultural shots.
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| Calla lilies |
Yangmingshan National Park has some active fumeroles that are constantly steaming gas and leaving sulfur deposits.
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Coming down the other side of the mountain
brought us into downtown Taipei. We stopped at the Grand Hotel which was
magnificent. Rooms run around $100/night.
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We had a wonderful dumpling lunch at a
department store. We were able to watch the dumplings being assembled, but once
again no one thought to take any pictures of the food we ate. They just kept
bringing the bamboo steam baskets with a variety of different dumplings-pork,
shrimp, chicken, and vegetable along with fried rice, sweet and sour soup, and
a sweet red bean dumpling for dessert. It was marvelous.
There were a few stops on the way back to Keelung. First was Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall where we saw the changing of the guard.
A few blocks away stands the Taipei Temple.
Taipei 101 was once the tallest building in
Asia and today is the 8th tallest in the world. It has 8 (the lucky
number in Taiwanese culture) sections and is shaped to look like bamboo, truly
one of the neatest skyscrapers I have ever seen.
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| Christine and Jan |
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| our driver |
The day was soon gone and we had a 25 minute
drive back to Keelung.
FRIDAY, 18 MAY 2018
RELAXATION
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Our first of 2 sea days going back to Kobe-eat, massage, eat, nap, play cards, blog, eat!
