One of my accomplishments last year was to finally travel to another country! It was something I've been wanting to do since forever but never had the chance due to post-graduate study, work commitment and financial burden. It was such an eye-opening when you visit another people's country and learn their culture and surrounding. I love my trip to Taiwan, and maybe I'll go there again in the near future to visit other places.
One of my friends loved Taiwan so much that she spent every year visiting the country. All she could talk about was about Taiwan and once she finally managed to convince us to do a trip, she enthusiastically brought us to as much wonderful places as she could. We went to Sun Yat Sen's Memorial Hall and Park, Leofoo Village Theme Park, National Palace Museum, Yehliu Geopark, and lastly, my favorite was the mountain town Jiufen.
Alas, I couldn't take much pictures in some places due to how crowded they were. But I did managed to take some that made me miss the country more.
The National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
The first thing we visited was the memorial hall. Learning histories is always a must when you visit other countries, also, the memorial park is so beautiful and filled with bronze sculpture. So, my inner art child was very satisfied and happy.
Sun Yat-Sen was the founding father of the Republic of China and was well-respected by people from across mainland China and Taiwan. The memorial hall contained important historical documents from his legacy and I'm sure were the point of interest for much people visiting the hall.
There were a lot of statues depicting the importance of learning and family harmony across the park in front of the building. It was a nice, quiet place to rest. I even stumbled onto a woman who was practicing a song at one of the gazebo.
The National Palace Museum
This was the only picture I could get. I took a lot of pictures inside the museum but for some reasons the my phone won't transfer the pictures to my laptop. As for the museum, I loved the historical findings from the Neolithic era to modern world. Such a wonder to see how much different people used to live back then, and yet their culture and art had already advanced so much!
I particularly loved the Buddhism area and the painting area. Really spectacular piece of work and showcased the culture back then. I also loved the interactive area where the paintings came to life. For example, I saw some birds flying about from a historical painting and it was awesome to see. Needless to say, my friends grew tired and they actually waited for me for an hour before I finally came out from the display. Thank goodness for patient friends, I guess...
Yehliu Geopark
Nature has always been very interesting to me. Every place got its own unique surroundings, so it made sense that our friend (aka our appointed free tour guide) would want to bring us there.
The geopark was formed by geological forces and there were several rocks with different formations scattered across it. The most popular one was the one shaped like a heart, as I could see tourists were lining up to take a memorable picture with it. The place was packed with visitors and some safety volunteers were yelling to people to not get outside the safety line. Much respect for the volunteers for keeping everyone safe.
And of course, one of the reasons I'm missing Taiwan was that there were so many timid, friendly dogs and cats walking around. I know, I'm being silly.
Jiufen
And lastly, my favorite place of all, the mountain town, Jiufen.
If you're a Ghibli fan, you'll know that this town is the inspiration of the town in Spirited Away. It also had a very interesting history as to the origin of its name. The town used to house nine families, so they would always order nine portions whenever there were shipments in town. This later became the name of the village. Gold-mining later on turned the village into a bustling town.
We took a moment to rest and eat while at the town, and just got mesmerized by how beautiful the place was. I loved the old town feeling when sitting there, even the chairs and tables at the restaurant were old-style. Perfect for a getaway from modern world.
I urge you to come to Jiufen at least once! You won't regret spending your time here. If you're not used to living on the mountain, the entire town can prove to be beneficial for health because you're going to climb so many stairs.
And on a last note, there were so many cats and dogs here. My friends told me that the animals around here get fed by everyone and you can actually donate for their food. I saw several fat, happy dogs running around and all of the tourists (me included) were going "awww" at their cuteness. There was even a shop dedicated to selling all things related to cats! I'm not sorry to spend most of my money there.
Well, this is a long post. No words can express enough how much I love going to Taiwan. I would definitely be going there to experience other stuffs, and maybe next time, I'll explore and learn about the aborigine culture. And if I'm lucky, I might be able to catch a theater or two the next time I'm there.
Thank you for reading, and have a nice weekend. Till next time~