Some random photos from my Taiwan visit in April/May 2008…
The plane I was boarding from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei
The plane I was boarding from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei
Some local foods in Jiufen, a small town in Taiwan which I visited in late April 2008…
Caramel haw (冰糖葫芦; bingtang hulu) is a traditional Chinese candy made by dipping haw-on-a-stick in hot caramel… it can be done with other fruits as well, obviously
2016 participants (1008 reflexologists and 1008 tourists) have set a new Guinness World Record in Taiwan on July 1 for having “most people receiving foot massage (reflexology) simultaneously.”
Tourists who volunteered for the event came from various countries, including Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong etc.
The attempt was organised by Taiwan Tourism Bureau to promote health tourism Reflexology is a popular practice in Taiwan for relaxation and improving general health; the activity is gaining popularity among foreign tourists in recent years.
There were no previous attempts made on this category; Guinness have set the requirement to have at least 400 participants with treatment for at least five minutes on each foot… which were met by the folks without much sweat.
Visited a jade museum in Hualian, Taiwan, on May 1. Museum is an overstatement actually, it’s basically a big shop (really big) selling jades and other precious stones of different sizes and prices. A pretty interesting visit regardless…
Variety of jade vases and containers
It has become a habit of mine to visit franchises like 7-Eleven or McDonald’s when I visit to different countries. Although they are similar in every countries, normally each places would have their own unique stuff that are not available elsewhere.
It has also become a habit of mine to taste different (local) beer and instant noodles when I visit different countries…
Taiwan beer, at a 7-Eleven store in Hualian… very mild
An aboriginal dance performance (video) in Hualian, during my Taiwan visit in late April. The video quality is rather poor because I was recording using a digital camera and not a viewcam, but it should be pretty cool if you have not witnessed similar stuff before…
There are about a dozen aboriginal tribes recognised in Taiwan, not sure which particular tribal dance it was.
The Taiwanese aborigines’ culture actually shares similarities with the aborigines in South East Asia, including my homeland Malaysia. They are all considered as Austronesian people who shared the same ancestors some thousands of years ago.
In fact, the bamboo-stick-dance in the video can be seen in Philippines and Malaysia-Borneo as well. It’s a small world after all :)
Cisingtan (literally ‘Seven Star Lake’ in Chinese) is a beautiful coastline near the city of Hualian in eastern Taiwan. It got its name from the seven swamps that were scattered like fallen stars throughout the wetland that once covered the area.
What remained these days is just a nice beach with a lovely sea view.
Qisingtan, Hualian, Taiwan
Taroko National Park was supposed to be one of the highlights during my Taiwan tour, but it turned out to be a huge disappointment.
Most of the scenic spots could only be fully viewed via foot trekking… and we didn’t have the luxury to do so due to time constraint. Well, that’s the downside for travelling via an organised tour.
The Eternal Spring Shrine
The Eternal Spring Shrine was one of the very few highlight scenic spots we visited, and this too was under renovation during our visit… it’s not our day obviously