Had lunch at this De An Eatery (德安小吃) during my Taiwan trip in May 2008 at the small town of Fonglin in Hualian County, en route to Taichung City. The food was quite nice, and I loved their pork knuckles…
Hualian County
Jade museum in Hualian, Taiwan
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
7-Eleven in Hualian, Taiwan
It has became a habit of mine to visit franchises like McDonald’s and 7-Eleven (for snacks) when I visit different places. Although similar in every countries, these eateries/stores normally have a few unique stuff not available elsewhere.
Great variety of instant noodles
Would have taken a few more photos, but a shopkeeper politely forbade me to do so. Cultural difference… if I’m taking pictures in 7-eleven Malaysia the shopkeepers probably won’t bother much. My fault, if I’m in Taiwan, do it the Taiwanese way :)
Taiwanese aboriginal dance
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 :)
Cixingtan, Taiwan
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, 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
