If I could only go back to one place in Taiwan, it would be Keelung. Initially what drew me here was a tour of the Kanzinding Fish Market that opens at 1am. Unfortunately when I visited, there was no tour available, and I was so tired that I ended up missing it. Bummer. However, there are so many other reasons to visit Keelung! I only planned to spend half a day here – though I would have like at least a week.
Huge thanks goes to Alexander Synaptic for posting so much great information about Keelung (and many other places). Without his site, I would have never thought of going to Keelung.
LOTS OF STAIRS
My first stop – a walk through Ruchuan Village. It’s a hillside community of homes that at some point became abandoned. The first thing that struck me – the only way to get through the village were stairs. I suppose someone could ride a scooter up and down those stairs, but I didn’t see any. Many of the homes at the bottom part of the stairs were lovely and occupied. But climbing further, the homes became more and more abandoned. At a certain point, I turned around because of some unfriendly dogs that were wandering around. I wish that I could have gone further…maybe next time!
On the way back down from the village, I found some interesting scenes in the neighborhood.
ZHONGZHENG PARK
By this time, the rain was pretty steady. But I was determined to see as much as possible during my limited time in Keelung, so I pushed on to Zhonzheng Park. The park is situated on a mountain right next to the Keelung harbor and contains a Buddhist temple, huge statues and the Ghost Festival Museum. The route I took brought me to the Ghost Festival Museum first – wow what an interesting site. I felt like I was being watched the entire time – btw, I had no idea that it was a ghost museum when I was there.
Next, I came across Zhu Pu Tan Temple and the massive Guanyin statue. There was also a lovely panoramic view of Keelung from up here. It was full on raining at this point, so I didn’t spend much time here. Again another reason to go back!
NIGHT
Night falls pretty early in Taiwan in December. I was so ready to stay in for the night, but again, I was trying to maximize my time here. The rain was still falling, but that didn’t seem to stop anyone from going out to the Miaokou Night Market or anywhere else in the city.
