Wesley Chapel, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

1961 William Alvin  Ury who served in Kuching as a Methodist pastor (Chin Fu Church) was instrumental in purchasing a piece of land in a remote, padi field.

Later the Wesley Chapel was built on it.

Today this church still stands and it is now in the busiest intersections in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Praise the Lord for the vision and passion of Rev William Alvin Ury.
地址：高雄市中山二路564號
電話：2811738

Taiwan's "Meat Ball" Ba Wan

Ba wan. Photo from Wikipedia.

We were in TAiwan and had some really lovely street food.  And one of them was the Taiwanese meat ball which were really huge. The filling was different from our meat balls in Sibu. First the meat balls have a "coat" made from tapioca flour, and the filling was made from bamboo shoots, minced pork and shitake mushrooms. The meat balls were served with a sweet sauce.

Not all the meat balls were good quality as we tried to taste as many as possible ...Some though were really good. I suppose it was because the sauce was too sweet for us.

肉圓 

Carton King (Taiwan)

Carton King is a creative park where almost everything is made of corrugated cardboard. The ceilings, the floor, the furniture, the pens and paper, everything!

It was a hot day for the 13 of us in the team. Our first two days were rather damp and extremely wet because of the Typhoon Trami. But when the sun came out, it was really glaring and hot.

There were many exciting sections to visit .There's also a restaurant there where you can sit and have a good meal in the cardboard land but when we were there it was not open, rather unfortunate as we had planned to have a nice lunch there. All the tables and shelves were made of corrugated cardboard.

I did not fancy any of the souvenirs made from paper so I was thrilled to find a Post Shop. The post cards sold there were just what I wanted.


I bought a post card and sent it to my son. I thought it was a tourist kind of gimmick. The postcard did not cost much and the stamp was only 10 Taiwan Dollars. Today, after about 20 days, my son received the card.

That's a real treat for my heart!! i.e. it is heartening to hear from him, that he is happy to receive a card in the mail.

 

 


 There's a zoo, where the animals are all made from paper (carton) and when a child presses a button, the animal will make its noise. Just a small area but very creative and refreshing. (At least there is no smell of foul dung!!)

http://im-chacha.blogspot.com/2013/02/taichung-carton-king-everything-made-by.html

(My camera could not function, so I lost a whole day of photograph...I have to grab photos from Goggle)

This place is also known as 纸箱王.

I am thinking of my children as I write this. Wish I can still travel with them all every where I go.

Lin Yutang

I took this photo of his desk - simple, with a Bible.

It was a Monday and our free and easy day during our field research in Taiwan.

My friend and I really wanted to see the Lin Yutang House and to our disappointment, the House in Yang Mingsan in Taipeh was closed on Mondays.

To save the situation, and not go back to the hotel empty handed, we trekked up the Yang Ming San, saw the lava lake and had a good lunch of mountain vegetables and mushrooms.

Not to be disappointed, my friend and I went again on Wednesday, having to sacrifice a day’s exciting team itinerary and broke away from the group.

We took the Metro, then the local bus to our destination. It was a good one-hour ride from our Minsu (B & B). Along the way, we breathed in the Taipeh air, still fresh from the rain brought by Typhoon Trami.

The Lin Yutang house is a splendid fusion of Chinese and Spanish style architecture with indigo blue roofs, a white-washed walled house, built on a ridge, right on the main road and overlooking Taipeh. What a splendid view Lin and his family must have had of the city from the balcony.

Lin Yutang was educated in Gulangyu. He taught at Xiamen University from 1926 -27, long before my father took up undergrad studies at Yenching University at Beijing. My father influenced my siblings and I to read Lin Yutang's books from an early age.

In 1937 my father graduated from Yenching University Beijing and he must have felt very proud of a fellow Chinese who wrote the 1935 best seller, "My Country and My People." My father had a copy of the book on his table and very often, he would tell us at our dinner table about Lin Yutang. Lin was the first Chinese author to reach the top of the New York Times bestseller list and was encouraged by Pearl S. Buck to publish his book,"My Country and my People".

Lin came from a Christian background. His house in Yang Mingsan brings out his strong faith. He was the 7th of a Presbyterian minister's 8 children. He was born in Longxi on October 10th 1895. He enjoyed reading like his father. An Amoy missionary, Abbe Livingston Warnshuis, sent books to the family to help cultivate their intellectual life.

Lin's sister Mei Kong who was denied a college education gave him forty cents before he left for college. She said to him, "Don't waste your opportunity. Be a good man, a useful man, and a famous man." She later died of the plague and was 7 months pregnant and only 23 years old. Her death haunted Lin who became not only useful and famous but also fought injustice against women.

His grave can be found in the grounds of his residence in Yang Mingsan.

Yang Ming San, Taiwan

 阳明山

It was a nice walk up to the top but I did not go up . Most of the members went to the top. Vehicles are not allowed as the hill is rather fragile.

While waiting for the rest to make their way to the top and later to come down for lunch I had time to potter around and look at things. It was my first time ever seeing people growing their own shallots and actually harvesting them for lunch!!

Our group went to visit Yang Ming San on our day off from the scheduled field trip.

I was like chasing the YUM of Taiwan.

the hills were lovely and we had a lot of opportunities to look,  see and to photograph and to have a great feel of the area. It was awesome to be able to do something. It was really free and easy. Not tense at all. Official visits and protocols can be very tiring.




I am sure they have good business. The handwriting on the white board is so good.




The cook and gardeners of this small restaurant on the slope of Yang Ming San advertised that their vegetables and chickens were all organic. Here we tasted white bitter gourd for the first time.

This is my choice: Guinness World Record

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers in this Planet Earth......... Taiwanese break world record in celebrating Mother's Day 2011/05/08 15:29:37

Pingtung, May 7 (CNA) Residents of Pingtung City shattered a Guinness World Record for "most people washing their feet" at the same time Saturday while celebrating Mother's Day by tending to their mothers' feet. A Guinness World Record adjudicator confirmed that 3,742 mother/child pairs accomplished the feat in sweltering 32 degree Celsius weather, obliterating the previous record of 568 pairs set in Taiwan's Yilan County in May 2010. Pingtung City Mayor Yeh Shou-shan was among those washing their mothers' feet -- considered to be a sign of respect and filial pity in Taiwan's culture. Yeh said he was relieved and moved to see so many people joining the activity, with some of the mothers in attendance over 100 years old. Pan Chen-tung, a local Pingtung resident who kneeled to wash his mother's feet, said he did not know how to express his gratitude to his mother and felt this was an ideal opportunity for him to thank her. (By Kuo

Sun Moon Lake Teacher-Singer

She introduced herself to me as a school teacher and a recording artiste. Good voice and as a member of the Ami group she is proud to promote her tribal culture. She sold me RM100 worth of DVDs. I was glad to buy from her because in the DVDs are all the famous tribal songs belonging to all the groups of Taiwan. She is glad to have met a teacher from Sarawak. She sends her love to all teachers (especially teachers in indigenous schools) of Malaysia. And she hopes that she will meet more teachers coming to visit Sun Moon Lake.


The whole team works closely together to entertain all those who come to the Sun and Moon Lake.

Taiwan : Hotel Room Spa

Some hotels in Asia wish to attract as many customers as possible. Some even try to have a theme park within the hotel grounds.

But there is one small hotel that is doing quite well in TAiwan especially for South East Asian tourists.

This hotel provides special spa products (it sells spa products too and other health care items).

So here -- you can have a peep into one of the hotel room spa....YES each room is equipped with a huge tub and the first day's spa products are all free.....

All the other products can be purchased at a special price .....but then things in Taiwan are not really that cheap...

But I must say the Taiwanese are good in business and they are so good in their tourism industry.

tamsui : Lovers' Bridge

I was lucky to be able to join a group of business women to travel to Taiwan. My friend needed an interpreter as she cannot speak Mandarin. So we went twin sharing, following this group of fast talking, and fast spending business women. It was supposed to be an ALL women's tour group but it ended up with two ladies taking their husbands and children along.

The tour leader was from Miri and we cheered her on whenever trouble blew up. It wasn't easy to lead a tour group to a foreign place when every one wanted to see every thing and buy everything.

My friend and I was definitely on Sight Seeing Tour.

The Lovers' Bridge in Tamsui was magnificient at night. Because I did not have a good cameral, I had to grab a photo from Google to show you.

There is a lot of history in Tamsui and one can learn so much from the Fishermen's Wharf.

We went there just before sunset which was really lovely, if not for all the people who wanted to crash into you. Every one wanted to have their photos taken with out an "Excuse Me." Well we just joined the crowd and took some photos, which were not remarkable at all.

When the sun went down and the lights went up, the pedestrain bridge became magical in the lights.

It was quite cool because the bridge is near the Taiwan Straits and the sea breezes came in nicely.

Note : It is better to go there after a light meal. You might become too hungry meandering around the crowd of people. The walk is fairly long. Go during the off season and probably spend 2 hours there and take some lovely photographers.

Floating World

One interesting thing I learned from the Sun Moon Lake farmers was this idea of growing crops and flowers in floating gardens.

If the Rajang River can be populated by little colourful gardens like these it would really add to the attraction of the Swan City!!


And how nice it will be for pretty ladies to row their boats and harvest crops like this in the river....life in the river would be cheerful and healthy!

More tourists would come and have a look at a new floating world.

Chiufen (Nine Portions) Taiwan

Chiufen is an old gold mining village just outside Taipeh. We spent an afternoon there after a good big bowl of Taipeh's beef noodle. The road to this village is long and winding and at most times covered with mist. It was a lovely ride.

In spite of its being a very "movie studio like setting" today - the quaint mining town still has some of its old mining atmosphere. It gives the tourists a lot of opportunities to take photographs and taste the snacks sold in the two main streets .

This is Taiwan fragrant sausages fried and displayed on taro leaves (something that is really refreshing and interesting to me from Sarawak.)


This is the guide post in four languages...Jishan Street is a must visit street.

Branching from  the Jishan street are many alleys like this : alley going uphill would be from the seaward side and an alley going down hill would be going towards the sea. Very photographic.


Here's another alley going uphill.

Escargots being BBQed- TWN100 for three...you get them cut up in you eat from a paper cup.

The misty atmosphere and a view from one of the alleys give you an insight to the past : a church and a temple on two sides of a hill facing each other...but both looking up towards heaven.Both were started in the 1890's when gold was discovered here.

Nine families started their lives here and they used to buy provisions from the boats. Each time they travelled to the coast (which was by foot then) they would buy nine portions. Thus the name in Chinese : 9 portions (9 fen).

At the peak of gold mining in 1900's this place was called Mini Shanghai.

Today it has been made famous by movies like City of Sadness directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the Japanese animation movie, Spirit Away by Hayao Miyazaki used Chiufen as a model of the story background.

Today bus loads of tourists will descend on Chiufen to see its narrow Japanese styled streets lined with teahouses and souvenirs and snacks shops. And I would not mind going back that for a second visit - this time taking a whole day going over all the nooks and corners and even trying to go down to the sea and re-live those days when housewives trekked downhill to get nine portions of provisions!

(more photos later when the Internet is faster....we are facing some problems lately....)

Chiufen (Nine Portions) just outside Taipeh

My friends asked me what it was like to visit a gold mining town. Did I find gold nuggets?

Chiufen has such nice food!!

Chiufen is sea facing and located within the hills in northeastern Taiwan and is just outside Taipeh. To this day it is still considered a village.  At the beginning there were only nine families in Chiufen. Before the roads on land were built, all materials were transported via ships. The nine households would order nine portions every time shipments arrived from town. Hence, the place was called Chiufen, ‘chiu’ meaning ‘nine’ in Chinese.

When I visited Chiufen it was foggy and at the end of winter. However even though I was only wearing a thin jacket I felt quite warm because there were so many tourists around. We were almost shoulder to shoulder!!

When gold mining was at its peak at the beginning of 1900's the village was known as "mini-Shanghai" However, with the decline of gold mining activities in northern Taiwan, Chiufen has faded away.Movies made here made Chiufen famous e.g. City of Sadness directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the Japanese animation movie, Spirit Away by Hayao Miyazaki used Chiufen as a model of the story background.

Today bus loads of tourists will descend on Chiufen to see its narrow Japanese styled streets lined with teahouses and souvenirs and snacks shops.

Jin Ta Wan (Big Golden Bowl) or Really Big Bowl

One the best meals in Taiwan - beef noodles which came in a large bowl. The shop is called Chin Twa Wang...Really big Bowl. But the Chinese words are Jin Ta Wan.

The business is really good and wave after wave of tourists come into the shop. They have hundreds of waiters and waitresses.

Free flow of soup and noodles but not the beef or the pork chops. There are only two choices in the menu : beef or pork noodles. All in bowls of soup. So you cannot order kolok or dry . You cannot order goreng/fried.....

This is the signboard inside the shop.

Very thick healthy beef soup. You can add more spring onions and other ingredients which are placed on the table for you to help yourself.



This is a side dish of sea weed pickle.

Some dried pickled toufoo.

This is the pork noodle soup.


The whole range of side dishes for you and your friends. The shop also adds to the side dishes upon request.

This is the nice cold dessert sweet (transparent jelly with lotus paste).

this is the pork chop which goes with the pork noodle soup.

Lovely ladies from Miri!!

Saying "Sorry" : Taiwan politician

This is a normal street bus in Taipeh. I took this quick photo from my coach seat (which was unfortunately at the back) and straight away my tour guide told me the story.

An election candidate created an unforgettable incident and regrettable action when he "offered" " leg tail" ( post funeral meal) rice to the supporters.

This was a sad act and he asked for forgiveness. In five years' time he might stand for election again.....

This bus carries his request for forgiveness. He has taken out this advertisement for five years which is quite a hefty sum. But will they forgive him?


(No names mentioned in this post )

Chin Po Lou

An amazing Taiwan confectionary outlet and its superb nougats! Chin Po Luo Confections Co.

The Streets of Taipeh : motor cycles

There are a lot of things to do, people to watch and food to eat....in Taipeh.

It is often said to be the city where rich Overseas Chinese like to go.

There are lots of motor cycles in Taipei too.

Ordinary people ride buses like all of us.

Nice ride....

Very Interesting facts of Sun Moon Lake

The best tea and herbal eggs in the world are found here.It probably has its origin here because of the mountain tea and herbs.


While swimming in Sun Moon Lake is usually not permitted, there is an annual 3-km race called the Swimming Carnival of Sun Moon Lake held around the Mid-Autumn Festival each year, and in recent years the participants have numbered in the tens of thousands. Other festivities held at the same time include fireworks, laser shows, and concerts.
The lake and its surrounding countryside have been designated one of thirteen National scenic areas in Taiwan.





This is the Jade Island or Lalu Island - holy ground of the Thao people. It used to be called Kwanghua Island by the Nationalist Government.




Lalu Hotel
The five-star Lalu Hotel overlooks the lake and is named after the indigenous Shao aboriginal settlement once located on the site. It dates back to 1901, and was a favoured summer getaway for the late president Chaing Kai-shek.

The 2002 version was designed by Australian architect Kerry Hill and is Taiwan's most expensive hotel. The Zen-style building has lots of wood and stone and is an all-suite property.

There are one- and two-bedroom suites as well as private villas which have their own pool and courtyard. The outdoor warm water infinity pool is 60m long. There are hot and cold whirlpools, herbal steam rooms, Swedish saunas and Japanese baths, all with lake views. The award-winning Lalu Spa offers Eastern and Western treatments.

The hotel has five restaurants and bars, a boutique and library.