Day1
Day2
Day3
Day 4
Day5
Day6
Day7
Day 4. Hualien
We had planned to drive north up the coast to see more scenery, but the weather was miserable so we decided to check out the city.
This is the view from our hotel in the outskirts of Hualien. It was probably the quietest night of sleep I've had in Taiwan because we were out in the country.
The countryside.
The first place we went was a nearby war memorial place or martyr shrine (or so we think). We're not actually sure what this place was, but we did see pictures of it in Chinese tour magazines, so it must be important :)
Then we went to this massive marbly Buddhist building. Again, we weren't sure what it was and we didn't think we could enter, but we looked around the grounds anyway.
There was a beautiful bamboo building on the grounds, but (once again) we don't know what it is used for.
As we were looking through the bamboo building, an excited lady came up to us and told us in Chinese that we could enter the big building and look around. Inside was a lot of information and displays (in Chinese and English) all about what this generous organization called Jing Si has done in Taiwan and around the world. It was impressive. And just as we were finished looking at all the displays, a very friendly lady named Rachel came up to us and started talking to us. She lived in Vancouver for 9 years, so her English was perfect. She wanted to show us more about the organization and she invited us to the Jing Si Abode in the outskirts of Hualien where there was a Chinese New Year celebration going on. There were many activities and friendly people at this place, and we were happy to spend the day there. We learned about eating manners, we made lanterns, we sang a little karaoke, and we had lessons on happiness (all in Chinese of course) :) But Rachel translated for us, so it was all good.
The lady on the left is Rachel. This was our big karaoke debut.
And this is the lantern making booth.
And these are some pictures from the very hospitable hotel we stayed at. We always ate breakfast and dinner with them.
This is the father, mother, and son of the hotel.
And the mother and son.
They invited us to their BBQ. They were barbequing yams and sweet potatoes.
We were so surprised at the friendliness we came across in Hualien. Rachel from the Jing Si organization, and the family from the hotel really gave us a warm impression of the city.