台中行 TAICHUNG [ plus 高雄 KOAHISUNG ]

[wongyan]

We had slight shower that day. The path was wet . When I walked through the pine forest, I just wished I had a bottle of Chambolle Musigny 

With Tina, Les Amoureuses !!!!

[hangchoi]

I went to Tai Chung and Koahsiung during CNY this year. The reason was that I got a rather cheap air ticket to Europe last year. The ticket was a bit funny because it required you to depart from any airport in Taiwan, then transit in HK to any European city. The final destination of the ticket is HK. Since I had planned to go to Europe in March, I decided to buy a one-way ticket to Tai Chung during CNY and used this cheap ticket back to HK from Taiwan, using its first part. Then I stayed in HK for a month or so and went to Europe in the end of March.

In addition to Tai Chung, Koahsiung was another place that I went to. This was my first time to go to Koahsiung.

[hangchoi]

We arrived at Tai Chung Airport in the early afternoon. After we left our bags in hotel which was located somewhere near Tai Chung train station, we went to shopping first, as we had booked a restaurant for dinner at six. There was not much time for us to tour around.

This first picture was the sculpture I saw during last trip. It is still there.

[hangchoi]

Due to the limit of time, we only went to buy pineapple pastry (鳳梨酥). Dawn Cake (日出) is a famous shop as they used 100% pineapple for making their pastry. We bought quite a lot for souvenir. They set up a shop in a former hospital building. The shop was well decorated.

[hangchoi]

We booked a restaurant for dinner. The restaurant name is Umai (屋馬燒肉町). We went there during our last trip to Tai Chung and we found that very good. After that, the shop went more popular and people now needs to book 2 months in advance. Somehow we found a special way to make the reservation a bit more easy and we had succeeded to book it.

The food was up to its standard, very good and yummy. You can refer these pictures with those posted at the top of this thread.

[hangchoi]

Our second day was a busy day. We went to National Art Gallery (台中國立美術館) in the morning. They had a sculpture exhibition at the front door.

[hangchoi]

After the visit, we took the public bus to Tunghai University (東海大學). This is an old university which built in Japanese style, tho some rather modern building was added in later days. The university was quite and beautiful. A good walk.

[hangchoi]

Most of the teaching facilities were moved to the modern buildings. Those Japanese style ones are for faculty administration now.

[hangchoi]

The main reason for us to visit this University was to see the Luce Chapel (路思義教堂) built in the garden area. The chapel was designed by I. M. Pei.

[hangchoi]

Next stop was Gaomei Wet Land (高美濕地). This is a large piece of wetland located at the northwest of Tai Chung. We went there to see the sun set but the cloudy sky blocked most part of the sun. The scene was still beautiful tho.

Different sunlight gave a different feeling for the scene. There were a lot of people hanging around there.