Longdong Bay (and Bitou Cape...Not)

Further along the cliff you can see the swimming hole below, and peeking out beyond that is Bitou Cape

So, yesterday we took a day trip to Longdong (龍洞), an area with beautiful natural scenery, striking blue water, good hiking, diving and snorkeling (I'm not sure how good the diving really is, but it seems to be popular). Our plan had been to follow the route on page 112 of Taipei Day Trips 1, and hike along the coast from Longdong to Bitou Cape (鼻頭角), but we enjoyed lingering at the natural swimming hole at Longdong that we never did make it to Bitou.

If you want to do both in one day, you can, but leave super early, don't get off the bus at the Amazing Hall (the big ugly white building) as we did, get off at the stop before it, just after the tunnel. Otherwise you have to walk back up about 500 meters. It's easy, but the pavement is hot and the exhaust fumes from trucks barreling by are disgusting. Also, don't linger too long at Longdong. Consider driving if you are really hell bent on one day trip to see the entire northeast coast - buses are infrequent. Alternatively, you could turn this into two or more decent day trips. 

One thing I love about living in Taiwan that is markedly better than life in China is that there are more and better opportunities to swim in the ocean, or just to swim naturally (i.e., not in a pool). Although I am not terribly impressed by many of Taiwan's beaches (overcrowded, oversupervised, but hey, at least they're generally clean and safe), I do appreciate that the opportunity is there. I have been to beaches in China, and...well...no. Generally not my bag.

But from Taipei, you can catch a bus from Danshui or catch a train to Ruifang and be at any number of swimmable spots in a fairly short time. If you're not that interested in Taiwan's mostly lackluster sand beaches - at least the beaches on the main island (the outlying islands are another story: Penghu is fantastic and I am excited about going to Orchid Island next week!) - and you really just want a dip in the ocean and don't mind rocks, Longdong is a great alternative. 

To get there, you can take a bus from Fulong that will take you all the way to Cape Bitou and beyond, but I recommend the route we took yesterday: the 9:35am train to Ruifang, breakfast in Ruifang and then the tourist bus to Longdong (exit the train station, turn left at the main road, and walk past the police station, almost to the elevated highway, to the bus stop. It gets crowded on weekends, you can't miss it). It'll take you over Jiufen and Jinguashi and down again before dropping you off at Longdong. Again, get off right after the tunnel, not at the big white building called "龍洞四季灣" (also labeled "Amazing Hall" in English - it's a chain). If you make it there, you've gone too far. This drops you at the trailhead to the coastal path over some stunning cliffs - if you just want to swim, you can skip this part and get off one stop early, in Longdong village.

The path starts just after the tunnel (on the left if you're coming from Ruifang), and bathrooms and vending machine drinks are available. Follow the clearly marked trail and do be sure to stop at the viewpoints - they're gorgeous. There is a trail leading down, and I suppose one could swim down there towards the start of the path, but we saw nobody doing so. There may be a current or it may be otherwise unsafe.

So inviting, but not sure if it's safe

From one of the vantage points (the top picture), you can see all the way to a safe swimming hole. A trail leading down will take you there via Longdong village. Exit the trail and turn right towards the ocean. Keep right, and enter the rocky area via a path that widens, then narrows before widening again and taking you to the coast.

Of course, by "rocky path" I mean, basically, a horizontal rock scramble. There is no real path. Taipei Day Trips 1 makes it sound easy: it is not. It is definitely possible and safe (although watch out for sprained ankles), but it's not a walk in the park. It's also hot - the rocks are hot and there's no shade. Wear sunscreen.

Taipei Day Trips 1 says there's some "supervised swimming". There is swimming, but it's not supervised. When you get there, there are several points at which you can jump safely into the water, and one spot where you can lower yourself in gently if you're afraid of jumping.

The water is crystal blue and clean, and tiny tropical fish swim around you as you swim or tread water.  Bring snorkeling gear if you'd like to get a closer look. You can swim to the far island (pictured below) and climb up via ropes - it's safe to jump from the top -  or beach yourself on a lower rock and enjoy the sun.

I stole this photo from my friend  - hope that's OK, Joseph!

Two things to watch out for: I did get stung by a jellyfish - painful but only temporarily so, and obviously I'm not dead - but be careful. There's also a current - it's not strong, and it's not fast, but it's there. If you're not a strong swimmer you may find yourself carried along a bit by the current.

It's safe to stand on the rocks in the shallow areas, but the rocks above water have barnacles on them, and generally speaking river tracing/snorkeling shoes would be a good thing to wear if you have them.

If you don't linger you can then hike around Bitou and catch a bus back to Keelung, Ruifang, Jinguashi or Jiufen. Heading up to Jiufen at sunset is a lovely ride, and you can eat or drink tea there. Alternately, you can head all the way to Keelung and go to the night market - the bus will drop you off nearby. If you have a car, there are several other great spots to stop and enjoy before the sun goes down. If not, be careful of time.

One final note - bus stops are spaced out weirdly: one bus stop doesn't necessarily cover all available buses. For example, the Keelung tourist bus stops a little further up the highway from Longdong than two other buses, and generally won't pick you up if you're at the wrong stop. This is idiotic, and the government really ought to do something about it. For now, though, check the times and wait at the appropriate stop to the best of your ability.

A Pictoral Walk Through Miaokou Night Market (Keelung)

A stand selling refreshing fig jelly drinks with lemon (愛玉檸檬汁) - I like this photo for the hanging limes.

After our tiring, sand-covered trip to Fulong to see the lovely sand sculptures, we hopped a long, heavily air-conditioned bus to Keelung to eat in the night market. More than half the night market is currently closed (road construction, I think) but the main eating area known as Miaokou Snack Street is still open.

Keelung is one of my favorite night markets, and I'd say the best in northern Taiwan (though I am also a big fan of Raohe in the far east of Taipei). I was devastated that my seafood lady - my dealer, as it were, for delicious sea urchin sashimi, was a part of the closed area. Good for my wallet though - sea urchins start at NT$100 an urchin and go up from there. As you can only eat the roe, not the innards, you don't get a lot for your money (but what you get is sublime, so I keep coming back for more. Mmmmm sea urchins).

Some schookids eating what I think is stewed pork rice

Some specialties of Keelung, besides seafood generally, are cream crabs (奶油螃蟹) - a whole crab cooked in cream and butter with onions and often basil, thick soup (羹) in its lamb, eel and crab forms (and possibly others), one bite sausage (below), tempura (below), and ice desserts of various kinds.

All the other stuff is tasty, too.

So...enjoy a pictoral walk through a busy night at the night market, with a few bonus pics of downtown Keelung - which is just this side of sketchy without being too dangerous!

A view of the night market from the temple's incense burner

Many night markets seem to have sprung up around temples, which makes sense if you consider the temple as a community gathering spot that has always had snack vendors outside. It is quite obvious that some of these might grow into full-blown snack markets or night markets. Not all night markets have a temple and not all larger temples have a night market, but many do.

There's a famous snack at Miaokou called "Nutritious Sandwich" - it's a piece of deep-fried bread filled with mayonnaise, tomato, cucumber, ham and boiled egg. Nutritious indeed.

Taiwanese-style tempura (甜不辣)

One Bite Sausage with raw garlic - yum! (一口香腸加蒜頭)

Lovers eating mba wan (肉圓 － Taiwanese rice gluten dumplings)

Crab thick soup (螃蟹羹) and chicken rice (雞絲飯)

I'm quite sad that this photo ended up a bit blurry (and no amount of Sharpen tool can fix it) - I love the expressions on their faces.

They look surprised, but believe me when I say that I asked permission to take this photo.

"Traditional" shaved ice toppings. The green stuff is "coconut" and is actually quite good.

Best photobomb ever! Well, not the best, but still pretty good.

I like Keelung because it's just...weird.

...and gritty with a side of seediness thrown in. It's those things too. That's what you get in an Asian port town.

Keelung: Heping Island Day Trip

Brendan, Joseph and I went to Heping Island on Sunday, when all three of us felt a bit under the weather (Joseph got sick later that day, I came down with it yesterday and am off work today, and Brendan is still fine).

I'll probably blog a lot today because I have no voice, can't work if I can't talk, but am fine on energy!

Joseph has already covered the basics on how to get there and what to see, so I'll focus this post mostly on photos. Heping Island has two main things to see: a seaside area with cliffs and odd rock formations reminiscent of Yehliu.

Our initial impression was disappointing - the main entrance to the park is under construction and you have to walk through it to get to the seafront, which was cool and grey, and not particularly attractive. The walk to the construction site entrance is lined with murals which are spattered with graffiti:

Clearly this guy doesn't have much experience with 奶奶.

There were some snorkelers about. They were clearly insane.

Wandering a little farther along, being careful not to slip on increasingly treacherous rock, we came upon the Yehliu-esque area.

It was nice, and had some cool stuff going on, including lots of fishermen and snorkelers playing about the edges, but other than being quieter and less built-up than Yehliu, it was basically a smaller version of...well...Yehliu.

We then hopped on an old cannister to scale the fence to the "closed off" trail around the cliff that everyone was still using. The view got better from here, looking down over an odd old cement pagoda and an expanse of striated rock.

Across the way we could see two caves - one of which was an actual cave and the other just a dark crevice. The cave had a man-made entrance plopped down in front:

...and is called the "Cave of Foreign Words" - inside is dated graffiti in a number of languages. Apparently there are old Dutch and Portuguese carvings in the rock, but the oldest dates we could see were from the 1870s.

Don't worry about the "Military Activity Site" warning - it's old and no longer enforced. You can go in. Bring a good flashlight.

Back across the rock are two shrines underneath the pagoda, one appreciably larger than the other. Both are built of and around natural rock formations for 石頭公 - rock spirits. One was decorated with Buddhist and folk Daoist icons with a red-painted rock, and plastic and paper cartoon rabbits adorned the sides, presumably in celebration of Year of the Rabbit.

A rock spirit.

The smaller of the two shrines.

The incense urn, cemented to the rock, of the larger shrine (the first rock spirit is above it).

The red rock in the shrine.

Outside the shrine we came across these faded words once painted in gold. "Xin" was the only one we could decipher.

We also discovered what appears to be coral - please correct me if I'm wrong on that. It sure looks like coral and is the right color, but aren't we too far north for that? Wouldn't the water be too cold? Maybe the snorkelers knew a thing or two after all...?

After exiting the park back through the construction and past a random karaoke bar, we stopped for lunch, which was good despite the fish-mash rabbit in my soup:

We passed one of the oldest preserved structures in northern Taiwan. Not far from the bridge to Heping Island is a well used by the Dutch in the 1600s that is still in use today:

...as you can see, despite its age and impressive history it's not that exciting to look at.

We then walked to a fort (I forget the name) built at the turn of the 20th century by the Japanese. To get there, you walk back towards Heping Bridge then hang a left at the seafood market. Keep going until you reach a little fallow area and then turn up the hill. Keep going and turn up another, steeper hill to the right, which leads through a very poor aboriginal area (I hesitate to say "slum" but that's what it is). Yes, there's a lot of poverty here and it shows a side of life in Taiwan that most foreigners never see, and don't care to see, but it is safe. People sitting outside chatting (not sure of the tribe and therefore the language, but my best guess would be Amis) greeted us warmly.

The first part of the fort is at the top of the village hill, and is not very impressive (really, it's just an old house structure without a roof). If you go a little further up, you reach some more stone fortifications, which are mildly more interesting and you can poke around inside.

Keep heading up, and it gets more interesting still: old brick and stone fortifications in a distinctively early 20th-century style with more extensive poking around (it's muddy and full of bugs, so if you, like a certain infamous Canadian woman, freak out about insects, you may not want to go inside).

Climbing the stairs to the top of this set of fortifications, you reach the top of the hill and get a gorgeous view. On one side, a stretch of ocean.

Ahead of you, Keelung Island.

To the right, a view of Jiufen, Jinguashi and Keelung Mountain and beyond that, the Bitou cliff peninsula.

We wrapped up as twilight was setting in and headed down to get coffee before going to the Miaokou Street night market - we weren't hungry enough to tackle it yet. As we chilled out in Cat's Cafe (right at the base of the road that heads up to the giant Guanyin and Ghost Month temple), which used to be a straight-up coffeeshop but is now turns into something of a small lounge bar at night.

Of course, the night market is always a blast. We got cream crabs:

...and among other things, tried some of these babies ("zhu ha", apparently) cooked up so they were a little more solid and a little less...err....snotty. (They were good).

Ghost Month

Last night was the 15th day of the 7th lunar month (Ghost Month), and Keelung held it's celebrations as usual, despite the rain-on-rain-off typhoontastic weather. The 14th day is for the parade and candle lighting, and the 15th - the one I attended - is the massive food offering, prayer and throwing of food at people. All around your city you may have noticed huge offering tables outside businesses and larger than usual fires outside houses (enough that the smoke changed the quality of the air in Taipei, which is amazing considering how bad it can already be at times). Keelung takes that to an extreme.

I apologize that the following photos are in no particular order, but it should be clear how things went down anyway.

Some photographers checking out the crowd.

Every year, a different clan sponsors the decoration and food-buyin' and leads the prayers. This year, as the sign says, it was the Zhang clan. Since my name is Zhang - not really but it's my Chinese surname - they asked me to be in one of the formal portraits of the clan. I kind of hope that one will make it into the temple where the keep the clan photos for each year.

For the offerings, long tables were set up full of food, some of which is shown below.

This year there were more foreigners than usual. Last year we were the only ones. This year nobody could come with me so I went alone, and saw a lot of Westerners. Despite our increased presence, the local kids were fascinated as usual.

Toward the end of the evening, some Zhangs got up on the dais in front of the temple and, while singing incantations, flung food (fruit, bread, candy etc.) at the crowd. I got a few videos of the throwing but no photos - didn't want to get beaned on the head with a snow pear while trying to take a picture.

Incantations...

Still more incantations...

Just before that, the Zhang family and basically anyone else who wanted to participate walked around the offerings with incense, praying for it to multiply. Then some Zhangs donned traditional clothing and led more prayers.

People walking around.

The walkway up to the temple was also decorated...in the classiest possible way. I love the subtle play of light and color, so minimalist you'd hardly notice it. (snicker) Apparently ghosts like serious bling.

One of the displays around the temple was of figurines. When the offshore typhoon caused sudden downpours, they were protected.

This boat is made entirely out of rice flour goo and painted - it's a food offering. The characters say, basically, "Celebration - Zhang Clan - Ghost Month"

Around the temple, banners are hung. The writing on these, visible in another photo below, is not Chinese. They're special "spirit characters" meant to invoke various things.

As you can see, this set of photos uploaded backwards - the sky is getting lighter. That's not the ghosts coming.

The temple where this takes place is on a hill and while it's brightly colored all year, only at this time of year is it blinged the heck out.

This balloon pig looks mighty happy considering what's happening to his people below:

Ouch.

I wonder what she sees under there...

Like some sort of medieval punishment.

How funky is your chicken?

Decorating teapots made of rice - all of this food is made of rice goo and painted. Not edible to humans but perfectly ingestible to ghosts. At the end of the night you can keep whatever you can get your hands on, but since you can't eat it (and we have a cat who would try) I only took some orchids.

Rice fish.

Rice spiders.

Rice beetles.

Rice guy with dragon between two cones of bread.

This is how the temple normally looks - minus a few million lights.

Around the temple, to please the ghosts, the sponsoring clan erects shiny depictions of various gods. I think this is Guangong.

...and tinfoil elephants...

Here are the spirit-character banners I mentioned above.