Naruwan Taiwan (Part 2): Day Trip to the Ancient Capital - Tainan, and Kaohsiung's Ruifeng Night Market

- November 11, 2014. Tuesday.

- I woke up early morning on Tuesday, rode the MRT to Zuoying, and transferred to Zuoying High Speed Rail (HSR) for a quick 15-minute ride to the ancient capital, Tainan. My friend Gail, who used to be an exchange student in Taiwan, highly-recommended this place to me, and I was fortunate enough to have the time to visit Tainan. Tainan used to be a former Dutch base, which became the nation's capital after Zheng Chenggong (aka Koxinga) defeated the Dutch. Tainan served as the Taiwanese capital until the capital was moved to Taichung and later on to Taipei in the late 1800s. The climate of Tainan is more or less similar to Kaohsiung since they're both in the same area of Taiwan - which means Tainan was burning hot as well.

- After rising the HSR to Tainan, I took the free shuttle bus from the HSR station to the far-away Tainan TRA (Taiwan Rail Administration.) The case of Tainan's HSR and TRA stations is an example of two stations that have the same name but are ridiculously far from each other. Usually, TRA stations would be located beside, or within the vicinity of HSR stations and MRT stations (for cities with MRT lines like Kaohsiung or Taipei.) The TRA by the way is the slow train, while the HSR is Taiwan's version of the Japanese shinkansen ("bullet train.")

Saw this from the bus. not sure what this building is.

- I was supposed to alight at the Tainan TRA, and ride a cab to the Anping District. However, I got confused with the stations; the bus announces stop it is about to approach and immediately announces the succeeding stop. I got off a stop earlier than I should have, and the next stop, the Tainan TRA Station, would be a long walk from where I got off. Fortunately, one hotel guard was able to tell me where I am, and I realized that I was nearer to my destination. Needless to say, when I found a cab and rode to the Anping District, my taxi fare was significantly lower than it would have had I alighted at my supposed stop. I also decided to grab a cab instead of riding the public bus, because I was warned by many blogs that the buses in Tainan were significantly less, and the free red hop-on-hop-off tourist buses only operated during the weekends. I could not afford to get myself lost again, especially since my itinerary in Tainan was jam-packed, and I only had a day to explore it.

- Anping District is the heart of historical action in Tainan, which is why most historically-significant tourist attractions are located in that one small dot in Tainan. My first stop was the Eternal Golden Castle, a bit off way from the other attractions. The Eternal Golden Castle was built in the Qing Dynasty (late 1800s) as a fort against the Japanese. Later on, the Japanese occupied the fort. Because the Japanese sold some of the cannons during the Russo-Japanese War, the Eternal Golden Castle was not used anymore. The structure is neither eternal nor golden, but the golden memories of this fort shall stay eternal in Taiwanese history (I thought about this line for a long time.)

Castle entrance.

Cannons inside.

French bastions.

Children having an different venue for their Physical Education class. Field trip and PE rolled into one.

- I later visited the Anping Fort of Fort Zeelandia, after passing by the Tien Hou Temple located right in front of the fort. The fort served as the Dutch East Indies base in Taiwan, and served as a transit point and business center for international trade. Later on, Koxinga fought the Dutch in the 1600s and won, and so he renamed the city as "Anping," with the fort's name changed to "Anping Fort;" "Anping" was the former name of Tainan.

This small temple on the way to the Tian Hou Temple was built in the 1800s.

Ah, the entrance to the Tian Hou Temple.

I love the detail on the roofs of these temples. Very colorful.

Ceiling.

Tian Hou at the middle.

Fort Zeelandia.

A simple shoot.

More cannons!!

The fort had a small museum inside.

A statue of Koxinga.

- I left the fort and visited the old Julius Mannich & Co. building, a small German merchant house during the 1800s. It is currently a small museum showing the old office, some famous German (and Austrian) people (i.e. Albert Einstein, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven,) and some popular German landmarks. The building did not require an entrance fee too, and visitors could buy some refreshments at the small stall in front of it.

Front door.

Former living room??

Facade.

- Going around a big corner, I finally arrived at the Anping Tree House, an old warehouse by the Tait and Co. Merchant House; the merchant house is located beside the tree house. The warehouse is now a "tree house" because the trees' roots have slowly devoured the warehouse, giving it an eerie and adventurous feel. I was instantly reminded of my visit to the Ta Prohm Temple (click here,) the famous Khmer/Cambodian temple where the movie Tomb Raider (starring Angelina Jolie) was shot.

A statue of Koxinga on the street.

Anping Tree House!!

Creepy, but the first thing I thought was that it'd make a good movie set.

From the outside.

- I had more interest in the Tait and Co. Merchant House, since this two-story building was turned into a mini Taiwanese-history museum with life-sized wax models. This reminded me of the Taipa Houses in Macau (click here.) The best part of this museum? It's air-conditioned.

Tait and Co. Merchant House right beside the Anping Tree House.

Early traders.

Confucian education.

The Dutch people's arrival.

Indigenous people of Taiwan.

A typical Dutch household in Taiwan. The lady looked like she just came back home from a visit with the taxidermist. Scary.

- Finally, I visited the Anping Old Street, supposedly for lunch, but a battalion of grade-school and junior-high students raided the whole shopping street and all the restaurants and eateries there, so I decided to eat lunch in downtown Tainan, where more establishments were located.

Sword lions are famous in this part of Anping.

- I rode a cab again from Anping District to downtown Tainan, and I asked the driver to drop me off at the Gate South Gate (Da Nan Men.) It was one of the gates that opened to historic Tainan, when the city was still surrounded by walls. The inner courtyard is now an open area for performances. It also had tables both at the first and second floors since there was a small coffee shop operating inside the gate.

The Great South Gate even has a rickshaw displayed outside. Haha.

Now an open area.

- I went to the Koxinga Shrine afterwards, and headed a few steps north to the  Confucius Temple. Both structures were built in the 17th century.

Koxinga Shrine garden.

It had a very Confucian architecture.

Koxinga.

Confucius Temple.

Robes used by Confucians.

Instruments used by Confucians; this is an example of bad exhibit placement.

- Before heading to the Sacrificial Rites Martial Temple (aka Warrior Temple/Xi  Dian Wu Miao,) I wanted to find somewhere to eat lunch, and strange I couldn't find any decent place to eat; the only eateries I found were the "questionable" ones, especially since nobody ate in those places. The closest decent place I could find was a Family Mart, so I just had a light lunch there. Looking back, I should have eaten in Anping after all, since there were more restaurants with local delicacies. The restaurants were located near the Tainan TRA station, which was still quite far from where I was at that moment.

- After lunch I walked straight north to visit the Warrior Temple and another Tian Hou Temple. Both were built in the 17th century as well.

Warrior Temple.

They're carved.

Tian Hou Temple.

More details.

Tian Hou.

- Another highlight of my Tainan visit was when I visited the Chihkan Tower (aka Fort Provintia,) a small Dutch outpost that was also surrendered to Koxinga after the Dutch surrendered in the mid-1600s. The tower has a small collection of written works, and models of ships used by Koxinga.

Chihkan Tower.

Another simple shoot with my favorite fan.

Stones tablets on stone-turtle shells.

- Finally, I had a short visit to the Fuchenghuang Temple (aka Cheng Huang Miao.) As the name suggests, the temple housed the god that protected the city of Tainan. I got a bit lost along the way, but again, the helpful Taiwanese people got my back.

Fuchenghuang Temple.

Oh great city god, please show me the path -- I don't want to get lost in Taiwan again.

Temple details.

- I walked to the Tainan TRA Station, in hopes of catching a free shuttle bus back to the Tainan HSR Station. I asked the people in the TRA Staiton where I could find the free shuttle bus, but they seemed to not have an idea about what I was talking about and told me that there was no free bus around. I did not know where the Tainan Bus Station was since I got lost earlier that morning. The people in the TRA station just suggested that I ride the TRA to the HSR station, instead. I thought that it was also a nice opportunity to try the TRA, especially since I wasn't in a hurry anymore.

- My goodness, the TRA was really slow compared to the HSR. The TRA lines are quite similar in feel to the Philippine National Railways, although sorry to say I do think that the riding the TRA is a far less horrendous experience than riding the PNR train (yes, I have tried riding the PNR.) The TRA is actually a therapeutic ride, although sleeping inside the train is may to one missing his stop; the next train wouldn't come in fifteen to thirty minutes.

- I found my way back at the HSR Station, bought a ticket, and headed back to Zuoying, Kaohsiung. After getting off, I rode the Zuoying MRT to the Kaohsiung Arena, and headed to Ruifeng Night Market. Ruifeng Night Market is one of the more top-rated night markets, just like Liuhe Night Market (see previous post,) but as with most night markets, Ruifeng doesn't have souvenirs, and only has food, games, and normal everyday things. It is closed on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Ruifeng Night Market.

Crowded as always.

- While going around, I bought some German sausages, and this supposedly special drink. I read in blogs before that Taiwan's night markets have this "frogs' eggs" drink, and I was again curious to know what kind of drink it was. I saw this particular stall in Ruifeng, and without thinking, I immediately bought a cup. As I was staring at my drink, I looked at the vendor and asked if they were really made of frogs' eggs. She told me that "frogs' eggs" is a term they use in Taiwan to refer to none other than....sago/tapioca. I wouldn't have bought the drink had I known it was only going to be sago. It was a refreshing drink though, after a long walkathon in Tainan.

This stall.

Just....sago. -____-

- I had Taiwan's famous oyster cake for dinner, and some xiaolongbao. I felt that the Taiwanese oyster cakes had less oysters and veggies, and is smothered in thick sweet and sour sauce. I still prefer the version in Manila - oysters, veggies, and everything else in every bite. The xiaolongbaos that I had were decent; they were yummy and freshly-made, but nothing special.

My tummy-filling dinner. I had sugar cane juice too by the way.

- I went around Ruifeng one last time before going back to my hostel, and this time I could relax a little bit more since I was just going to explore more of Kaohsiung the next day, which meant places that were closer to where I stayed. Taiwan just kept getting better and better too, just as my skin got darker and darker from the sun.


**** For more information on Taiwan, please also visit Go! Taiwan. Just click on the photo below!!