June 1st

We decided to take Friday and Saturday a little easy since those are the days when the main tourist attractions get pretty crowded. Today, we were just going to explore some of the places around our apartment. There is a Buddhist complex that is just about a half a mile away, so we started our day with breakfast (steamed buns like usual for all of us and Rebecca had a pan-fried turnip cake thing) and then walked toward the complex. The complex has a huge main temple. We went to that first. After walking around the outside we decided to see if we could go in for a tour. To go inside we had to take our shoes off. Once we stepped in the door we were greeted by several people who asked if they could show us around. The tour started with a video. It talked all about the Tzu Chi Charitable Organization. This NGO started with a Buddhist nun about 60 years ago. The nun encouraged the women in the area to donate 50 cents a day for charitable causes. Since that time it has grown to over 10 million members. In the complex they have a hospital and a university in addition to the temple. They also have four or five other hospitals in different areas in Taiwan, but this is their main headquarters. After walking around the inside for about 45 minutes, we went back outside for a tour of the gardens. There was a small, but neat bamboo house and lots of different flowers and trees. After that we made our way to a Taiwanese cemetery. It was kind of run down and overgrown, which I was really surprised about since the Taiwanese value their ancestors so much. When we got to the most densely packed part of the cemetery it was neat to see all of the different shrines built back-to-back with each other. It was impossible to get to the inner shrines unless you walked right through the outer ones. On the way back to the apartment we found a good fried rice and fried noodle place for lunch. That afternoon we went out to the night market. The original plan was to go to the beach first, but while we were out it started raining. So instead, we found an old industrial park that had been turned into a modern shopping area. There wasn’t much for us to do there, but it was fun to see a different style than everything else we had been seeing. At the night market we started with stinky tofu! We went for the fried kind because I heard that it is the better of the two styles. At first, only Christian and Ethan said they were going to try it, but everyone ended up eating some and Asher was the only one who spit his out. I have some funny videos of it that I will have to try to upload. After that we tried some barbequed corn on the cob. It seemed like this place was known for it with several different vendors selling it and several large signs advertising it. We picked the most crowded of the vendors. We bought two of them and they were really expensive (about $2.50 per cob), at least compared to all of the other food here. I didn’t think they were very good at all. The outside was glazed with some kind of sugary sauce and then the inside corn just tasted way overcooked and dry. The last thing Rebecca wanted to get at the night market was an omelet with oysters in it. She was the only one who wanted to try that, so we all let her eat it while the rest of us walked around the remaining parts of the market. When we caught back up with her she said that it was not very good at all. She said it was just too slimy, so much so that it was hard to force it down. Since we kind of struck out with the food at the night market, we decided to stop by our favorite dumpling place and also get some shaved ice on our way home.

This is the turnip cake that Rebecca has gotten a few times for breakfast.



Agnes eating her steamed bun with meat inside.


Outside the Buddhist temple.






This painting is like 5 stories tall or something. I am not sure if you can see it, but it is supposed to have the nun who started the foundation and then in lighter shades behind her the Buddhas of past, present, and future who help her in benefiting the world.


The bamboo house in the temple gardens.


One of the graves.


While the kids had ramen noodles, Rebecca and I got fried rice, fried noodles, and a fishball soup. They were all very good.


Here we are about to try stinky tofu. I am working on getting the videos uploaded. I think this was a more mild version as Asher was the only one who had any problem eating it.


The barbecue corn on the cob.


All around Hualien they had small statues like this. It seemed like the Taiwanese people really liked taking their pictures with them.