On Saturday the 28th, Robert and his wife Wei Chien took us up into the mountains of the county. It is hot and humid here and so we were not expecting what we saw in the next few hours. We experienced the tropics that are Taiwan. As we drove up into the mountains, things became greener and wetter. It started raining very hard. The roads looked like rivers and the rivers roared beneath the bridges. There was a typhoon 2 days before I arrived, so the water was doing new things. Lakes turned into rivers and little creeks turned into raging rivers. Taiwan got a meter and a half of rain in 1 day, so things were very different!
The rain stopped about 21/2 hours into hour drive and we went to a traditional tea house. The view from the teahouse was beautiful! It overlooked all of the Yunlin county and we could almost see the ocean, which I have been told is not very normal. The teahouse also overlooked the amusement park and a 5 star hotel.
Amusement park in the distance
Tea Garden
Tea Garden Again
Ocean in the distance.....view from Tea Garden
Just a view. Notice the Haze over everything....That is normal.
We saw quite a few temples and also went to see a GIANT Buddha. It is about 5 stories tall and bronzed. He had a very jovial face and just made you smile to look at. The Buddha is guarded by thousands of small concrete, hand painted guardians. They are run all the way around the huge Buddha hill and are about 3 or four rows deep. The stairs running up to the Buddha are made out of broken marble that is inlayed into the cement. Needless to say this Buddha has taken a lot of time and money. The temple beneath the Buddha is not finished yet because they have run out of money for the time being, so the Buddha sits atop a huge pedestal awaiting the temple.
The hill
Buddha......notice the girl at the top of the stairs....BIG Buddha!!
There is retreat center at the bottom of the hill that is surrounded many Taiwanese protector gods which is very cool. There is constant monastery music that plays.