Taiwan May 2010 Day 2 – Kaohsiung Cijin

We checked out of City Inn Hotel early next morning and took the High Speed Rail (HSR) 高铁 to 左营 Zuoying Station. It took barely 2 hours from Taipei to Kaohsiung!

Upon reaching Zuoying Station, we changed to the MRT and stopped at Kaohsiung Main Station, which is located near the train station. Kindness Hotel is just a stone’s throw away from the MRT exit. The room is relatively small but very clean. What more can we ask for a steal like NT1299 per night!

Small writing table next to a mount-on plasma TV

Multiple showers acting like a jacuzzi!

View from our window overseeing Kaohsiung High School 高雄高中.

Lamp in the room shaped like a lotus

We gotta out of the hotel shortly after checking in and took MRT down to 西子湾站. After which, its out from 鼓山渡轮站 for ferry crossing to 旗津.

Cheers to a sunny day!

Once out at sea, one can see the most prominent landmark in Kaohsiung, 85大楼.

Zooming in…

At maximum zoom!

Less than 5 minutes later, we are nearing 旗津渡轮站

There’s some celebration going on at the 旗后天后宫 which worships 妈祖, the Goddess of the Sea. The temple is celebrating its 337th anniversary since its founding, making it one of the oldest 妈祖庙 in southern Taiwan.

旗津渡轮站 at wideangle

旗后天后宫 at wideangle

大红灯笼高高挂， 托付着一个个信众的希望和寄托。

Sculpture of a phoenix embellishing a pagoda furnace for burning incense paper.

平安灯

顺风耳

千里眼

煎鸟蛋 aka 北平烤蛋. Cute little boy wants to have his photo taken.

Friendly obasan with a bunch of giggling ladies from Hong Kong.

绕过狭长阴暗的星空隧道, 迎接我们的是湛蓝的海岸线

Seeing cactus by the beach is an interesting sight!

这位倉田紗南同学也太（爱装）可爱了吧？！

Welcome to Kaohsiung Harbor ROC. The bush in front of the signboard needs a haircut though…

No Fishing?

View of 85 Building from 采风大道.

Way up to Cijin Lighthouse

Observatory platform

Finally reaching Cijin Lighthouse

Panoramic view from Cijin Lighthouse overseeing Kaohsiung

Panoramic view from Cijin Lighthouse

Cijin Lighthouse in B&W

Cijin Lighthouse, 旗后灯塔

Panoramic view of Cijin

Shoreline of Cijin

黑白的防波堤

Bunch of obasans chatting by the beach.

New outlet of 斗六冰城 along 旗津三路, just a short distance away from the 老店

Famous ice-cream shop on Cijin, 斗六冰城老店

Vanilla with Chocolate and Mandarin Orange flavour

Mandarin orange is tangy and refreshing, breaking the monotony of the creamy chocolate and vanilla scoops.

A special of the shop, 冰饼. which is basically an ice-cream brick sandwiched with two pieces of soda cream crackers. We tried the chocolate and yam flavours.

5 dishes at only NT450! Rice and barley wheat tea comes free flow! What a steal!!! 萬二小吃部 is the first on 旗津 to come up with the concept of “NT100 热炒”. Many of these “小吃部” family restaurants have since sprung up all over the island but  萬二小吃部 remains true to their quality.

“A-B” 炸蝦…”A-B” should be from the phonetically similar “Ebi” which means “prawn” in Japanese!

蒜泥白肉. Basically this is thinly slicked pork belly which has been blanched, with an accompanying garlic dipping sauce.

Steamed Tilapia. We were a bit hesitant when ordering this dish as we don’t have good impression of tilapia. Freshwater fish like tilapia often have a muddy bitter aftertaste, But since its only NT150 for such a big fish, so why not? And surprisingly, this fish doesn’t muddy or bitter at all! Kudos!

清蒸吴郭鱼。好吃！一点泥土味也没有。料理的真是赞！

炒山蘇, which is basically stir-fried bird’s nest fern shoots. This is considered a 野菜 as one would have had  to harvest it from plants straggled amidst tall trees in the past for its tender shoots. In recent years, the plant is being purposefully cultivated for its developing fronds We tried it some years back on Yang Ming Shan and had seen left quite an impression strong enough to leave a wanting to try it again. And boy are we glad that we did!

萬峦猪脚. Personally, we’d not travelled much to the eastern coast of Taiwan, let alone to 萬峦 which is in 屏东(I think?). This is not “猪脚” anyway, as this term is used to describe the forelimbs. We are basically eating the hindlimbs portion which is basically called 腿库 or 蹄縍.  A bit cold though and somewhat differing from what I had expected it to taste like.

A large plate of watermelon to bring a sweet ending to the sumptuous meal, for only NT50! Quite unbelievable really…

西瓜真的是幺寿甜！

A monument by the coastline depicting the livelihoods of the people in Cijin as seafarers.

A navy vessel in transition. Kaohsiung Port used to be a major navy stronghold for Taiwan together with Keelung in the north.

Ferry crossing from 鼓山渡轮站 to 旗津渡轮站, this is how how many locals commute between the island and mainland Taiwan on a daily basis. A single trip costs NT15. Lower deck allows motorcycles to board at an extra cost. Bicycles go on board for free.

六合观光夜市 Liuho Tourist Night Market. Touted as the number 1 night market in southern Taiwan, this place was looming with tourists from Mainland China when we visited. A sharp contrast to 南机场夜市 in Taipei just the night before.

Tourists posing in front of the signboard scribbled with signatures at a fruit juice stall visited by  many celebrities and famous people. A marketing gimmick really.

Stall selling eel noodles and stir-fried squid.

Stall selling everything you know about goose.

Stall selling BBQ food particularly parson’s nose aka chicken backside, elegantly called 七里香 in Taiwan.

Barbequed freshwater shrimp, presumably Macrobrachium rosenbergii.

More shrimp on the roast.

Cuttlefish tentacles to go.

Crab claw as a snack.

Embroidery and beads on traditional lady sandals 绣花鞋.

紫砂壶， earthern tea pots, which used to go for a great deal of money. News lately disclosed that these teapots from 江苏宜兴 Yixing Jiangsu Province are laced with heavy metals far exceeding safety limits. Better to watch than to make tea with…

A stall we came to 六合夜市 for, one which sells traditional Southern Taiwan delights. Ironically, they also sell Cantonese-style porridge (廣東粥). Make’s one wonder about the authenticity…

We’d tried only this stall, after all that gorging at Cijin.

Lots of Southern Taiwanese snacks to choose from.

凉拌鱼涷 loosely translated as Cold Fish Jelly. Basically fish chunks encased in a gelatinous outer layer. I suppose this is traditionally made with collagen 胶原蛋白 from shark or ray’s cartilage or pig’s skin, like how the Teochews make 鲨鱼冻 and 猪脚冻. But it seems not to be done the traditional way anymore.

米糕, basically similar to 鲁肉饭 but uses glutinous rice.

棺材板 aka Coffin toast. Thick slice of bread toast first deep fried to get a hardened and crisp outside. One side is carefully sliced to make the cover for the “coffin” and the insides dug out and filled with starchy “cream of something” consistency.

The stuffing comprises of corn kernels, bits of carrot, ham and mushroom?

A seasonal dish, bamboo shoot, available only around this time of the year.

Interestingly shaped hotdogs.

Fruit with ice shaving

炭烤玉米 Roasted corn. There are some interesting varieties sold here, like the tricolor ones shown in the photo and some dark purple ones known locally as 黑珍珠, which was sold out for the day.

Stall selling Japanese cuisine

A shop selling old ginger extract good for aches

Some odd-looking crustaceans

Colourful stationery for kids

山东鸭头 and every other edible part of duck you can think of.

Sugar glazed sweet potato, 地瓜拔丝. This is traditionally a dish created by imperial chefs as a snack for the Emperor. Basically deep fried sweet potato pieces rolled over mildly burnt (caramelised?) sugar.

Cute knick-knacks. Wonder what they are for…

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