I got to Taichung in mid-afternoon on Wednesday, and spent the rest of the afternoon looking around near the train station, in what my guidebook identifies as the old centre and east district. The city hall is another building from the Japanese period, and a couple of other large buildings are of a similar age. Taichung is very spread out, and apparently is a conglomeration of several earlier towns. I mostly stayed in the south eastern part (plus my hostel, which was more north east). I didn't see much of the western part, which I believe has more businessy and nightlifey things. As there is no intracity rail system, the large distances meant that I had to use the bus to get around, which was a bit difficult since most of the information about it is in Chinese, and because in addition to the city buses there are also large numbers of long-distance buses on the streets. Taichung is largely similar to Taipei in terms of differences from Vancouver, so there isn't as much to say here. Many of the crosswalks lights conveniently show a countdown in stop state as well as walk state, but there are not actually that many light-controlled crosswalks and even crosswalk markings are often absent. Out of the old centre, there are not that many usable sidewalks either. Sidewalks are constructed similarly to those in Taipei, but here the stores take over their part of the sidewalk and often block it, sometimes using it for storage space or car parking. Between that and the usual scooter parking, pedestrians usually have to walk along the edge of the road. I assume this this system is oriented at scooter users rather than pedestrians. As I've only seen parts of Taipei and Taichung, I have no idea if these are differences between cities or just districts. A crosswalk light showing a countdown in stop state Taichung park

On Thursday I did more exploring in the city, mostly going to find some of the temples a little farther from the train station. Nantian Temple, with statue of Guan Di Confucius Temple Baojue Temple, with statue of Milefo

I also bussed out to Donghai University, because I wanted to see a university campus here and my guidebook mentions it as having interesting (Tang dynasty themed, apparently) design, as well as indicating that the Luce Memorial Chapel on the grounds is one of the few things worth seeing on the west side of the city. The campus is fairly large, so it took me a while to look around. Along one major walkway the buildings to the side are grouped into compounds with low walls (I assume this is the Tang themed part). As far as I could tell each compound was for a single department. Most of the rest of the campus that I saw had similar architecture, but less distinctive layout. While I assume the compound walls were for show, the campus was actually somewhat fortified. On one edge, bordering what I think was some kind of industrial area, there was a moat (actually a stream with a deep bed which ran along the edge of the campus) and a fence with razor wire. On the edge by the major road there was a wall with occasional entrances often watched by security cameras. On the other hand, from what I could see other edges of the campus were much more open. Inside the campus near the edge with the industrial area there was an area enclosed by another wall with more razor wire. Based on a map I think this may have been the female residences, but there was no visible activity around it to give any indication. There also was what looked like a quiet (and relatively undefended) residential area with small houses. I assumed this must be for professors. Lake at Donghai University Luce Memorial Chapel at Donghai University Large walkway at Donghai University Compound off the walkway at Donghai University Library at Donghai University Entrance to an internal walled area at Donghai University Apparently residential street at Donghai University

Friday was basically more of the same. I looked around a little more in the city, and located Chun Shui Tang teahouse, one of the places with a claim to have invented bubble tea. I got a pearl milk tea and noodles there. I also bussed to Dajia, where the Jhenlan Temple is the source of an annual Mazu pilgrimage. Chun Shui Tang Teahouse Jhenlan Temple in Dajia

On Saturday I left my hostel in Taichung and bussed to Puli. I hadn't booked a hostel in advance there, but went to one mentioned in my book and had no problems getting a bed. Puli is in the very centre of Taiwan, and has a park with a couple of spots claimed to be the geographic centre of the island. I had time to find the park and found a road leading up the hill behind it to a view point overlooking the city. I stayed in Puli for two nights. One of the geographic centre markers View over Puli

On Sunday I bussed to Sun Moon Lake. It is quite nice, although very crowded at least in Shueishe Village where the bus arrives. There is another town, called Itashao, on the other side of the lake, and various things to see around the shore. However, I didn't want to risk getting stuck at the lake, so I confined myself to walking near Shueishe, especially to a couple of temples. I didn't get to see the large temples near Itashao up close. One of these has a relic supposed to be from Xuanzang. My guidebook indicates that the temple also has relics claimed to be of Shakyamuni Buddha himself, but I don't think I actually saw any mention of that at the lake. The lake is also the traditional home of the Thao aboriginal group. Lalu island in the lake has special significance to them, although since the present lake was created (it was artificially enlarged by the Japanese) the island is tiny. At the moment only Thao can go on the island, although it seems that tour boats are constantly nearby. Cih En pagoda and the two major temples on the other side of the lake, along with the island and a smaller structure on the side near Shueishe, all line up in a way considered lucky. Unrelatedly, I also found more of the large spiders by the lake, and photographed one this time. Crowds in Shueishe Village Looking across the lake to the temples and pagoda, roughly along the axis where they line up The large kind of spider

On Monday I went to the Chung Tai Chan Monastery, a large (thirty seven floors) and fairly recently built monastery just outside the urban part of Puli. The monastery also runs schools nearby. I hadn't been expecting to be able to see much here, as my guidebook mentions that tours past the first floor need to be arranged at least a week in advance, and that even then most tours don't go to the top couple of floors. I hadn't planned nearly that far ahead. However, the woman who ran the hostel knew an English speaking monk there, and phoned him to get him to give me a tour. When I got to the monastery it turned out he was actually very busy with his work in the architecture office there, so I got added to another English tour that was about to start. This one seemed to be specially arranged for a small group of people, and did the entire tour including the upper floors. Our guide was a very friendly nun with good English (she was German, I believe), so the tour was definitely worthwhile. Past the first floor we were not allowed to take any photographs. Chung Tai Chan Monastery The first Buddha statue in Chung Tai Chan Monastery

After the monastery I bussed back to Taichung and got on the train. I stopped briefly at Changhua, just a few minutes down the line from Taichung, to see the Giant Buddha statue they have there. It was indeed large. Buddha gets a nice view over the city, and for some reason also a singing fountain just outside the entrance to his plaza. There were a few interesting older temples in Changhua, but as it was already getting dark when I got there I did not investigate much. The Giant Buddha statue in Changhua Pathway by the Giant Buddha statue

After that I continued on to Kaohsiung. Tainan would have been the more natural next stop, but I was having a hard time finding hostels there, and decided to go to Kaohsiung first while I work that out.