Three Hours in Cijin Island
8:00 PM
I know, I know, I know. How are three hours enough to explore the beautiful island of Cijin? Cijin Island was my last destination in Kaohsiung area, Southern Taiwan, and I had booked a train ticket to Hualien for that afternoon, thus three hours were all I had. It felt rushed and was certainly not enough to fully soak up the atmosphere of Cijin Island, but I’m happy to say that what I managed to see, I like. Anyway, here’s the story of my awesome three hours in Cijin Island! I went to Cijin Seaside Park, Cijin Wind Turbine Park, Cihou Fort, Cijin Star Tunnel, Tianhou Temple, and ate some fresh seafood.
The adventure started at Sizihwan MRT Station, the nearest station to Gushan Pier, where people can hop on a ferry to Cijin Island. The distance between the station and the pier is a perfectly walkable 1km that takes around 10-15 minutes by foot. Despite that, we -I, my mom, and my aunt- were pretty exhausted that morning and wanted to ride on the bus instead. We were also pressed for time due to the train schedule and thought bus would take less time than walking. Boy, how WRONG we were!!! Fifteen minutes later, the bus hadn’t come. So we reluctantly took a cab and arrived at the pier in less than 5 minutes… Definitely should’ve just walked.
I’m not sure of the time interval between one ferry to the next one, but I reckon the ferry departs at least every 15 minutes because a one way trip from Gushan to Cijin takes less than 10 minutes. It costs NTD 15, I paid it using the Kaohsiung iPass card. The ferry has two levels, the first level is mostly used by motorcycles. Here’s what the second level looks like:
This is how the ferry more or less looks like. On the right hand side is the Gushan Pier.
Cijin Island seen from the ferry! The little white structure on the top of the hill is Cihou Lighthouse.
Hola, Cijin Pier!
My first impression of Cijin Island could be summarized into one word: hot! Sun was blazing and shining brightly in the sky, the wind blew gently, and I was sweating in minutes. It was the hottest day and the sky was at its nicest shade of blue out of my two weeks in Taiwan. I couldn’t believe my phone when it told me that the temperature was 25-26 degrees Celsius. It surely felt more like 30! It was the perfect day to go on a picnic, if only I wore shorts, flip-flop, t-shirt, and a nice brimmed hat…
We decided to hire a taxi for two hours to save time (NT 300). The taxi driver couldn’t speak any English, but he was really nice! He explained to my aunt (our designated translator) what we could see in Cijin Island and what we could do within the time frame. Our first stop was Cijin Seaside Park, a nice beachside public space.
Cijin Seaside Park is quite big and I can imagine having barbecue with some island music playing. *Sigh* Yeah, I’m daydreaming. Anyway, the park is accentuated with cute decorations, among them are seahorses which appears to be making kiss-y faces at each other and sea-shell shaped sewer cover. No one was swimming that day, I wasn’t sure whether it was prohibited or simply because it was Monday.
Next is Cijin Wind Turbine Park. When I was planning the trip, this turbine park was the one that got me curious because I had never seen any wind turbines in my life! It turned out to be okay, not as big as I hoped it would be. Since the wind was not that strong, the turbines didn’t rotate that much. There are also colourful-ceramic-adorned-statues of marine creatures at the park. Overall it’s a nice place to visit and take some pictures.
After that, we went to Cihou Fort. Cihou Fort and Cihou Lighthouse are located at the same hill, one on the left side and the other on the right side. Due to time constraints and suggestions from other tourists, I only went to Cihou Fort. This spot is as far as vehicles can go.
The walkway towards Cihou Fort is an uphill track with a 10 degrees tilt. It took me around 7 minutes to get to the top.
I think Cihou Fort is impressive! Built sometime in the 1700s, it has survived numerous battles and last undergone major renovation in 1991-1995. The architecture has a Western feel to it and the use of red bricks are striking. The fort was virtually empty that day, I felt like stepping into a warp and being transported into a past era!
This is what remains of one of the gates. I found a pack of Taiwan dogs nearby!
On the way down from Cihou Fort, I stopped by at Cijin Star Tunnel. I almost missed the path because the sign was so small! If you plan to go to the tunnel from Cihou Fort, the path will be on your right hand side. There seems to be another way to go to the tunnel from downhill but I’m not really sure where. Cijin Star Tunnel get its name from hundreds of little graffitis illuminated by tiny lights, prettifying the walls of the tunnel and giving you that sense of a starry night. The end of the tunnel leads to a small clearing with a great view of the ocean waves crashing towards the stony hill.
I’ve read from many sources that one of the things you have to do in Cijin Island is to taste their fresh seafood. So I did. We asked the taxi driver to recommend us a good restaurant near the pier, he was unsure at first (probably not that much of a foodie) but finally directed us to one that had a lot of customers. The choice of seafood was displayed at the front of the restaurant and customers could pick the ones they wanted. There were so many options, even ones that look unappetizing (don’t open the picture if you are the type of person who gets creeped out by crazy-looking dead frog).
As for the taste of the food, I honestly was disappointed. The seafood was surely fresh and the poached prawns were juicy and cooked perfectly, but they definitely could use more salt and other seasoning. Meanwhile, the noodles -that each table seemed to order- was also bland. Maybe I’m too accustomed with Indonesian food, which requires aggressive spices. Or it simply wasn’t the best-tasting restaurant around. Not that we had much options to begin with, because it was 11.30am and some restaurants won’t open until 12pm.
After lunch, we walked to our last destination, Tianhou Temple. This Mazu-worshipping temple is the most ancient temple in Cijin Island. The distinctive feature of this temple is arguably its rows of hanging red lanterns that create a beautiful pattern whenever photographed.
The vista of Cijin Island per se was not the highlight of my Taiwan trip, but I was happy that I got to enjoy a nice day under a blue sky, visit interesting locations, and have lots of fun (above all trying to see everything in three hours)- that’s all that matters, don’t you think?
Merry Christmas everybody!
A.
Cijin Island, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Cijin Island, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
1 comments
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