7.24.10 Changhua 彰化市

On Saturday, Erin, Kristi, Katy, Libby and I went to Changhua.  That is where some other ILP teachers live and work.  We were supposed to meet up with them, supposed to.  We got into Changhua an hour later than we were supposed to.  The teachers were not at the train station waiting for us, but who could blame them.  We were really really late.  Thank goodness Erin copied down a map, because we would be completely lost without it.  We went on our way without our personal tour guides. 

On our way, we came across Kaihua Temple, commonly called the Guanyin Pavilion. it is the oldest Buddha temple in Changhua.  It was built in year 1724.  It was really small and didn't look super super old, because of fires and earthquakes it has been renovated several times.  Cool!

We continued on our way and spotted the Great Buddha in the distance.  On the way, we found the Changhua Confucius Temple.  That was built in year 1726.  It was renovated in 1976 and 2008.  It was so cool.  I love Asian architecture, with the swoopy roofs, dragon pillars and intricate woodcarving work.  There was a lot more to see at this temple.  Beautiful!

I stopped in a store to buy a new memory card for my camera.  While we were there, we ran into a couple who were on the train with us.  They were staring at us more than the average person and kept saying "mei guo ren," which I have learned means "American."  Anyway, they invited us to go to the Cultrual Center with them to see an art exhibit.  The artist was the man's teacher.  The paintings were so beautiful and colorful.  The style reminded me of a modern-day Vincent Van Gogh because of the strokes.  I wish we were allowed to take pictures in there.  They were so pretty.  The man who invited us actually had no arms.  He told us that he puts the paint brush in his teeth to paint.  That is so inspiring.  Everyone was so happy that we were there viewing the art.  They invited us to be in a picture. 

Kristi took this picture.

We finally found the Baguashan Scenic Area.  The park was so lusciously green.  There were stairs and trails leading up to the Great Buddha on the hilltop.  Lots and lots of stairs.  The Great Buddha is black concrete and stands 100-feet tall.  It was hallow, so we could go up inside of it.  There were a few dioramas about Buddha's life, teachings and philosophies inside.  Behind the Buddha is a 3-story temple.  I love Taiwan!  There is so much to see and do.  We took tons of pictures.  In front of the big buddha, we could see all of Changhua.  This town stretches on and on, definitely bigger than Fengyuan.

While we were at the great Buddha, we realized we were famished, having not eaten all day.  We stopped at some authentic place.  I am not sure what I ate, but it was cheap and yummy.  Only 60 NTD. 

We decided to go to the train station early.  Earlier this morning we planned on meeting Whitney and Laura in Daqing at 6:00pm and then go to Costco.  We figured we would go to Daqing early, and then explore until 6:00.  Daqing turned out to be kind of a ghetto town.  At least the train station was in a ghetto part of town.  So, we decided not to venture out.  The station had no benches to sit on, so I sat on the dirty ground.  We waited and waited and waited for Whitney and Laura.  We were there for 3 hours!  They never showed, obviously.  But it was all a giant miscommunication.  Kristi put is so nicely in her blog:

"What happens when 5 teachers take a train from Feng Yuan to meet 4 teachers in Changhua, but the 5 teachers are late, so the 4 teachers leave and come back, but the 5 teachers are already gone... and the 4 teachers were supposed to relay a message from 2 teachers to the 5 teachers about the meeting in Daqing, so after taking a train from Changhua the 5 teachers wait in Daqing for the 2 teachers for 3 full hours, when the 8 teachers were actually supposed to be in Taichung?!?!"

Confusing, I know.