Jun 13 - Today find a bus to get us out to the Sicao Green Tunnel, a destination within the newly-formed Taijiang National Park. This area is out by the coast, in an area of innumerable small plots of saltwater ponds, created for the purpose of extracting salt.
Not many people out here today, so quickly get on to a boat for the tour of the tunnel for T$500 for three of us. The boat is just a flat barge with little plastic stools on it.
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The tour lasted only about 30 minutes. The narrative was in Chinese, with periodic English instructions such as ‘Baby can stand up!’ or ‘Baby, watch out!’ (all directed toward Odette. From here we wander around the Sicao Riverside Park.
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This area is designed for a lot of visitors, but today it feels empty. We get a snack and sit around waiting for a bus to leave. Out in these areas away from the urban centers, public transport is a bit scarce.
The next bus takes us north to Beishanwei Luermen Mazu Temple. As per temple name, this place is primarily dedicated to the Mazu (Matsu), the Chinese sea goddess. She is the deified form of a famous Fujianese shamaness who is said to have lived in the 8th century CE.
This temple complex is impressive, with a huge entrance and five separate temple buildings. The layout is similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing. The largest one has three floors and is dedicated to Mazu.
The story of this place is as follows: In 1661, a fleet from the mainland came to conquer the coast of southern Taiwan, then in the hands of the Dutch. The Luermen Passage, an inlet in this area that leads to the inland Taijiang Sea, was the key to sneaking in and attacking. However, when the fleet entered the inlet, the tide was too low and they became stuck. The captain prayed to the goddess Mazu and quite miraculously, the tide came in and the fleet was able to carry on. They of course were victorious against the Dutch soon after. The temple was built in honor of this event.
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Catch one of the infrequent buses back to Tainan. Have been invited out to dinner tonight by a friend from coin collecting, Bryan, who coincidentally is in Taiwan with his family on a short vacation. We established a meeting point about a week ago at a restaurant in Tainan.
