Platforms and Parks in Tainan

 Tainan is a big enough city for me to constantly explore natural and historical artifacts.

On the third day, I went to the seaside named as “Sea Light Island” After taking the bus off at the ferry station, I walked through the newly developed city area with fewer people and shops. You can see the big fish statue in front of the seaside. The environment is very quiet,

Sea Light Island: I passed through the “Lin moniang” park, which memorized the local female legendary goodness- Matsu. Walking further, I walked across a modern bridge with a bright blue color- Sea Light Bridge. Surprisingly, most of the time, I am the only tourist and pedestrian on the way. Soon I arrived at the ocean beach. Very few people hang around there perhaps because the sun was burning at the noontime. One or two folks swam near the shore.

The seawater looked a bit azure gray with waves paddling the seashore gently. Later, I was prepared to leave, but the local road was on maintenance, so the bus changed its route. I had to walk quite a long way, trying to reach the right bus station. Fortunately, I saw the right bus coming in, the bus driver was very friendly, letting me jump on the bus in the middle of the way to return back to the downtown area.

Because of such delays, I canceled my plan to visit a Western-style museum in the same district because it was already late afternoon. Sometimes if you miss one bus, you have to wait for quite a long time to capture the other one. I guess that makes Tainan a bit of slow-paced compared to many other large metropolitan cities worldwide.

Sunset Platform: On the next morning, I also visited “Sunset Platform,” at which you can capture the beautiful view of the ocean coast. The water looks blue, the tide is up and down, and waves push over the waves, and make a splash. Still, there were very few people coming around to appreciate the natural phenomena in the early morning. I guess more people come here in the late afternoon to watch the sunset. I can imagine how beautiful it could be. I would absolutely come again to watch it in the future.

National History Museum: In the afternoon, I went to visit the Tainan National History Museum located further away, on the other side of the city. It introduced the history of Taiwan, which was the capital of the island from the 17th century to the 19th century in the Qing dynasty. It also introduced the Tainan’s agricultural industry, ocean trading industry, and Matsu culture, with some historical pictures, and digital paintings. There were many human-sized figures to exhibit the parades, event gatherings, or pop culture many decades ago. I saw many school kids coming here to study history lessons.

Tainan is a city big enough to keep you pondering around what’re the next things you should explore, and diverse enough to show different language characters in public locations. The old streets make you feel nostalgic, trying to find or taste something that you have liked since you were a child; and the vast cultural parks brought you some fresh sights. There are old towns and new developing zones; bustling streets and quiet seaside, long roads, and deep alleys; residents who speak local dialects, and tourists who speak different languages. In such a surrounding, I felt like I was both an insider and an outcomer; felt saturated but desired to see or learn more, appreciated quite a lot, but also wanted to criticize certain things. It’s the city that can make you feel emotional even though you only stay here for a couple of days as it seems you knew it for a long time.

Posted in: Global Trips