Experiencing Taiwan 2010 - Day 10

Day 10 - Main activity area: Damshui

It was still drizzling outside. What a :'(. We have waited so long until today yet, it still rain. Perhaps my daimoku is not enough. I woke up and chanted for 20mins hoping it was not rain at Damshui area. Alot of us is sicked. One of my groupmate, Leong Wei was sick too. :'(,thus Hui stayed at the dorm to accompany him. Tiong was sicked too, Faiz was there standby for him. What about Song? He was lazy...! haha...

A weird shoplot with simple material at a strange corner

So a bunch of us walked to Chung Li Train Station (back station) and started our journey. Still drizzling... Walking, we got this chance to look at what is the activity that happening at the community. It took us around 45mins to reach the station. It was quite nervous because we were on our own and not accompanied by Mr. Teoh and CYCU students. I was quite stress along the way, keep reading the map and make sure I do not lead the crowd the wrong way. We reached Taipei MRT Station then switched to Damshui Train Station. Upon reaching Damshui Train Station, we first approached the visitor enquiry kiosk to ask about various entrance fees, the weather that day, and also the happening events.

We walked in the drizzling morning

The wall system they used which is quite cheap

Soldier beams and lagging method of construction

One of the famous local fruit shoplot

Group photo in the MRT prior reaching Damshui Station

Another group photo

The first destination was a Chinese temple 清水严龙山寺, also a 2-star rated heritage building, we actually walked through a 5 feet wide narrow and crowded Market Place. Along the long Market Place, stall vendors were at the sides. They sell various kinds of things, tasty edible stuffs, clothings, etc. One thing in difference from our Malaysian local bazaar is that their arrangement of type of stalls are really mixed up and is not arranged with type of things sold like what we have in Malaysia.

Likewise, I saw a stall selling Barbeque Pork 烧肉 and Cha Sau 叉烧 while just besides of it, there is a stall selling raw pork... I was like *sweat~ How can people really stand the mixture of raw pork + cooked meat~ I cant~ Then beside the raw pork vendor there is a clothing stall. After that, it is a stall that selling breakfast "Kuih-muih" 早餐糕点. This might be the specialty of the local stall vendor cultures or they might do not have the arrangement system as we have here in Malaysia.

Really crowded pedestrian circulation

(Likewise Jln Petaling & Connaught night market)

Stall vendors at both sides

I liked the atmosphere people yelling to sell their food + their goods. It is certainly one kind or marketing skill. Seems like the louder voice is winning against the softer one haha... Quite intesting looking into this. I would call it a "tender" quarrel which is a very good attracting tools to catch the customers' attention. Walking passed through the narrow market place, natural lighting at the end of the stalls indicates the entry or exit point for the market place.

The tiny chinese temple sandwiched between the shophouses

We came across the junction and noticed there is a "tiny" chinese temple 淡水龙山寺 sandwiched in between of the shop houses. It is tiny in a way that its foot print is only one narrow shoplot. Please do not misunderstand it as the first destination we were going - 清水严龙山寺. For the facade of the temple, it shows some effort in mapping the application of brick veneers material with the brickwall on its left, somehow it is contrasting with the scale applied. Besides that, they do not really put thoughts in the design of the window which does not really follow the alignment of the window line to the adjacent buildings.

After asking around the location of the temple 清水严龙山寺, finally we came across junction with slight slope that led us to our destination. It was magnificent looking it from beneath the slope.

View looking upward the temple

Steps leading to the temple

Details of the roofing is marvelous.

See how lively the auspicious elements on the roof are

Group photo 1

Group photo 2 with me inside

After visited and had listened the quided tour at Tainan's 清水严龙山寺... This is far more not as grandeur as that. Yet, it is worthy to be studied at. I still remember the way of visiting a Chinese temple which we enter from the right side and exit from the left entrance. While no one should enter from the middle whereas that middle entrance is for the Main deity whom is regarded as the owner of this temple. Upon entering, we saw the same traditional construction method for Chinese temple which consisted of two members, in Chinese - 斗拱. These members are considered as the supporting members for the whole temple structure.

Supporting members of the structure - 斗拱

Looking from the interiors, I found out that even the roof beams and the beams are highly decorated with colourful tiles that actually made up an interesting storyline based on a the mysterious Chinese legend. Each and every tile is indeed a minute piece of the big puzzle. It would be interesting and exciting enough if I could pre-understood those myth and legend. Likewise, the 24-story of Obedience 二十四孝图 on one of the facade of the Khoo Kongsi Temple located in Penang, Malaysia. It potrays the 24 short stories of how Obedience is shown from the youngsters to the elderly. Also, this issue is one of the problem that we faced in this society nowadays. The interiors of the temple here also maximize the use of skylight through the roof glazing. It is very beneficial as we could save the energy consumption on electrical lighting. Also, it gives me a feeling of semi-oudoor space kind of quality. It tends to let me feel that I am actually still intact with the nature while being inside a closure.

 The semi-oudoor interior space of the temple

The story-telling tiles

Part of the interiors with lantern with handwritten Chinese characters

Another view of the interiors

Notice the timber supporting members at the topmost part of the altar?

Fabulous workmanship of the carved column

The auspicious animal signs are lively presented

After that we moved on for Mackey Hospital and Mackey Church which located along Mackey Street. Along the journey we spot some of the heritage buildings. We remembered the local CYCU students urged that we must try local famous food, Ah Gei 阿给 and "egg that boiled for days" 铁蛋... haha... This is how I described them in my own words. Then we came across a shop that with the signboard "50 years old - Genuine 阿给". Not sure whether this is the genuine one then we asked around the traders at there. Luckily we did not dine at there. - IT is the FAKE one. We agreed that we would look for the GENUINE 阿给 before leaving that place. Soon then we proceeded to Mackey Street.

The FAKE 阿给... (No offence)

Along the road, we found there is another Chinese temple that is sandwiched between the row of shop houses. Yet, this heritage of Chinese temple 福佑宫（妈祖宫）is one of the nation's 3-star rated Heritage Building. The rating goes like this: The fewer star the more Precious it is. The bas reliefs from the facade of the temple is truly astonishing and the workmanship is no doubt came from some local veteran craftsmen.

The entrance to the Chinese Temple 福佑宫 

3-Stars rating Heritage Building

The stone bas reliefs on the facade

The outdoor section of the temple

Side entrance to the temple

A sculpture of Mr. Mackey

Mackey Street

Mackey Mission Hospital

Another view of it

Mackey Church

Try to spot the different arrangement of the brickwork

View peeped from the brick fence wall outside

Towards the main entrance

More of a symmetrical alignment

Running bond

An old door~ Yet maintained and restored well

After that, we continued our journey to Fort San Domingo or Fuerte Santo Domingo, 紅毛城 or  聖多明哥城. According to Wikipedia, it was originally a wooden fort built by the Spanish in 1629 at Damshui on the northwestern coast of Taiwan. In 1636, it was destroyed by the local Taiwanese due to the unsatisfaction on taxes issue imposed by the Spanish Governor. Quickly in 1 year time, the Spanish rebuilt the fort using stone and raised the walls' height up to twenty feet or more. In 1642, the Dutch expelled the Spaniards from nearby Keelung. The Dutch built a new fort on the site, called Fort Anthonio.



(to be continued)