A visit to Turtle island

I went to the east coast i nYilan county...to visit the island, that is a clear sign of th etaiwanese culture to never questionize...the island belonged to the military until 2000, but now its only for tourist purposes. However, everyone who goes there needs to show ID, and foreingers need to bring passport...for registration...no one even considers "why are we doing this"...as usual people are just following authorities commands...

I felst disciminated at the trainstaion, since they at each station has a spot for girls to wait, but no specific place for guys, as if girls are less of value, and thus most have more attention? hmm...not good from a genus perspective...
I passed this point again...same as when I surfed in wai ao, and cycled around taiwan...both Rotary and Lion sign at the same time...
 There were many farries in toucheng, ready to go for whale and dolphin safari as well as ship people to turtle island...
I had to go to the mandatory registration, and take copy of my passport, that I had to hand in in advance...since it was a military area 12 years ago...its very strict...
I was ending my miseries with my locally produced whisky...
Everyone needed to wear safe jacket...while going on the boat...
A guide told us thatXueshan is visitble...I think he meant the mountain range xueshan...not the peak...
We were getting closer to the island...but its from the side, that it looks like a turtle the most...
There are botj fishing boats and tourist boats driving around the island...
Here is a stone range...called the tail of the turlte, that changes shape depengin on season...due to wind...
 There were many old bunkers left from the military age...
Some were hidden in the cliffs...
It was an importans and strategic place to defend tha island from...
 The cliffs were very yellow partwise...thes south side, faced alot of typhoons...during summer time...
And hotsprings...under watter...
There are only 4 places on earth, accodring to the guide where there are under water hotsprings like this...
The water was coloured turqous due to this...this hotspring was closest to the surface among all the four underwater hotsprings...
There use to be alot of smoke here aswell---
But not anymore...
Some earthquake 10 years ago, casued landslides, which covered the place where the moke came from...
 I wanted to go closer to the cliffs...
Here are the highest peak on the island...originally 395m high something...
Japanese people used to take the white sand here, and use for the skin...but the chinese government stopped that activity when they came to taiwan, they told us...
The island is not that far from taian, about 10km...more than 700 people use to live her in the 60´s...
Many people come here for a daytrip...since the 70´s there are no on living here...and the military took oever the island for a while...
This is the only bridge...with the coast guards boat constanty there...ther toursit ferries only stay for some minute...shipping tourists...back anf roth...all the day...
Here on can see the whole island...with the head up in the upper right...and the tail in the bottom...
This is the tail...
We got a guide on the island...
And they took us to a souvenir shop...
Let us buy some equipment, since we were heading for the highest peak on the island...
I went to the toilet quickly...seeing this message...
Another toilet had a more philisophic message...
They were selling the Cavalan cap here...same name as the whisky...
 There were mostly onld people visting the island...many hash runners...
Omg...they had many kind of snakes here that were lethal...
It was nice to btreath some fresh air as a change...insteadof thousands of pollution schooters idling on the road...
There is the turtle tail...with taiwan in the background...
Wow the end of the path...
With alot of trash...
The military build a bunker on the top...making the "hill" 5 meters higher...thus over 400meters...
I could see some really high mountains from here...maybe the peak of xueshan...somewhere in the fogg...
It was nice that they offered english signs...and infromation boards...
 I couls see almot to keelung from here (northest city of taiwan...)
And far away, maybe to Suao...or even further...(a famous surfer place)...
Some of the hash runners drank beer...
Later we were going to go here...to the "village" on turtle island...
Andother sign told us about the strategic posistion of this island...since its so far east...
And they have some map with all the islands...and how they consider their territory to be at...
Each 100 steps up the hill, they had a sign...as well as the tio step...
There were alos of rash in the bushes...
It was a nice walk down than up...atleat not as hot...
The island is dependent on ecotourism nowadays...so there were alot of information about the wild life...this bird, can be found on this island, and some other small islands on the east coast, but not on tawian...even the phillipines has it...(there are also some endemic crabs, that only exists here near the hotsprings).... 
I found another sign at another toilet, when i came down...a very clever message...
Many hash runners were taking rest in the "TV room" at the information center near the village...
They showed pics fom the underwater hot springs...I wanted to see a vortex...since these are common at hot springs I heard...
The group continued to the village...after a short break...
And we passed by a temple...the only temple in taiwan with a postal address...
With this number...
This is a ghost town nowaays...but use to be a big fishing village...
Its the Coast guard and some scenis area administration that is reponsible for the island today...why many forinegers wonder why the tai ppl still want others to bring passport when coming here...
The island has two lakes...this is the biggest one...
They use to have a school here....and they taught japanese "until taiwan was restored to chinese administration"...
This is the old school...
And this is the bunker I saw from the ferry...
Its a comprehensive tunnel system..
It reminded me of the tunnel in south kora, made by the north koreans...
But this was far bigger...
We stoped to see a canon...
They had atleat eight places for observing the ocean in the tunnel system...
It was a big community living here some 40 years ago....
We walked around the lake...it was warm...
And the ferries continues shipping peopole all the time...
I saw alot of fishes in the lake...
After the lake tour it was time to return to main land taiwan...
It was crowded on the bridge...
 I keps on drinking my whisky..with...omg...57% alcohol...
Well at toucheng, I saw a snake...
And a funny sign at the train station...
It was very crowded on tha train back...as usual there was no extra wagon, no feedback to the system...ppl acept that it will alsys be crowded and thus no reason to improve :S
I ended they day by visiting an all you can eat and drink restaurant...
I focused on fish...and some fruit...the beer was very good, tasted like the ble dór beer that is taipei produced...however it was taiwan beer...
Tey also ahve white and red wine...but the red wine always taste a little wierd here...(even if its from spain)...

Kommentarer

Kommentera inlägget här:

Namn:
Kom ihåg mig?

E-postadress: (publiceras ej)

URL/Bloggadress:

Kommentar:

Trackback
RSS 2.0