Yilan

Two days ago I went with some people from church to Yilan (ee-lawn), which is a city in the Northeastern part of Taiwan.

Most of them were Filipino sisters from church.

It took two trains and two busses to get there; about 5 hours!  But it was fun.

Our bus passed right by Taipei 101.

It was a foggy morning.

To get there you have to drive through a 20-minute tunnel that they built through a mountain, but once you come out of the tunnel you're in Yilan and it was instantly beautiful.  The sky was blue with threatening clouds coming over the mountains.  

It was mainly flat, which is perfect for the hundreds of rice fields they have there.

We went to the "National Center of Traditional Arts" museum/park.  It was a gigantic area dedicated to the arts of Taiwan.  It was crowded with it being Chinese New Year vacation, but not terrible.

It was a lot of fun.

The entrance.

There was a "Main Street" type area that reminded me of Disneyland.

Lots of little shops and eateries and such. 

Woof.

There were kids playing with tops that were being sold.

They had had a few giant outdoor stages that had numerous performances going on at any given time.

No idea what the story was, but it was pretty to look at.  

There was a giant river that flowed right through the property.

On the other side there was a park and lots of land for kids to play on.

While walking around the area on the other side of the river I heard a little voice say, "What's your name?" I turned around and saw two little girls standing there.  They spoke English very well, practically fluent, and we had a five minute conversation.

The one in the pink vest spoke more, and told me all about her school and family and asked where I was from.  Her mom and dad stood to the side taking pictures and were proud of their daughter talking English to a foreigner.

Lots of people and families were out and about because of the holiday.

It was really nice.

It's the year of the snake.

Thus, the white flowers.

Kristi and I look like giants next to the Filipinos!

This is everyone who went...

minus two other Filipino guys who had to leave earlier.

There were some cool statues in the corner of the park.

On the way out of the park there was a gigantic dancing production going on.

It was marvelous; people flying, jumping, endlessly twirling.

She was way up there hanging by nothing but a piece of silk.

I'll go back to Yilan in the spring as well.

It's supposed to have beautiful beaches and waterfalls too.