(This is a three part series, I had wanted to make it a long post but it won’t have all the information I need.)
After a good night rest, we woke up to the sound of a morning call at 6:30 am. We got out of bed and cleaned ourself and then went down to the Hotel’s Cafe for our breakfast. We then went back to our room to take our luggage to the tour bus. While waiting for the other passengers to come down from their hotel rooms, me and my wife posed for some pictures at the hotel lobby. The hotel was adorned with Christmas decorations, a lot of Taiwan folks are Christians, testament to the Portuguese influence here since the 1600s.
Wife with miniature Santa
Wife with Christmas Tree and presents beneath it. This Christmas tree is located in front of a fountain with a naked Venus de Milo in the middle of it. (Sorry no naked pictures, tree blocked).
Christmas tree
There were also a number of antique vases lying around the lobby. One which struck our attention was the height of my wife.
Giant vase
Since I am bigger size, I decided to pose by hugging it.
Vase hugger
When most of the passengers have come down we went outside and waited for the bus driver to load our luggage into the tour bus. We decided to take a picture of the hotel’s exterior. Looks kinda majestic, doesn’t it.
Deco Art Hotel
We then boarded the bus and off we go to the next venue in our itinerary, Yehliu Geopark. On the highway, we passed a lot of office buildings and apartment blocks. What caught our attention was this building, it’s the Taipei 101. The Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world, it surpassed our Petronas Towers, in Kuala Lumpur back in 2003.
Taipei 101
At a certain part our bus slowed down, my wife woke up from her slumber and asked me where we are. I told her we were just stopping because of a highway toll. She looked at the toll booth and told me it resembles a triangular sandwich. In fact, after traveling all over Taiwan all the toll booths look like that.
Sandwich toll
Finally we arrived at the geopark, when we alighted from the bus, we saw the Yehliu Ocean World building. The Yehliu Ocean World is the first ocean world in Taiwan. There are many marine life being showcased here including the dolphin and sea lion show. Ocean World is located along the beautiful north coast near Yehliu, a scenic area with abundant natural resources. There is a plan for a performance auditorium with a capacity of over 3,000. We did not get a chance to visit this due to time contraints, maybe it’s another place for me to explore in the near future.
Yehliu Ocean World
The red canopy stalls you see above are actually stalls selling produce from the sea. The folks who stay in Yehliu county are primarily fishermen. The thing that struck me when I came down from the bus is the aroma of squids being grilled at these stalls. These grilled squids are kinda chewy, so buy them if your teeth or jaw can stand the long gnawing. To the right of the Ocean World, is the Yehliu Geopark ticketing booth. When our tour guide, Benny, went to get us our tickets, we posed for a photo in front of the signboard.
The official signboard
Yehliu Geopark is truly unique because the rock layers near the seashore contain substantial quantities of limestone and sandstone, which are subject to sea erosion, weathering and earth movements, thus making this 1,700 meter-long peninsular almost lunar-like in many ways. The wild looking landscape leaves little to the imagination. It’s easy to imagine what life could be like in another planet. The photo below showcase some of the formations that could be found in the geopark. The one in the middle is what’s made the park famous, it’s the Queen’s Head.
Geopark's Gallery
This is another structure showing the geopark name in Mandarin.
Chinese sign
As we were preparing to climb up the geopark, our tour guide pointed out this landscape to us. What do you think it looks like? Our tour guide thinks it looks like a camel with its head and the humped back. Other sources from the internet pointed out that it resembles a dragon head.
Dragon head or camel?
This is another view of the bottom part of the park, its the public parking area. The faded island in the background is Turtle Island, its where some tour groups go for whale or dolphin watching.
Parking bays
When we were halfway up the hill, there was this sign that shows us how the erosion carved itself into the limestone and sandstone in that area.
How it all began
The area is studded with seawater-eroded holes teeming with sea-life, as well as unusual rock formations, which makes the surrounding environment rich in ecological resources. Sun, wind, rain, waves and northeastern typhoons all make a major impact on this narrow strip of land.
Sea erosion landscape
Yehliu famous rock formations run along a thin silver of land jutting out into the ocean. Upon entering, visitors must walk through a plant nursery before emerging out on the bare stretch of rock running parallel to a low-slung mountain range, making it a wonderful habitat for sea-birds. The immediate area boasts a large cluster of candle, ginger and mushroom rocks, all of which gain ther names from their odd-looking appearance.
Mushroom Rocks
The majority of the rocks in this area are mushroom rocks. There are about 180 of them in different states of erosion. Some of them have no neck, while others have broad or extremely thin necks. Yehliu most recognizable landmark and claim-to-fame perches majestically among her subjects. It’s known as the Queen’s Head Rock. Not only does it play its role well over all the little mushroom rocks, it really does resemble a queen’s head when looking it at the right angle.
The Queen's Head
There was even a memorial for a guy erected at the Geopark. The history is that during a storm, a few children fell into the sea. This man came along and rescued them out of the sea but due to fatigue he was later swept out to the sea and never found again.
Legendary Hero
There are also rocks that looks like bee-hives. And a lot more weird shapes.
Bee-Hive Rock
Asteroid wannabe
More bee-hives formations
Some scenic views and landscapes.
A view of the sea
Tip of Peninsular
