Day Two

Today was a busy day, the pan was to take the train from Taichung to Tainan, about two hours south, spend the day there and then take the train back up to Chiayi, about an hour north of Tainan (or south of Taichung, if you will).

TaichungTainan

Trains in Taiwan are pretty cheap, but they don't go very often, especially the "intercity", at once an hour. I took a train later than planned, but managed to get a reserved seat instead of standing room only. Worth it for a two-hour trip.

Pretty neat to see the old train station right in front of the new one. Arriving in Tainan, I put my bag in a locker which only cost about ~2 Euro's for the day!

Fort Zeelandia, Tainan

And took the bus from the train station to my first destination, Fort Zeelandia (or Anping Old Fort). But not before passing a temple.

The fort was built by the Dutch, starting in 1624, but not much is left of it, just a grown-over wall. The rest was mostly destroyed during the Qing Dynasty. It wasn't untill the Japanese took over, when the fort was restored to what you see today, including the tower.

The tower provides nice views of the surrounding city.

Chihkan Tower, Tainan

From the fort I took a bus back to the city center where I wandered around and came upon another Dutch heritage site, Chihkan Tower. Originally built as Fort Provintia it has gone through numerous repairs and refurbishments over the past 300 years.

From the fort I walked through the city center to a park near the station to spend a little while before taking the train back up north. Most of the day was spent on trains and busses (about 5 hours in total).