Sunday, April 16th

#1. Giant Stone Lions... there were two of these on either side of the Great Buddha statue. They are there to protect the Lord Buddha.










#2. Jeff and Sandra - you can see the great view of the city of Changhua behind them.










#3. Here we are feeding the fish at the Nine Dragons Pond. This was such fun!










#4. The Great Buddha Statue. It was GREAT!










#5. Here is the entrance way to reach the Buddha statue.











#6. Along the path to the Great Buddha Statue the walkway was lined with smaller statues of the many Gods and Goddesses.











#7. Here we are in front of a really neat statue - a mix between a horse, lion, and dragon (we think).







Sunday, April 16-
Today we headed into Changhua to meet a woman named Sandra. Sandra had brought a great little care package to Taiwan with her from Michelle’s cousin Karl. Sandra’s daughter works in Port Alberni at one of the many places that Karl volunteers his time. Karl sent over some Canadian chocolate, stickers, pins and postcards. We had been trying to meet with her for about a month and a half and today was finally the day that we’d be able to meet up. THANKS for the package KARL!!!!

We met at the train station in Changhua and after hello’s and hugs we headed over to McDonald’s for a cup of coffee. We chatted in McDonald’s for a long time about everything from our teaching experiences, to travel throughout Taiwan, to our families back home. It was so wonderful! Sandra is a retired elementary school teacher who wanted to do some traveling and this is her second time teaching here. She’s here covering a maternity leave. What a great way to spend a few months of your year.

On top of the care-package Sandra shared with us some Easter candies, (my favorite kind actually), so we had a little Easter surprise after all! She also passed on a lot of great books, and gave us a plethora of maps of Taiwan that are in English. Those ones will definitely come in handy.

After coffee we jumped in a cab and headed to the Changhua main attraction…the Great Buddha Statue. This statue is so huge and beautiful and it looks out over the city of Changhua. It’s built ontop of a hill that was at one point an important military lookout post. The view was spectacular, the way the hill is tilted you can see right out to sea….well that’s what they say…we couldn’t see out to sea due to the smog. Jeff and I climbed the statue to the highest we could go – which was about ½ way up. You used to be able to climb right to the top and look out the eyes and ears of the statue – but the last staircase has been roped off. At every level there are statues depicting the major events in Buddha’s life.

There was also this great little fish pond, called the Nine Dragons Pond that is situated between two huge pagoda’s that look out over the city. The pond was full of huge fish. Jeff bought some fish food and you wouldn’t believe the activity in that pond once the food comes out! It was so much fun feeding the fish. Definitely the highlight of my day!

After our short time as tourists, we headed back to the train station and said goodbye to Sandra. Sandra only had a short while to spend with us as the family she was staying with was going to be enjoying a traditional Chinese supper and some special dumplings – made in her honor. So, after we said our goodbyes Jeff and I headed off for our favorite crepes at the Street Vendor. We then went to the theater and watched Tristan and Isolde….a disappointment we thought. It’s a renter…not for the theater.

Then it was back home to Homei, our Sunday shopping, supper, a little T.V. and early to bed. Two early mornings in a row…this was something we were not used to at all!
It was another GREAT weekend!
Michelle