Had a mission to go see the flowers that are growing in Mei Nong today. It never materialized though. We ended up going near the flower fields however, and seeing some interesting places, we just didn’t get as far as the flower fields. The weather was iffy, with intermittent showers and cloudy skies.

Accompanying me on this trip was Fili from Filination, who is very interested in Taiwanese culture and always keeps me abreast of what’s happening at Cheng Gung University in Tainan. He also has a website, INCKU that is great for anyone thinking of going to school at Cheng Da.

The first stop on the trip was for lunch in Ci Shan. fried Chicken, rice, and some veggies along with some black tea to start the journey.

Then it was on to the Mei Nong Hakka Culture Folk Village (美濃民俗村). Fili saw some tour buses pulling in there and we followed them. This place had some nice stores, had plaques that contained tidbits of information about the history of Hakka people in Taiwan, and also a very interesting musician (shown in the video at the top of this page), that played paper (yes, he played a piece of paper as a lead instrument) as well as a bow and saw (for a very eery Sci-fi kind of sound). The place is a a bit of a tourist trap, but you can be in and out in relatively little time so it is worth stopping there on your way into Meinong.

The next place was the Mei Nong Hakkas Museum (高雄縣美濃客家文物館) This place costs NT 60 per adult and is a modern establishment. It is a 3 story museum, and goes through the history of Hakka in Taiwan. I paid more attention to their music display, and recorded a few songs to present here. These are traditional Hakka songs played with instruments like these:

Here are some other shots from around the museum.

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The last place we stopped at was Zhong Zheng Lake, a small lake with lots of lily pads and a nice Chinese style gazebo with a bridge leading to it in the lake. There were some people fishing off it, and we stayed there and relaxed for a bit.

Getting there you need to pass through Lunar world, also known as moon world. It is a blast from the past, with strange angled cliffs jutting out of the earth. More to come from here in a later post.

The rice in the fields is getting mature, and made for some nice scenery on the trip. The mountain backdrops also were awesome.