After hearing my teacher mention about the beauty of Ho Ping Island Hi Park, I decided to go there with my friend today. My teacher was right! The place is really beautiful. It is quite similar to Yehliu, 野柳地質公園, but it also has its own kind of beauty.
We set off from Taipei train station to Keelung train station. After reaching Keelung, we walked to the bus stop and took the bus to our destination
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| Setting off from Taipei station |
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| Bus to Ho Ping Island |
Keelung is a port city, you can see the harbour minutes away from the train station. There are a lot of sea related shops from boat making factories to fishing gear, I think u can find any sea related products here. The feel of Keelung is quite different from Taipei. Keelung has the old city feel, slightly messy electrical cables, old buildings, many mama shops.
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| The first thing we saw after exiting from the train station |
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| Keelung |
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| The port. Minutes away from the train station. |
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| The old city feel |
The bus dropped us off somewhere near the park but we still had to walk round 10 minutes to get to the park. We saw interesting murals on the way, they reminded me of my childhood.
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| Finding Nemo. |
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| Doraemon. |
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| Pokemon. Can't really remember the names except Meowth. |
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| With every step, every footprint, continue going on. |
We finally reached our destination, Ho Ping Island Hi Park.
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| Ho Ping Island Hi Park |
The park is divided into a few sections, there is a seawater swimming pool/playground, a sand play area, the rocks and other areas.
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| A huge "sand"castle to symbolize the sand play area. |
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| Statue to commemorate those who died in fishing disasters. |
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| The rocks |
The main attraction for the park is the rocks, rocks that come in all shapes and sizes.You see squarish rocks, craters, tall rocks. It makes me wonder how on earth nature is able to do that, able to shape these rocks one by one, making each unique. Technically, you are supposed to stay on the walkway. You can walk off the walkway but you will be responsible for your own safety. Since the rocks were really appealing and it did not seem that dangerous, we walked in to touch and feel the rocks for ourselves.
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| View from the entrance |
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| Seawater creeks |
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| Craters |
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| Rocky mountain |
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| Holes and craters |
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| "Mushrooms" |
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| Lines on the rocks |
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| "Wall" |
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| Small mountain/island |
If you did not want to go in, you can choose to just walk the walkway and have a bird's eye view of the whole rock park.
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| The walkway |
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| The path |
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| Pavilion to see the rocks |
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| Seawater rushing in through the gaps |
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| The clouds, the sea and the rocks |
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| Another view of the park |
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| Mini "mushrooms" |
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| The land seems to be cut into uniform squares |
Besides observing the rocks, the combination of the rocks, the sea and the sky is a sight to behold. After observing the rocks, we went on the walkway and could see the whole park and its beauty.
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| Like the clouds :) |
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| The reflection |
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| Peculiar rocks |
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| Straight crisscrosses on the rock |
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| The sea and sky |
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| The moon is out |
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| The sun |
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| "Pimple scars" dotted throughout the rocks |
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| Cranes nearby |
We decided to stay on and watch the sun set. Although we were blocked from seeing the full sunset by the mountains, it was nonetheless, very pretty.
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| The sun is setting |
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| Going lower |
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| The clouds are illuminated by the sunlight |
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| The sky, the sea and the sun. |
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| Even lower, near the bottom of the chimney |
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| The whole view |
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| The sun can no longer be seen |
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| Clouds |
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| The sky is starting to darken |
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| The cranes are hard at work |
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| The "pool" within the rocks and the sky |
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| The seawater swimming pool |
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| The sand play area |
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| Behind the sandcastle |
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| Goodbye, Ho Ping Island Hi Park |
We left for our next destination, 廟口夜市，Miaokou Night Market, soon after the sun set.
