Trip to Sanzhi
Today I went to Sanzhi (三芝), a town on the north coast which has a number of interesting attractions.
The first stop was the Fucheng Temple (福成宮). This temple is famous for its golden-faced Mazu (金面媽祖). This Mazu statue was originally kept in Taipei City, but was moved to Sanzhi during the Japanese era. Another interesting thing about the temple was that it made extensive use of wood carvings, in contrast to most temples in Taiwan which have mostly stone carvings.
After visiting the temple went for lunch at a local restaurant called Lao Difang (老地方). The restaurant specialises in steamed dumplings (小籠包).
I also had the fishball soup (魚丸湯). The fish balls were the biggest I have ever seen. All together these two dishes cost just NT$90 and they were delicious.
Next stop was the Sanzhi Visitor Center (三芝旅客中心). There was a small museum there detailing the history of Sanzhi. Next door is the "Gallery of famous sons" (名人文物館). This hall has exhibits dedicated to four of Sanzhi's most famous residents. There is one that everyone will know: former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). The others were Tu Tsung-ming (杜聰明), Chiang Wen-ye (江文也) and Lu Hsiu-yi (盧修一). Tu was famous for his contributions in the field of medicine, Chiang was a famous composer and Lu was an activist and politician.
Near the Visitor Center is the Yuanxing House (源興居) where Lee Teng-hui was born on 15 January 1923.
From there we drove into the mountains to visit the Shell Temple (貝殼廟). I had heard of this place before but wasn't sure exactly where it was located. I am still not entirely sure as getting there involves travelling along narrow mountain roads.
The temple is much like many others in Taiwan, but instead of stone or wood carvings its decorations are covered with shells and coral.
Last stop was the Yuan Shan Cao Tang (圓山草堂), a cafe and gallery run by an artist couple. The husband Wang Chao Chuan (王昭權) is a painter. His wife Chen Jia-hui (陳佳慧) does pottery.
There are a number of other places of interest in Sanzhi that we didn't have time to visit. These include the Li Tien-lu Puppet Museum (李天祿布袋戲文物館) and Teresa Teng's grave. Hopefully I can go back and visit them another day.
Update: More photos at flickr.
Travels in Central Taiwan
Free trips in Taiwan
A Swedish tale in Taiwan
One year in Taiwan
Kiss and ride the high speed rail
Posted: May 26th, 2007 under New Taipei City, Taiwan, Travel.
Tags: food, temple
Comments
Comment from David Reid
Time 27 May 2007 at 11:05 am
I see you’ve been to the UFO houses which are not far from Sanzhi. We passed them but didn’t stop to have a look.
There are terraced rice fields in a number of places. I didn’t get any good photos of them though.
Comment from Ada
Time 31 May 2007 at 2:07 pm
The UFO houses are empty from many years ago. I never thought they look so good from photos.
Comment from Shi-ru
Time 1 June 2007 at 10:46 am
Those UFO houses were built more than 20 years I think but never finished.
I like the shell temple very much because it’s very interesting and when I visited the old one last year (they rebuilt it in another bigger place), the had a small hole behind the Buddha called 萬佛洞 or something like that. I don’t know did you visit that hole? That’s the best place of that temple.
And if next time you go to 三芝, there is a small stand in front of 原興居 and you should try their 鹹湯圓 and fried vegetables, they are very fresh and cheap.
There is a 水車公園 near that area, too and shall be finished very soon.
我個人覺得三芝是很適合一日遊的地方景點很多，而且，又有很多濱海的咖啡館可以一邊欣賞美景一邊休息。
I personally think 三芝is a nice place for one-day trip. The coffee shops there are nice too.
Comment from David Reid
Time 1 June 2007 at 11:59 am
I went into the 萬佛洞 (small tunnel) at the Shell Temple. It is a little dangerous for a tall person I think.
There are still quite a few places on the north coast that I would like to visit.
Comment from Shi-ru
Time 1 June 2007 at 2:47 pm
你介紹的圓山草堂看起來很棒，改天我也要去那邊看一看。
三芝、金山、萬里一帶的確是有滿多可以遊玩的地方。如果你有要去金山的話，一定要去獅山公園走走，石壁真的好美。
Comment from miao
Time 3 June 2007 at 2:09 am
What a wonderful and interesting report! Did you find out about these places from the Rough Guide? If so I’ll have to invest in a copy myself. 
Comment from David Reid
Time 3 June 2007 at 8:07 am
Many of these places are mentioned in the Rough Guide, but I really have to thank a couple of Taiwanese friends for the guidance and advice in finding these places.
Pingback from Travels in Central Taiwan – David on Formosa
Time 29 January 2009 at 7:23 pm
[...] the “Shell Temple” (貝殼廟). It was similar to the temple of the same name in Sanzhi being made of shell and [...]
Comment from Craig Ferguson
Time 27 May 2007 at 10:15 am
Nice pics. That shell temple looks really interesting. I’ll have to get out there one day. I’ve heard that there’s also some terraced rice fields in the area – did you see them?