We woke up bright and early today to head to Ling Jiou Mountain. Ling Jiou Mountain is in Fulong, Taiwan and is a very sacred place that is home to the Wu Sheng Buddhist Monastery. Wu Sheng means “one’s innate spirituality.”
We entered through the Gate of the Divine Eye. Since I had shorts and a tank top on, I was given a gown to wear into the monastery. We entered the Main Hall also known as Lotus World and learned how to perform a Buddhist prayer. Then we went to Patriarchs Hall, which is the spiritual headquarters of the monastery. The master monk led us in a meditation session. It was truly an experience – I really did feel more calm and peaceful after the experience. I plan to lead my students in a session when I teach them about Buddhism next year.
The views from the monastery were simply breathtaking!
We finished our time at the monastery with a vegetarian-only lunch. My favorite part of the lunch was the dragon fruit – it was so bright and colorful.
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| Dragon Fruit |
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| Group Shot before leaving the monastery |
Next we drove a short distance to Fulong Beach where we came across some amazing sand creations from a recent art festival. My favorites were the Jeremy Lin “Linsanity” sculpture and the Chien Ming Wang sculpture. Lin, who plays for the NY Knicks and Wang who pitches for the Washington Nationals are two beloved Taiwanese athletes.
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| Chien Ming Wang Sand Sculpture |
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| Linsanity |
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| Happy Buddha |
We wrapped up are day in Keelong at the night market. Keelong is the city where my mom was born. Taiwanese night markets are famous and some would argue they top those of Singapore for the best night markets in the world.
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| Keelung in the background |
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| Keelung Sign (just like Hollywood!) |
Here, you can get a variety of street food, noodles, dumplings, buns, meats, and even things like pig’s feet and snake. I wasn’t brave enough to try some of it. A few of my favorite things though were the oyster omelet, cuddlefish soup, fried noodle, shrimp and leek dumplings, and pao-pao ice. The pao pao ice was divine – we tried kiwi and passion fruit and it was addicting – rivaling Pinkberry and Sweet Frog. For those who know me best – that’s hard to do!
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| Keelung Nigh Market |
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| Oyster Omelet |
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| Fried Fish |
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| About to eat my fish and fried noodles |
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| The group enjoying their fried chicken on a stick |
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| Fried Squid balls |
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| An array of fresh fruit - Taiwanese mangoes are the best! |
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| Fried dumplings with shrimp and leeks |
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| Enjoying steak and eggs |
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| Pao Pao ice |
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