Taichung Folk Park

On Friday of last week, it was a gorgeous day and Nick and I had the afternoon free in between the gym and our dinner w/ Eric and Angel, so we decided to check out the Taichung Folk Park. It was a gorgeous day and especially since it was a weekday for most people, I figured it was a perfect day to be at the park.

Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly what I had in mind; however, it still turned out to be a nice afternoon. What you might want to know about Taichung Folk park is that it's not really a park... Nick called it an "open air museum." There are some nice little parts outside, but the main purpose of the Taichung Folk Park is that it is a place to house some old Taiwanese / Chinese artifacts, like teapots, farming equipment, ox carts, boats, porcelain pillows, and some rooms set up to replicate living conditions in the days of yore.

It was nice, but it wasn't exactly what I had been hoping for. The only picture I have of the museum part is this picture of some old bedroom furniture.


After we were done touring the museum, we walked around the grounds which include a little fish pond (Nick called it a scum pond) with some HUGE gold fish in it.
The park was pretty small, so it didn't take us long to walk around it, this is a small amphitheater that they have for - I think - cultural performances. It's actually a pretty cool little venue, so hopefully one day I'll check it out when they have something going on. And here are a couple more random shots of the park:



At one point, I heard some bizarre chanting coming from just outside of the park, so I looked through the decorative brick fence and saw this little make-shift place of worship.

I'm have no idea what religion this is or what they were doing, but I thought it was an interesting scene, so I took a little video so you could all hear:

One of the coolest things about living in Taiwan, at least for me personally, is that there are eastern religious ceremonies all the time at the seemingly most random places. You never know what to expect!

Anyway, all in all the day was enjoyable but rather uneventful. For any of my Taiwan readers wondering what the Taichung Folk Park is all about, overall, I'd say if you live in Taiwan it's worth visiting on a day when you're bored, tourists need not apply. (not a very high rating... huh?)

As as aside, Nick had an unfortunate incident while at the Folk Park and lost one of his socks.... for my small group of friend's who went to Moab with us last year, all I have to say is: He pulled a "Kevin"