Good day to all from World Map Pin community, hope all of you are doing fine this lovely weekend. This is my 4th instalment of my travel to Taiwan which happened late last year in the month of December. In the previous post, I've covered today include street murals along the streets of Tainan, a special mini district called Snail Alley and finally Hayashi Department Store. Today we head north towards Beimen District which is about 2 hours bus ride from Tainan city. The cover photo is taken from Jingzaijiao Salt Fields located in Beimen District.
Background
This Taiwan trip is a week long trip that I planned with my wife and we went to quite a number of less travelled locations. The trip include many places that most people going to Taiwan will not include in their itinerary and that is why I would want to share it with the community on these amazing places that my wife and I explored.
Join us as we explore the various less mainstream locations in Taiwan.
Here are the links to the previous post on this series of exploring Amazing Taiwan:
Part 1 Fort Zeelandia - @vaynard86/exploring-amazing-taiwan-part-1-fort-zeelandia-tainan
Part 2 Anping Treehouse and Da Dong Night Market - @vaynard86/exploring-amazing-taiwan-part-2-anping-tree-house-anping-old-street-and-da-dong-night-market-tainan
Part 3 Murals, Snail Alley and Hayashi Department Store - @vaynard86/exploring-amazing-taiwan-part-3-street-murals-snail-alley-and-hayashi-department-store
Beimen Crystal Church
As this trip was more on relaxing, my wife and I went back to Hayashi Department Store to grab more stuff because some of the items that we saw there lingered in her mind and she wanted to get hold of them as gifts for her close friends. And we spend the late morning there before having a quick lunch at a noodle shop opposite the department store. And here's a picture of the shop and also the food we ordered:
Address of the Noodle Shop:
墨藏軒, Mo Zang Xuan Noodle Place Address: No. 65號, Section 2, Zhongyi Rd, West Central District, Tainan City, Taiwan 700
Nice and simple place with deliciously made noodles and xiao long bao. Noodles are springy and the xiao long bao skin is adequately thin and stuffed with loaded of filling. Very wallet friendly and good quality ingredients used. We had our fill and its time to get on a bus head north towards Beimen (which essentially mean Northern Gate).
The bus ride from the bus stop right outside Hayashi Department store takes about 2 hours 15mins depending on road conditions towards Beimen Bus Interchange. To reach our first destination, Beimen Crystal Church, we will need to transfer to another bus from the interchange. Due to the length of the bus ride, we took a small nap on the way to the interchange and boarded the bus towards Beimen Crystal Church.
When the bus arrived, it looked rather empty as the designated car park had only a few cars there. However, it is actually good that the attraction is empty. Because the more people there, the harder it will be to get a clean photo of the place. One thing to note, this place has a small entrance fee of 50NT, which is approximately 2 Singapore Dollars. Before I go right to the attraction itself, I have a disclaimer. While this is called Crystal Church, this is place is not a true church that conducts worship services. This place is actually an architecture beauty which is deemed to look like a church from the outside. And now, standing right in front of us, Beimen Crystal Church.
Such a beautiful sight coupled with a beautiful sunset. This is a double arch structure that is shaped to be like a church that is more than 80% glass and that is why it is called crystal church. This beautiful structure is on a white platform that leads out into the waters, giving it a surreal look and definitely an awesome place for wedding photos. The waters surrounding the church is also crystal clear which also probably added on to the description of crystal church.
For a perspective of how clean the water is, here is a picture to depict it:
And here's is the Beimen Crystal Church at a closer look:
I was really glad that there are not many people at the place which allowed me to capture the beautiful pictures above. This is definitely a less travelled location but the view and the church is beautiful.
Jingzaijiao Salt Fields
After spending some time to relax at the Beimen Crystal Church and while the sunset is still ongoing, we headed to Jingzaijiao Salt Fields which is about 10mins bus ride away. There is no entrance required for this place. This is one of the last few remaining salt fields in the area as compared to the past where there were many as salt fetch higher back then and most younger generation are not keen on doing this trade as it is very high intensity labour. These salt fields uses very simple crystal seeding concepts to seed salt from sea water fetched from the nearby seaside. Through seeding and drying, little salt hills are gathered in the middle of each terraced field as salt is being gathered and seeded from the sea water.
This is my favourite place thus far for this trip. This is far away from the hustle and bustle of the city and you can see the fruits of labour from the salt farmers. The regular terraced salt fields are a beautiful sight where one can admire at how simple technology can yield so much salt. And combined with the sunset which adds a beautiful golden glow to the place, this special place is one that I strongly recommend you to visit if you would like to have a different look at Taiwan.
Wrapping up the day, we headed back towards Tainan City for a light meal and headed to a special dessert place that sister recommended. She told me that this place is famous for their mango shaved ice, but when I arrived at the shop, the shop owner told me, if I came 5 months ago, I can definitely order the mango shaved ice, but now mango season had been over for months, I can only choose other shaved ice. The shop owner recommended strawberry shaved ice but I was a little apprehensive as I am scared that some strawberry is sour. But the shop owner assured me that if the strawberry he used is sour, he will take a single cent from me.
The shop owner served the strawberry shaved ice which was so beautifully cut up and done up. I took a bite and wow, indeed the strawberry is really nice with no signs of being sour. Really a good recommendation from the shop owner for me and my wife to enjoy such a nice bowl of shaved ice. Thank you to my sister for sharing this little treasure place. The shop looks ordinary and without recommendation, I would missed it out.
Address of the shaved ice dessert shop:
Yu Cheng Fruit Shop No. 122號, Section 1, Minsheng Rd, West Central District, Tainan City, Taiwan 700
Closing
What a day it had been. Beautiful sights as we visited the north regions of Tainan in Beimen District to witness the Beimen Crystal Church and Jingzaijiao Salt Fields. Both are real gems and should be considered in your next Taiwan trip if you want to see a sight of Taiwan that is less seen. The food we had today was awesome too, simple delicacies and super affordable price which is totally wallet friendly. I guess eating what the locals eat will be a good rule of thumb to follow.
Thank you for walking along with me to explore the places I shared today and see you around in the community. Do keep a look out for my next post on Exploring Taiwan in World Map Pin!