Today four of us took an hour long train northeast to Keelung (pronounced JEE-lung), and then a quick bus to a nearby fishing village that Kojo was considering for a future field study location.
I think the Zhengbin port must be known for its colorful storefronts because the shore was littered with instagram boyfriends dutifully following their significant others taking photos every 15 feet.
When it was time for lunch we walked to an area where fishmongers sell every imaginable live aquatic species found in the East China Sea. Small sharks, puffer fish, eels, squid, every kind of shellfish.
One fisherman scooped out a pufferfish from a bucket and it immediately inflated as he held it gently. When he returned it to the bucket it quickly deflated and swam away. There was another puffer fully inflated, just bobbing around upside down in the water. The fishmonger said 他仍然很生气 (he’s still angry).
You can purchase any of these animals and then carry them to any nearby restaurant where they will cook them for you for a small fee!
After lunch we continued walking towards a nearby park. Along the way we discovered a beautiful Daoist temple tucked inside a neighborhood.
A local explained that the original temple was located a few blocks away, but was destroyed by American shelling in WWII while the Japanese occupied this area.
Now on to Heping Island Geopark. The area’s sandstone slowly erodes to create really unique rock formations.
Time for a nap until the night market opens.
Darkness fell, and we bussed it back to Keelung to visit the MiaoKou Night Market. Up to this point I’ve been to our local night market a handful of times. It’s about a block long with lots of food vendors. I can handle it. But as we shuffled into the MiaoKou night market I was wholly unprepared for the size and scale of the shops and the crowd. Shoulder to shoulder cattle call, can’t see the ground in front of you, dizzying noise and smells. I think I can safely say this is not for me. It WAS Saturday night so maybe it was particularly busy.
A few of us slept on the train ride home. I will sleep well tonight.