July 8 to July 9, 2013: Catching the Sun in 墾丁 (Kending)
Location(s): 墾丁 (Kending) and (Eluanbi)
JULY 8, 2013
There’s a city/county in Taiwan named 台南, which means “South Taiwan,” but it isn’t the southernmost area in the country. That title belongs to 鵝鑾鼻 (Eluanbi). Both Eluanbi and Kending are surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and have some of the clearest and cleanest beaches.
The view from our drive to Kending
Our first stop though was 墾丁國家公園 (Kending National Park) and 社頂自然公園 (Sheding Natural Park), which are on the western coast of the island.
The walk into 社頂自然公園
You can never get tired of this view…
Gorges!!!
After the natural park, we drove down south and then back north up the eastern coast to see 佳樂水 (jialeshui).
Typical view during the drive.
Welcome to 佳樂水.
This view is really making me look forward to living at UC Santa Barbara for five years :).
This post is titled “Catching the Sun” and suitably so. We wrapped up the day by driving to 高山 (Gaoshan) to catch the sunset at 6:44 pm.
Farewell!
Our AMAZING view of the beach from our 民宿 (see below for an explanation of what that is). Once again, panda sure was pooped.
However, even though the sun set, the day was long from over. Once again, we grabbed dinner from the night market in Kending!!
Fried chicken, plum-favored sweet potato fries, guava, and milk tea!!
Some other oddities at the night market. Fried milk (?___?), a sign that says “可以殺價, 但是不能殺太多! 因為老板 (I think it should be 老闆…) 回來會罵!”, and a hitchhiking sign!
JULY 9, 2013
Wake up call for the day was 5 am to see the 5:20 am sunrise. We had watched the sunset on 高山 from the West Coast, and this morning, we drove to the East Coast for the sunrise. 
Once the sun was up, we continued our day by visiting the most southernmost tip!
Landmark point for 鵝鑾鼻.
Even the crabs were up..
Only 500 meters to go until the 最南點!!!
Hellllooo from the southernmost point!
And we’ll end this post with breakfast at the 民宿. 😀
Chinese Lesson
台南 (tai2 nan2) – Tainan City/County; 南 means south.
鵝鑾鼻 (e2 luan2 bi2) – Cape Eluanbi.
墾丁國家公園 (ken3 ding1 guo2 jia1 gong1 yuan3) – Kending (墾丁) National (國家) Park (公園).
社頂自然公園 (she4 ding3 zi4 ran2 gong1 yuan3) – Sheding (社頂) Natural (自然) Park (公園).
佳樂水 (jia1 le4 shui3) – Jialeshui scenic area.
高山 (gao1 shan1) – 高 means high, so this area is named Gaoshan.
民宿 (min2 su4) – In the US, there are hotels and motels. In Taiwan, there’s a third type: people who rent out spare rooms for guests.
殺價 (sha1 jia4) – to negotiate price.
老闆 (lao3 ban3) – boss.
罵 (ma4) – to scold.
最南點 (zui4 nan2 dian2) – the most southernmost point.
David Hwang 