Day 7 pt 2

Day 7 took us out of Taipei and into the mountainous area to the south.  We're staying in a great little B&B in Lala Mountain, and the view is definitely worth the bumpy mountain roads it takes to get here!  The room is really cute too~

Our guide Brian picked us up in Taipei in the morning and took us to a few sights on the way to the B&B.

First up was the Cihu memorial, resting place of Jiang Kai Shek.  Since he can't be buried in his hometown on mainland China yet, they have a resting place set up by this lake that he visited often as a vacation spot.  We got to see another changing of the guard ceremony, then go in and see the black marble tomb.  The road up to the masoleum goes past a wonderful lake filled with black swans bred by the military.

Next we walked over to the Jiang Kai Shek statue park.  Over the years they have collected around 175 statues of him from all over the country.  So now there's just a big park with as many statues of Jiang Kai Shek as you could ever want to see!

With our Jiang Kai Shek trip finished, we drove further to see another nature spot, Xiao Wulai.  There's a little waterfall with a glass bridge over it that you can stand on and look down.  They also have a few rope bridges you can walk across and then hike around a little path in the forest.  It was a lot of fun, but also really tiring in the heat!

(the view from behind our B&B)

But all our exercise paid off at night, when we got to the B&B and our hosts served us dinner.  The meal was in traditional Hakka style.  The Hakka are an ethnic group that comes from China and have a large population in Taiwan.  There was too much delicious food to pick from!  We also tried a vinegar drink, and a type of clear shot alcohol that really packs a punch haha.  We definitely slept well after all that great food and hiking.