Ling Jiou Mountain- Celestial Eye Gate

 Ling Jiou Mountain. This is still in Taiwan at the northeast coast. Ling Jiou Mountain here as quoted " 靈  鷲  山, the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit Gṛdhrakūṭa "Vulture Peak". Up high in the mountain at 384 meters above sea-level where there is a Wusheng Monastery, a place for Buddhist practice but also open to public. It actually started off with the Fahua Cave and slowly the place monastery expanded to the whole entire mountain.

When I reached, I had no hint it was a monastery because at the entrance, a pair of eyes will be looking at you. lo-ol. Wow! these pair of eyes really did scare me when I first saw it. The first thing that came to my mind was, maybe it’s a place for some extra-terrestrial connection point just like those documentary shows I watch on television on Ancient Aliens. On the pillars of the eyes, it is the totem poles, it was encrypted with some ancient pictorial message

Alright, done with the guessing game. Let us get real about this pair of eyes. There was a stone title below stating about this pair of eyes. This pair of eyes is called the “Celestial Eye Gate”: The Celestial Eye Gate has the ancient totems of several main world religions inscribed on it. They signify all kinds of inquiries into the universal and natural phenomena by human beings..

If you continue to visit, there will be a super huge 12 meters high bronze Goddess of Mercy Sculpture with a dark face facing north. From up the hill you could see a Pagoda Building, Stupa Area which looks like a pagoda but round shapes. You will be able to view a calm scenery of nature, feel the cold breeze of the Pacific Ocean on top of the hill. Not forgetting the never ending sea view and on the left is the Shuangxi River. If you are from a busy buzzing city, this place would be your peace of mind. The Zen.

Temperature was a little chill probably about 20Degrees

 

 The Zen View 

Along the way in the monastery, there was another warrior sculpture, I have no idea what is the name of this sculpture but it was painted super silver. Must be some guardian warrior or something. Even at such a high place, I still had a chance to get a cup of ice cream as a snack. I guess I just can’t get enough on food. Taste was not really sweet for an ice-cream. But it is my Chilling Dessert at the 20Deg weather. Not very creamy, neither fully Sorbet.

 So if you are looking for some breezy Zen and want to learn more about Buddhist, you know where to go now.

The Warrior Sculpture

 

Restaurant of 48 years, Hsin Gang Seafood Restaurant

Restaurant of 48 years, Hsin Gang Seafood Restaurant 

After the tired stroll at the Golden Sand of FuLONG beach. Hunger has came upon us. Our next destination is for food. We left the beach area, went on to a Restaurant of 48 years, Hsin Gang Seafood Restaurant. Simple dinner dishes, fish steam with spring onions and light soy sauce. I had no idea what type of fish it is, but it is a sea fish and not river fish because it was without the mud taste. 

A little plate of spicy lala clams (a type of clam) which I really loved, it had the perfect taste. No fishy smell as the herbs and chili had blend into the clams. Awesome dish, it is a Must  Try for me. Other dishes was seaweed soup, which would be a little fishy. Another dish looks like plain steam medium size prawns. Yes, plain prawn, you heard me, taste nothing except for the sweetness of the prawns. 

Coming up next is the liver, it looks more like boiled pork liver something which I don’t take. Another of my favorite is here. The  fried squid, crunchy!  Taste was normal except for the Lala clams but all the seafood was it was fresh.

Spicy Clams. Seaweed Soup. Steam Prawns. 

Pork Liver. Fried Squid.

Fu Long Beach Golden Sand

Fu Long Beach. Sounds like along beach, its about 3kilometers on coastline. It is quiet long for me to walk. Its located in northeast coast at New Taipei City. Another name for it is the Golden Sand beach. Look at the tiny waves, so many but not really big waves for now so I did’t see any surfers around. Other beach activities could be surfboards, canoes, kayaks and other water sport ready for rental. But the big thing here is making sand castle along the beach. People make their sand in various design, from Hello Kitty, Doremon, Choo choo Train, Buddha and everything else, see it for yourself in the photos. How is sand castle made? Water and sand. Yes but I did hear of that they add some form of chemical to make it stick. Maybe some sort of water glue. If not I guess the sand castle will not stand too long.