Taiwan Trip: Day 2, part 2 (11 Oct 2010)

Next, we visited Pingxi which is 1 stop away from Jingtong.

The station was decorated with sky lanterns, an icon of Pingxi.

This is part of the railway track between Jingtong and Pingxi. The railway track on some sections of Pingxi Line is a single-track and the drivers have this key exchange system to use this single-track safely.

The same portion of the track viewed from street level.

The station itself is just a small waiting area with some benches and there’s a little souvenir shop outside it.

As with Jingtong, it was a muted atmosphere during our visit.

Pingxi Bridge.

At the Pingxi Post Office. We entered the post office on the pretext of looking around so as to cool down with the help of the fans inside!

The oldest post in Taiwan is located outside the post office.

En route to the Ba Xian Tunnel.

This is the entrance to Ba Xian Tunnel. I knew that one could enter but it was really dark inside. Just as we decided not to enter, I realised there’s a light switch at the side! So, we switched on the lights and went in. I was really afraid of what would happen if someone came along and switched off the light while we were inside!

Apparently, it was built for the tourism purpose about 20-30 years ago. However, it doesn’t look like it at all and seems abandoned and spooky! There are small areas within the tunnel with seats like these.

We were exploring a bit and entered an area which led to another area deeper within. Suddenly, I heard fluttering sounds and came screaming out of the area!! G was behind me and startled by my screaming, made a fast retreat to the main tunnel!

There are bats inside!!! Please note if you are visiting the tunnel~ :!:

Next to the Ba Xian Tunnel is the Guanyin Temple.

From the Guanyin Temple, we followed a path to go to The Bell of Guan-Yin Rock / Siren Pavilion which was a watch house. You can see the path in this photo – further in front of the lamppost, there’s a sign and a flight of steps on the right, leading to it.

It was not at all worthy of a visit! The pavilion was dirty because there was rubbish left behind by people. And, there were many flies around us. We took this picture of the bell and hurried away. :(

We made our way back to Pingxi station to wait for the train back to Ruifang. However, the train towards Jingtong arrived and clever-us boarded the train so as to enjoy air-conditioned comfort! ‘Coz we figured that if we wait at Pingxi, we will be waiting for the same train to come back from Jingtong!

At Jingtong, we saw a 2 couples taking wedding photos at the station. They had decorated sky lanterns as props for the photos too! I guess it must be a popular wedding photography spot! I imagine it must be so hot to take such photos in today’s weather!

On our return trip, we sat at the front of the train and the train master kept talking to us! He told us many stories, some of which we didn’t really understand since it was all in Chinese. Very friendly and interesting person, hehe. 8)

This is taken when we were passing Shifen station where the tracks are just next to the town. It looks pretty with the sky lanterns decorating the sides. Maybe we should come here and visit the Shifen Waterfalls next time!

The train master was telling us a story about how there was someone who ran over a person around this area. The authorities were investigating and said person mentioned he sounded the horn but many people at the town testified that they didn’t hear any horn sounding! So this person was pissed off and started honking incessantly whenever he passed this area, be it day or night. This caused much inconvenience to the people living there! In the end, they came to an agreement that maybe he did sound the horn but the victim didn’t hear and escape in time.

The tracks in some parts are really narrow and there are many people who come to Pingxi Line to take photographs. He was telling us that it’s very dangerous in some parts and some people don’t know the distance that they need to move off to the side in order to not get hit by the train!

Video time~ G combined the videos I took on our return trip!

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