The twin pagodas sit on Lotus Pond and are guarded by two gates, one carved in the shape of a dragon and the other in a tiger. Local tradition states that if you enter through the dragon's mouth and exit through the tiger's mouth, you will reverse your luck from bad to good. Whether or not one believes this, the pagodas themselves are architecturally beautiful and one can climb almost all the way up the spiraling staircases while viewing vibrant wall paintings of nature and folktales. The inside of the dragon contains walls of relief sculptures depicting demons and torture, whereas the tiger contains sculptures of historical scholars and legendary heroes, correlating with the supposed reversal of fate one has just undertaken.
Besides the beautiful art and gleeful fun of walking through the mouths of gigantic creatures, the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas offered some wishful thinking for the new year. 2018 was a difficult year for a lot of people personally and for the world in general. So let's hope for anyone who went into the belly of the dragon in 2018, that they may come out the mouth of the tiger in 2019.
We saw a couple of other sights in Kaohsiung (mainly the Dome of Light in the MRT station and the Pier-2 Art District on the harbor) before returning to Qishan for dinner. We were expecting a low-key New Year's Eve, given that the locals had told us Qishan was pretty quiet most nights and that the people who worked at our hostel had invited us on a 7 a.m. hike the next morning.
So we went out by ourselves on the balcony of our hostel to ring in the New Year with a little bit of banana-flavored wine. But of course, since this is Taiwan, we were surprised at the stroke of midnight by fireworks going off right down the street from us. The fireworks only lasted for about a minute, but it was cool to be able to see them so close and so unexpectedly. At the end, I shouted out "謝謝!" to our neighbors for helping up celebrate the new year.
Bright and early the next morning, we met up with the two brothers who worked at our hostel, their sister, two other guests from Taipei, the local junior high teacher, and one of the brother's two year old son. After a quick breakfast of danbing (sort of like a Taiwanese omelette) and milk tea, we began to climb the mountain that watches over Qishan.
We were less than 20 minutes into the hike before we spotted a group of four monkeys, macaques with grey-brown fur and pink faces, peeking out at us from the trees. Next thing we knew, we were completely surrounded by an entire troop of monkeys. They jumped from branch to branch and watched us as we passed by. Luckily, we didn't have any food with us because, one of the locals told us, the monkeys are known to steal.
The hike wasn't quite as intense as Qixing, the last mountain I hiked, but it was still 600 steps up a steep incline. We all made it to the top, even the two year old. From up there, we could see the wide expanse of countryside, with its farm fields and tiny clusters of homes. In another direction, we could see the town of Qishan and all its old buildings and streets. In yet another, we could see a line of sharp, green mountains, peaks moving away from us until they faded into the morning clouds settling on the land. It was the perfect first scenic view of 2019.
Happy New Year! In 2019, I look forward to exploring more of Taiwan and learning more about its language and culture. I hope to continue to create in a variety of ways, whether its my fiction writing, my lessons plans, or this blog. I hope to practice kindness and patience with everyone I encounter. And I hope to continue to have good luck, fortunate accidents, and great adventures here in Taiwan.
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