Hualien, Taiwan

We visited the Shinkong Chao-Feng farm, which is a cross between a farm, zoo, botanical gardens, and theme park. Here, we see their version of the Arc de Triomphe at the entrance to the park.

The farm is 45 minutes south of Hualien, surrounded by scenic mountains and lots of wide open space. It is run by a large conglomerate that owns department stores, banks, and energy companies.

Here is the main visitor center of the park, done in a European style.

One of the highlights of the park is its enormous collection of exotic birds -- some in cages and some in walk-in aviaries like this one. Their collection is the largest I've ever seen, even at a zoo.

Doves.

A large, unusual, but friendly bird.

The park is enormous, which we realized after it took 10 minutes to cover about 1 cm on the paper map. At that point we decided to rent bikes, conveniently provided by the park for about $4.50 each.

Helen with the camel.

Goats.

Monkeys, with whom I have a special kinship because I was born in the year of the monkey.

A photogenic Toucan.

At the park was also this wonderful field of wildflowers.

More monkeys.

The farm also had an operating dairy farm. I bought some fresh ice cream produced directly from these cows.

Helen with a cow.

An egret of some sort in the lilly pond.

A very picturesque lake in front of the mountains.

The beach near Hualien.

Looking towards Taroko.

Hualien is famous for its marble industry because the geology of the area has so much marble. In fact, the pebbles that compose the beach are a showcase of the wide variety of marble in the area.

Some fighter jets stand ready to defend Taiwan.

The Parkview Hotel, where we stayed the second night in Hualien.

The large swimming pool at the Parkview Hotel. Unfortunately, it was a bit too chilly to swim that day.