Keelung at the Northeast Coast of Taiwan

Saturday afternoon, Yih-Min Wu, a seismology professor at our department, invited us to his hometown Keelung (基隆), which is situated just some 15 km to the Northeast of Taipei at the northeast coast of Taiwan. (Thanks a lot, Yih-Min, we had a great time in the Keelung area!)


The coast line is beautiful with steep cliffs and large bays. In the background of the following picture you can see Keelung Mountain, an ancient volcano. Gold was found nearby, which was the birth of the village of Rueifeng (rightside of Keelung Mountain).

From a viewpoint not far from Keelung we were watching the sunset. You can see Keelung and its harbour on the following photo, with Yang Ming Shan (see post from March 2008) in the far background.

The light of the sunset permitted to take some great photos. We were borrowing the digital reflex camera (Nikon D40x) - a really nice camera!!! - from our working group.

After sunset, Yih-Min took us to a seafood restaurant on Herping Island. The island is connected by a bridge to the town of Keelung. The restaurant had many seawater aquariums in the front and from those one can choose which fish and seafood one would like to eat. So the fish there is really fresh, freshness guaranteed!


A little fish market was located next to the restaurant selling all kind of fish, clams, snails, squid, sea urchins, and moray eels.

After our delicious seafood meal, we went back to the viewpoint and watched thousands of fisher boats with their bright lanterns out at the sea. They looked a bit like if some stars from the sky had fallen into the water and were now floating in the ocean... A very romantic sight!