Wednesday – March 18, 2026 – Keelung
Today’s featured photo shows Jan and Kelsey writing wishes on a sky lantern that will be launched shortly. This was one of the stops on today’s excursion in Taiwan.
Today we are in the Republic of China – or more commonly called Taiwan. This country has a population that is roughly the same as Australia but a land mass that is significantly smaller. Mainland China claims Taiwan as theirs but the majority of people of Taiwan do not feel that way. Our port is Keelung City – mostly East of the capital of Taipei.
The major income source is semiconductor work and the largest of these is TSMC – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation. Our guide today said that Taiwan is not overly concerned about a takeover by China because they would be hurting all of China’s electronics businesses if TSMC were to change hands. Don’t know if that is true, but I believe that is a simplistic view. Semiconductor work uses 9% of the workforce but yields the highest average pay ($5,000/month). Other “good” jobs pay an average of $1,500/month.
We’ll be traveling today to sites away from Taipei in a bus that is fitted for Karaoke. In the gallery you can see a couple photos inside the bus. It has window shades with tassels, lights on the ceiling that change color, LCD screens on which the words for songs can be displayed and wireless microphones so passengers can fulfill their dreams and sing! However, before the bus becomes a traveling karaoke show, all the riders must agree to that – and our group didn’t agree.
Our first stop was along the Northeast coast of Taiwan at an area with unusual rock formations – Yehliu Geopark. Some of the rock formations do look like the objects for which they are named but many require an active imagination to “see” the item for which they are named. The rocks were interesting, the weather was beautiful, so we had a good time walking and looking (and we got lots of steps on our fitness trackers).
From the shore we drove to the hills not far away to have lunch at a local restaurant. What we didn’t know is that to get to the restaurant we would need to walk up (and down) 300 steps of uneven height and without handrails! Jan and I had difficulty especially with the climb up – not so for Kelsey. The years are showing or perhaps it is just our knees protesting. Because we were at the end of the line of climbers, when we reached the restaurant there was no place where we could sit together – or at least with others who spoke English. Kelsey and Jan found a place, and I decided to pass on lunch. Jan said that the food was served “family style” and by the time they were seated 3 or 4 items had already been served and consumed by the others at their table. I would say our overall opinion was that lunch was a bust.
Following lunch, we climbed a few more steps and found a shop that carried t-shirts we liked. The proprietor spoke little English, and his wife didn’t appear to speak any. I included a photo of him in the gallery. We got down the hill, boarded the bus and set out for our next experience – launching a sky lantern.
Sky lanterns are a household “thing” in Taiwan – any many other Asian countries. The area to which we were traveling was nestled in a valley by a small town on the track of an abandoned railroad. As we approached, we could see a stream of lanterns rising. When we arrived at the parking area, we could understand the reason for so many lanterns – lots of tour buses! There must have been at least 20 of them. We followed the guide to the area that had been set aside for our tour group. The lanterns were larger than those we have used on July 4th at our house prior to my fireworks shows. These were 4-sided and about 2 1/2 feet on a side. Each lantern allowed space for 4 people to write their wishes. I donated my wishes to Jan and Kelsey so I could take photos and video. The 4th person in our group was Simon – a man we had traveled with last year during our overland trip in Australia.
After writing wishes on all 4 sides the lantern was brought to the railroad track where a helper lit the fuel so Jan, Kelsey and Simon could launch it. There are plenty of photos and videos of these activities. You can also see that there were many other people writing on and launching other lanterns. There are also a couple photos showing miniatures of the lanterns that were for sale in souvenir shops.
We returned to the port to find a sister ship had also docked – the MSC Bellissima.
You may view today’s gallery here.