Showing posts with label shop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shop. Show all posts

April 8, 2023

Finding your way around the Keelung port


View Keelung Cruise Terminals in a larger map

I made this map to show you the basics around the port. Answers to questions everyone asks: the walking route to the train and bus station, the market ? You can now print out the directions for easy reference before you go, or ask me by email. Almost everything in Keelung is within a 3 to 4 block area, and not too far from the ship. 


You can reach Taipei by bus and train. There are bus routes to Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum, all on Google maps.

You'll find separate icons for the nearby popular tourist spots: Zhongzheng Park and its Guanyin statue, the Miaokou Night Market Food Street (open almost 24 hours) and my recommended places to go shopping. Regular shops open at 11 am, close at 10 pm or later. The night market stalls are set up from 5 pm, in front of the regular shops in the streets.



Questions or anything you'd like to share with others ? Let me know.

View the Keelung Cruise Terminal in a larger Google map, check out the Kaohsiung Cruise Terminal page too.

February 17, 2017

Keelung's Yellow Duck adventure

Ever wondered why there are so many rubber ducks on sale in Keelung?

Here is your answer: for Chinese New Year 2014 some in city hall thought it was a great idea to have a giant rubber duck in port. Designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, these ducks had become popular in Southeast Asia. There already had been some trouble with strong winds in Kaohsiung, so they set about adjusting the flotation device to a locally made submerged barge. So far so good.

After one week the duck became quite smudged by the soot deposits of heavy fuel oil burned by ships - so they scrubbed down the duck. When the weather finally improved on December 31, 2013, my husband and I decided to come down from our mountain view of the port to go have a look for ourselves. Alas, on the taxi ride down to the Maritime Plaza the news spread quickly - the duck had split open and deflated. "Forgot to install a pressure vent" for the expanding air on a first sunny day... Sorry ! Bu Hao Yi Si as they love to say here when things go wrong, bowing profusely.

Life goes on: to spin out this grand theme, the city then installed a giant Yellow Chicken ashore. After all, the city's name was literally spelled "Chicken Cage" until the Qing empire changed the characters in 1875 to read "Prosperous Base"...

Looked too much like Hofman's borrowed bathtub idea ? No problem - mei wen ti: 沒問題 (Mei2 Wen4 Ti2) so we ended up with a "black chicken". Giant Inflatables are still a craze in Taiwan for any occasion, to make things ever so cute.