Taiwan III - Nantou & Taichung

This is where we stayed for the night and thanks to Benson, he couldn't have picked a better location. It was just a shame that I couldn't get my lazy arse up in the morning to enjoy the freshest air ever!

This was taken after the wholesome breakfast we had! not to mention that someone scoffed down FOUR mantou!!! or was it five?

The Puli Winery - famous for making Shaohsing wine.

Inside the winery.

Here comes the interesting bit. This is the renowned Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Taichung. Just look at the architecture! It certainly doesn't look like a temple to me, well, at least not the 'conventional' ones. The temple is 150m tall and sits on a 60-acre lotus hill outside Puli.

It was completed in 2001 and is one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan. It took 10 years and the donations of countless members of the community to complete this masterpiece. The five us were completely taken by the grand, contemporary look and realised not to underestimate the power of religion!
Chung Tai Chan Monastery now has established more than 90 meditation centres and branches in Taiwan and abroad.

Some serious top-quality materials were used and apparently one master craftsman is said to have spent ten years collecting coloured jade for the 18 Lohan reliefs.

Fresh orchids were available on the table for anyone who was interested in repeating some sort of motifs.

We were there as if we were visiting a museum!