I took a trip to Dànshuǐ just north of Taipei on Wednesday. The weather was beautiful.
Let’s take a look starting with the view back towards the north of Taipei. This is from a waterside park / promenade just next to the MTR station (Taipai Subway/Overground).
I walked from Dànshuǐ to Fishermans Wharf; about 3-4km. The first part of the walk was mostly on a riverside promenade. Pretty relaxed; a few locals were out fishing, lycra clad cyclists taking a break, pensioners out for a coffee and a stroll.
There are a number of historic sites in the area, but I prefer to stroll around and just soak up the view as I go. My walk however did take me past the historic customs wharf and I noticed the beautiful stonework of the wharf itself.
Opposite Dànshuǐ you can see Guanyin Mountain (above photo), I think I might try to go for a hike up there, I heard the view is lovely. Taipei had a period with very little building control in it’s history so you will spot some fairly ugly multi-story apartments in some of the pictures. My Taiwanese friend tells me things are more controlled now.
After the customs wharf there isn’t that much to see until fishermans wharf. You can’t walk the whole way by the waterside and a good 1.5-2km is by roadside / car parks etc. I’d recommend cycling it on one of the city hire bikes.
Riverside Wharf itself is does have a lovely open waterside view, but the wharf itself is a bit so-so. On the positive side there is a large bridge across the wharf providing a beautiful vantage point, one the negative side there are a few large concrete buildings that damage the skyline and a lot of modern yachts. However I’m very happy to say there is a chance to see some fairly traditional; but operating, taiwanese fishing boats. I carefuly composed a number of shots to capture these with minimal modern background.
The cloud was a little special, and has really come out in a fairly unique shot of this boat:
Looking back towards Dànshuǐ from a fairly modern and clean elavated walkway:
Looking out to sea from on the bridge:
Looking down at a row of traditional fishing boats:
And one of my favourite views from the walk, a good look at some detail of one of the fishing boats from the bridge, note the man on the right working on the nets. Most of the boats had a number of people repairing nets or other maintenance work.
The same boat as the above shot, but from the same level:
Here’s a boat looking a little the worse for ware with Guanying Mountain in the background:
One more shot of a little boat up on the wharf itself. I was struck by the colours.
After I finished my walk around the Wharf I took the bus back to Dànshuǐ MTR station. I then went back for a walk along Old Street. There is a fairly narrow street pedestrian street up from the promenade and then a longer road, both are lined with a lot of food stands, restaurants, souvineers shops etc. One of the most popular snacks seemed to be deep fried squid, but I also saw a lot of other Taiwanese delicacies.
I didn’t take any decent pictures, unfortunately there are some modern stores like ‘Sketchers’ etc. that just ruin the look.
However here is a Taiwanese or Chinese lady thinking about having some squid.
And a few more bonus shots I took on a last look around before heading back to the MTR.
hakkanotogame 