Coppermine Photo Gallery

The first album of our seven week holiday to Taiwan and Poland. The first few photos are Brisbane's city centre. Two to two and a half hours later we are leaving Australia over the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. Finally we end up at the Railway station in Taipei for the bullet train to Kaohsiung, which took only 98 minutes to complete the 350-400 kilometre train trip, reaching speeds up to 300 kilometres per hour

66 files, last one added on Jun 26, 2008

My old mates the Formosan Rock Monkeys of Su Shan or Kaohsiung's monkey mountain again. The boys are Eddie, Kevin and Stephen, our nephews.

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The little town of Bao Lai again in Kaohsiung County, about 2 and a half hours bus ride west from Kaohsiung City. We enjoyed the hot springs again which rejuvenated us after having to get up at 5am. Amazingly, we noticed some eucalyptus trees in the town park, which I failed to notice almost 5 years before

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Kaohsiung's Cheng Ching Lake, built in 1960. It is a real icon of the city and one place I did not see during my four month stay in Kaohsiung in 2003. I am glad I finally got to see it, as it was much more impressive than I expected it to be.

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The Veterans Shrine of Remembrance on Su Shan (Monkey Mountain). It is in honour of the veteran's from the 1911 revolution, (when the Manchu dynasty was overthrown), the Japanese invasion of China from the 1930s to the end of World War 2 and from 1949-1950 when the take over of Taiwan by the communists from Mainland China was prevented. The man with me in some of the photos is Pen-Yuan, Sonia's brother and my brother in law. Some of the other photos are views from Su Shan

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Sun Moon Lake in the centre of Taiwan. It is Taiwan's largest lake. Unfortunately the lake was shrouded in a dense mist so many of the photos were not as clear as they could have been. Still, it was a beautiful place. There is one photo of me taken with a Taiwanese aboriginal from one of the shops in the market place near the lake. Sonia's brother in law Curtis drove us there along with his wife Sofie (Sonia's sister) and his son Ian.

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The temple in Tainan County where Sonia's parents ashes are kept. Later the village, Xi-zhuan also in Tainan County where she and her older brother and sister where born. Photos of the house they were born in are included in this album as well. Co-incidentally, it is the same birthplace as the former disgraced Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, who in 2008 was voted out of office in a landslide which almost lead to the collapse of his Democratic Progressive Party.

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Our train trip from Kaohsiung on the south west coast to Hualien on the central east coast. The east coast of Taiwan is much less densely populated than the west coast and as a result the air is much less polluted and the countryside is beautiful and pristine. After getting off the train at Hualien, we got the bus to Taroko township, about 40 minutes west of Hualien where Taroko gorge begins, and where we checked into our hotel room at the Taroko hotel with a gorgeous view of the valley. We had time to check out the beautiful valley around Taroko township.

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After catching the bus to Tiansiang, just 10Km or so west of Taroko township, we were in the middle of Taroko Marble Gorge, which I think is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The gorge, with it's numerous marble rocks carved out by the 58Km Liwu River, is an amazing sight to behold. There are some great views from the Buddhist pagoda overlooking the gorge and Tiansiang, while the Buddhist temple is majestic in this splendid natural setting. On the opposite side of the town is the small Catholic Church, from which you can view the Buddhist pagoda, like a symbol of the great religious tolerance within Taiwan.

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Our bus trip from Taroko township to Lishan near Fushoushan Farm up high in the Taiwanese mountains in the centre of Taiwan in the extreme east of Taichung County. We passed through Tiansiang on the way and I took the chance this time to photograph the gorge as travelled along it. As we climbed the mountains, the scenery became more and more breathtaking, and the roads more and more treacherous along with the weather. In one instance the road had half subsided and the lane left was muddy with rain falling. As the bus, the only bus for that day from Taroko to Lishan made the crossing over this dangerous section of road, my heart was in my mouth. When we got to Lishan, it was raining, and you could not see any views due to the pea soup mist, but a friendly local gave us a lift to our hotel on Fushoushan Veteran's Farm

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Fushoushan Veteran's Farm near Lishan, which was Chang Kai Shek's summer retreat. We got there at about 2:00pm and at that time a pea soup fog was developing. We went back to our hotel room at 03:30, then we came out again at 05:00pm, and to my surprise it started to clear somewhat, and we were able to take some great photos, where the mist added some great effects. The following morning when we left it was a perfect day!! Well, them's the breaks.

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Photos from our bus trip from Lishan in the extreme west of Taichung County to Wushe in Nantou County; the only landlocked county in Taiwan. The first few photos are taken from the bus stop at Lishan, near Fushoushan Veteran's Farm and unlike the previous day with rain and heavy mist, was a beautiful clear morning which allowed me to take some great photos of the magnificent view.

25 files, last one added on Jun 30, 2008