After our respite at the cafe, we walked across the city to the Lukang Folk Arts Museum.  This building houses various arts and crafts from the region including traditional dress, jewelry, and furniture.

By all appearances, it was quite a grand residence back in the day.

After the museum, we wound our way through alleys and back streets to eventually arrive at the Lukang Longshan Temple.  A photo of the main gate is below.

After entering the main gate, we arrived at Wumen Hall.

This building also contains a stage with a gorgeous ornately carved ceiling from the 1830s.

Past this was the Main Hall and what we thought was the end of what the temple had to show us.

However, we found that by going through the portal to the right of the main hall, we could explore a beautiful garden with a waterfall and pond containing koi fish and turtles.

I hadn’t seen the yellow-colored koi often before and it was quite a sight to see so many of them in the pond.

As a final stop for our trip to Lukang, we made our way to the “Breast-Touching Lane,” which does not mean what you probably think it means (keep it clean, everyone!). The lane was so called because it is very narrow and if 2 people were to meet inside of it going in opposite directions, their chests would touch as they passed each other sideways.

We entered the lane at the widest part and it became even narrower as we went such that our shoulders almost touched the walls as we walked through it.

With the sun setting after our long day in Lukang, we headed back to Taichung to visit Miyahara, a famous ice cream shop.

Unfortunately, we didn’t exactly choose wisely with our flavors and toppings. We ended up with mango sorbet (ok), grapefruit sorbet (bleh!), and tea ice cream (would have been ok on its own probably) topped with a bit of sponge cake, a sesame sweet, a slice of cheesecake (which was more like a cake made with cheese), and some crunchy barley and rice. Nevertheless we did finish the entire thing…but next time I choose my own flavors. 😉

We then headed for the local train station to catch a connection back to the high speed rail. The intersection in front of the train station was bustling with commuters, tourists, and students.

I’ll leave you with a parting shot of the platform where we caught the local train.

See you tomorrow!