Wandering Fel

Museums are used to be places which are only visited by students on a field trip or school excursion. Or when they have an assignment to complete which relates to history. But, nowadays, museums are trying to provide education in a fun and entertaining in order to lure the ordinary people to go to museum for leisure. If you love this kind of leisure, you will like visiting Taiwan because Taiwan is full of museums and I have to say, most of them are fun and interactive. When my buddy from the US come to Taipei, he was quite interested in finding out more about the Taiwanese history so yeah, there is no better place to bring him but to the museum, right? So here we are, in National Museum of History in Taipei, enjoying the Historical East Asian Trade exhibition. On a Sunday afternoon.

The Historical East Asian Trade Exhibition in National Museum of History, Taipei

The theme of the Historical East Asian Trade exhibition is about the Taiwan's role in the maritime world during the 17th century where the Europeans conquest for world domination.

In this period, the Europeans fought each other over sea routes and way stations in order to dominate the lucrative trade with resource rich East Asia. One of the most sought commodity from Taiwan in that period of time is salt. We did see the remains of the salt field during one of our trips to Budai Salt Mountain and Zhounan Salt Fields in Chiayi.

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At one glance, the bustling Taiwan harbor in those days is kinda similar to the one belongs to Singapore. You can check the Singapore's exhibition at The Maritime Experiential Museum in Sentosa.

As usual, the business is conducted by the order of a lot of businessman. The businessman usually also have stores like medicine or liquor stores. The details displayed by National Museum of History in Taipei is really complete. It works very well to bring visitor back to that era.

The nearest train station to National Museum of History is Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall Station. You can go to exit 1 or 2 of the station and walk straight. The map taken from its website may be of good help to you.

"And so...the adventure begins"

I have never thought that we are going to an adventure in Taiwan to a haunted house. I am not a fan of a horror stories or anything related to ghosts. But, of course, one of our daring friends must go to this particular haunted place in Chiayi, Minxiong Ghost House. He assured me (and the rest of the scaredy-cats) that Minxiong Ghost House was so popular to the extent that it has become a tourist place. Oh well, might as well fulfil his wish before he nags and nags for the rest of the trip.

Just like that, we are finally here at the scene of a haunted house in Chiayi, Minxiong Ghost House. Well, I suppose from the outside it just kinda looks like an abandoned house of some rich people.

Haunted place in Chiayi, Minxiong Ghost House

Let's find out the background story of the house. This old European style red brick house is used to known as the Liu Family Mansion. The house was built in 1929 for Liu Rongyu, a businessman with seven children. It was abandoned not long after the Japanese colonial regime. Oh great, there is a headless statue welcoming you at the entrance of the house. The house does look pretty huge though.

The house has been abandoned for so long until it has fused together with the roots big trees. This kinda reminds me of a tree house in Anping. The ruin is actually pretty clean, there are zero traces of the former occupants inside the house. At certain section of the walls, we also could see vandalism. I thought it's a no no to do such disrespect stuff to a haunted place?

Yep, nothing inside. Oh, are you asking why the house was abandoned in the first place? There are no concrete details of why the house was abandoned. A lot of rumours have been going on amongst the locals and in the internet world though. One of the rumours was saying that a group of Japanese soldiers were camping here for a night before they started to be confused by the ghost and ended up killing each other. Hmm, sounds like a setting for Battle Royale with a mystic influence.

Inside Minxiong Ghost House in Chiayi Taiwan

Another rumour said that the maid of the Liu family killed herself by drowning herself into the well (don't tell me she turned into Sadako). The said well is now dry and full of rocks. And okay, I seriously don't know why there is a skull pirate there near the well.

Even without these stories, the existence of the house itself has intrigued me. A European style house in the middle of nowhere in Taiwan? Plainly weird. Hahaha.

Anyway, it's good to visit this place if you have spare time to kill in Chiayi because the place is kinda out of the way which means you either need to rent a scooter, bike or take a cab here. There is no detailed address for Minxion Ghost House but I am sure everyone in the nearby town know about its existence very well, including all the cab drivers.

Since today is our last day in Penghu, our itinerary for the day is to take a stroll in Magong city. Magong city is located on the main island and it is also the primary urban area in Penghu Island. The city also has nice proximity to the water, which can be seen from where we took picture of the symbol of the city that morning.

Magong City has a lot of hotels, a few cafes, old temples, and what we are looking forward to the most, awesome seafood. While we were food hunting, we saw that most houses in Magong city have holes on its walls. Turns out we were walking the old city area of Magong, where the city decided to just leave the area as it is to preserve the old houses for cultural purpose.

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Oh hello there, Mr Grilled Squid. Do you see the size of the squid? They are huge! Penghu has a lot of seafood restaurants serving the local delicacies from its water. Wild lobsters and wild giant prawns are just some of the sea creatures which can be found in Penghu's waters. The seafood industry in Penghu has been thriving for a number of years. Even historically, back in the 1500s, the Portuguese were so impressed of Penghu's fishing industry, they decided to name the islands the Pescadores, which means the "Islands of the Fishermen".

We could not wait to try more Penghu's seafood so we quickly made our way to the restaurant area in Magong city. We did not do any research beforehand so we just tried whichever restaurant that we felt like trying.

We tried the famous local delicacies called lobster pancake, which is small triangle flatbread filled with tasty lobster meat and tomato. In addition, we also ordered more squid. We did have more food but I forgot to take picture because we were too hungry by the time the food arrived. Hunger got the best of us. Hahaha.

Local seafood delicacies of Penghu Taiwan

Do take your time to savor the local seafood delicacies of Penghu. They are so good even the famous hotel in Taipei, W Taipei, has a special occasion to showcase the special seafood dishes featuring wild lobsters which are delivered all the way from Penghu Island.

Wandering Fel

The Historical East Asian Trade Exhibition in National Museum of History, Taipei

Haunted place in Chiayi, Minxiong Ghost House

Take a stroll in Magong city