Ten Drum Cultural Village-Tainan Metropolitan Park

     Our schedule for the day would be light and easy especally for my mom who is 70+ years old and still picking tea leaves or doing farm works. Traveling to her was of time and consumed money. She likes working on a farm all day and without complaining but traveling for some distances was unbearable. She complained that she could not walk too long because her knees were not good. Some of my sisters had a tendency to spoil her instead of encouraging her to take a walk as an exercise. The definition of enjoying life is totally different between me and my mother. 

     However, I understand her past and appreciate her working hard to raise 6  children. She grew up in a generation which women were less educated or received no education at all. They were also asked to work hard and sacrifice themselves for glory and to respect their husbands and their husbands' families without any questions. There was not gender equality in her time. Also when they get old, they have to embrace the change of the social norm and the society. The younger generations are not taught to work hard or have to sacrifice themselves to respect their husbands and husband's family. The young generations receive more education. There is more gender equality in the younger generations. So for my mom's generation, they have to learn and adjust their thinking to accept the ways of their daughters in laws' thinking at home. Also they lose their absolute authority as a mother-in-laws for governing their sons and sons' families.

The view of Tainan city in the early morning from our hotel room.

The Portion of the Southwest Coast in Tainan City

     While I was vacationing in the States this summer, one of my sisters asked me to plan a two or three-day-trip for her and other sisters in Oct in Taiwan. It was a precious girls' trip for my sisters without their husbands and kids. I had to accept the invitation to take them traveling around Taiwan. In fact my husband and I had become my family's tour planner and driver since we retired and resided in Taiwan. 

     Of course this trip was also included my husband's mother-in-law. My poor husband had to endure 6 women yelki yelki for more than a 2 hours drive. Planning this trip was a little bit of a headache to me because my mother didn't want to visit mountain areas and also I had to avoid places that some of my sisters had been before. So I came up with the idea of visiting Tainan for its famous traditional food which no one would reject it. 

Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields:

This was the first sight when we arrived at our first stop at the Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields in Tainan. This was a small seafood restaurant which emphasized freshness. It is probably opened during Weekend not on weekdays.  

Day 9: The Ancient Capital City Tainan With The Influence Of Holland

     It was time to say good bye to the Kaohsiung city and continue our journey for visiting the oldest city Tainan. It was about an hour drive from Kaohsiung to Tainan. We dropped off our friends Kent and his girl friend at the high speed train station in Zuoying on the way to Tainan because his right knee was getting worse. It was not easy to say goodbye to good companies, but we had no choice over his situation. At least, I knew Kent and his girlfriend enjoyed this trip untill now.   

We stopped at this beach in the outskirt of Tainan. There was an American beach nearby; however, it was gone due to the city development. My husband asked a lot of local people about the exact location, but no one could give a correct answer. We stood here listening to my husband talked about the history of American military stationed in Tainan. 

This was a tourist service center. It was built by a former city mayor who was in jail, because the mayor didn't apply for a permit to build it. So, it would be taken down soon because of the legal issue. That was surpriseing news to me.