Thursday, February 7
I had never heard of this place so there were no expectations, which is always a good place to start. Right off the bat, driving through town my first impression was how clean and orderly Taiwan was. We only drove through Kaohsiung City as we headed about 45 minutes out of town to visit the Fokuangshan Golden Buddha and Monastery. It was a spectacular location and really impressed me from start to finish.
This is the largest seated Buddha in the world and the entire complex was only finished in 2011, funded solely by donations.
The Monastery is adjacent to the Golden Buddha complex but is older, dating back to the 1960s. The large meditation hall contains almost 15,000 buddha statues. The feeling in this space is unbelievable and I wish I had time to spend here meditating and enjoying the beauty. There were many other beautiful buildings on the grounds of the monastery housing a museum, lodgings for people to come stay for a retreat, tourist shops restaurants, and on and on.
This was a really hot day and the climb up to the Monastery was really taxing on some people. It wasn’t too bad for me, but as we were heading back to the boat I definitely hit a wall of tiredness. There was long boardwalk where our boat was and if I had more time and energy, I would have loved to explore that more. Kaohsiung City was a really charming surprise. I loved my day there and would definitely return!
Where's Lindsey? 