Lukang 鹿港, literally "Deer Harbor", is one of Taiwan's oldest towns and one of the most popular destinations on Taiwan's West coast. My wife and I went there at the busiest time of the year: During Spring Festival a.k.a. Chinese New year. There were so many people coming to town at the same time, it was very hard to explore the city and enjoy all the beautiful remains of the old times it offers. We had to fight ourselves through endless crowds of visitors and felt a little moody. Since this is such an interesting town, we've decided to return in the future, at a time, where not a lot is going on. Lukang has so many interesting corners, that you have to take your time and bring a good lens. Nevertheless, here are some images from Lukang from January:
The bus dropped us off a little outside the town center.
Zhongshan Street 中山路
Five minutes of walk and we were at the central Zhongshan road.
The Dragon year celebrations attracted a lot of visitors.
It was a night market atmosphere.
New Mazu temple 新祖宮
New Mazu Temple or Shinzu Temple (close to Tienhou temple).
A stele near Shinzu temple: Some idiot carved 牛兴人 in the old artifact from the Qing Dynasty, probably his name. 兴 is written in simplified Chinese and we know who uses it.
The Shinmazu temple.
Lots of visitors.
The roof top of the temple.
My wife buying a salty cake.
It was quite tasty.
Lukang Assembly Hall 鹿港公會堂
Freshly renovated Assembly Hall from Japanese times (and under surveillance).
Nanching temple 南靖宮
Nanching temple.
The entrance of Nanching temple.
The altar.
It was very lively in Lukang's oldest part.
Lukang Old Street 鹿港老街
A map of Lukang's Old street.
An interesting lantern.
Lots of people occupied the narrow street.
A very narrow lane.
Old shops on the left and right selling souvenirs.
An old door. I wonder what is behind.
It was getting dark, so we headed back.
By peeking through a hole, I spotted this gem.
Here's where the old street ends.
The ugly side of Lukang 鹿港醜陋的一面
This part was not really what a top tourist destination should look like.
Lukang should learn from Tamsui, one of the cleanest tourist towns in Taiwan.
Slowly walking out of here and hoping, that they will make this part nicer.
A building from Japanese times, perhaps?
Zhongshan road again. The new year decoration was dominating the sky.
Intersection of Zhongshan Road and Minzu Road.
Minzu road.
We decided to walk around Zhongshan road.
The purple dragon.
A-Zhen's meet baozi 阿振肉包
A famous baozi shop lured my wife, who couldn't resist.
It was yummy, but not worth the 15 min of waiting.
A small park with a dragon boat.
Lukang Folk Arts Museum 鹿港民俗文物館
This building is also known as the Old Koo's house.
The museum houses Ming and Qing Dynasty artifacts.
A glowing paper dragon was the last thing we saw before we took the bus back.
This video sums up all the favorite spots in Lukang. Nicely done.
I didn't really enjoy the tour around Lukang, because there were just too many people and we didn't want to push ourselves to popular temples, so we just went on a small tour and returned to Changhua. I strongly recommend you to visit, when there is not a lot of visitors, if you can come during the week days, should be your best choice. I will definitely return on a less busy day.
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