Tomb Sweeping Weekend

At the beginning of April, Taiwanese people celebrate Tomb Sweeping Weekend. They use this time to visit the graves of their ancestors to pray and clean the tombs.

Foreign teachers in Taiwan use this time to travel during the 4 day weekend.

My roommate Stephen, my girlfriend Sarah (at the time), my friends Pam and Dave, and I all took a trip to Hualien and Taroko National Park.

Here are some pics with the corresponding narratives:

Hualien is a coastal city in eastern Taiwan, so our first stop was to the fish market to pick up some freshly caught seafood.


Building a fire on the beach

Grilling the clams, oysters, sea snails, crabs, and salmon we purchased earlier. Very tasty.

The next morning we rented some scooters and drove around Taroko National Park.


Entrance to the National Park


The monument built to honor the people who died while building another monument. No, I'm not kidding.



Entrance to the rain cave. This was a short tunnel that had water pouring down in the middle of it harder than any shower.


All the Taiwanese people in the park carried umbrellas or wore raincoats in the cave. We dove right in.

Swimming in the cold, fast water of the cave.View from atop a cliff over looking the beach.


Paparazzi shot


Also included in the trip (but not pictured) was a visit to the hot springs town of Ruisui, a stop at a dairy farm where we enjoyed fresh ice cream and pudding, and 3 hours of dealing with a broken down scooter 4 hours away from where we rented them. One of the many reasons why it's always a good idea to bring along a Taiwanese girlfriend.