Friday, March 13, 2015

Places to visit in Keelung: Zhongzheng Park (中正公園)

Zhongzheng Park is on top of a mountain in Keelung. There are several play areas for kids, a basketball court, and several temples and pavilions in the park area. The temple that I went to visit was the one that has a giant white statue of the goddess of mercy. The statue is hollow on the inside, and visitors who make a small donation can climb up to get a view of Keelung City and the harbor. I've never been up since the view from the area around the statue is pretty decent.
The day that we went to the park was gloomy, raining, and quite windy, so I sketched in the veranda of the temple. The weather was not ideal for sketching at all, but at least there were less people up there than usual and it wasn't super crowded. I caught a horrible cold (lasted 2 weeks!) after coming back and wasn't able to sketch for a while. I still have residual symptoms from the cold along with seasonal allergies and will also be off on vacation for a while soon, so I probably will be posting very sporadically.
Back to the topic: I wouldn't really rate Zhongzheng Park as a must see for Keelung since none of the temples and pavilions are that old. In my opinion, a lot of the stuff can be a bit garish looking. If you do happen to be around in the summer for Zhongyuan Festival, one of the temples (Zhuputan) is really famous for their festival and it might be worthwhile to go. Don't get too close though, as they set off a lot of fire crackers which can be dangerous when it is crowded. Here is a google map of the park location:

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