We started our day out with visits to a couple different temples and attractions around the Zuoying district of Gaoxiong. The first was the Dragon and Tiger pagodas as pictured below. No matter what temple we go to you seem to learn something new every time. Here there was zig-zag bridge and apparently the reason for this is that it is believed that ghosts only can walk in straight lines so the zig-zag stops ghosts from entering the temple.
The entrance and exist of the pagodas was the same as any temple. Enter through the dragon and exit through the lion. Throughout both of the entrance and exit hall ways there where stories, lessons, gods and even hell depicted which small statues that set scenes or stood on their own. We walked to the top of both pagodas for an awesome vie of the next spot we would stop at as well as the a near by water ski park.
The next stop was also a temple with a large statue of Guan Yu, the god of war. Here we took some cool pictures with the large statue and also got some small keychain like things blessed for a small donation. This temple also had two levels both related to Guan Yu which i thought was interesting, not sure if there is any meaning behind this.
After this temple we then went to a mazu temple very similar to all of the ones that we went to prior. This one seemed to be a little bit more extravagant as the back half of the temple seemed to be completely know or renovated. There where little yellow signs everywhere in the new part of the temple with price tags on them. These where there for any individual that might be interesting in donating money to the temple and getting there name carved on to the piece of the temple with the yellow sign. This was interesting because the temple was not forcing anyone to buy these but they where there and advertised throughout the whole temple.
After getting back from our day time activities a group of me and some classmates decided to try to catch the sunset at the beach. We made it just in time for a couple of good pictures and a nice walk on the beach. Getting to the beach was quite difficult as we had to take two different line and then walk a good ways. The actual entrance to the beach was so far away because of what is my guess shore line protection architecture.