Team JR Day 1 Trip- Cimei Island

Today Jason and I embarked on Day 1 of our 4 day tour of the Penghu islands! We flew to our first stop, a small island called Cimei, from Kaohsiung airport. Riding in a 20-seater plane for the first time was part of the experience!

We were picked up from Cimei’s tiny airport by someone from the bed and breakfast we had booked. The bed and breakfast had also arranged a scooter rental for us, and soon Jason and I were on our way to explore the tiny island.

View Team JR Day 1 Trip at Cimei Island in a larger map

I am using a GPS tracking devide by Qstarz, the device allow me to record our travel route and convert to google map, quite cool.

We were struck instantly by Cimei’s beautiful landscape – blue skies, rolling green hills, clean blue water, clean bright buildings, clean quaint roads and lots of goats grazing peacefully in open pastures. It reminded me a bit of some areas in England and in France that I have visited. Within a couple of hours, we had driven around the island and stopped at numerous interest points.

The first attraction we visited was “Twin Hearts Stone Weir,” a double-heart fish trap made of stones, which can be viewed above from a cliff or at sea level after descending a flight of stone steps. I also took the chance to buy a couple of postcards sold with shells and other tourist items on the overlooking cliff.

We continued driving and admiring the view and then stopped at “Little Taiwan,” a rock in the sea near the beach that has eroded to become shaped like a mini version of Taiwan.

We drove some more, and stopped at “Seven Beauties’ Tomb”. According to legend, this is the site of the well that seven young beautiful women jumped into to avoid being raped by pirates. Some people leave offerings at this site which has become a shrine (such as nail polish, jewellery, make up, iced tea, bottled water, etc). Lastly, Jason and I headed to the harbour area. Here, we saw fishing boats moored and several small-scale restaurants. It struck me how clean the area looked, and how quiet!

We looked around briefly, returned to our bed and breakfast for a break, and drove back to the harbour area for dinner. The owner of the bed and breakfast owns one of the restaurants, so we decided to eat there. We enjoyed a delicious and inexpensive dinner of oysters, squid with bamboo, seaweed and egg soup, chow mein, and guava juice.

Jason and I enjoyed our day exploring beautiful quiet Cimei – a little gem off the coast of mainland Taiwan. Tomorrow morning we will have breakfast and take the 10 am ferry to Magong.