Changua

Sofi served in two different areas in Changua.  We stopped in the city for half a day so she could show us around.  We had 2 goals: eat a bowl of the best beef noodle soup in Taiwan and visit the giant Buddha overlooking the city.  Our path to the noodle shop led through a market.  The fresh fruit looked amazing.

The fruit stand offered durian, known for being the stinkiest fruit in the world.  Sadly, this fruit was dried out and didn't smell at all.  

This shopkeeper made us laugh with her extravagant compliments.

Sofi lived as a missionary in this large apartment building near the noodle shop.

A foodie member who lived in Taipei and was visiting Changua told the missionaries this shop made the best beef noodle soup in Taiwan.  Sofi hasn't eaten everywhere in Taiwan, but it was the best soup she tried and was one of her favorite lunch spots when she lived in Changua.  The restaurant is down a narrow street and doesn't even have a sign advertising its business.

We ate mango that we bought at the fruit stand while we waited for our soup.  As far as we could tell, every mango in Taiwan is perfectly ripe and delicious.

Beef noodle soup is Taiwan's national dish.  The base of the soup is rich beef broth.  Each bowl of soup is assembled individually with the broth, noodles, tender beef and fresh greens.  The restaurant made the same soup for Helen and Abe using rice instead of noodles.  It's a bit of a trick to eat the soup.  You hold a spoon in your left hand and chopsticks in your right and use the chopsticks to coil the noodles in your spoon.  Or drape them over the spoon.  Or slurp your noodles out of the bowl.  The soup was very delicious, but we could never find the restaurant again without Sofi's help.

We walked by the LDS church which was in the same neighborhood.  The churches are built tall and narrow like the other buildings in Taiwan.

After lunch we climbed a hill to see the big Buddha.  This building was about halfway up.

We climbed many, many stairs and finally made it to the top.  The Buddha is made of 300 tons of concrete and is 100 feet high.  The statue is hollow and we climbed up stairs inside to the level of its shoulders.

Stone lions guard the Buddha.

The traditional Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to each year.  There are 12 animals and the calendar repeats the zodiac animals every 12 years.  Statues representing the zodiac surrounded the Buddha.  Helen was born in the year of the monkey.

Becky was born in the year of the tiger.

Sofi: the year of the ox.

GIbson: the year of the pig.

Brandan: the year of the rat.

Abe: the year of the ram.

There was a large temple behind the Buddha.

The front of the temple was decorated with an elaborate carving of two dragons guarding a pearl.

Inside the temple we had a great view of the Buddha and the city below.

There was a small garden with a koi pond and a traditional pagoda behind the temple.