Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Thursday, October 4, 2007 0:00 am TWN, By Richard Saunders, Special to The China Post

Hemmed in by steep hills crowned with the remains of five old forts, Taiwan’s northeastern city of Keelung is a much more interesting, even surprising, place than many give it ...

Enlarge Photo

Sponsors
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.

Discount Hotel Rates

Keelung’s unforgettable caves

At the end is another, very atmospheric prayer chamber, usually clogged with incense smoke and water vapor evaporating from the wet floor. This unique place never fails to surprise and delight, and when foreign friends come to Taiwan for a stay, this place is a compulsory stop on their island tour.

Once you emerge from the cave, steps on the left climb up a cleft in the cliff face to Fairy Cave Park at the top of the cliffs. Make the short climb to the terrace in front of the large adjoining temple, and you’ll be rewarded with panoramic views over Keelung harbor and the hills surrounding the town on three sides.

Until recently, Fairy Cave was the only one of a number of natural caverns in this area officially open to the public, but local authorities have now also opened the adjoining (and even more extraordinary) Buddha’s Hand Cave (佛手洞), complete with lighting for easy exploration.

The entrance is a short walk from the parking area in front of Fairy Cave and is clearly signposted. After a few steps up to the base of the sheer cliff face, the steps disappear into a low cave.

Buddha’s Hand Cave is a lot longer than it appears at first, and erosion once caused by the sea (now several hundred meters away, courtesy of the huge land reclamation project that created the present port area) has cut deep into fault lines in the soft rock, creating a series of zigzagging tunnels burrowing deep into the rock. The interior is well lit with lights, and the cavern isn’t so big that there’s any danger of getting lost.

Take the time, however, to walk to the farthest end of the system (about a five-minute walk) and marvel at the eponymous hand, an astounding natural formation of cracks and strata lines in the ceiling of the cave that really do look like huge human fingers.

Follow the signs for the exit and you’ll emerge into the open air at a different place, from a small opening in the cliff down a picturesque narrow alley of blue and orange walls. This is an attractive, hidden corner of traditional Keelung, and it’s a pleasant short walk back to the parking area outside Fairy Cave.

It only takes an hour to explore the two caves, but nothing in Keelung is as unusual, or as memorable, as these two fascinating caverns—sights you can visit whatever the weather throws at this most inclement corner of Taiwan.

1|2