After a long day exploring Fo Guang Shan Monastery (previous post) we decided to have a bit of a more relaxed night. We decided to head to Cijin Island to have a beer and watch the sunset.

To get to Cijin Island , you can take the MRT to Sizihwan station. Take exit one, and walk about 6 minutes to Banana Pier where you will find the Gushan Ferry Pier Station. You have to go inside the K2 building (the warehouse like building right beside the ferry pier) to pay for the journey. We used our easy card to pay (which we totally recommend getting) and it cost about 25 NTD.

Once you board the ferry, the journey takes about 10 minutes, and the ferry departs about once every half hour until about 7:45pm.

From the ferry’s arrival point, it was a 10 minute walk to Cijin Tunnel or “Star Tunnel”. This tunnel was dug by the Japanese during the occupation.

There were once constellation light sculptures on the ceiling of the tunnel, but they are no longer there. Once you exit the far side of the tunnel you are met with stunning views of the ocean and the rocky cliff face. In the cliff face there is a gunner strong hold, unassumingly also from the Japanese occupation.

We walked along the coast and stopped on the beach to have a beer and watch the sun set. We watched the ocean boats go by and sipped our beverages (a delightful spiced beer from Taiwan that tasted like a pumpkin beer).

We then walked back toward the ferry slowly (and came across a night market). The ferry line was much longer for the way back, but this turned out to be because we queued for the wrong ferry, and ended up back at Gushan and not KNH #2 where we had originally boarded. However, the walk between the two ferry ports was only a few minutes, and we were soon back at the Banana Pier.

At the Banana Pier we decided to have some dinner. We had sashimi, miso soup and beer, before heading back to our airbnb via the MRT.

We stopped briefly at the Liuhe market by our accommodation for Jives to try some Taiwanese sausage!