Wanjin

We successfully met up with my mom, who traveled down from Taipei that morning, in front of the basilica (also here). They're celebrating their 150th anniversary this year – the feast day was 11 December.

We had a late lunch at this awesome little cafe next door, overlooking the church courtyard.

Drew absolutely raved about their coffee, which comes with this amazing cream on top.

Afterward we had a walkabout. When Wong PP was younger, she lived in Wanjin for a time with her older sister, who was a midwife – her husband was a physician. She managed to find a few people whom she knew from those days, including a school chum.

The sister lived in that white house, one of only two two-story homes back in the day, a sign of much prominence. They were the only non-Catholics in the entire community. (That little cart on the side of the street sells fabulous homemade steamed buns, esp the ones with black sesame filling.) Even today, the town is three-fourths Catholic, nearly everyone has a statue of Mary inside their home, and a picture of some angel pasted to the front door.

In the evening, Wong PP's nephew took us to the next town over, Wanluan, for championship winning (2010) ham hocks, or pig knuckles. I'm used to having mine with the cooking juice and a mantou to sop it up, these were served dry (here) with a heavily garlic-ed sauce on the side, and oh-so tender. Business seemed rather slow on this night, but the nephew informed us that bus loads of people come on Saturdays and Sundays, filling all three of their locations (and other restaurants) along the same street.

Our six person dormitory room at the church. Those are mightily thin pads on an elevated wood planking, lots of homes don't have plush mattresses like we do in the States because it would get too warm in the summer, esp before people commonly had air conditioning units.

We visited the local daily market for a look-see. Wong PP showed us where there used to be a steam separating the Catholic part of town from the local temple.

An odd blue Christmas tree, next to one of dozens of nativity scenes displayed throughout town.

Unfortunately, Wong PP misplaced her cell phone somewhere, spent the morning retracing her steps, and later calling over to the phone company to have her service canceled, so we stuck close to the church, people watching.

There was a wedding on, in which they shot off confetti cannons when the bride and groom emerged. And would you believe we met a family from Kansas City? They were visiting for the traditional Hakka engagement ceremony of their daughter to a Chinese fellow, probably an ABC like me. 

As part of the ongoing anniversary celebrations, some 200 bicyclists, including some county official, rode from Kaohsiong to Wanjin, a distance of 60? km. We were there just in time to greet them.
 

Enjoying a warm ginger beverage courtesy of the church.

My mom had a treatment done by this guy, who is a cross between a deep-tissue masseuse and a chiropractor. After dinner Drew had the same treatment done, and loved it.

We walked to the elementary school to work up our appetites. This track field, on the backside of the school, overlooks a betel nut farm and starts to work up into the mountains after that.

This was an neat little slide that Z conquered on her own. The "stairs" are the bars in the middle of the structure, something you won't see in the United States.

Had an ume plum tsua bing, an awesome combination of flavors, for dessert.

This canopy of blue lights was one of Wanjin's after-dark highlights, culminating in a triple-nativity scene. There were also nightly concerts behind the church, which we heard pretty well from our room.