Solo Trip - Taiwan (July 2023) - Tainan Chihkan Tower Part 1

Around 630pm or so, I walked to Chihkan Tower, just a few minutes walk from my dinner place. I asked the ticket attendance what time was best to go in to see the sunset. Does it matter, I was already there, so I went in anyway. I know it was a small place, but I guess I could find something to do while waiting for the sun set?

Ta-Dah! My things to do! Feeding fish! Inside the compound, there was a pond. And it has so many fat orange koi fish inside just swimming all over each other. Their colour was so vibrant that I was mesmerised by them. 

The pond actually ran all over the ground, not just the front. I thought they were so beautiful.

I got me self some fish food and slowly settle in to feed them as slowly as possible, lol. Got to make them last till sunset! Some people came near me as I was feeding the fishes. They were so big!

Here's a nice shot of them. I had plenty of time! Actually, I saved half of the fish food for later. I decided to go inside the tower first.

Walking through the moon gate, it leads into the inner courtyard of the tower ground.

And up those stairs to enter the tower. There were some other temple next to it, but it was closed for, you guess it, renovation in summer! They were restoring some stone tablet there. What a waste for me.

The Chihkan Tower was just like a double storey old Chinese house. 

The colour of red and blue was beautiful, as where the old Chinese lanterns hanging inside.

Going up the stairs was interesting. As this was an old house, limited people were allowed upstairs at any one time. And from upstairs, you can look down to see the whole ground area like the above photograph.

There was a statue below which I guess, people pray to? Lord Kui Xing. Below is the instruction on how to get a pencil from him. Maybe to pass exams? I didn't partake in it. I wasn't in need of a pencil. But I did think his status was beautiful. You can almost feel his presence here :)

I didn't need the instructions to understand how it works. As a Chinese growing up, we use the same method when praying to our ancestors. Specifically we use it to ask if they are around when we offer food for them during Hungry Ghost or Cheng Meng festival, and ask again if they are done so that we can keep the food and burn the offerings. You can ask anything else in between, but it's kinda like a one way conversation, not very interesting, lol. 

Sun setting as I waited on the 2nd floor balcony of the tower :)