Day 4: A day trip to Tainan, part 2/4日目：台南日帰り旅行記（その2）

I'll keep posting a blog on my day trip to Tainan on April 21.
4月21日の台南日帰り旅行記の続きです。

I took a route 88 bus from Shennong Old Street and am heading to the Fort Zeelandia, the oldest castle in Taiwan which was built in 1624 during the Dutch occupancy.
神農老街から88番バスでオランダ統治時代の1624年に建てられた台湾で最も古い城堡である安平古堡へ。

Statue of Koxinga welcomes you to visit. He is regarded as the hero of Han Chinese because he drove the Dutch out of the country and gave power back to Taiwan in 1662. After that he was living in this castle over three generations.
入口には1662年に台湾を占拠していたオランダ人を撃退し3代にわたってこの城に住み続けた鄭成功像が建っています。

When going into the castle, I visited to the Fort Zeelandia Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall. The exhibition hall is located on the North side of the castle and was renovated customs headquarters by the Japanese in 1930. During the Japanese occupation era, they were cutting the walls to flatten and built the red brick flatbed and customs quarters there. As a result, the building of the Dutch era was once all destroyed. After the World War Two, it was renamed as Anping Fort by the Taiwanese Government, and built the present Fort Zeelandia Memorial Hall and observatory for tourism. In 1975, the large-scale repair work has been done, and it is used as as a pavilion to introduce the history of Anping from the Dutch occupancy to the present.  
中に入って早速安平古堡文物陳列館へ。古堡の北側に位置するこの展示館は日本統治時代の1930年に税関宿舎を改築したものです。日本統治時代ここの城壁を平らに削り、赤レンガの平台と税関宿舎が建てられ、オランダ時代の建物は一旦全て破壊されました。戦後国民党政府によって「安平古堡」と改名し、現在の安平古堡古蹟記念館や展望台が観光用に建てられました。その後1975年大規模な修復工事を行い、オランダ統治時代から現代に至る安平の歴史を紹介する展示館として利用されています。

Next, I went to the Old Tait & Co. Merchant House near the Fort Zeelandia. It was originally built and managed by the British and is one of the few valuable presence in Taiwan. This two-story white building still remains the vestiges of the past.
次は安平古堡に近い徳記洋行へ行きました。ここは元イギリス人経営の貿易商のお店で、台湾では数少ない存在でした。真っ白な外観の2階建ての建物で、当時の面影が残っています。

Then I went into the Anping tree house right next to the merchant house. It used to be a warehouse of the Old Tait & Co., a British trading company, at that time. Now there are intertwined with several old banyan trees in and out of the warehouse. The trunk grows along the wall, branches and leaves have becomes the roof, it's a natural works of art. It looks so scary, but you just relax and have a look at the strength of the life force of the banyan trees!
その後徳記洋行のちようど隣にある安平樹屋のガジュマルの木の中に入ってみました。ここは元々英商の倉庫で現在では倉庫の内外に古いガジュマルの木がいくつも絡み合っています。樹幹は壁に沿って成長していき、枝や葉が屋根となっていて、天然の芸術作品のようです。一瞬怖そうな感じがしますがぜひ中へ入ってみてガジュマルの木の生命力の強さをご覧になってはいかがでしょうか。

Before going back to the railway station, I stopped at some touristic places nearby. First, I visited to a tradtional Japanese-style house that has been used for the senior managers of Taiwan salt company during the Japanese occupancy.
駅に戻る前に付近の観光名所にいくつか立ち寄って見ました。最初に行ったのが日本統治時代に台南鹽業公司（台塩）幹部の宿舎として使用していた台塩日式宿舎です。

There is a Japanese garden, too. It's so small, but beautiful.
もちろんそこには和式庭園もあります。

A souvenir shop to sell local salt products. The greeting sign language  いらっしゃいませ  is written in a rattan blind, which means "welcome" in Japanese.
現地生産の塩を販売している宿舎内のお土産店。

The Old Julius Mannich Merchant House was a former German trading company, and was built by a German merchant. It seems to have been carried out business such as camphor, sugar and opium sales, and steamship operations etc.. in the building.
徳商東興洋行はドイツ商によって建られ、樟脳や砂糖、アヘンの販売と汽船運営などをしていた建物です。

I passed through the side of Anping Chinese temple, and strolled more traditional and quite busy arcade called Yanping Street. Finally I arrived at the Fort Zeelandia bus stop. The bus to Tainan Railway Station is a frequent service, operating every 15 minutes per hour.
安平天后宮そばを通り抜けて庶民的な賑わいを見せる延平街（ヤンピンジェ）をブラ歩きしながら台南駅行き2番バスが出ている近くの安平古堡バス停へ。バスは15分ごとに出ていてとても便利です。

The temple gate. It's a typical Chinese style, decorated with two things for happiness, raising dragons and jades on top of the gate.
天后宮の正門。門の上のほうには昇竜と翡翠が飾られていていかにも中華式という感じがします。

I took a bus from there. It takes a 45 minute journey, arrived at the railway station at 6:15 pm. I bought an express train ticket to Kaohsiung at a ticket window. The train will leave at 6:55 pm. Before that, I bought a Japanese style boxed meal at a bento shop located in the station platform. It serves deep fried pork with soy sauce, grilled salmon, quail egg, sauteed burdock and simmered vegetables on rice. It's my favorite one, so I ate it all up.
5時30分ごろのバスに乗って駅に着いたのが6時15分ごろ。切符売り場で6時55分発の高雄行き自強号のチケットを買い、乗り場へ向かいました。その前にホームにある弁当店で大好物である骨付き豚の甘辛煮弁当を買って乗る前に食べてしまいました。

The train came here right on time. Unlike the going train, it was crowded with many passengers.While enjoy surfing the Internet and listening to music on my Google Nexus7, the train arrives at Kaohsiung. After that I went to Rouhe Tourist Night Market, Kaohsiung's premier night market.
列車は定刻通りやってきました。行きと違いたくさんの客が乗っていました。車内で持参したGoogle Nexus 7でインターネットしたり、音楽を聴きながら楽しんでいるうちに高雄に到着。その後高雄で最も有名な夜市である六合観光夜市へ。