The final trip I would have time to do before my evenings flight leaving Taiwan was a visit to Kaohsiung's Lotus Lake. I'd been debating when to go over the last two days and decided to leave it to my final afternoon as a pleasant final memory of Taiwan.

Lotus Lake is close to Zouying Station which is the high speed train station in Kaohsiung several stops north of Kaohsiung Station where I had been staying. The subway ride cost $40 TWD ($1.25).

It didnt seem that far on the map but coming out of the station it was hard to figure out how to get there. I sort of oriented myself and began walking

After getting away from the station there were road signs directing towards the Confucius Temple on the north end of the lake. When I eventually made it there the complex was closed for winter renovations.

I decided to continue walking around the lake and saw several unusual types of piers with giant statues of Gods on them. There were temples around the lake also but I was short on time and had seen so many by this point in Taiwan I didnt want to see things I already had over the lake which was something different

The first pier had a giant God holding a long sword. Originally I wasnt going to walk up and down the piers as I saw no point and my legs were tired after so many days. However heading down to take some better shots I'm glad I did as I made an amazing discovery

The giant statue actually housed a two level interior temple which you could go inside to visit

Every surface area of the walls and staircase were beautifully decorated with artwork.

In the distance I could see the next pier so continued to walk around the lake, ignoring the temples that lined the ring road around the lake

The second pier was unusual in that there was a giant snake like dragon curved around the front of the pier. It looked like some kind of fairground ride the way it curled around.

Then I was surprised to see the mouth was open and you could walk inside

This was quite a surprising and amazing discovery as the interior body of the dragon was a long helter skelter type staircase and walkway the curved round, up and down.

It was beautifully decorated again with detailed artwork and murals on both walls for the entire length of the long winding tunnel.

After leaving the long winding body of the dragon I went to the end of this pier. There were two pagodas, one housing a drum, one housed a bell. At the half hour the bell and drum began to bang and chime in mechanical fashion similar to how a clock tower would mark the hour

These were amazing things I hadnt seen thus far in Taiwan so I was glad I focused on the lake rather than visiting the adjacent temples to see more of the same things I'd already seen

Finally at the southern tip of the lake were two twin pagoda style towers. This time each of these had an open mouthed dragon and tiger for each tower.

I entered the dragon (no Bruce Lee pun intended) to go into the left tower. Similar to the dragon before it this was a tunnel covered with artwork.

On the pier you could go up both of the twin pagodas but I didnt want to climb up and down after so many days of walking

To exit the second tower I had to come back thru the body of the tiger and exit thru its mouth. The path leading to the twin pagoda towers was a zig zag walkway over the water in chinese style.

Lotus Lake had more to see than I had expected. Again, it needs more time and a whole afternoon exploring it properly. I was just doing a run thru so that I could claim to have seen it.

Trying to get back to the subway again was tricky with lots of walking but I eventually made it. This time the ticket back was only $20 TWD (.65 cents) as I wasnt travelling as far as I did to get here.