Convenient Yilan

Yilan is the second stop on our clockwise tour of the island.  Lonely Planet doesn't even have a section for Yilan, Rough Guide deems it "pleasant but unremarkable."  However, it made an excellent base for us.  Everyday we got on the train to have an outing, except on the Saturday morning we took a short walk around town instead.

Yilan is a very typical, in what I imagine as a Taiwanese city

• Many shabby, aged buildings, dotted with a few well-preserved Japanese era buildings, a few decent looking modern buildings, and a handful of fanciful buildings that could server as kindergarten or poorly illustrated children's books.
• Colorful temples with varying degree of business, depending on the day of the Buddhist calendar. 
• Many scooters, both moving and stationary, making walking an obstacle course.
• Bustling night market of eateries of mostly local specialties and a few faraway delicacies, a lot of meat and seafood.
• Vegetarian restaurants, mostly vegan, specializing in breakfast, noodles, rice noodles, dumplings, Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, takeaway or sit-down or all-you-can-eat... -- needless to say all highlights for us.

On the Saturday morning, there were quite a few tourists in town.  Our hotel was full. 

This walking tour map of Old Yilan is displayed near the Visitor Center. The red brush is the Visitor Center and train station; green, our hotel; yellow, night market.


Yilan Station.


Park across from the Yilan Train Staion.


Jimmy Park.




The historic Japanese Cinema building.


Former Bank of Taiwan Building (1949), now the Yilan Museum of Art (YMA).


Vegetarian Lunch; price determined by cashier after looking under your greens beans to see if you are hiding a by-the-piece item. ;-) The soup is free.


Historic Japanese building from the Period of Japanese Occupation, 1895 to 1945.




Student makes an offering to ensure good results at school or on national exams.


This coffin makers shop ...


... is located across the street from this Temple.


And when in Yilan one must stop by the famous Cong You Bing (Savory Scallion Pancake) food stall at the south end of the night market. 80 cents each plus 10 more if you want a egg fried on/with it. Expect a queue.