With a busy day planned for today, a good breakfast in the hotel's restaurant was imperative. (Though we would've had a good breakfast even if nothing was planned for today!)

By 9:30, we were headed through this gate up into the mountains to the 五湖園 (Five Lakes Memorial Pagoda) where the ashes of Mei-O's mom, dad, and younger brother 銘順 (Mingshun) are interred. We were riding with Meihui, and were going to meet Mingqi and Zhiwei there to all pay our respects together as a family. Here are a few general pictures of the pagoda and the grounds surrounding it.

Upon entering the pagoda, this sign asks visitors to:

"Pay homage to the Bodhisattva
with hands joined in reverence.
The Buddhist Altar Area is a place of solemn dignity.
Please place all offerings upon the altar tables located in the worship area."

We took an elevator up to the third floor to find the niches for Ma, Pa, and Mingshun. Here are Ma and Pa's; Ma (羅鄒阿月) on the left and Pa (羅天來) on the right. Mingshun's niche (羅銘順) was nearby (thanks to Meihui who purchased the niches.) The niches were all closed but not locked.

Pa's urn. When you open a niche, the urn is still behind a locked glass, so these pictures of the opened niches have a lot of reflections on them. Here's Ma's urn and here's Mingshun's. It was hard to get us all in the narrow aisles, so a few at a time paid their respects.

I had to include this here. What is it? It's a tiny model of a room complete with nice modern furniture and even some bottles of liquor on the table in the back (and a laptop!) When you purchase a niche for a loved one, you can have their urn placed in a miniature room like this (on the yellow platform), giving them all the comforts of home for eternity! There were several different rooms to choose from. These little furnished rooms with a loved one's funerary urn fit inside of a standard-size niche, just like the kind Mei-O's father, mother, and brother's urns were in! I imagine they're pretty expensive....

Eventually we left, following Zhiwei down the hill in Meihui's car. We passed under this gate, heading back into the city. We were to meet some other family members for lunch, but it was too early, so we stopped...

... to pass some time, chat, and let me take some pictures. We stopped at the 大坑清新橋 Bridge (also called the 蝴蝶橋 (Butterfly) Bridge.) Here's a picture of it at night I got from the internet. From my vantage point, I could also see the 大坑情人橋 bridge (the Lovers' Bridge), which also gets lit up at night. In the other direction, through a piece of public art, I could see the 藍天白雲橋 (Blue Sky White Clouds) Bridge. These bridges are three of four distinctive, photogenic scenic bridges located along Xiangshun East Road in Taichung’s Dakeng area. It was a significant place to stop and take a few pictures.

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