Today we continued our sightseeing in Tainan county, starting  with Zengwen reservoir,  a large man-made lake that provides irrigation for the Chianan plain (one of Taiwan’s most productive agricultural regions). We came up the river valley and our first view of the reservoir was the big dam with floodgates open and water flowing out. Luckily there was a viewing platform nearby and we stopped to snap a few pictures.

The dam with the floodgates open looks really impressive from below

We made a quick stop at the top of the dam before continuing on to the main tourist site, a specially designed viewing platform.

  • The dam from above.
  • Yini on the top of the dam
  • The view from the top of the dam

Most of the time when you look at the view, the platform from which you do the viewing is not important. This is the first time I’ve been at a viewing platform worth photographing in it’s own right.

The viewing platform

There is no denying the viewing platform was in a good place, becausee the view from up there was great.

  • Views of the reservoir
  • A rare picture of Yini and I together
  • Yini in front of the viewing platform

After a quick lunch at the small cafe there, we continued to the next tourist site, which just so happened to be another reservoir.  Wushantou reservoir was built by a Japanese engineer (this was during Japanese colonial rule) named Yoichi Hatta in the late 1920’s and, just like Zengwen, was meant for irrigating the Chianan plain. Yoichi Hatta’s house was still on the site and it was interesting to visit from a historical point of view but not really much to see. Interesting to note, Yoichi Hatta and the building of the reservoir is a side plot in the baseball film Kano, which I think is worth seeing, and that’s saying a lot for someone who doesn’t really like sports movies.

Having seen his house, we spent a hour in the rather mediocre water park they had on site. There were a couple of decent water slides but except for that, it wasn’t that good. I’m sure there is more to see in Tainan county but we felt like getting home before it got too late, so we called it quits and headed home.