the mystery of the giant golden buddha

I have a very sophisticated system for finding places to go to on our scoot adventures. It involves a combination of google maps and google images. I pull up a map of Hsinchu City, where I live, and start looking for towns nearby that have English names. Then, I look at the town on google images to decide if it's worth journeying to. I told you it was sophisticated.

Emei is one of the towns that appear beside Hsinchu City on the map. When I tried to google image it, the only image that appeared was one of a giant golden Buddha statue.

I thought it was an intriguing image.
So we went.

It was actually pretty easy to find because this Buddha is the tallest thing around for miles. We were lost and wondering where to go when Sean looked down into a valley and started laughing.

Because there it was, huge and golden, lighting our way like a beacon.

When we got to the complex, it was closed and everything was behind gates and fences. We could still drive around it so we did. We saw a sign that had some dates on it and the name "Nature Loving Wonderland". 

What an odd name, we thought.

We wondered what was inside the huge building.
We wondered why the Buddha was holding the world.
We wondered what all the statues were in the courtyard in front of the big Buddha.

We wondered what the Nature Loving Wonderland was all about.
It was just such a mystery to us.

So of course I googled it when we got home. I found an English website too! But in the end this explanation didn't really help me understand the place any better:

Finally, jolly good news had arrived in this world.The opening ceremony of the Nature Loving Wonderland located in the Hsinchu county of Taiwan was held on March 5th-6th, 2011. For residents in Hsinchu, it was a small step toward a more civilized society; to all humankind, it was a giant step forward to a New Civilization that transcends nationality, ethnicity, religion, and culture.

That night, a local friend came over for a bit. We told him about our adventure to the giant golden Buddha statue, and he told us that he just went to a cafe with a great view of it the previous weekend.

Excited, I asked him what the place was all about.

I had to laugh a little when his response was, "Hmmm, I don't know. That place is a bit of a mystery to me".

...so, I guess I will have to wait until the complex opens again in late September to unravel the mystery of the giant golden Buddha statue and Nature Loving Wonderland.

Have you ever come across really a perplexing place on your travels??

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