Keelung: Last Stop for The Giant Rubber Duck

If you come to Taiwan these couple months, you can see a lot of yellow duck merchandises: dolls, T-shirts, hats, slippers, soaps, you name it. Well, if you don’t know the reason and still wonder why, we will let you know. The reason is Taiwanese most people in Taiwan are in joy (if we cannot say it’s an euphoria) because The Giant Rubber Duck, the joy spreader itself, has arrived in Taiwan! The Giant Ruber Duck was created by Florentijn Hofman for the purpose of entertaining the world by a tour named “Spreading joy around the world”. Currently, it has come to not only 1 but 3 cities in Taiwan, from south to the north. *hooray*

Keelung rubber duck

Keelung rubber duck

Let us clear one thing up first: even many people call it “rubber duck”, it is made of plastic (PVC to be precise). This leads to many unfortunate events occurred in all three cities it visited. In Kaohsiung, the celebrity bird had to be deflated and we can blame Usagi, typhoon that hit Taiwan in 2013. Looks like weather was jealous of this giant duck and sent a super-typhoon to deflate it.

After sometimes in Kaohsiung, we think the giant duck was too tired. Therefore, a stuntbird was sent to Taoyuan to meet its fans. In this city, a tragedy also happened and the bird was murdered by an earthquake. Jealousy of the earth, perhaps? 🙂 This caused the celebrity bird “swam” from Kaohsiung all the way to Taoyuan for the sake of Taoyuan fans.

Now, the giant duck has arrived in Keelung for its final stop in Taiwan and yet, it was not smooth. On the New Year’s Eve, one eyewitness said an eagle attempted to murder the giant by scratching it using its talon. It is still unconfirmed whether the tragedy was caused by an attempted murder or temperature fluctuation. We put our money on the attempted murder, though. If we are fowls, we indeed will be jealous of all attentions towards this big yellow plastic bird :). Fortunately, after two days of surgery, the celebrity returned back to the harbor. We were grateful with the news and decided to saw him before any other “accidents”.

If you live in Taipei, you can easily go to see this bird by using bus or train. It is a little bit difficult to catch a bus on the weekend, but it will be better if you go to its terminal station. If you want to cut the hassle, a cab can also take you there for around 500 to 600 NTD. The giant duck sits calmly on the Keelung Harbor, near Keelung Train and Bus Station, so it is very hard to miss it. The exhibition in Keelung was started around Christmas, so you can also see a lot of yellow duck Christmas decorations there. We are not very sure whether the decorations will be changes at the end of this month for Lunar New Year.

Rubber duck Christmas decorations

Rubber duck Christmas decorations

 We suggest you to go there late afternoon so you can enjoy the bird in both daylight and moonlight. Moreover, after taking couple pictures with this bird, you can also cross an intersection near the harbor and enjoy Keelung night market. The duck will be in Keelung until February, 8th. So, hurry up and join the euphoria joy of watching this giant duck before it leaves Taiwan!

 

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