sunday in taipei
My friend James and I killed a last Sunday wandering around Taipei with no plans. Couldn't have worked out better, with convenient shuttle busses from MRT stations to beautiful natural areas. The highlights were, of course, the unexpected. You can't wander too far in the mountains surrounding Taipei without hitting a beautiful temple, which always seems to me like a hidden jewel of culture and spirituality reminding me where I am.
Taipei Lantern Festival Year 102
Taipei welcomes the snake, year 102's zodiac, with a display of handmade lanterns. The venue is huge and shoulder to shoulder in parts- it takes us three hours to see all the major lanterns. Before we'd seen half of everything, my camera battery died, so I missed a lot of the good stuff. I apologize for the horrible quality, but I'm not so good at taking night time pictures. It might help if I had a tripod, but in this situation I usually had to hold my camera high above my head to get a picture over the crowd.
New Year Walks
The New Year festivities have disrupted our normal routine of eating healthy, exercising daily, and visiting the mountains. So, we take advantage of every opportunity to stretch out legs in the freshest air we can find. Most of these pictures are from a hike we went for on a mountain road, but the ones at the end are from around Taichung, where Chin's brother lives and where we spent two nights.
lugang temples
Lugang has many famous temples, most notably Longshan (Dragon Mountain) Temple. Chin knows a lot about this temple, in fact, I believe its his famous temple. When we visited at night, a local man who lives across the street came and gave us a tour. Sometimes I feel like my skin color affords me rock star status- it seems there are many people excited for the opportunity to help a foreigner. One thing I didn't get a picture of is the wells that were installed during the Japanese occupation. Some say it was to drain the Dragon of qi, while others say that the soldiers stationed there were just thirsty. The other temple we visited was the Matzu Taoist temple, but that was too crowded to get any good pictures. In fact, the only good picture I got from there were the crowds. Matzu is the goddess of the sea. She used to dress in red to direct sailors to shore in bad conditions. After she died, she was immortalized by Chinese sailors who continued to see her. Many temples have been built in her honor.
hospitality
impressions
My back yard
Longshan temple
This is Taipei's most famous temple. Very busy all the time. We met a well-fed black cat, who I believe is getting all the food that has been offered to various deities. And keeping the mice away.
Tao temple
I went to go visit this Taoist temple with a Meetup.com group. While I've been to a few temples already, this one was astounding!
Just off the mrt
Here are some random things I found interesting that are very near or in metro stations. The first two pictures are from a temple in the Shilin Night Market, a really famous crowded market with all kinds of interesting food and things to buy. The red lanterns are a Chinese New Year celebration, which they celebrate with the same fervor that the US celebrates Christmas. Then, there are some etiquette signs in the stations. So far, everyone has been really polite. Lastly, there is a picture of a memorial hall that is more or less part of an MRT station.