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Still following along! Thanks for fighting through the computer issues to continue progol!
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Thanks, valgachi! I hope this is helpful for you and am glad that you're enjoying it!
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Another vendor - these each had different fillings. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0ccf6c5fb.jpeg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b2032ebb7.jpeg We met at Chicken Tower, the site of Fort Provintia, originally the Dutch fort built in 1653 and the administrative seat of the region, and which has undergone many changes over the centuries, with several temples built on top of the ruins of the fort. A landmark in the old part of town, we didn't enter the building as it's undergoing restoration, but discussed the history of Tainan and the arrival of the Dutch. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a60cd5565.jpeg Interior of the Grand Mazu Temple https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f0f87a8cf.jpeg Joss money - people buy this and then burn the "money" as an offering to the gods https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...24f87662c.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...521188d17.jpeg A figure of a Dutch man holding up one of the pillars. There are 2 of these figures built into the temple and they're placed here as punishment for the cruelty they exacted on the local Taiwanese! https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...689331f00.jpeg Mazu https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6fdd96fdb.jpeg One of the many lovely paintings on the wall https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...79112a036.jpeg One of the guardians placed in front of Mazu https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...37430c1f1.jpeg Our lovely guide Sushin (she introduced herself as ("Sushi with an "n") https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e96211aea.jpeg Sushin in front of an old tablet https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...44298e5f4.jpeg Closeup of the writing on the tablet https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6831f05fb.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...af69eea04.jpeg Mazu https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...935773016.jpeg Guardian https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f5328c409.jpeg Courtyard https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a51690cc4.jpeg Another lovely wall painting! https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...321121af7.jpeg Buddha and buddies! https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...c88108e82.jpeg Burning the joss money https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a51b83152.jpeg |
Leaving the Grand Mazu Temple, we stopped first for our Wood melon boba tea
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e9bd7b40f.jpeg We then stopped in front of the Chuan Mei Theater, learning about and admiring the handprinted movie posters by the Yan Jhen-fa, one of the last practitioners of art in Taiwan. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...264e13e4f.jpeg |
We then continued on our way to the beautiful Hayashi Department store, the largest of the old buildings in Tainan (more description in above post #60). Some of the photos were taken at a return visit which we made on our own in the evening.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1abc2cb72.jpeg Hayashi Department store - beautiful at night! https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e0ff87898.jpeg Old-fashioned display https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1ff139ddc.jpeg Old-fashioned display https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...3758571f5.jpeg Mosaic-tiled elevator floor https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...8d3a91a15.jpeg The holes in the wall are the remains of the bombing https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f5e6699c5.jpeg The "bun" seats https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...239a2d83b.jpeg Sitting on the "buns" https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0c2b17234.jpeg Rooftop shrine https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0f1d0cdfe.jpeg View from the roof of the neoclassical Tainan Land bank, built in 1928 |
Finally, we visited the Confucius Temple in Tainan was built in 1666, and was the location of the highest official institute of higher learning in Taiwan. It's so unlike the other temples in its elegant simplicity. A lovely spot.
(Description in above post #60) https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...18924eb55.jpeg Gateway to the Tainan Confucius temple https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...fc6be185d.jpeg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a2f52be4b.jpeg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7f52ccc3a.jpeg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...d492f71e5.jpeg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a79fc4f47.jpeg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...55f17294b.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0a95bc780.jpeg Couple posing for wedding photos! https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7ca62ac21.jpeg Peek a boo! |
Art Museum - Buildings 1 & 2
(Fuller description in post #60) Building 1, a deco-style building constructed in 1930, originally the Tainan Police Department. It reopened in 2019 as a museum. We loved the work of the artist, Tseng Pei-Yao and really enjoyed the show here a lot. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...88ceaa4a89.jpg Downloaded from internet - I never got a photo of the front https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...bd9bb4e19.jpeg Lovely deco staircase https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...4dce50c5d.jpeg Traditional structures https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...c01de6119.jpeg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...5a083a09b.jpeg European travels https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...438160adf.jpeg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...ddb7fb3b2.jpeg Outside terrace looking in https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2f5c2a771.jpeg Artist Tseng Pei-Yao ------------ Art Museum Building #2 A contemporary art museum designed by 2 Japanese architects, this is a large museum, light-filled museum, built with glass and metal and lots of angles, said to evoke a Royal Poinciana – the official tree of Tainan. There were some lovely exhibits by Taiwanese artists and we enjoyed it, though the art didn't resonate with us as much as the show at the older museum did. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f66d019a2.jpeg View of the museum from our hotel https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1bdd1afec.jpeg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...fd44b93f0.jpeg Entryway https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...44031ad8e.jpeg Looking up -1 https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...d53e359b6.jpeg Looking up-2 https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b4d2fce8a.jpeg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...56eb98328.jpeg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...4c63a0958.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...395b477f3.jpeg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1ca66f40c.jpeg Our favorite painting! Along Dihua Street, Taipei https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...fd96951bb.jpeg Art on the wall and on the floor - definitely contemporary art! |
A return to Shennong Street at night and around the corner on Hai'an Road, where we discover many food vendors
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And the best discovery...duck breast -- so, so good!
Around the corner from Shennong Street, along Hai’an Road, there were numerous stands, but this vendor stood out. He was one of the most animated cooks! He had a wonderful patter going that alternated between Chinese (probably Mandarin, but I don't know for sure) and English. And the end product was delicious! https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...77971415c.jpeg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1615879cd.jpeg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...51a54f79e.jpeg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0ec6e244b.jpeg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...63e9b6f1a.jpeg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...eade30f51.jpeg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1cc9aa110.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...8e6d998ee.jpeg |
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Friday, October 25
Anping - the historic district In 1624, the Dutch arrived in Anping, once known as Dayuan, the origin of the name Taiwan. They built the first fort, Fort Zeelandia, which was a an administrative center for the Dutch and a hub for trading. In 1661, Koxinga, a Ming general, defeated the Dutch and the area and fort were then known as Anping, which was named for the Anping Bridge in Fujian, China. And it turned out that today was also the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the fort and of the founding of the city of Tainan which developed around the fort! There was a huge celebration, with lots of schoolchildren and local bigwigs and even Sgt Frog, a Japanese manga character (I know this because M is a manga fan). Oh, and a birthday cake, too! It was quite the celebration! After walking up and around the fort, we wandered through the long street market that wends its way through the streets, noshing along the way. There are so many food vendors and small eateries and I’m now seeing why Tainan has the reputation for being the food capitol of Taiwan! While wandering off the main street, we began to hear some music from a temple and we entered to find a small religious ceremony taking place. While the musicians played, three men dressed in traditional robes were performing some kind of ceremony in honor of the temple god’s birthday. We watched for a while, amazed that we stumbled into another local ceremonial event. We continued on till we got to the Anping Tree house. This is not a house built into a tree, which is what I had pictured when I first read about it. Rather, it’s a former warehouse for a merchant house that was built in 1867 when Anping was an important harbor for international trade. Now the many banyan trees have taken over and the branches wrap around the old building, and it has become a popular tourist destination. A series of walkways were built throughout the structure and it’s an amazing experience to be able to walk around and through these overgrown trees. We finished our trip here with a refreshing cup of tea. We were managing well until this point, but the heat and humidity finally caught up. Time to call Uber and get back to the cool hotel. |
Thank you progol. I am very much enjoying your trip through Tainan, somewhere we've never been.
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What a great report of your trip. Not sure I’ll ever get to Taiwan, so it’s great to read about your journey and see the colourful pics.
Fun facts ; we have a poinciana tree in our new house, we grow guava and rose apple at the old house ! Rose apple are known as Wax Jambu here, I agree there’s little flavour, but they make for a juicy burst in a fruit salad. Looking forward to the rest, and thanks for sharing xx |
Fascinating place, such an interesting TR and beautiful photos! I'm really enjoying this!
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Thanks so much, trip planner, sartorial and xyz99!
tp, It may be our timing with the 400 anniversary celebrations, but we had a blast in Tainain. It's a wonderful city, though, and I hope you get there someday. I think you'd really enjoy it. sartoric, thanks for following! How cool to have a poinciana tree in your new home AND to be able to grow such wonderful (and exotic to me) things at home! And things will get even more colorful very soon! xyz99, thanks for still following! We really did love our visit to Taiwan -a wonderful blend of modern and traditional. And nice folks, too. |
Anping Old Street wandering
We were starting to get a bit hot and tired by now https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...01b73ce2d.jpeg Just outside of the Anping fort is the lovely Anping Mazu temple. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1bb60a6ed.jpeg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...af6b28328.jpeg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...183c3083a.jpeg There's often a real feeling of playfulness https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...56f6b8188.jpeg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...424da75cc.jpeg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f99438e2b.jpeg The sword in the lion's mouth is a symbol of Anping and it serves as a guardian https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7949b90c7.jpeg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6881a3898.jpeg beef jerky |
Temple celebration
And just as we were getting too tired, we hear some music coming from inside another temple so we wandered in and, lo and behold, we come to another celebration. This was a birthday temple for the temple god! https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...8f635dc78.jpeg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e9d697d6b.jpeg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1409bd091.jpeg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...cb71e3066.jpeg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...4da33b5f4.jpeg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...995868f6d.jpeg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f016518b2.jpeg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...086870a97.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...4db140321.jpeg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...d0e19075f.jpeg The musicians |
Anping Tree House
The former Tait & Co. Warehouse, built around the end of the 19th Century at the beginning of the Japanese Colonial Period. There is also a good habitat for wildlife, with its pond right behind the house. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...c09cc4201.jpeg It doesn't look like much when you first arrive, but... https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f68fe7ea5.jpeg it gets pretty wild pretty quickly! https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...9c716ee3d.jpeg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a8ab14689.jpeg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...5b0b0885e.jpeg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6bc0809be.jpeg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...eab8af75c.jpeg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0f0cea4ee.jpeg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...5c8125cb7.jpeg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...3d25569e6.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...ee3890b21.jpeg |
Saturday, October 26
Tainan - last day in this glorious city! And today was a fantastic day! We saw and did so much! No specific plans today but a chance to just wander and see what what unfolds. We chose a few spots to visit and head off toward the first, Wu’s Garden. This is a public park in the middle of the city but hidden between many tall, contemporary buildings. It was built by a wealthy 19th Century businessman with a pavilion, a pond and a volcanic rock wall. It’s considered one the top 4 parks in Taiwan. To be honest, we were a bit underwhelmed. It’s sweet but it wasn’t the grand park we’d expected. But it was a good start to our explorations and we discovered a lovely small gallery in one of the buildings surrounding the park. From there, we were heading off to another temple! But ambling our way there, we found another small temple on the way and a wonderful-looking soup dumpling place nearby. What we’ve truly come to see is that Tainan is the Grazing Capital of Taiwan! Everywhere you turn, there’s another stand or small restaurant that has their own specialty. I’ve stopped worrying about restaurants as we ended up stopping and eating during the day which was great fun and gave us great tastes! We moved on to the Taiwanfu City God Temple, said to be the oldest city god temple in Taiwan. Its purpose is to protect the people of the city but it's also dedicated to the underworld. It’s known for its giant abacus, which tallies up a person’s good and bad deeds during their life, and a plaque which means “You’re here at last!” It was a surprisingly interesting temple, made even more satisfying, meeting a local volunteer who spent some time talking with us and giving us some background to the temple. We enjoyed the interaction and she shared how her son was currently in the states, working toward his PhD. Michael has been really using his Chinese and getting a lot of praise for it! It’s made the trip especially interactive and has given a real personal connection to Taiwan. Afterwards, the heat and humidity caught up with us so we began our way home, first stopping at the xiao long bao stand we had seen earlier. We were so pleased when we found it again but were told to come back in a couple of hours as they had a lot of orders to fill. Fortunately, Michael remembered a small restaurant nearby and off we went. Happily, these dumplings were quite satisfying and Michael impressed the guy at the restaurant no end with his Chinese, getting the thumbs up! |
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