Taiwan - Day 5

For our last day we got out of Taipei and visited Jiufen. It's a small town in the mountains about an hours drive east of Taipei. The movie "A City of Sadness" was set here and since then it has become a hugely popular tourist destination.



The mountain village of Jiufen


The weather has been getting worse all week and today we had light to moderate rain all morning.



Unbrella toting tourists brave the elements - Jiufen

Jiufen is filled with traditional Taiwanese architecture. I'm not sure if this is a temple or a hotel.



Traditional Taiwanese Architecture - Jiufen

The semi-covered arcade is lined with tourist oriented souvenir shops.



Main shopping arcade - Jiufen


Hidden amongst the mountains around are more examples of interesting architecture. 

Taiwanese Architectrue - Jiufen

Taiwan - Day 4

Etsuko and I tried again to get a birds eye view of Taipei from its tallest building. However the weather wasn't much better than yesterday.

Taipei 101

Since today is probably our last chance we went to the top and hoped for the best.



View from the 89th floor - Taipei 101


In front of the window is a picture of what you could see on a clear day, but today was anything but...

Tuned Mass Damper - Taipei 101

This 660 tonne ball of steel is why it doesn't fall down after an earthquake or typhoon. This photo doesn't do it justice. It takes up the middle of 5 floors.

After that, there's not much else to see so we visited a few more temples in the afternoon.

Baoan Temple

The Baoan Temple is a Taiwanese folk religion temple.

Etsuko adds Incense to the cauldron

Etsuko adds one more incense stick to the cauldron while being careful not to burn herself.

One of the many shrines at Baoan Temple

Next to Baoan Temple is the Taipei Conficius Temple. Here are a few shots to round out the day.



A Cloister - Taipei Confusion Temple

 

Burning Candle - Taipei Confucius Temple

Cauldron - Taipei Confucius Temple

Taiwan - Day 3

Day three started with a plan to visit Taipei 101, the building that once held the record for the tallest in the world. No doubt others have been build since that are taller. We had planned to go to the 89th floor's observation deck to check out the view, but the weather wasn't looking so good. 



Taipei 101 in the Clouds



While walking around the area I came across a few flowers. I had Canon's new 70-300 L lens with me so I thought I would see how it performs. 



Purple Iris

 
At about 300mm EFL and f/8, it gives a very nice background blur. I really can't complain with that. In fact I've been very happy with the lens all round.

With the weather deteriorating to occasional showers, we decided to head indoors and visit the National Palace Museum.



National Palace Museum


I've never been much interested in photographing artifacts in a museum but the exhibits are quite stunning. It's definitely worth a look.

Back outdoors, it was still cloudy so I turned my attention to a few arty black and white architectural shots.



Railing - National Palace Museum

 

Stairs - National Palace Museum


That night we visited the night markets.  It's probably more interesting if you have something you would like to buy but as a pure tourist attraction it's a little lacking.



Shihin Night Markets


There were plenty of shoppers and the occasional scooter.



Chinese Lanterns - Shihlin Night Markets 


And to finish  the day off with an arty shot of some Chinese lanterns outside a small shrine next to the markets.

Taiwan - Day 2

Today was more of the same. A walk around the streets visiting temples and trying the local food.



Morning Street Market


While walking to the subway station we came across this early morning street market. It was only 10 am but some vendors were already packing up for the day.



Longshan Temple

 Longshan Temple was our primary destination for the day.



Food offerings left by the faithful

Like many temples in Taiwan, it's a mixture of Buddhist, Taoist and folk deities. Lots of people leave offerings of food on the tables.

Morning prayers

Chinese Dragon on the roof - Longshan Temple

After the temple we took to walking the streets. Etsuko was after the famous "China Shoes" shop. Perhaps it's just famous in Japan but it sells cheep Chinese made shoes. We found it and she bought two pairs.

Wide, clean streets in Taipei

However I was more interested in the streets. Taiwan's quite clean, with spacious main streets. Quite different to main land China. I could imagine living here. It feels very similar to Japan.

Police scooters!

Even the police ride scooters. I'm not sure I'd have the same respect for the officer, if they pulled me over while riding one of these.



Etsuko trying Taiwan's steamed dumplings

We finished the day off with steamed dumplings. Personally I preferred the fried dumplings but the steamed ones are more famous in Taiwan.

Taiwan - Day 1

Etsuko and I are on a 5 day vacation to Taiwan. We're mostly visiting places around Taipei.

Since our flight to Taiwan left really early in the morning our holiday actually started last night as we slept at Hanada airport. There weren't enough trains in the early morning to allow us enough time to check in before our flight leaves. I got a good sleep but Etsuko didn't.

Flying out of Japan we got a good look at Mt Fuji in the early morning sun.



Mt Fuji from 30,000 feet



We arrived in Taiwan to what the locals called a very cold day but comapred to Tokyo 10 degrees C was a warm and welcome change.

Without much of a plan we just wandered the streets near our hotel. One thing that becomes very obvious very quickly is just how popular scooters are here. In Japan these would all be bicycles.




Scooters, Taipei - Taiwan



We soon found ourselves at Xing Tain Temple. I'm not sure what they were all lined up for but we just walked on in. I think they wanted candles or incense.





Xing Tain Temple, Taipei – Taiwan



Main gate Xing Tain



Later that day we found ourselves at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Those who know their Chinese history will know he lost the civil war with the Chinese Communist Party in 1948 and retreated to Taiwan taking most of China's art treasures with him.




Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall



Statue of Chiang Kai-shek himself



Taiwanese Honour Guard,

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

In the late afternoon, the sun broke through the clouds, showering the National Concert Hall with what photographers call sweet light.



National Concert Hall, Taipei - Taiwan

 

After that we headed back to our hotel stopping along the way for some dinner. One surprising thing I found in Taiwan is that most older Taiwanese speak good Japanese. I never really used English in Taiwan. When I needed to communicate with the locals I spoke Japanese to them.