We’ve been in Taipei for 2 days, and so far we like Taiwan. Yesterday we happened upon a big celebration for a Taoist god named Baosheng Dadi.
He was a Chinese physician who lived in the 10th century. We think he is represented as this statue.
There was a boisterous parade with traditional music with double reed horns and drums.
And there was a wonderful fabric dragon that 8 men swung thru the air, making it swim and swirl and dance.
These dancing figures were 10 feet tall and could swing their arms.
This dragon float looked like it had poodle hair.
The parade culminated at the Baoen temple where the figures, statues and dragon were all brought inside and blessed. This is the view of the flower offerings inside the main gate, looking towards the temple.
Taiwan is known for wonderful oolong tea so we went for a tea tasting. Here’s all the gear we needed to make high mountain oolong tea.
On the way to the teahouse we saw this spray-painted stencil.
This is the tallest building in East Asia named 101 Taipei. We opted to save the $27 it would have cost us to ride up to the 89th floor. The elevator takes only 37 seconds to go to the top.
For dinner we enjoyed niu rou mian, 紅燒, beef noodle soup for $6/bowl. The beef was unbelievably tender, as it had been treated like corned beef, and the stock was rich and delicious.
Taipei has a bike rental program called UBike. When we come back here in a few weeks we will try renting some bikes for a city ride.
He was a Chinese physician who lived in the 10th century. We think he is represented as this statue.
There was a boisterous parade with traditional music with double reed horns and drums.
And there was a wonderful fabric dragon that 8 men swung thru the air, making it swim and swirl and dance.
These dancing figures were 10 feet tall and could swing their arms.
This dragon float looked like it had poodle hair.
The parade culminated at the Baoen temple where the figures, statues and dragon were all brought inside and blessed. This is the view of the flower offerings inside the main gate, looking towards the temple.
Taiwan is known for wonderful oolong tea so we went for a tea tasting. Here’s all the gear we needed to make high mountain oolong tea.
On the way to the teahouse we saw this spray-painted stencil.
This is the tallest building in East Asia named 101 Taipei. We opted to save the $27 it would have cost us to ride up to the 89th floor. The elevator takes only 37 seconds to go to the top.
For dinner we enjoyed niu rou mian, 紅燒, beef noodle soup for $6/bowl. The beef was unbelievably tender, as it had been treated like corned beef, and the stock was rich and delicious.
Taipei has a bike rental program called UBike. When we come back here in a few weeks we will try renting some bikes for a city ride.
