We arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday night from Tokyo. I was disappointed that we were not on the Hello Kitty plane, or the R2D2 plane (which I did see!!!). But hey! I'm in Taipei!
Almost immediately on arrival, we went to Longshan Temple. Its a very busy temple, with hordes there for their daily devotion and just to check it out. It's so ornate I was overwhelmed, and so buys watching what was going on that I could not take photos. Next stop was the Huaxi night market with it's stir fried snake restaurants, and a walk by the "Buddhist Appliances" shops. We left there and hit a local Din Tai Fung for some soup dumplings before crashing for the night.
Thursday I went to the National Palace Museum! Fabulous, but full of tour groups. I'll post photos later. Such a rich collection. What stood out was:
- Pottery and porcelain that was embossed with a pattern on the inside with a carved wooden mold.
- An excellent exhibit detailing the evolution of some of the patterns from representational to geometric.
- The 12 month scroll details including "Praying for skill at weaving".
- Carved olive pits.
- Lots and lots of jade artifacts plus a full description of how it was carved.
- Carved ivory nested spheres with 24 layers, each one different.
The next day I went to an Beitou, an area with a lot of hot springs. Up the hill a bit from the main town is an old Japanese hotel/onsen, from the days of the Japanese occupation; it's now a private museum devoted to native crafts, especially textiles. Photos to follow.
And finally, Michael and Rebecca picked us up and took us to a place where we could write our wishes on a lantern and set it loose on the wind! I didn't think to ask for skill at weaving... but did ask for a gentle 2017 for all of us. Then dinner in Jiufen, and a walk around the amazing beautiful but overly touristy hills. Truly a lovely experience.
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