Graffiti

It says "I am"

Restaurant in Miaoli

(Originally posted October 13th, 2009)

This is a funny little restaurant we went to a few weeks ago in Miaoli.

The skylight, just a hole in the roof. I assume they have the missing piece for when it rains.

The food was really good. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture before we started eating it.

Xinbu Buddha

Xinbu

(Originally posted January 5th, 2010)

A few weeks ago we went to a small town in Miaoli county. I saw it from the train coming back from Kaohsiung and I wanted to check it out. It has a cute old train station.
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And the inside:

There was a cat wandering around but I didn't get a good picture.

Graffiti in English. I'm not sure why sky is in quotes.

From the train I had seen a park filled with odd statues, so we went looking for it. It was actually quite large. Everything was old and chipped but it would still be a lot of fun for a little kid.

Random statues everywhere.

There were lots of places to eat if you brought your own food.

I liked the roots of this tree.

If you walk through the park, you end up at the ocean. There were a few stalls selling barbecue and roast sweet potatoes. It wasn't the most beautiful day, but in better weather it would be a nice place to walk along the ocean.

Temples in Jhunan

Jhunan (or Zhunan) is a fairly small town in Miaoli county. I'm pretty sure you could see very similar temples anywhere in Taiwan. Saying that, I really enjoy Taiwanese temples, and even the smallest and most ordinary ones are worth a visit.

Longfeng Temple

This is the largest Matsu (or Mazu) statue in Taiwan. Matsu is the goddess of the sea. 

Back of Longfeng Temple

Turtles at Longfeng Temple

Behind the main building is a little artificial pond filled with turtles.

Interior, Longfeng Temple

I don't know what these are for.

I can't remember which temple this was. It's a little hazy because of the incense.

A side room at one of the temples

I can never remember where this temple is, but from time to time I would go by it when I was riding my bike. It's not on a main road, so it's difficult to find intentionally.

I believe this is the temple on the cobblestone road that has blue lights embedded in it. I couldn't find this one again for months, and had begun to think I imagined it. It's easier to find at night when the road is lit up.

To get there: For Longfeng temple - a lot of people call it the Matsu Temple as well - take the train to Jhunan station (they were in the process of renaming it Zhunan station when I left, so keep an eye out for both spellings). Go down Bo-Ai St, which is the main street heading away from the station, then take a right at Longshan Rd. It will be on your left. For the other temples, ride around on a bicycle. You probably won't find them, but you'll find others that might be more interesting.

Temples in Jhunan  - a list of the temples in Jhunan (in Chinese)

Dragons running through the firecrackers

We heard there was some sort of dragon-related event somewhere in Miaoli county. So we decided to go. First we found the seemingly endless line of food stalls.
 

 

We could hear firecrackers and see the smoke, but we couldn't see what was happening. So we climbed up the stairs to take a look. There were so many people we couldn't see anything. We found a place where we could see a giant screen showing what was happening. People were running around with giant dragon outfits (the kind that require multiple people) while firecrackers were going off at their feet. From time to time, huge clouds of smoke come up, covering us in bits of red paper. We managed to get a few pictures of the action, by standing on a fence.

At first this was all we could see

The lanterns run all the way down the embankment (much further than I could get a picture of)

The dragons

The firecrackers going off



Afterwards there was a big fireworks display.

Fireworks

A few seconds of the fireworks

Chinese New Year

Today is New Year's Eve in the lunar calendar. I have to say, people celebrate here in style. Last night, which wasn't a holiday at all as far as I know, people all over my city were setting off fireworks. From my balcony I could see dozens of different firework displays. I've never seen more than two at once before (one city I was living in had a fireworks display on the same night as the neighboring city - I could see theirs in the distance). People were also setting off firecrackers at street level. I thought there were supposed to be fireworks tonight - was that what I heard about, or will there be even more tonight? I couldn't go to bed until 3 last night because of all the noise. It's raining pretty hard now though. Maybe the fireworks had to moved up a day.<br><br>Pigeon Update: The baby pigeon appears to have hatched, but I all I see is the mother pigeon and the broken egg. I'm not sure if the baby pigeon is hiding under the mother pigeon or not.