Taipei Stopover

On the way to Paris we stopped over in Taipei for a long day of sightseeing. We did a tour organised by the airport in the morning, then a separate walking tour in the afternoon. In between we went up the Taipei 101 Tower and walked/metro'd around. It's not a very different, spectacular or attractive place but nonetheless had a workmanlike quality to it that was appealing. Everyone was very friendly with the older district visited in the afternoon tour most interesting (Dihua Street district). Here's some pics....

First stop was Lunshan Temple. A lot of worshipping going on - Buddhist. In Taipei they ask the gods questions which require 'yes' or 'no' answers. Then they throw two small banana shaped red wooden blocks to the ground. Depending on how they land the answer is given, or the blocks say they haven't asked the right question! There's lots of food offered as well - I hope the gods like biscuits and fruit! Some lovely orchids though......

We then went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. It's a complex of buildings and gardens which is reasonably impressive. Not impressive was the tour guide's request to jump for a photo - I tried....

Afterwards we went to a 'famous' street that was pretty lame, as it was late morning and it wasn't very active. But we had very nice beef noodles and awesome mango shaved ice - wow......

We went up Taipei 101....

Interesting views from the top......

But most interesting was the damper on the 89nth floor to counterbalance wind and earthquakes......

The afternoon tour was very interesting. They took down a freeway over one of the old city gates which was clearly an improvement (second image is a photo the guide had with her) ......

We saw some other interesting temples, including the one with a Love God, otherwise known as the Old Man Under the Moon.....

The old streets (Dihua Street in particular) were interesting - with old townhouses, many still standing, and many spice shops.....