Lungshan was absolutely beautiful! It was such a peaceful experience. Outside the entrance I bought a gorgeous little flower arrangement that was made on a plate and is used to honor the ancestors. At the temple many people came to pay their respects to those that had pasted away by bringing food and small gifts. So I wanted to add one in too. When we first walked into the temple gates there was a great waterfall on the right hand side with many gigantic coy swimming in the pond at the bottom of it. The left hand side had another pond with a much smaller waterfall and some pretty fountains as well as more fish. When you walk in further through the next entrance there is a small barrier that is about 3 inches off of the ground and a foot long which you have to step over because it is disrespectful to stop on it. The temple was so ornate and decorated with many beautiful flowers and gold writing and artwork. It was amazing at how quiet it was inside the temple even though it was on a loud busy street.
Taipei 101 was in a different part of town. It is a beautiful part of town! I almost wish that our hostel was in that area instead. It is not so crowded. The streets and sidewalks are more open and have many more trees. The buildings are also newer and the are looks much cleaner. We did not go to the top of Taipei 101 because of the Typhoon that is coming. I am not sure if it is because the wind would be too strong 101 stories up, or if it would not be worth it to pay and go up because we would not get a very good view through all of the wind and rain. We are going to go back soon and then also go to the Grand Hotel. In 101 we walked around the shopping mall (7 stories of it). Carly and I saw so many designer stores, we pretended that we could afford to shop at Dolce and Dior, it was great! We also ate in the basement. Most of the restaurants/eateries here have pictures of all of their food which is very helpful. I have also learned to say that I am vegetarian. It is helpful that Shauna and I can always go together to find food, that way I don't have to search alone, and she knows much more Chinese than I do because her mom is from Taiwan.
Here are some more pictures:
There is so much construction going on around the city. It is neat to see the buildings going up around us, especially because they use scaffolding made out of bamboo because it is so sturdy! Around the construction zones there are red flashing lights everywhere, I am assuming so that people are careful.
Another thing that I have realized and found very interesting is that since I have been here and around the city (which is a lot) I have only seen 2 gas stations! It almost doesn't make sense for how many cars and motor scooters are out on the road to not have very many gas stations around. I did see a Shell store, which had containers of gas and oil.
Something that we all noticed while we were out walking around and looking into stores is that Playboy is HUGE here! They carry around luggage that has bunnies on it, and purses, everything. People here love it. I asked Sam, one of the students here, about it. I said that in America it meant sex and asked if it was the same here and he said yep. It is crazy to me that they would want to promote that. It is also interesting that Playboy is very popular and the other popular thing is cartoons. They are everywhere and used for everything. It is weird that two such separate things are the most popular things here!
It is starting to Typhoon outside! We are staying in all day tomorrow because it is not safe to go out! It is too windy, we are only allowed to walk to get food and back. It will be nice to have time to settle ourselves in and maybe practice some more Chinese. I am already learning a lot! :) I am going to try to learn to upload pictures on here soon!
Thanks for reading!!
Love!
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