Taiwan Part 2
I WAS WRONG.
After Taipei 101 we went to Shilin Night Market and I made a friend at the temple.
THUS CONCLUDES DAY TWO.
DAY 3
We went to the Dalongdong and Confucius Temples.
Songshan Airport is very close to this part of the city so there are planes constantly flying overhead.
We went to Dalongdong first.
Then the Confucius Temple, which is actually comparatively drab.
They do have turtles though.
And the most adorable coffee shop
Then we found out the Baosheng Cultural Festival was on and they had free Chinese Opera performances, the day performances at 2pm and the night performances at 7pm. So we sat around like idiots for an hour before figuring out that there was either a day OR a night performance and not both. D'oh.
So we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and National Concert Hall/Theater. But first, we ate xiaolongbao at the restaurant behind CKS Memorial Hall, Hangzhou Xiaolong Tangbao, which is apparently one of the best xiaolongbao places in Taipei (the other one, Din Tai Fung, whose mascot I posted last time, is also good but overcrowded with tourists).
CKS Memorial Hall
's big.
We were there at the right time to see the changing of the guard.
They kind of looked like they were about to start a boy band dance routine
National Concert Hall and Theater
Then we went back to Dalongdong Temple to catch the opera performance
Some acrobatics
And action
we interrupt this action for more singing
Chinese subtitles that didn't really help at all
The opera was in Taiwanese, not Mandarin Chinese (and I only know a small amount of that anyway) so I really had no idea about the story, except that it involved a quarrel between two male and one female dragon, all played by women. So, like, Incomprehensible Lesbian Dragon Love Triangle With Singing. Awesome costumes though.
Two of the actors posed for photos on stage once the curtain fell (apparently fans are allowed back there, we just followed other people.
I think their names are Weng Lee-lin 翁麗玲 and Wang Lan-hua 王蘭花 from the Minquan Opera Troupe, though it's hard for me to tell with all the websites being Chinese only
Ms. Wang (hope that's her name) was super nice
Musical instruments
Here's the same actors performing part of the same opera in 2012, if anyone wants to hear what it looks/sounds like. It's a little jarring if you're used to Western music.
After that, we took some more photos of Dalongdong Temple by night
We then went to a nearby night market (probably Dalong)
DAY 4
Not many photos from this day actually. We went to the National Palace Museum, but weren't allowed to take photos there. Actually we were kind of underwhelmed by the museum, despite hearing that it was a must-see. I'm not sure what we were expecting, though my friend definitely wanted to see textiles. It's mostly art, pottery, metal objects and books/documents.
We then went to Ximending for lunch and shopping. While there we ran into some rather camp street performers.
This guy was adorable
*OBLIGATORY GANGNAM STYLE*
After that, we tried to go to Shida Night Market but couldn't find the damn thing, so we gave up and had bubble tea before crashing back at the hotel (where the aforementioned bugsplosion happened).
And thus concludes the adventure in Taiwan.
After Taipei 101 we went to Shilin Night Market and I made a friend at the temple.
THUS CONCLUDES DAY TWO.
DAY 3
We went to the Dalongdong and Confucius Temples.
Songshan Airport is very close to this part of the city so there are planes constantly flying overhead.
We went to Dalongdong first.
Then the Confucius Temple, which is actually comparatively drab.
They do have turtles though.
And the most adorable coffee shop
Then we found out the Baosheng Cultural Festival was on and they had free Chinese Opera performances, the day performances at 2pm and the night performances at 7pm. So we sat around like idiots for an hour before figuring out that there was either a day OR a night performance and not both. D'oh.
So we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and National Concert Hall/Theater. But first, we ate xiaolongbao at the restaurant behind CKS Memorial Hall, Hangzhou Xiaolong Tangbao, which is apparently one of the best xiaolongbao places in Taipei (the other one, Din Tai Fung, whose mascot I posted last time, is also good but overcrowded with tourists).
CKS Memorial Hall
's big.
We were there at the right time to see the changing of the guard.
They kind of looked like they were about to start a boy band dance routine
National Concert Hall and Theater
Then we went back to Dalongdong Temple to catch the opera performance
Some acrobatics
And action
we interrupt this action for more singing
Chinese subtitles that didn't really help at all
The opera was in Taiwanese, not Mandarin Chinese (and I only know a small amount of that anyway) so I really had no idea about the story, except that it involved a quarrel between two male and one female dragon, all played by women. So, like, Incomprehensible Lesbian Dragon Love Triangle With Singing. Awesome costumes though.
Two of the actors posed for photos on stage once the curtain fell (apparently fans are allowed back there, we just followed other people.
I think their names are Weng Lee-lin 翁麗玲 and Wang Lan-hua 王蘭花 from the Minquan Opera Troupe, though it's hard for me to tell with all the websites being Chinese only
Ms. Wang (hope that's her name) was super nice
Musical instruments
Here's the same actors performing part of the same opera in 2012, if anyone wants to hear what it looks/sounds like. It's a little jarring if you're used to Western music.
Click to viewAfter that, we took some more photos of Dalongdong Temple by night
We then went to a nearby night market (probably Dalong)
DAY 4
Not many photos from this day actually. We went to the National Palace Museum, but weren't allowed to take photos there. Actually we were kind of underwhelmed by the museum, despite hearing that it was a must-see. I'm not sure what we were expecting, though my friend definitely wanted to see textiles. It's mostly art, pottery, metal objects and books/documents.
We then went to Ximending for lunch and shopping. While there we ran into some rather camp street performers.
This guy was adorable
*OBLIGATORY GANGNAM STYLE*
After that, we tried to go to Shida Night Market but couldn't find the damn thing, so we gave up and had bubble tea before crashing back at the hotel (where the aforementioned bugsplosion happened).
And thus concludes the adventure in Taiwan.