Taiwan – Tainan – The Travelling Bee

I forgot to mention the ‘car lift’ at our hotel in Kaohsiung. It was quite scary to drive into the space with a glass window into the lobby ahead of you. Tatjana was very cool about it, I wasn’t! I took some footage when we left but it doesn’t really show the glass wall very well. It’s a clever idea the parking in the cellar!

We met our next host Mark in Tainan, he lives in a condominium in the city with his wife Grace and two children. We met Grace later but, the children were staying with Grandparents so we never got to meet them. Mark had to work but, he suggested some places we should visit. So we visited an art museum, it was all a bit modern for my taste however the building that houses the sculptures was an old Japanese era Police Station and it was very grand with sweeping staircases!

We visited the The Confucius Temple. It was built in 1666 and it’s not really a temple but, a place of learning.

Confucius was born in North East China in 551 BCE (and died 479 BCE) he was a philosopher, teacher and political theorist, his ideas have influenced the civilisations of China and other Asian countries.

As we travel on we realise what a profound affect Confucianism has on the culture of the countries we visit and where it now comes into conflict with modern day values. There was a strict hierarchy of the roles, of gender and age. Filial piety still very much shapes the Eastern societies.

Pinned to the wishes board in the temple! Peas or Peace….both are good!

The temple is spare and not so decorated as other places we visited. However the gardens were nice.

After this we went shopping, no not really! We went to visit the Hayashi Department Store! It opened in 1932 and was one of two stores in Taiwan at that time, that boasted elevators. Even though not everyone could afford the goods, people just wanted to ride the lifts. It’s sort of Japanese Art Deco in style. The building was shot at by the US during WW2 and it still has the bullet holes in exterior.

I loved the view of the wonky trees from the top of the Hyashi Building!

We had dinner in the evening at a Korean style Steam boat! Lots of beef!

The next day was really hot (boarderline too hot again). We first had a swim in the condominium’s pool and then after we visited the Neoclassical Chimei Museum, well the outside of it at least. We didn’t go in because it was all European Art Collections and we can see that at home. We decided instead that we would head to Anping an old port site. We visited a Merchants house from the late 1800,’s. The building at the back had been a former salt works office but, after it was deserted a Banyan tree took over and now nature is taking the building back and it’s fascinating!