The second to last weekend we had in Taiwan, my friends and I took a trip down to Tainan, Taiwan’s old capital.
The high speed rail across the country was a whole trip in and of itself–I hadn’t been on public transport like this since the high speed rail in Japan. I loved just staring out the window and taking in the Taiwanese countryside. It’s such a distinctive sight, with its lush, humid green, low-rolling hills, and rice paddies, dotted with bright red shrines. I was originally planning on catching some sleep, since we left really early in the morning, but we were there before I knew it.
Tainan was a beautiful city, alike and yet different from Taipei in many ways. Walking to our hostel, I could instantly tell that the streets were older, just from how they were arranged (not many neat sidewalks, even in the city center!), and the shrines that blended seamlessly into each block we passed. The city was full of alleys with teetering walls, some etched with murals, and all of them a special experience to simply walk through and see the old city. Of course, we visited some big landmarks too: Chikan Tower, various famous temples, Hayashi Department Store, and Anping Old Fort were just some of the places on the checklist. But I think the really special charm was just getting to take in the more mundane parts of Tainan, in-between the destinations.
Chikan Tower
One of the things highly recommended to me was the Tainan Art Museum, which was hosting a special exhibit on various Asian understandings of the underworld. They featured traditional Japanese, Thai, and Chinese depictions of ghosts and monsters, which was really interesting to learn about. The other parts of the museum were really cool, too, especially the sections on architecture–though I had to skip over any exhibit purely in Chinese.
The best part of Tainan, though, was definitely the food. I’d heard a lot about Tainan’s specialties, and marked a bunch of stuff on Google Maps to try and hit up as many as I could. I couldn’t get everything (RIP shrimp rolls), but some of my favorites were the rice cake and pudding, the fried mochi, and, honestly the simple turkey rice. I’d always thought turkey was just drier chicken, but now I know my parents just haven’t been cooking it right.
It was a lovely trip, if slightly hampered by the chaos of getting back. We got lost on the local public transit, and were in serious danger of missing the train back–until we found out on the way that I’d bought the wrong tickets (for 7AM, instead of 7PM) anyway, and then barely managed to catch a standing spot back to Taipei. I also lost a bag with a hundred dollars worth of group souvenirs in it, which added to the stress while on the bus.
Luckily, the Taiwanese are super lovely, and I was able to phone around the restaurants in the area near the bus stop and find someone who’d picked up the bag. She very sweetly sent it back (with some of her favorite Taiwanese snacks tucked in!), and I think I’ve somehow made a friend for all my troubles. If this were San Francisco, I’d consider the bag totally lost from the onset.