A Small Town Close To Taipei: Shiding

I visited the “Guniang Miao (temple of the girls)” two weeks ago. In traditional Chinese thoughts an unmarried woman can’t be worshipped with other ancestors of the lineage after their deaths, and their tablets can’t be placed in the household, and hence the temple of the girls provides the family with a space to commemorate her. This temple originally worshipped the Lady Wei Bian, who died early but has been acting as a virtuous girl of the family. The introduction of the temple warns people that Ms. Wei is kind and affectionate to worshippers, but at the same time very serious. So visitors shouldn’t make jokes in the temple in order to avoid offending her. The statue of Lady Wei Bian wears a gown and jewleries, and the shop of the temple sells paper money which has images of girls' dresses and jewleries on it.

After visiting the temple, I took a walk in the small town Shiding. It used to be prosperous because the coal mines, but it’s so quiet now that only some households can be seen in the mountains and the bus only comes every 30 min..

The temple of the girls

Lady Wei Bian

The town Shiding

The Korean Street

I heard there is a “Korean street” in the suburb Yonghe of Taipei long time ago. The street gathers a lot of importers selling Korean food, clothes and accessories. It’s been flourishing for at least 2 decades, especially Korean goods are getting popular in Taiwan.

I visited the street after an interview with two informants. The Korean street is not a fancy new neighbourhood, but quite lively. I saw posters of Korean stars on the wall, and smelled ginseng and kimchi. Inside the lanes there is a traditional Taiwanese market selling fresh food. I guess this street has been this energetic since Taiwan and Korea launched the trade. It tells a lot about how the two countries have been working hard as new economic bodies in Asia.

A shop selling Korean herbal medicine and snack

The street

The market

A promotion vendor by the Korean Tourist Board in the Xingyi commercial area of Taipei

My Hometown Taichung

I was born in Puli, a beautiful small town in central Taiwan, but moved to Taichung when I was 10 years old. For me Taichung has been the representation of a big city.

There are a lot of beautiful architectures in Taichung and those nice resaturants and tea shops amaze me. However, Taichung is famous of being “undisciplined” in Taiwan, which means people here don’t behave very well. They drive fast, and the pavements are full of scooters and parked cars and I have no choice but to walk on the roads. In addition, there are a lot of robbers here. Actually robbery happened to me once when I was still living here; fortunately because of my scary screaming, I didn’t lose my purse. And then I called the police right away, but to my surprise, he didn’t care at all. I gradually realized that the police didn’t care because there were just so many robberies in Taichung.

Although I don’t like Taichung that much anymore, I still enjoy staying with my grandma, auntie and old friends in the city. After all, this is the place where I grew up and has been part of my life.

A clothing boutique

Starbucks

A tea shop

Inside the Eslite Bookstore

A Karaoke place