Taiwan

It seems quite surprising to me that I have already finished my 10 days here as it seems to have gone by so fast and been filled with many different things - a day at the seaside, a day in the countryside, and many many temples.

The temples here are quite spectacular; they are incredidibly ornately decorated with bright colours, intricate stone carvings covering every wall as well as the columns and gorgeous tiled statues on the rooves. They also seem to fill most spaces in the cities, squeezing in between tall skyscrapers or down side alleys, I have even walked past a couple of them that are just in tiny spaces between two shop fronts - they really are everywhere.

I also came across a festical of some sort that was happening outside one of the Temples in Taichung. I'm not sure exactly what it was that was being celebrated, but there was quite a lot going on, with people wearing giant costumes or facepaint, dancing to drums. They also seemed to be taking some of the statues out of the temples and carryong them around the streets before bringing them back in a hail of dancing, swordplay and earsplitting firecrackers. All very exciting!

It has been really interesting to get to know Taiwan beyond it being a place where a lot of cheap goods are manufactured. It is also quite distinct to China, as they do seem to have a distinct identity and culture, despite a number of similarities, and I have enjoyed both tremendously.