Tainan

Yesterday was an odyssey of temples. I went to Tainan in Southern Taiwan--it is the oldest city in Taiwan, and it used to be the capital. The temple heritage is huge. I took my guidebook's suggestion and visited about 15 different temples, and it was a very hot, very busy day. I'll show the highlights.

Thanks to the High Speed Rail, it's easy to go from northern to southern Taiwan and it only takes 2 hours. It is fairly expensive, a full round-trip ticket is about $85 USD. The HSR station in Tainan is about 40 minutes away from downtown Tainan, but there's a free shuttle--pretty convenient.

I started at Chihkan Tower and what I liked most is the nine stone turtles carrying Qing dynasty tablets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Provintia

Dongyue Temple was an experience to be had. People go to Dongyue to communicate with the dead through mediums, and I watched some of that. The murals on the wall have depictions of hell, and for whatever reason (ambience?) they've got a raging fire and coal pit burning in the side hallway. City God Temple, a stone's throw away, is where the City God tallies all of your good and bad deeds after you die. There is a huge abacus that he uses for that calculation, and when you enter the temple the big gold-plated sign translates to, "You've come at last."

Finally, more upbeat is Lady Linshui's Temple, dedicated to Lady Linshui who, along with her 36 assistants, is responsible for protecting children. This was a very crowded temple.

When in Rome...it was hideously hot all day and in Taiwan the way to beat the heat is with bao bing--shaved ice topped with condensed milk and hunks of fruit. And Tainan is known for danzi mian--noodles in tangy meat sauce, named after the two baskets and a stick used to carry the noodles around for sale.