Tainan, Taiwan

We had a quick breakfast at our hotel in Kaohshiung and got packed up. It took us a bit longer than usual cause we had spread out quite a bit in the room.

Caught the MRT (subway) to the train station, where it was very easy to transfer. It was only 30 minutes to Tainan, hardly enough time to open up the Lonely Planet to plan out the afternoon.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 25C. It’s been an odd trip weather-wise, we’ve been through all types of clothing from max winter gear with all our base layers to dry fit and humidity.

Our hotel in Tainan was just opposite the train station; but on the other side of the tracks so it took us 10 minutes to walk around. Then we realized there’s a pedestrian bridge and exit on the hotel side :(

Anyways it was not even noon so early check in wasn’t yet available. We left our luggage and headed out to sightsee, roughly along the Lonely Planet “Urban Tainan Temple Walking Tour” (not sure what the “Urban” part meant, it would be hard to do a Rural walking tour, but whatever).

Tainan is one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, with lots of temples and old buildings to see.

We started with the City God Temple, which was okay. It had pretty good descriptions in English, and a large abacus over the main entrance (symbolizing the calculation of people’s good and bad deeds).

Along the way we looked for a busy restaurant for lunch. Heather spotted a line up down an alleyway, with food that looked good. We lined up and then did some research. The internet said good things too, and also suggested the best things to try.

After about 45 minutes we were seated! Placed our order (sticky rice with pork and fish floss, breadstick, boiled greens, pork dumpling soup, pork jowl and pork rind). It came out made-to-order (most places are buffet-like). It was excellent, worth the wait.

After lunch we checked out the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. Over its history, Taiwan has had a number of different languages either mandated or suppressed, which makes it difficult to develop a literary history. The museum was interesting. English descriptors were limited (I guess that makes sense, given it’s a literary museum where English isn’t prominent).

We then headed over to the Confucius Temple, which was a combination temple and museum. It’s my first pic of a temple in Taiwan with a blue sky background :)

Nearby was the Hayashi Department Store. It was built in the 1930’s, bombed in WWII (you can still see the effects on the 5th floor), restored in 2006 and is still a department store. It’s an old-school department store, it feels like you’re walking through a movie shoot but it’s real.

Kitty corner is the Land Bank, with Greek columns and a mix of other architectural styles.

It was nearing 3pm and check in time at the hotel. We relaxed back at the hotel, watched the sunset over the city, had some snacks at the lounge, and made plans for tomorrow. A good start to Tainan!