Made in Taiwan

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Arrival in Taipei was drizzly but it did not dampen our spirits. We were met at the port by our driver and 7 of us set off to see what this city had to offer.
First stop was Lungshan Temple.
The place was bustling with chanting, singing and praying. It was hard to know if we were interrupting or being disrespectful by watching and snapping pictures but no one seemed to mind so we went with it. There was also tonnes of food laying about. We came close to snagging a quick snack, but correctly thought better of it - the Gods need their sustinence.
It was a national holiday in Taiwan and maybe this is why this temple was so busy.

After this stop we took a gondola ride up over the hillside tea growing fields at the city's edge. Pretty nice views of the surrounding countryside and of the city. A quick visit to a tea room at the top where we sampled the locally grown tea and learned about the tea leaf growing and production. We also met the great great grand-daughter of the areas historic tea master; after tasting their wares we headed on to Taipei Tower.

Taipei Tower was once the world's tallest building and it still sits at a respectable no. 8 (CN Tower no longer makes the list... Sorry Toronto). It was raining so we debated whether it was worth the price to go to the observatory at the top...but as someone in our party pointed out...when is the next time we'll get the chance. So up we went. Totally worth it! Despite the weather we had great views of Taipei from above and there was some cool learning too (Do you know what a Building Damper does? Have you ever seen one?.. thought so.).

Our last stop was at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.
Here they have thier national concert hall, national theatre, an exhibition area and a bronze statue of a former president who looked like a nice guy to us. This place was packed with people and parade floats ( likely related to the national holiday). It was beyond epic with its grandiose buildings huge land footprint and beautiful architecture.

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