Best of Taiwan (lots of photos)

Chrissiebeez_NL

Hey guys and girls,

after going to Taiwan a few times, i've collected quite a few photos :wink I'd thought i'd share the ones i like best. Hope you like them.

1) Taipei. A crazy bustling city


2) A taiwanese wedding


3) The best treats and snacks can be found anywhere


4) Fresh, tasty, healthy food


5) Food is an important part of Taiwanese culture


6) Whizzing throught the streets on a scooter



7) Taiwan has been a Dutch colony once. Some remnants still remain.


8) Leaving the city, the mainland is breathtaking. Wedged between two mountain ranges, there are beautiful valleys. This hill is covered in orange lillies.


9) Orange lilly


10) Further inland, The beautiful national park Taroko features amazing rivers


11) Locals love to bathe in the pristine rivers in the Taroko National park


12) The mountains are rugged and the paths breath taking


13) in the national parks, monkeys curiously observe you from the trees


14) Once ruled by Japan, the aboriginals fought a guerilla war against them from the mountains. The mountain paths in Taroko National Park are lined with small shrines, to protect you on your journey.


15) Green island coastline


16) Sunset on Green island


17) Orchid island. Local aboriginals use these boats to catch flying fish


18) Close up of the boats


19) The ancient mining village of Jiao Fén


An old man plays the flute in a confusian temple


20) Confusianism is still strong in Taiwan. Visitors to the temples make whishes for themselves or their loved ones.


21) The abondoned mining town of Haotong


22) Cats played an important role keeping the mice and rats away in the mining town. With the demise of the mining industy, Cats are the main tourist attraction



23) There is a crazy fascisnation with things European. you can just run into a (rencently build) structure like this


24) "German licence plates" on a Taiwanese car. It makes it look 'distinguisted' :wink.


Thank you for watching

Earache

Great series!!
Some very nice views of people & places (and monkeys!) captured here!!
Thanks for sharing.
BTW.... I just knew Snickers Bars were sacred ;-)

Chrissiebeez_NL

Hey Earache!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it It's really intriguing how they try to appease the gods with these offers. I guess Snickers are as good as any to keep the gods happy haha

Cheers!

Tommyboy

Lots of interesting, compelling shots. My favorite is of the woman snacking in the market. Thanks for sharing your travels.

rhituraj

Very nicely done series. Love it!

Chrissiebeez_NL

Tommyboy wrote: »

Lots of interesting, compelling shots. My favorite is of the woman snacking in the market. Thanks for sharing your travels.

Thanks Tommyboy! I must admit that shot was made a little easier by the fact that it's actually my girlfriend rather then some stranger. She is also the reason i 'have' to go back there so many times cry

I don't know if i would have dared take a photo like that of some random person. It's something i have to work on i guess

Chrissiebeez_NL

rhituraj wrote: »

Very nicely done series. Love it!

Thanks rhituraj, glad you like it!

Chrissiebeez_NL

Although i showed some of the best things about Taiwan, there are also a lot of stories that are normally not so easy to see.

For example, the island of Lanyu, off the coast of Taiwan is beautiful at first glance, i've shown you this photo earlier:



But there are many sides to a story, also on this island. This photo, rather upsetting photo taken later that night shows a native 'dry-rowing' in his boat, so drunk he doesn't even know better.




The island used to be inhabited by native Taiwanese, long before the Chinese migrated there. They used to live in underground houses, protecting them from the harsh typhoons that pummel this island numerous times throughout the year.



This is one of those houses. As you can see, it's completely build into the ground with only the roof sticking out. The man on the right is a local native from Lanyu. We met him at the local supermarket. He was about the only native that wasn't drunk and harassing. The local native people are very wary of tourists and if you even take a photo of their characteristic boats without asking, you can get in big trouble. Most hang around the supermarket drunk, and aggressive dogs also roam the street.

We managed to gain his trust by staying very calm, interested and persuasive and he finally allowed us to see his house.



The house was about a meter high, and 30 meters square. Amazingly he cooked inside as well, without any form of ventilation. As we were talking, he told us about the native people, about their history and way of life. It was clear he was not very proud of what had become of his fellow islanders but very proud of his heritage. He mentioned that up to recent, they would have duels with rudimentary spears and wooden armor in a cave, to settle disputes. Incidentally, we passed this cave earlier without knowing the full story behind it.



He even took out his spear and armor he still had (at which point i started to feel highly aware of the fact i was in a very confined space with a slightly drunk native carting a spear) and started to jab an imaginary enemy to illustrate how this all went about.



In the end all was well, we shared our fruit with him and he wished us well. The natives are desperatly trying to hang on to their ways, but somehow they become bored and intoxicated. The island is also used by the government as the trashcan of Taiwan. The island of Lanyu is used as a nuclear waste storage site. Gravity like this could be seen all over the island. The basic message is that the nuclear storage site should leave the island, some in more offensive ways then others.



We saw our friendly native a while later in the news, protesting in the capitol against the nuclear storage site. I'm not sure if it will help..

Hope you like this little backside to some of the photo's. There are so many stories and history behind all of them, thats the wonder of travelling and exploring. If you want more, let me know