The Neighbourhood

  Taoyuan, Neili, where I spend most of my days, Taiwan
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

This is just a few photos of things that I've seen on my wanderings around town.

14/03
I live in a small town called Neili, about 40 mins south from the capital Taipei. I commute every day to Taoyuan, the city about 6km up the road. There's not a great deal in Taoyuan except for dirt, scooters, people, huge sky scraper blocks of flats, more dirt, and even more people. Neili is much the same, but with fewer people jostling for space under the sky.




I've put up a few photos of the Jing Fu Temple in Taoyuan It's quite pretty - but it's in the middle of a huge roundabout! The town kind of grew around it, and it's now right slap bang where the two main roads in town cross. It's pretty big - there's a courtyard and the temple itself, with lots of brightly coloured animals all over the place. I think it's Doaist, but you can never really tell. Most temples here are a mix of Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucianist - everyone is quite happy to mash everything up into one. It's very different to the more reverent Tibetan-style Buddhism we saw in Mongolia. Although at the time is looked quite slap dash, here it's very gaudy and bright. People don't seem to care as much about the ideas, just what they're going to get out of it. People leave offerings for good fortune, good grades, good business, blah blah blah. Daoist temples usually have some kind of 'fortune teller' you can ask for guidance and nuns that will bless you to clear out bad energy. It's interesting, but hard to find much information in English about it here. There's also some photos of another big temple I found. This one was quite different - not as grand, although it was bigger, and completely deserted. The Jing Fu temple is normally full of people - they even drive their scooters right up to the door!

I'll keep trying to add a few photos of around town when I see something worth taking a photo of. You might be waiting a while though, it's not too photogenic around here! 


28/03
Well, I managed to find a few more things to take pictures of! There's a couple of photos from around Neili where I live, and the part of town close to my work.
New Photo number 1 - the 'cultural centre' in Taoyuan. It's a highlight of any visit...
There's some photos of the green patch of grass near my house (believe me, it's small but a valued patch of 'nature' for me!), the train station (damn, my life is so exciting),  and a few shots of stuff from the walk from work to the cafe at lunch earlier. More things to read attached to the photos!