June 20

This was our last full day in Tainan and it was another rainy day! Our plan for the day was to visit a few more temples and monuments. The first temple was pretty similar to the ones we had seen before, except they had a really huge gate. The gate itself seemed to be just as big as the temple, but I accidentally deleted my picture of it. 

The second temple was a Buddhist temple that we read about in our guidebook. When we got there it looked like it was possibly abandoned. That didn’t stop us from walking around it some. It was a whole complex of temples and gardens with huge statues throughout. We did see one monk there at one point and heard the chanting playing on the radio, but other than that we were all on our own. I made up a story about the ten monks who died there as the reason why no one is there any more. We had a fun time exploring around the haunted temple complex trying to spook each other out. 

Then we went to the shrine for Koxinga, the general from China who took Taiwan back from the Dutch. There was a museum there and some pretty extensive gardens that were fun to explore around in. 

Then, right across the street from that was the temple for Lady Linshui. She was born in the 700s in China. Legends say that while she was alive she had clairvoyant abilities and was an exorcist. Throughout her life she had different battles with a particular magical snake. When she was 24 she became pregnant and the snake snuck into her womb and ate her unborn child. She then went to battle the snake for the last time. She managed to kill it, but died immediately after from exhaustion. Years later the people deified her as the god for mothers and unborn children. Pregnant women in particular go to her to have protection for their child during the pregnancy and delivery. She now has 36 helper goddesses (3 for each month) to help her in her task of taking care of unborn children. 

After that we just walked around town a bit more looking at different neat buildings and activities that were going on. We ended the day with some curry and a couple bowls of shaved ice.

At the first temple.






The second temple - this was the deserted Buddhist one.






These giant statues were also standing on top of people. It reminds me of the columns in the bank of evil in Despicable Me or the statue in the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter in the 7th movie.






This was a Catholic church that we walked by. It was cool to see the church with the integration of Chinese style architecture.


Inside the Catholic church.


At the Koxinga shrine.






















The Lady Linshui temple.






Here is a 3D painting of her fighting off demons.


Her 36 helper goddesses.














We watched this play along the side of the street for a little bit.


This was the gardens of a man who wanted to make a Japanese style garden. I don't know if it actually is Japanese style at all, but it was a pretty cool peaceful place in the middle of the big city.


He built this really long cave. Unfortunately they said it is no longer save and we could not go in it.


We stopped for some shaved ice. The one on the right is just passion fruit. The one on the left has chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and a flan pudding on top.


All around they have these little game stores. This one had a robot that the children all wanted to get their picture in.