We started with a smaller temple that we thought was the Grand
Matsu temple. After we finished with it, we found out that the Grand Matsu
temple was actually one block over. The Grand Matsu Temple is dedicated to the
sea goddess. It used to be the palace for Prince Ningjing. He was the next in
line to rule China from the Ming dynasty, but the Qing dynasty had taken over
and so they fled to Taiwan. They were going to recuperate here in Tainan, and
then head back to take control of China. However, when the Qing came to Taiwan
and beat the Ming here Prince Ningjing realized he would never rule and so he
and his 5 concubines all committed suicide. Before he did that though, he
specified that the palace should be turned into a temple. The 5 concubines also
got their own temple built in the city for their loyalty to the prince and the
kingdom.
We then went to the temple of a Chinese general that was so
well-respected that he was turned in to a god after he died. We hit the temple
of the heavens after that and went back to the apartment for an afternoon
break.
That night we walked a couple miles to the largest night market in
Tainan. It was a lot of fun. It was less commercialized than the one in
Hualien. There were hundreds of food stands separated out into 6 or so rows
with only about 5 feet between them. There were so many people there that the
rows were all packed and you just had to kind of move with the crowd down or
upstream. We went down each row checking out all of the food and seeing the
excitement of the market. Then we found a place to sit on the outskirts of it,
and Rebecca or I would head back in to pick up a dish or two to bring back to
the children. Their favorite was the giant onion pancakes. We ended up going
back there a couple of times. Rebecca’s favorite was some stir-fried meat and
vegetables. I really just liked it all. Rebecca said she tried a chicken foot
sample at one of the stations. She didn’t like it at all and had to spit it out
once she was out of eyesight. We ended with some mango and strawberry smoothies
for the late night walk home. We let everyone have their very own drink, which
they were all super excited about!
Rebecca with a breakfast wrap.
Just a small temple at the end of the street.
One of the larger temples.
Some of these carved pillars were over 300 years old. They were all carved by hand.
Some of these temples look really small from the front, but then they go on for an entire city block behind. Others look really huge from the front, but really they are only one small room.
This was the room for the god or romance. Notice all of the prayers written on the heart shaped papers and placed on the boards.
Agnes making her best warrior face.
A turtle pond.
This is supposed to be the most famous carving of a character in any temple in Taiwan. It is the number one. They like it because it is symbolic of a lot of things here.
Here is the department store that we went in to the other day. I forgot to get an outside pictures, so as we went by again today I snapped one.
Some taro, sweet potato, and regular fries. We tried some of the taro and sweet potato.
After they fried them, they used this spinner thing to get all of the extra grease off.
All the kids with their bakery items.
In the store they were doing these promotional dragon boat races for the children.
They also had a basketball shooting game outside of the store to win these potato chips.
The night market.
I wanted to get these squid, but couldn't bring myself to pay so much for something I would just try for the novelty of it.
On our bridge right before our apartment.
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