The New Year's for once the weather has been great, and I've been motoring around photographing things all week. Which was good, because it's been a slow news week....
Mark Forman,
the Bluesman, and your trusty writer sped around Fengyuan looking at old stuff and new stuff.
I took him past this old house from the Japanese period. Note the gunports in the wall....
The rear of the house, the old stalls where pigs and chicken were raised once.
One of the old residents, who grew up here 70 years ago and went to the local Japanese school.
Three layers of a wall exposed.
Mark took me through some of the farms in the area, owned by friends of his.
Flowers for the market.
In Fengyuan we found this Japanese period home.
...and this modern-period resident.
The streets were packed with holiday shoppers.
Sausages entice customers.
Angels guarded my path.
The temple was busy but not packed.
Dragons watched as the incense burned.
Mark spotted the odd statues on the corners -- instead of being figures from Chinese myth and history, they are dressed in western style. There was one on each side of the temple.
In the alley beside the temple is a snack market that everyone in Fengyuan knows.
It's always packed in this market.
Goodies for sale everywhere.
An old man selling snacks.
"It's delicious! Try some!"
Brilliant colors for passing strangers.
This meat ball stand is always packed.
Depression? People out of work? Can't tell from the crowded streets.
Balloons always make an excellent picture.
New Year's means family, and family means photos. My daughter and my nieces.
Of course, family also means food.
Hungry yet?
After food, the kids experiment with fireworks.
A few days later was an outing to the museums on a gorgeous winter day. First the Art Museum.
...and then the Science Museum.
...and then to Caves to look for books.
My daughter, like many other customers, reads in the bookstore.
Not everyone had a happy day: motorists disagree over just who caused the accident...
[Taiwan]
Thanks for the photos, as ever; they're a nice glimpse of Taiwan since I haven't been able to get back there for a couple years now.
ReplyDeleteHappy Year of the Ox!