Hwashi Street and Wanhua

Another day, another enthusiastic response to my lectures from my students. Despite their high energy, I left them on Friday afternoon and headed into Taipei to overnight for another bike trip over the Northern Cross-Island Highway.

My son takes in a motorcycle accident near Longshan Temple and Huashi Street

We had decided to stay on Huashi Street (華西街) in Wanhua and toss the bikes on the Longshan Metro in the morning. Huashi Street in Taipei is one of the most famous tourist areas in the city, a step away from the Longshan Temple. Formerly a red-light district -- plenty of that still goes on -- the area is being remade as a "tourist attraction" with a "tourist night market." Ugh. But there are lots of good photo-ops in the markets around the area.

A vendor moves her cart as the night markets are set up in the late afternoon.

Like all of Taipei, retailing is a big business in the area.

We got a spartan room for 5 for just $2000 at a historic old hostel....here my son searches for a plug. The room was an excellent deal in an interesting area, and came equipped with all the basic amenities -- toothbrushes, hair dryers, big towels -- in an old building crammed with tiny rooms, twisty hallways, and the accumulated stuff of half a lifetime. They also had a place to put the bikes. Definitely recommended.

...the 古山園旅社, (萬華區華西街40巷16號1-3樓). Apparently it used to be one of the places that housed legal prostitutes in the good old days. "Illegal" prostitution still thrives in the area, and walking around the alleys around Huashi Street one can see many streetwalkers plying their trade, and be accosted by any number of madames with their girls in tow.

In the Tourist Night Market the vendors were busy setting up in the late afternoon.

As tables waited silently for customers.

Santa, caged.

Wanhua is an old district of Taipei and if you walk around, there are many older buildings hiding in plain sight, like the brick structure on the right.

The city has put in the pavement and lights that signal that the area is an "old district". One distressing aspect of Taiwanese tourist presentation is that it obliterates what is old and unique and replaces it with a kind of kitsch approach whose purpose is to present a generic image of what "historical" is expected to look like to tourists -- rather than reconstruction or preservation.

A common sight on Taiwan streets: things hanging.

Mom was trying to get him to say hello, while the other kids helpfully categorized me as a foreigner, in case I wasn't aware of that.

A veggie stand in the area.

In front of a local temple, dinner.

My friend Jeff, always interested in architecture, inspects some unusual round pillars.

We also stopped by the famous Longshan Temple, next to the metro stop of the same name.

The temple was packed, as always.

Unusual figures hold up the roof of the incense burner.

As night fell, the market rose.

Eager snackers sample the abundance of the night market around Huashi Street.

More than enough for the hungriest night market shopper.

Fish heads, anyone?

A drinks vendor.

Diners enjoy good food and conversation.

The covered night market where you can find the snake blood for sale. Twenty years ago this was a much more interesting experience; now the city has cast a dull sameness across the market, since in local thinking, sameness equates to orderliness.

The endless crowds slither through the jungle of signs and stands.

Nuts steaming on a cool fall evening.

And in the morning, there were mountains.
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