Temples and Night Markets

Taiwan is all about their temples and night markets. I've been to a few of each already. They sometimes go together. The most lively temple I've been to is the Longshan temple in the western part of Taipei. The temple itself, like the others I've been to, is decorated to distraction with brightly colored dragons and curlicues on the roof and lots of gold on the interior. On top of that there are elaborate temporary decorations like paper lanterns and the tiger here and mechanical puppets. On Saturday afternoon the temple was full of visitors praying, singing and lighting incense and paper money. At another temple near Alishan there was a procession of people setting off fireworks, dancing and doing kung fu. If you're a young boy here, I imagine you beg your parents to take you to church.

The night markets are long pedestrian streets (plus the occasional rogue scooter) with both permanent stores and temporary stalls set up on both sides. You can buy pretty much anything--food, toys, clothes, DVDs, etc., plus there are carnival games for kids. It's a little like an American street fair but they're open every night and there's more variety of everything. I haven't scratched the surface of the street food that you can buy at these things, but it seems like a big part of the culture here. Visitor guides to different places in Taiwan always mention right up front what the local snack food specialties are.