Today was out last day in Taipei so we tried to get in as much as possible. Cindy and Keith were feeling a bit rough but they hung in there. We got up mid morning and met up with Joyce and caught the bus & MRT over to the Wanhua district to visit the Lungshan Temple.
This is a templed dedicated to Kuanyin, the goddess of mercy. It was originally built in 1738 but in 1815 an earthquake leveled the area and the temple. Only the statue of Kuanyin survived and a new temple was built around it. It was wrecked again in 1867 by a typhoon and built one more time. In 1945, U.S. bombers hit the temple during a raid against Japanese troops and destroyed it once more. It was rebuilt one more time and today is one of the top 3 tourist attractions in Taipei.
It is extremely colorful and the architecture is amazingly intricate. It’s filled with worshippers and the air is heavy with smoke from burning incense.
There are fountains around the mail temple once you enter the gate. They are there so worshippers can symbolically “cleanse their hearts” before entering the main temple of Kuanyin.
After visiting the temple, we walked around the corner to another major tourist attraction, the Huahsi Night Market, or better known as Snake Alley. Since we were there during the day, there wasn’t a lot of action happening with the snakes..but at night, the place is like a carnival.
We came back to the hotel where everyone got some much needed rest. We finished off the night with a little shopping at the 101 Building and another run through the Night Market close to our hotel.
We’re packing now to get ready for the long flight home….Taipei has been a great trip!
BTW, a big THANK YOU to Tim Quinlan for the very nice write up on his website, http://insidemagic.com/magicnews/ about our performances in Hong Kong and Taipei featuring the article written by the TAIPEI TIMES.