longshan temple

The full title ought to be "Longshan Temple and Other Adventures," but I didn't want to write all that.

Today I had work. The first class had been cancelled, so I only had my CJ09 class (they talk, which is nice), and my 1hr private student Amber, who is the mother of two little boys who are also taking private classes at our school, with our two other teachers. After both classes were finished I went home and changed, since I had to meet a third potential Chinese tutor at 5. The distance between 1:10pm and 5pm sounds like a lot unless you are me, and you are tired, and then that time goes rather fast.

I got to the meeting fine, though, and met the tutor. She was very nice, and wonderfully helpful, but I think she's looking for a more studious student than myself. My heart is set on Japanese, and although I'm very interested in Chinese, I know I won't be as vigorous learning Chinese as I would Japanese, so I'll probably go with the tutor whose slow, conversational pace worked best for me.

When the tutor and I parted ways, it was only 6pm and I knew I didn't want to go home yet. I was on the blue MRT line, so I went to Longshan Temple. I've recently realized that I love night markets, and I want to visit more, so I'd been looking up notable ones on Wikipedia. There is a famous tourist market called Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market (or Snake Alley) by Longshan Temple, which is also famous.

At first I didn't see anything outside the station, and after walking in a circle I was ready to be disappointed and go home, but I went a little ways farther and found the temple.

It's huge and stunning. There were tons of people there, buying incense and offering food and flowers. I wandered around and took pictures of the temple.

I did go into the night market, as well, but I didn't stay long and didn't get many pictures. It was a very tourist-y market, with one informal market outside and another one inside, and a lot of the items sold were souvenirs (like little clay teapots, jade bracelets, and dishware) or porn. I have never seen so many porn shops in my life, and there were occasional tables set up with all sorts of dildos on them (for men and women). Looking back, I REALLY should have taken pictures for the entertainment value, but I didn't want to look crazy, but then again, I'm betting a LOT of tourists take pictures.

The indoor market looked like this:

I didn't explore much because it had a lot of the same stuff as the outside one, and crazy as it sounds it didn't have that "authentic" vibe that I really enjoy about night markets. I mean, there were families there, definitely more Taiwanese than foreigners, and I saw many of the common goods and activities I'd see in other markets, including mini arcades for kids, goldfish-fishing, and stalls selling the usual fashions. It just didn't have that quirkiness that sparks my interest.

I'll likely go back, anyways, if only to get more pictures of Longshan Temple in daylight, and maybe to try some of the food I saw. I bought watermelon juice and that was REALLY good.

Went to Ximen after Longshan, and took some pics/videos, bought some colored tank tops and flowered shorts that just barely do their job (I'll need tights with them) and headed home.

Tomorrow is another adventure!