To begin, we went to the Dalongdong Baoan Temple, a Daoist temple in the Datong District. The temple was very large and elaborate, reminding me of the Longsan Temple we had visited earlier!
Located next door to the Baoan Temple was the Confucius Temple, also known as the Confucius School. I was surprised at first to learn that Confucius had his own temple, since he was more a scholar than a god. Then I realized that this temple was more of a school, one where people could come and ask for his scholarly advice and wisdom. Unlike the Baoan Temple, the Confucius Temple was relatively plain. There were no statues or paintings revering Confucius. Rather, the Temple had a lot of free space, greenery, and even a pond! We had to cross through 4 main gates/doors in order to finally access the main Confucius Temple. At the gift shop, I bought a little charm that is supposed to bring the holder good luck and fortune when it comes to examinations!!
After the temple, we went to see the National Palace Museum!! I have been to this museum several times and the artifacts within the museum did not really change over the years. Before we went in, we stopped first at a Tainan style restaurant. There, I ordered a pork foot noodle soup, which was very refreshing and delicious!!!
Inside the museum, we paid 80 NT and then split up to view the museum artifacts in little groups! It was still intriguing to learn more about Chinese history by revisiting these ancient artifacts! I got to revisit the jadeite cabbage and the jasper pork- together, known to many as the Mona Lisa of Taiwan!!! I hit the gift store and bought many gifts for my friends and professors, including a handful of mini cabbages!! The joke behind the mini cabbages is that the cabbage represents fertility, and by presenting someone with a cabbage, you are basically wishing them luck in conceiving!!
Outside the Palace Museum, we witnessed a protest!! A few police members and a handful of protesters were demanding that the Chinese leave Taiwan alone. In other words, these people believed that Taiwan should be its own country- rather than being a satellite country of China. As it started raining, these protesters soon dispersed and we moved on to our final temple!!
I wasn't able to catch the name of the last temple, but it was very beautiful and different than the ones we've seen before. This temple looked more like the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall in terms of its architecture. We didn't stay very long here- just taking a few pictures and watching the guards change shift! We hurried off to the Shilin Night Market, ready to eat some good food!!!
The Shilin Night Market has changed a lot since the last time I visited! The food court is now underground and a lot smaller than before!! The shops were still the same, but the prices have definitely gone up in the years. I treated myself to some stinky tofu in all shapes, forms, and sizes!!!! First, I got the steamed hot and spicy stinky tofu at a little shop in the corner. This tofu was pretty good... but not so stinky!! :( Then I tried some fried stinky tofu and some shrimp pancake at a very popular place (even President Ma has been there)!! This time, the tofu was moderately stinky.... but not up to par with the tofu I had at Rao He Night Market in the past. Finally, I got some more boiled stinky tofu with duck blood... and found this one to be the worst of the night! No stink whatsoever! What is this!!!!! This was unreal. Disappointed, I left the food court to go shopping and ended up staying there for a couple of hours with Adam, playing various claw machine games and buying very few gifts.
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