Alas!! They Were So Sacrificial!

Paul and I boldly sallied forth today to visit Tainan, a city an hour-and-a-half away by train. It was mainly Paul's doing since I was sick and grumpy after three-ish hours of sleep (yeah, not good, but not my fault. I went to bed at a near-to-reasonable hour. If my body refuses to sleep, that's its problem).

Our first stop was the Confucian Temple complex, which was very nice. It was well-preserved and run by adorably friendly people (they gave us an extra map). It was the only Confucian temple where I've ever since people worship. There was a little musuem in the outlying buildings with artifacts, pictures, and English explanations. Paul was really put off by the animal sacrifices. Apparently, Tainan celebrates Confucius' birthday with a big ceremony that includes the sacrifice of a cow, goat, and pig. Paul wishes to mention that the pond in the complex had swimming turtles in it, not turtles just chilling on logs or whatever, but actually swimming around. They were cute.

After that, I was a little cheerier and Paul talked me into stopping at Lily Fruit Shop, where we got a bowl of shaved ice topped with passionfruit syrup. Here's a rare picture of a smiling Paul at the shop. (It's rare to see a picture of the elusive Paul, not that it's rare for him to smile.) We continued on to the South Gate, which was fun and had a random collection of steles. My favorite was one commissioned by the town's salt merchants to thank the magistrate for releasing emergency salt after some ships sunk in a storm in 1784. Here, we met an elderly woman (80s) who was amused to see us foreigners reading signs about monuments we couldn't read. (I know this, because she said it to us in Chinese.) She was sweet, but what was distinctive about her was her feet. The first thing Paul said when we were out of earshot was, "Did she have bound feet?" I agree there was something unusual about her feet in both small size and uncommon shape, but I'm fairly certain anyone who ever had bound feet in Taiwan is long dead. It was at any rate an unexpected sight and while admittedly fascinated, I didn't dare to look for too long, lest we be caught staring.

We bravely walked on to the Temple of the Five Consorts, which was Paul's favorite temple of the day. It's dedicated to the five wives of the last king of Taiwan, who committed suicide after learning that he had committed suicide in anticipation of losing his throne. The temple was small, but had a lot of open ground (green space is very rare here and usually found as part of a temple's grounds) and a beautiful little flower garden. The second memorial (the first is in the South Gate's collection) to the women praised their virtue in such exaggerated moralistic tones, it was unbelievably over-the-top in English. The title of this post is a direct quote from the memorial. The last line was "The effects of their good virtue will eternally spread." The whole site had the appearance of someone's pet project. (A smaller related shrine was getting all of its interior decoration replaced and had a pad for kneeling--very unusual for such a small public shrine.)

We got a little lost after that, but my mediocre Chinese and Paul's navigational skills pulled us through and we were eventually able to find our destination of Koxinga's Shrine. Paul argued that since it was built in 1967, it really couldn't be considered a historical site. He's right, but I'm glad we went because the decoration on it was lovely and they were getting ready for a big festival to be held there next week, so everything was being repaired and painted. It also had nice grounds, though no flowers.

Across the street was the Lady Linshui's temple, which was the second-best temple we've seen in Taiwan. (Longshan in Taibei is still the best.) It was packed with families (Lady Linshui and her helpers are dedicated to helping women and children) and dozens of small shrines and three big ones. This was the first temple where a religious ceremony was taking place while we wandered by. It was very cool.

By now we were starting to flag, but we squeezed in two more temples, both of which were minor disappointments. If you bill yourself as having horrific murals of hell, you better have horrific pictures of hell, not a single etched metal sheet showing general demon poking of humans.

Completely flagging, we dragged ourselves to a restaurant recommended in the guidebook, where I couldn't read any of the dishes to save my life. Eventually, the one employee with some English was sent our way. She set us up with what we requested (dry--which means cooked and not in a soup--noodles) and a shop speciality. It was all very cheap, so we said yes. I really liked the noodles, Paul was indifferent. (I wound up finishing his bowl.) The speciality was gross on all accounts, but oh well. 1 for 2 isn't bad.

Somewhat restored, we walked down a block to the Chikan towers. The towers themselves aren't that impressive--just two big, kind of old towers, but the ground were pretty and packed to the gills with families. It was a happening place, where you can borrow costumes to dress up in for a picture and there are billions of GIANT goldfish eager to be fed (which is surprisingly fun). The towers weren't overly exciting, but it was fun to be where people were. There was live "folk" music which was pleasant. This was also where I learned the harsh lesson that they do make squatter portapotties.

We managed to pack in two more temples--one had very cool detail work--but were out of time and I was so exhausted, I thought poor Paul might have to carry me back to the train station. We successfully boarded our train home and I slept in between stops. It is now 9:30 pm and if I can stay awake until 11 pm, it will be a) a miracle and b) hopefully a solid step in fixing my sleeping schedule.

P.S. I can't get the images button to work, so there are no pictures, but I will try to fix it and get some up soon.