We’ve been here for a week and we’ve already seen so much! The Muiu Inn have welcomed us with open arms and we’re not without plenty of things to do. Here are a few pictures of our first week, including our visit to Longshan Temple, playing with the BigPow bluetooth band near Zhongshan Station and a little exploration of Bo-Pi-Liao Historic Street.

Longshan temple is a Buddhist temple in Wanhua District built in Taipei in 1738. This was my first temple (Cat has seen a temple or two in her time already) and I wouldn’t do any justice describing how colourful and beautiful it was – check out the picture.

It was quite overwhelming as you enter. We went on a Friday morning and it was bursting with people, flower and food offerings, and incense.

The offerings and incense are used to worship the Gods. Apparently last summer the pollution around the temple got so bad from the incense they had to restrict visitors to one stick each. We can see why, everyone is carrying them around, jostling to put them inside the censers of the god they would like to pray to. There is a charming picture of me with incense smoke up my nose, not to be missed.

Longshan Temple

BIGPOW are a fun trio of robots who live near Zhongshan station. If you have a phone with bluetooth you can connect to them and they turn into surround sound speakers. You haven’t lived if you haven’t danced to ‘Come on Eileen’ in the middle of the street at 10am.

BigPow’s little sister, TwinPow

Bo-Pi-Liao Historic Street is a renovated Qing Dynasty street that was considered a vital passage during its time. It was displaced during the Japanese colonial era, but was reconstructed to its former glory in 2006. Great to see what Taipei city would have looked like!