Taiwan Life and Fun: Moon Festival

Moon Festival or otherwise known as Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated September 12th this year. It is celebrated every year on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This happens to be the time of year when the moon is the biggest and brightest. Interestingly, this year we saw the moon the night before, but on the night of the 12th the moon was hidden by clouds. Go figure! 

We celebrated anyway. Families in Taiwan, typically barbecue together as they watch the moon.  This is a picture of a family across from our balcony barbecuing on their rooftop. 

We did our barbecuing on our balcony. We had chicken and roasted onions and peppers. Then we added a bit American Culture with the mix, s'mores! New trick with these wonders...we used Nutella instead of chocolate bars. So. Much. Better!

Another tradition is to eat something called a mooncake. It is basically a pastry with something sweet inside. Most of the time, the inside is a sugary egg filling or red bean paste. Sometimes you can find chocolate, coffee, or green tea flavored ones. I bought small ones with pineapple flavored fillings, which is the family's favorite. The picture below is of a red bean paste filling. 

The outside of the mooncake. 

The inside of a mooncake. They are solid and very rich!

A few days before the actual festival date, our neighborhood had a party in the park for the community. Tents were set up with food and crafts for the younger crowd to enjoy. The amphitheater had entertainment of bands and different performances. My husband took two of the kids before supper and I took them back after supper, along with the camera!  They had watched people singing and dancing...but when we got there:

Lion Dancers!

Taiwan has many folk religions and temples.

And the gods have gone modern. They hip-hop dance!

It was an interesting experience. Culturally speaking, I enjoyed watching and observing my community and their beliefs. Spiritually speaking, as a Christian, it was unsettling with all the loud music with gongs and cymbals clanging.

Please note that most of these folk religions bring fear to most people. The people here are VERY superstitious and fear that the gods will "get them or their loved ones" if they don't do the right things. 

I don't normally ask this here, but if you are a praying person, could I ask you to pray for Taiwan and for my family. We just moved to one of the districts with the most temples per square meter for our city. Every time we walk outside, we see this "fear" in the form of people in the temples, wearing "protective" symbols around their necks, and burning fake money on a regular basis. 

So, if you celebrated Moon Festival this year, what did you do? Or if you have a question about this festival ask and I'll try to get an answer for you.

Taiwan Life and Fun: Wulai River

Wulai has become one of our favorite spots to go as a family. There is so much to do in this area, but we just go straight to the river. Maybe it is because we have a young family, but we don't even make it to the waterfall. This little spot works just fine for us, at least for this season of our life.

Photo by Erin Bowden

The great thing about this place is that you don't even need a car to get there. Public transportation takes about an hour. Here's how: Take the blue bus #849 from Roosevelt Road. Or you can take the MRT to the last station in Xindian and catch the bus there. It is the last bus stop, so you can't miss it. Once off the bus, walk up towards the village and take a left after the bridge. (We always stop at the 7-11 on the corner to pack up some drinks and snacks). Walk up the hill about five minutes or so. When the road begins to "Y" go into the building on the left side. It costs around 100nt/person to enter, but you are given some water, clean bathrooms and showers. There are a few free spots before this place where you can walk down stairs to the river, but no bathrooms. With kids, I prefer the bathrooms. ;)

The water here is clean and cool. There are small pools of water where the girls could splash around safely and there were areas where Marcus could jump off rocks into deep waters (or for my husband to do cannonballs from). Really, just a great place for a family to chill and relax during a hot and humid summer day.

Jie Jie enjoys mud bathing. 

GeGe contemplating a jump. 

Mei Mei with her fish...tiny little things that she
wanted to bring home as pets. =)

Thursday's in Taiwan: Presidential Building

The Presidential Building is the White House of Taiwan. This is the place where the president of Taiwan works.  The Presidential Building was designed and built by the Japanese in the early 1900s.  Architecturally speaking, it is really a gem of the city.
Okay, honestly I don't know much about architecture. But, it really is something to walk through.

That's the building behind GeGe. 

Yep, me shaking the hand of President Ma.
Okay, it was a cutout.

It is not Asian looking at all. The one aspect that it is Asian is that the shape is two squares joined together. This may not sound "Asian", but this symbol looks like this:日, which is the first character for the country of Japan "ri ben".  Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, I thought so, too, which is why I think it is a gem.

Blueprints of the building.

You might not know this, but you can actually tour the Office.  They have "Partial Open House" which is Monday-Friday from 9am-12pm.  "Full Open House" tours are also available about once a month. The dates and times can be found here.  Oh, and the great thing is that both tours are FREE!

I went with my son's Cub Scout group a year ago or so.  It really was quite interesting and fun. Guides were posted around the small museum.  They were local Taipei students that told stories and facts about the construction of the building and the surrender of the Japanese during WWII.  Most of this is in Chinese, but there were a few that spoke English.  So, I advise you to take a Chinese speaking/reading friend along if you can't speak Chinese.  But, if you decide to go without a native speaker, I think it is still worth your time. Remember it is FREE! 

In one of the outer gardens.

Thursday's in Taiwan: Riverside Bikepath

Taipei has been working on making green space throughout the city. I'm loving that you can find pocket parks in small neighborhoods that have grass and trees.  But, I love this bike path and the parks that are along it. This section is just about a ten minute bike ride from our apartment.  Depending on where you want to go, you can bike to Danshui or to Xindian.  And the path is paved the entire way! But, take note that on the weekends it has heavy traffic, so the best time is during the week when everyone else is at work and school.

But if you are thinking..."I don't own a bike!" No worries, you can rent them.  There is a place at the entrance near the waterpark (just under the bridge!). They also have an air pressure tank, so if you need to put air in those tires, also, no problem. 

One day during this Chinese New Year we hit the bike path. It was great. The weather was perfect. We didn't go all the way to Danshui,  but stopped at a little park just past Qing Nian Gong Yuan. Sorry, I've forgotten the name, but great little zip line and small sand pit. Bonus points was that there was NOT that many other kids there, so no long lines to wait in for the zip line. 

Notice the short sleeves. We actual wish we had put on shorts.
It was that warm!

Lots of green space to run and roll around in!
Okay, maybe not that green, but remember winter
is just ending at this time. 

Or to take a nap break in.
Local guy taking a break. Notice no shoes!

Quite a few were fishing.

And the view that we had...Taipei 101!

Thursday's in Taiwan: Welcome!

Welcome to Taiwan! Every Thursday I am inviting you to the island I call home these days. I'll post about places to visit, sites to see, foods you can find, and other tidbits from the beaches, the mountains, and the cities. So, to start off this new series, I offer you a refreshing drink!

Taiwan is known for their "Bubble Tea".  The most famous one is the Pearl Milk Tea. It is basically red tea with milk and sugar with glutenous rice balls.   

My favorite tea is the passion fruit green tea with coconut jellies. If you are curious about what passion fruit is, my blogging friend Sharon just returned from the Dominican Republic and she has a picture of one. Click here to see one, plus some great pictures from another exotic getaway. 

But, I can't just offer you a drink. Here is a little treat to go for ya as well. 

You just gotta love the creative flair!

Panda Bear Bread

So, what is your favorite exotic drink?