Southern Taiwan - Tainan!

When I arrived home from Kaohsiung, I stayed one night in Taipei.  The next night, I headed back to the south of Taiwan with my host family. We stayed in a city called Tainan which is a bit north of the other city!

On Chinese New Year's Eve, we had a huge dinner with some of my host family's extended family. So much food! They also exchanged red envelopes this night throughout the family as a symbol of happiness, luck, and the start of something new. After cleaning the house, we left for Tainan.

Tainan is my host grandma's hometown and is the oldest city on the island of Taiwan. It is surrounded by agricultural landscape and very traditional. During my short trip, I was able to see the most famous site in Tainan - The Chihkan Towers and a huge Buddhist temple. The Towers are a great place to see the entire city of Tainan and learn the history. Much of Taiwan's history relates to the dynasty's and also the war that they fought. The other location I visited was a large Buddhist monument.  This monument was absolutely incredible! It was so large.  With a huge Buddhist at the top of the hill, beautiful pagodas lining the pathway, and the amazing blue skies.....the view was great. The monument also had a Chinese New Year celebration. I experienced the dragon dance, the drumming parade, and the dynasty's parade. All very unique!

I also had the opportunity to indulge in many of the traditional foods for the Chinese New Year. I had a black sesame and cashew nut candy, dou hua - tofu with a sweetened soup, and shrimp chips!

Thank you for including me on this family tradition in Tainan. I enjoyed seeing another part of Taiwan!