I went to Longshan temple this afternoon. Usually I find temples etc pretty dull, but I was quite impressed by Longshan. Appearance wise, it is quite different from other Buddhist temples which I've seen in Taiwan or in mainland China. It didn't have as much awful bright colours everywhere which was much easier on my eye balls.
I was surprised to discover that there were tonnes of people inside chanting and burning incense. I've seen this before over Chinese New Year, but I think this is the first time when I've been in a Buddhist temple and it has actually felt like people are legitimately worshipping. The impression that I get is that many people do this sort of thing over CYN, much like people go to church on Easter or Christmas, just out of a sort of tradition. As far as I could tell, there wasn't any special festival on today, so I was surprised to see that so many people were there. The whole place had a really solemn feeling about it, and that combined with the chanting of hundreds of people was a little bit confronting for me!
After I'd seen that, I went for a walk around the area and to the Huaxi markets. It was legitimately the seediest place I've ever been in my life. I walked past several restaurants with cages filled with snakes out the front (I didn't take a picture, pretty sure that image is burnt into my brain), and there were lots of old men looking at me like they wouldn't mind adopting a small Australian girl, even if she wasn't keen. This is the first time in Taiwan I've had a "wow, I should really wear my bag on my front and walk a lot quicker so I don't get attacked/robbed" moment. Usually I feel really safe, but not in this neighbourhood!
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| Don't go here, you will be kidnapped or killed, possibly. |
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