Longshan Temple

After Jianguo Holiday Flower and Jade Market, we proceeded to Longshan Temple. I really wanted to see a temple in Taiwan. I was surprised to see A LOT of people around the area, mostly old people. Could it be because it's a weekend? Or maybe because it's one week before Chinese New Year? Or both? Or maybe it's always like that?

We were hungry because it was already past noon so we decided to buy streetfood around the temple (to make our trip seem more authentic!) I wasn't able to try Taiwanese streetfood during my trip last September (despite going to the nightmarket for three consecutive days) so I promised that I will try a lot of streetfood this time.

We tried the sausage with cuttlefish balls and shrimp roll because a lot of people seemed to like them. NTD20 (PhP30) each. A bit more expensive compared to UP streetfood but they're worth it.

You brush them with barbecue and/or paprika powder. We actually thought that the paprika powder was cheese powder. So yeah. Too spicy.

So we entered the temple...

I have no idea what it's for.

Waterfalls by the entrance

Koi! See that small wire basket? It's a genius way to collect leaves and other trash in the pond!

I actually didn't know if picture-taking is allowed but I just thought "if people from other religions came to our church and took photos, will I take offense?" and I said to myself "no" so maybe and hopefully these people won't take offense as well. Taiwanese are very nice people anyway.

Very ornate.

We didn't stick around the temple for long because we had other places to go. We just wanted to see how a temple looked like. I was also a bit shy to take photos and to loiter around because a lot of people were praying. I might be disturbing them. X_X

I think Longshan temple is a nice place to observe a lot of things. You can try observing Chinese architecture or religion or perhaps human behavior (both inside and outside the temple). It's an interesting place.