[RD] Discovering Taiwan

Day 2

Snake Alley
aka Huaxi Street Night Market
Thursday, November 7, 2024

On my second full day in Taiwan I decided to begin the day by eating a meal at the famous Wang's Broth, which was about a 20 minute walk from my hotel.

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This might be a good time for a map of the city, so you can see where all these places are. My hotel is the purple marker in Ximen(ding), Wang's Broth is the black restaurant marker to the south-west, and the Taipei 101 building is the white on red star to the right. This way you get to see the central part of the Greater Taipei Area and the core of the MRT metro network. The double MRT lines going off-screen to the left is the metro line from Taipei Main Station to the airport via New Taipei City and Taoyuan, one of them the express line.

Wang's Broth is located on Huaxi Street, which is a market street also known as Snake Alley, due to its history of snake stalls & restaurants. From what I understand the last snake meat restaurant closed down in 2018 and snake products are not as common, but the name has stuck. Up until the 1990s this two-block-long street used to be a legal red light district and to this day it is sort of viewed unfavourably by Taipei residents. Nevertheless, that's where Wang's Broth is, so that's where I had to go. There were also other points of interest in this part of the city that I could explore afterwards.

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This whole part of the city has a collection of connected markets. Technically all night markets, but Wang's Broth and other vendors are open during the day.

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Even so, this place must get a lot busier after dark.

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Wang's Broth

Lu Rou Fan
or Braised Pork Rice is one of Taiwan's most renowned street foods, and Wang's Broth is supposed to have one of the best takes on it on the island. They have received a Michelin Bib Gourmand distinction, which from what I understand means that it's really good cheap food.

This restaurant is at the street night market, but has its own storefront off to the side with a lot of seating. You grab a seat at a table, a sheet of paper with the menu from a bin, write down your table number, numbers beside the dishes you want to order, walk back to the counter, hand over the menu, pay, sit down, and wait for your food to be delivered. Fortunately it wasn't busy yet, so I did not have to wait long. From what I understand this place gets really busy

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I had a note attached to this restaurant on my map, advice given to me by my Taiwanese expert friend Alexander. It read: Get the pickle and meat soup and braised pork rice

And that's exactly what I did.

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This tender pork belly and sauce over rice dish is a Taiwanese staple. I'm generally not a big fan of fatty foods, but this stuff melts in your mouth, the sauce is amazing, and it all goes so well with the texture of the meat and the perfectly cooked rice. One of my favourite meals on the whole trip.

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From what I remember the pickles were a condiment that you added to the soup.. but descriptions of this dish elsewhere imply that the pickles should already be in it. Either way, it complemented the braised pork rice very well.

A perfect start to day two.
 
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Yuan Fang Guabao

A Guabao (刈包) is a popular Taiwanese street food that's also sometimes referred to as a Taiwanese Hamburger. It is a wheat flour steamed bun filled with slow sauce cooked braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens, crushed peanuts, and fresh cilantro.

As my luck would have it, there happens to be a famous guabao stall not a half minute walk away from Wang's Broth that also has claim to Michelin Bib Gourmand accolades. Yuan Fang Guabao has been around for over 60 years now and is one of the more popular stalls in Snake Alley. I was sort of on a mission to try all the quintessential Taiwanese dishes on my trip, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have some guabao here. It meant I had to wait in line for about 15 minutes, but I was willing to wait.

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Each guabao costs the equivalent of about $1.80 USD. It doesn't look like much, but it is packed with flavour.

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The key to this dish seems to be the pork belly that almost melts in your mouth. The way it's slow cooked in a savoury yet slightly sweet sauce work very well with the steamed bun. The other ingredients add a bit more complexity to the flavours.

If we're being honest, I preferred the braised pork rice bowl from Wang's Broth. It just seems like such a perfect dish. The guabao was great, but that rice bowl was on another level.
 
It is a wheat flour steamed bun filled with slow sauce cooked braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens, crushed peanuts, and fresh cilantro
You had me until the cilantro....
 
You had me until the cilantro....

I'm personally a fan of cilantro, but have met plenty of people who really dislike it. It can be one of those divisive ingredients I guess. I bet they'd serve you a cilantro-less guabao if you asked.

From what the internet tells me, Taiwanese cilantro has more of a pungent quality to it, compared to the cilantro you usually find in the U.S. The Taiwanese variety also has less of that soapy flavour that some people report, and instead has a more citrusy edge to it. Personally I was focusing on the pork flavours at the time and didn't really notice that it's slightly different tasting cilantro. It seemed to complement the other ingredients well, in the background. But of course everyone has their own taste and texture preferences.
 
Bangka Park (艋舺公園) & Longshan Temple Street Underground Shopping Mall

This park used to be a forested space adjacent to the popular Longshan Temple, not too far from Snake Alley. In 1956 the mayor of Taipei allowed vendors to set up their stalls here, which turned it into a gathering place for vendors and the homeless. In 1995 the area was reimagined as an extension of Longshan Temple square and rejuvenated, and in 2005 a 4 level underground shopping mall opened directly underneath Bangka Park.

I did not really clue in at the time that this shopping mall has 4 levels. The first level I ended up on is the fortune telling level, which houses all sorts of fortune telling related businesses. At first I did not really know what I was looking at, as I expected to see a more traditional set of stores. Each fortune teller seems to focus on a specific aspect of life and some of these places have quite professional looking storefronts. Some are more rudimentary. There's everything in between, as well as vendors selling all sorts of lucky trinkets. It did not really feel like my kind of place, so it wasn't long until I was headed back up. I should have probably explored more and taken some pictures.

One thing I remember about Bangka Park is that there's signs telling you not to gamble.. but when I was there at least, all the benches were taken up by older men who were playing games like chinese checkers.. and I swear I saw money changing hands on at least one occasion!

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That yellow roof with benches under it runs around the perimeter of the park, or at least the east, west, and south parts of it. The north side of Bangka Park connects with the Longshan Temple entrance & plaza.

I walked around the whole thing to find a place to sit down. You see, on the walk here from Snake Alley I had bought a Hujiao Bing (胡椒餅), also known as a Pork Pepper Bun.

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These pork pepper buns have become a popular Taiwanese street food snack. They were brought over by Chinese immigrants from the mainland Chinese city of Fuzhou, where similar pork pepper buns are still popular today. In fact, it is only Fujian province (where you can find Fuzhou) and Taiwan where such buns are commonly made and sold as regional dishes. This is why in Taiwan they are often referred to as Fuzhou pepper buns.

You might ask.. Why was I still eating? I had just eaten a bowl of rice, a soup, and a steamed pork bun. And well.. I was passing a food vendor selling these and I couldn't resist buying one. I recognized the dish from my research and knew that it was one of the more popular street foods here. I had plans to seek out a stall famous for having one of the best versions of these later.. but in the end couldn't resist to try one here first.

These buns have a crunchy & flaky outside and a juicy flavourful pork-based inside. What's unique about them is that they are baked in a high temperature clay oven, similar to an Indian tandoori oven. They stick to the outside of the inside of the oven and are peeled off once fully cooked.

This pepper pork bun was good but not amazing and the braised pork rice from Wang's Broth was still on my mind at the time. I reminded myself to not forget to visit one of the more famous pork bun vendors at some point, to see how good these things get. And nope, I did not find a spot to sit down after all. Every single bench was in use, most of them by older men playing games.
 
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It wouldn't surprise me that people might gamble while playing Chinese Checkers. If you play the Hoyle/Encore version, there are moves you can make that result in awards in varying amounts of money (game money, not real money; I don't do real gambling). This ranges from something like $2 up to hundreds.

In-person Chinese Checkers is an exercise in trying to keep your marbles from rolling off the game board.
 
Oddly enough, Chinese Checkers isn’t from Asia at all. It’s a game invented by a German.
 
Lungshan Temple (艋舺龍山寺)

There is something interesting going on with the romanization of this temple name. The official temple website and other sources reference it as Lungshan, yet all sources I can find refence the nearby underground shopping mall as Longshan. They are both referring to the same thing and in Mandarin the word is exactly the same... so what is going on here?

The answer is that the temple name was Romanized using the Wades-Giles Romanization style, which was the standard until 2002 or so. There was some overlap but the Tongyong Pinyin system was then in wide use until 2009, when Hanyu Pinyin took over. Hanyu Pinyin is the main system that is used in mainland China; Taiwan ended up switching to it due to international standard needs. As a result though landmarks and other places in Taiwan use a mix of these 3 Romanization styles, seemingly even when you'd think they'd use the same one, such as in this case. But nope, some names stick and that's that and in the case of the temple I have seen both variants in use.

The interesting consequence of this is that some places have an unexpected official pronunciation. The Romanization style that's standard today (Hanyu Pinyin) was designed in part to make it easier for non-Mandarin speakers to pronounce things. The letters better line up with what you'd expect them to sound like. But for example something like Taipei is actually supposed to be pronounced closer to Táiběi. More of a b sound and less of a p sound. The city was named when the Wades-Giles Romanization style was in use, and that name has stuck due to historical & branding reasons. Everyone in the west knows the city as Taipei and that's that. You can find examples of this sort of thing all over the place.

Lungshan Temple blends elements of Chinese folk religion, Buddhism, and Taoism. It was built in 1738 by Qing Dynasty immigrants from Fujian province in mainland China and remains one of the more historically significant temples in Taiwan. The main deity worshipped here is Guanyin (the Bodhisattva of Mercy), although Lungshan is known as an inclusive multi-faith temple. Rebuilt many times over the years, Lungshan temple is considered to be one of the best surviving examples of Qing architecture in Taiwan.

The literal translation of Lungshan into English is Dragon Mountain.

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In the picture above you can see where Bangka Park (behind me) connects with the Lungshan Temple plaza, right in front of the temple. It might be hard to see, but there is a street separating them.

As you enter the temple grounds and look to the right, one of the first things that catches your eye is a picturesque waterfall.

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Above you can see the deity Guanyin, which has roots in Hinduism and is an important deity in Mahayana Buddhism and the main deity at Lungshan Temple. Guanyin is often depicted as having many arms, up to 1,000, and is known as the Bodhisattva of Compassion. The belief is that this deity is receptive to prayers for compassion, mercy, and protecting the vulnerable. Many pilgrims travel to this temple in order to pray to her for this reason.

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Bopiliao Historic Block

The Bopiliao community was established in the 1800s near the then settled and developed part of Taipei, at the time known as Mengjia. It grew into a bustling commercial area and is an interesting mix of red brick buildings, which was becoming more popular in Qing architecture at the time.

Today Bopiliao is the one of the oldest best preserved parts of Taipei. The architectural styles range from late Qing to colonial Japanese to early Republic to more modern influences.

From 1999 until 2009 this abandoned city block was renovated and converted into a sort of cultural hub. Preserved are unique pedestrian spaces & plazas, as well as of course the architecturally diverse buildings. As you walk through the space you find art exhibition halls, cultural and historical exhibits, rooms highlighting restoration efforts, interactive spaces, performance and event spaces, a visitor centre, and so on..

This was very close to Lungshan Temple, so it became my next destination. As you approach the Block, the red brick buildings really do stand out as unique.

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You can imagine occasional doors on the left-hand side of the covered walkway in the picture above. Some of them opened and some didn't. The ones that did took you to one of many types of indoor spaces or walkways to other parts of the Block. There were also occasional stairways and elevated walkways, as the buildings ranged from 1 to 3 stories.

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These sorts of innovative urban spaces were one of the things I ended up really liking about Taiwan. Not only were they fun to walk through, but they also usually contained culturally and historically interesting educational spaces, art exhibition spaces, cool plazas, walkways, murals, monuments, and other places worth checking out. You just couldn't predict what the next door would open. Could be a bunch of kids' art or TVs showing you something about Taipei's history or a store selling pottery.

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Taiwan had a bit of a cinematic boom in the 1950 - 1970s. During this time hand-painted movie posters and murals were popular as an art form, but also just a way to advertise movies. Since then most of the world has moved on to digitally produced posters, mainly because they are a lot cheaper to produce.. In Taiwan there is still a sort of nostalgic appreciation and in some cases use of manually painted movie posters, murals, and related art. There is a theatre I visit later on in my trip that is famous for still using hand painted movie posters and advertisements, all created by one guy who has been doing this for decades.

The above mural is for a Taiwanese movie released in 2010. You can almost feel how much time & love of the craft the artist must have poured into painting this.

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Taipei Botanical Garden

The 129 year old 9 hectare Taipei Botanical Garden caught my eye next.. It's about a 15 minute walk from the Bopiliao Historic Block. It was established during the Japanese colonial period and was a key botanical research site for Japan at the time. Although it was also used as a green space, this is where Japanese botanists attempted to integrate invasive species of plants from other colonies, where research on medicinal plants was performed, and where other economic crop experimentation took place. Over time the Botanical Garden has turned into a bit of fusion of Japanese, Taiwanese, and mainland Chinese elements, currently housing just over 2,000 different types of plants, a tropical greenhouse conservatory, an aquatic plant garden, a medicinal plant garden, research and educational spaces, and other themed parks & historic buildings and structures.

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I was really enjoying walking through all this greenery. One thing you do not see in the photos though is some of the typhoon debris that was still being cleaned up by city staff and several trails that were outright closed off.

One of the highlights of the Botanical Garden is Lotus Pond.

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National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館)

This museum sits right beside Lotus Pond and mainly houses artefacts related to Taiwanese and Chinese history. It was the first museum established in Taiwan after the Republic of China government fled to Taiwan. The fleeing government and associated institutions brought with them artefacts from the Henan museum on mainland China, which along with artefacts recovered from the Japanese forms the core of the collection on display here. Over time the collection has grown due to contributions from private collectors and other acquisitions.

You need 2-3 hours to properly experience this museum, but it was closing in under two hours and I was hoping to get somewhere else before it got dark as well.. Unfortunately I did not end up returning here either, so I only have pictures of the outside of the museum.

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This building was actually initially built in a Japanese style, but was then modified with Qing and Ming era Chinese architectural styles in mind. It looks quite iconic here, sitting right beside Lotus Pond.
 
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National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute

This building is located right beside the National Museum of History and looks unique enough to warrant its own post. It is the Taipei branch of the institute, which has its headquarters in Caotun, in central Taiwan.

This institute is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, exhibition, and innovation of Taiwanese crafts like wood carving, ceramics, bamboo weaving, textile arts, lacquerware, etc. Established in 1954, the institute connects with and offers support to Taiwanese artisans, by way of classes, workshops, exhibition spaces, and other support like connecting them with merchants and markets. There is an emphasis on bridging the traditions of the past with the realities of new technologies and international trends, with plenty of focus on R&D.

Essentially this institute's main missions are to not only to educate and promote, but also ensure that Taiwan’s craft heritage remains competitive and sustainable from a global pov.

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Unfortunately I did not visit this museum either and was unable to make time for it later. But hey, that's one of the realities of travel.. There is only enough time to photograph some things from the outside. And in this case it's a photograph and background information worth sharing.

If you're into crafts and/or are interested in this institute and would like to learn more, here is a link to the English version of their website.
 
The street I was now walking down had the museums and other landmarks on the left and an elementary and boys' high school on the right.

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The only reason I'm posting the above is because of the word "experimental". I found it curious at the time, but I did not have time to google it until later.. This is a sort of pioneering institution for innovative educational practices with a focus on Mandarin language education. They research and innovate curriculum, integrate modern tech, train and develop teachers, engage in educational research, and basically hope to improve and influence the overall educational landscape in the country.

It's the statue in front of the adjacent boys' high school that ended up providing a bit of unknown to me at the time foreshadowing..

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I did not realize this at the time, but that's a statue of Chiang Kai-shek, the first leader of the Republic of China after they relocated to the island of Taiwan in 1949, who ruled Taiwan until 1975.

I was now walking towards a large memorial dedicated to him.
 
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Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Chiang Kai-shek was the authoritarian leader of the Republic of China from 1928 until 1975. His reign can be broken down into multiple time periods:

1928 - 1937 - The first phase of the Chinese Civil war, fought between Chiang's Nationalists and Mao Zedong's Communists.
1937 - 1945 - The second Sino-Japanese war & broader WW2 conflict, Chinese civil war temporarily suspended
1945 - 1947 - Chiang's Nationalists establish the island of Taiwan as a strategic base of operations.
1945 - 1949 - The second phase of the Chinese Civil war.
1949 - 1975 - Chiang's Nationalists flee to Taiwan and he rules as the Republic of China leader from there until his death.

This Memorial Hall officially opened exactly 5 years after Chiang Kai-shek's death, at a time when Taiwan was still under martial law and the rule of a one-state authoritarian regime. Martial law was lifted in 1987 and first demographic elections took place in 1996, but memories of an authoritarian past remain, including such dark times as the white terror and the 228 incident. To many Taiwanese Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall exists as a reminder of authoritarianism and the suppression of political opposition and other freedoms.

The public space adjacent to the Memorial Hall almost immediately became a focal point for demonstrations and other gatherings. It is one of the largest public spaces in Taipei and played a role in the democratization of the country. Many Taiwanese thus also see the Memorial Hall grounds as a symbol of Taiwan's democratic values.

It has to also be noted that Chiang Kai-shek is credited to a decent degree with helping to industrialize the island. His initiatives helped transform Taiwan from an agrarian society to one that eventually became an economic powerhouse. He is an important part of Taiwanese history, as much as that history is marked by his authoritarian rule and controversial legacy.

When I first got here I was immediately struck with the grand scale of this whole space.

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In the photo above you can see Liberty Square Arch straight ahead, The National Theatre of Taiwan building on the left and the National Concert Hall on the right.
 
When I first got here I was immediately struck with the grand scale of this whole space.
Grand scale has been part of Chinese culture for a very long time.
 
Grand scale has been part of Chinese culture for a very long time.

This whole design just screams a sort of grandiose intent at you, what with the large open space and the long symmetric lines that point your attention to the Memorial Hall and the other iconic looking structures here. If the design choices are meant to inspire you and make you feel like you're in a special place that means something, then they certainly worked on me.

In Taipei a part of this feeling might be the reality of how dense the city is.. and here you have a giant open space right in the middle of it all.. I gotta say though that Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam evoked some similar feelings in me. No doubt there's better examples of that sort of thing in mainland China! In fact, this Memorial Hall in Taipei was modelled on the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing. I looked it up and they do look similar, although the surrounding space is somewhat different. Both grandiose in their own ways and no doubt both influenced by Chinese architecture from other regions and eras.

I might as well share a bit about Sun Yat-sen, since I looked him up. He's the founder of the Republic of China, by virtue of helping lead the 1911 rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, which lead to the overthrow of the monarchy and establishment of the Republic of China. Chiang Kai-shek was his political successor.

What's interesting is that Sun Yat-sen is celebrated in both mainland China and Taiwan. Taipei has a Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall even. But In Taiwan he is thought of as the "Father of the Nation", while in mainland China he is moreso celebrated for helping end imperial rule and for some of his revolutionary ideals.
 
Blue Sky with a White Sun

The national emblem of the Republic of China is often simply referred to as the "Blue Sky with a White Sun". It is also the symbol of the Kuomintang (KMT) political party that Chiang Kai-shek belonged to, which to this day exists as a political force in Taiwan. You might also recognize it from the flag of Taiwan.

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If you're not really sure what you're looking at, the next picture will make it more clear. It is the underside of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall ceiling.

The fact that Taiwan's flag contains the political branding of a particular political party is a bit unusual. This flag has been in use since 1928, and many see it as a symbol of the country nevertheless, as well as a reminder of the connection of the island to the Republic of China's beginnings after the fall of the Qing dynasty. You are likely to find some opposition to it from Taiwanese citizens who support a different political party, and there have been calls to change the flag to something else, but from what I understand there simply isn't enough political will to make this happen anytime soon. For me personally this symbol highlights Taiwan's unique history and place in the world.

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The bottom part of the Memorial Hall contains an exhibition hall and museum that highlight Chiang Kai-shek's life and his impact on Taiwan. I got there a bit late, about 35 minutes until closing time.. so I missed out on the museum, but I did manage to buy my first souvenir of the trip at the gift shop here. I took a peek around and saw something that I could use as my trip journal, which I had not yet started at the time. It was a bound Memorial Hall themed lined note journal, priced very reasonably. To this day I have not opened up this thing though, it's still packaged up. I ended up using something else for my trip journal notes.

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Liberty Square After Dark

The National Theater (國家戲劇院) and the National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳) look very similar and were in fact designed to be twins. They flank Liberty Plaza in the north and the south and light up after dark. While most of the differences can be found inside, there are differences in the roof ornaments and other minor design elements that set them apart. To the untrained eye they might as well be the same building though.. and they both do sort of look magnificent when they light up.

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I'm glad I was able to see this whole place while it was still light out and then again after dark. Each time different aspects of the architecture and plaza alignment were sort of highlighted to me. Most people leaving before it got dark also added a different sort of vibe to the area.

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