Unusual towns of northern TaiwanNorth of the beautiful, energetic metropolis of Taipei, three interesting tourist towns can be easily knocked off in a single day. Each has its peculiarities and touristy appeal. Let's check 'em out! 1. Houtong Welcome to the Houtong Cat Village. When the local coal industry died in the 1990s, the villagers figured out an obvious solution: turn its unusually large cat population into a tourist attraction. Everywhere you wander, there are cats, cats, and more cats. I'll resist the temptation to make a very obvious feline pun. But somebody please tell America's Rust Belt they have a new economic strategy. 2. Shifen Shifen (which translates to “ten portions”) is another historic mining town. The first thing you'll notice is the fact that the railway tracks run straight through the middle of the town. The second is that there are a lot of sky lanterns floating around. You’re meant to write your wishes on them and launch them into the heavens. Of course, now and then, one of them fizzles out and tumbles back to earth. Haha! Wish denied! Close to the town is Shifen Waterfall, a scenic if modestly sized cascade. Nevertheless, at approximately forty metres in width, it's the broadest waterfall in Taiwan. 3. Jiufen Jiufen (which translates to “nine portions”) is perhaps the most famous of these three towns. It is a bustling, lantern-filled town in the fog-shrouded mountains filled with trinket shops and delicious street food vendors. It proudly claims to be the real-life place that inspired the setting of Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away”. Nope! A quick internet search reveals that’s just a popular myth, one that Miyazaki himself has debunked. Oh well... It's still a neat little place to explore and take photographs, of course.
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The otherworldly landscape of Central AnatoliaStark and uncanny Cappadocia. An alien realm of fairy chimneys, moon-like earth, and hot air balloons floating at sunrise. It is a land of exceptional geological wonder. Tent rocks. Fairy chimneys. Hoodoos. Call them what you will, the rock formations of Cappadocia are remarkable to behold. Since ancient times, people have carved churches, storehouses, caves, and anything else you can imagine into these rocks. Cappadocia was a religious haven in the early days of Christianity when the young, upstart faith was being persecuted by the Roman Empire. Practitioners fled into this area and established monastic communities. Here, in this seemingly barren place, these people were able to survive. When I wasn't touring the region, I passed my time at a cosy European-style pension, or what I thought could reasonably pass as one. I drank cheap red wine. I smoked cheap cigarettes. There was a dusky French helper. There was a pesky cat. I talked late into the night with the other guests and we were served a hearty breakfast in the morning with terrible coffee. It was everything I could’ve wanted from the experience. A mad thought came to me while I was staying at my pension, as the 2020 pandemic craziness slowly (or rather, rapidly) descended on the world. I recalled the premise of Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’: a group of men and women are sheltering in a villa on the outskirts of Florence to escape the Black Death and, to pass the time, they regale each other with tragic, clever, funny, and bawdry tales. Painfully apropos, if you ask me. Maybe I should have done that. Stayed in that pension, waiting out pestilence by telling stories. Maybe. But it’s too late to know now. In another life, perhaps.
MoMA and the MET! Which one is better?The answer is obviously the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Compared to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), MoMA is easier to navigate, has nicer staff (the ones working at the Met struck me as obnoxiously rude at times), and with a higher superb-artwork-to-floorspace ratio. The Met also suffers from what I call 'Louvre Syndrome': its hoard of treasurers are too sprawling and exhausting to peruse in any effective way. That said, both are exceptional art museums, with influential pieces from the world over. The Museum of Modern Art MoMA boasts some truly marvellous pieces, including:
Thought of the day: O Edward Hopper, why are you so amazing?The Art Institute of Chicago was one of my must-see stops on my journey from the West Coast to East Coast of America, via the 'Windy City' of Chicago (probably named after its political climate and inter-city rivalries as opposed to its actual weather). What a home to both American and international masterpieces! Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. A Vincent van Gogh self-portrait and one of his Bedroom in Arles paintings. Jules Breton's The Song of the Lark. Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon. Ivan Albright's powerfully haunting That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (The Door). And much, much more. As mentioned above, there are some well-known paintings by the American realist painter Edward Hopper which perfectly capture the beautiful solitude and sad loneliness of modern life. I love his paintings and none is more resonant of this theme (or heavily parodied) as his famous 1942 painting Nighthawks.
A quirky day in Kaohsiung cityOh, Formosa! On one of the last legs of my circumnavigatory train journey around Taiwan back in 2019, I made a stop in the huge port city of Kaohsiung on the south-western side of the island. Unlike the eastern coastline, which was filled with lush natural beauty, the western part of Taiwan is significantly more developed and heavily populated. I could immediately sense the difference out my train window: the stronger visions of industry, the busier roads, the inevitable urban haze... But even so, I still came across some truly bright points of interest in Kaohsiung. The Pier-2 Art Centre. Originally a series of abandoned warehouses by the sea, the area found a new lease on life as a colourful district for contemporary artists. It's eclectic, it's vibrant, and it's a delight to meander around this place and stumble across peculiar and idiosyncratic public installations, both big and small. Lotus Pond. Despite the humble name, it is, in fact, a sizeable artificial lake surrounded by Confucian, Taoist and folk religion temples. Created in the 1950s, this place provides is a technicolour tour of local beliefs and traditional architecture. I was lucky enough to show up at the lake during a large “miaohui” temple gathering in which various groups paraded to the temples, banged drums, and set off firecrackers. But the most popular group by far was the convoy of mini-jeeps, blasting loud techno music, with pole dancers performing on top of them. Don't believe me? Here is my somewhat-shaky-video proof: Yes. Wow. I guess even the gods need livelier forms of entertainment sometimes... What more can I say? It was a quirky day in the city.
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AuthorMing is an economist, traveller, and creative writer from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a nebulous collection of particles on the lookout for a good corner to sit with a book and a cup of coffee. Archives
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