Taipei Nights

Well actually before I get to day two let me tell you that we ended our first day with a preformace of Taipei Eye. We saw a puppet show and part of a Chinese Opera. The acrobatics were amazing. Probably the most interesting part of the evening was the interaction with the preformers. Before the show started the cast was in the lobby putting on their make up and getting ready. A member of the orchestra was preforming in the lobby also. And they encouraged people to have their pictures taken with them.

It was a very interesting evening and I would highly recommend it to anyone. It was a very simple preformance but the whole production was very interesting.

It was a story about the eight immortals. It was interesting that one of the eight immortals just happend to be lame. I had seen the character before but didn't realize his significance. How interesting and different from modern Chinese society that a cripple would have have such an important place in society.

We hadn't had supper yet and the show got over at 9:30 so we hurried off to Shilin night market for a bite to eat, and to push through the crowds. It is probably the most famous night markets in Taipei, and it is also always wall to wall people. Shige got to eat Choudofu (smelly tofu) I think it smells like a hundred wet dogs looked up in a room. It is a totally disgusting smell but they say it tastes really nice. I will never try it no matter how good they say it tastes. I prefer my foods to both look good and smell good.


After pushing through the crowds we found the same guys selling there fillet fried chicken that I had tried 6 years ago. Of course there was a line and of course I bought 2 for Shige and I. It was fantastic.

You can see all sorts of things at these markets and the picture below is proof of that. I have no idea what this was for but it seemed to be pretty popular and I couldn't resist getting a picture.


We got back to the hotel exhausted from a long and interesting day. I think we walked at least five miles on our first day.