Yuantong Temple

On Saturday August 21st we went to the Yuantong Temple, in the hills south of Taipei. As you can see its a very ornate very "chinese" style temple.

This is the gateway halfway up the ascent to the temple.

Minstrels and Dancers decorate the gateway.

This guy is the "local god" he protects the neighbourhood. He was huge - perhaps 3 stories high.

Dragons decorate this temple building.

Up close and personal with a temple dragon.

Inside the temple people pray at a number of altars. Here you can see huge, person-height candles.

Heading back down the steps.

At the bottom of the temple complex was this mural. Not sure exactly what they are depicting but its fun to speculate!

Taipei skyline

On Sunday 21 August we went with workmates to a temple in the mountains, just south of Taipei. We had spectacular views of the city and of the Taipei 101 towering over everything else. The 101 is currently the tallest building in the world.

While we were there, a storm settled in, the summer rains here are fascinating. From this height we watched the wall of rain sweeping across the city.

These are the Yangmingshan Mountains, north of Taipei. We hope to visit here some day soon.