spicygirl (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} spicygirl) wrote,@ 2007-05-06 16:01:00 |
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San Xia, Taipei County
May 1 was international labour day, so I got a day off from work. My company organized a day trip to San Xia (literally means three gorges), which is about 45 minutes away from Taipei. I didn't see three gorges. The small town has a temple with history back to the 17th century and an "Old street". In 1916, a Japanese local official decided to promote business in this street and started to invite people who were driven away by the Japanese to come back. Nowdays the street is a popular weekend destination for people from Taipei. First floor of the houses on both side of the street are mostly stores, selling tea, snack food, Chinese traditional clothes, crafts, etc. We had a tour guide who grew up in the street. He told us the street meant a lot to him because when he was a little kid, his family was quite poor, the vendors in the street pretty much raised him. He used to go to the stores to get rice, oil and the store owner would write everything down in a little notebook. His mom would pay for them whenever she had enough money.
The Temple
祖師廟， 臺北縣三峽鎮
Kid checking out old lock in "old street"
老街
After a brief visit of the town, we headed to our next destination "Jean's Garden" to see lighting bugs. It's about a half hour bus ride and located in the hills. Although our tour guide told us we could see lighting bugs in many areas in San Xia, this garden is a good choice. It has a nice ground, with a creek running through it.
You can get curry rice or pasta for dinner although the portion got greatly reduced when there were too many visitors. We got there around 6 and was still too early for the lighting bugs but it was really nice to just sit and watch the flowers in the distance or walk around in the garden. I wish they serve teas. It's the season for the Tung tree blossom.
By 7pm, the lighting bugs began to come out. I've never seen so many of them, amazing. There were at least four different kinds that night, some with green light, the other with orange light. It's an interesting place but I would recommend going on a weekday because it tends to get crowded and kids could be loud and scare the bugs away. It was fun.
May 1 was international labour day, so I got a day off from work. My company organized a day trip to San Xia (literally means three gorges), which is about 45 minutes away from Taipei. I didn't see three gorges. The small town has a temple with history back to the 17th century and an "Old street". In 1916, a Japanese local official decided to promote business in this street and started to invite people who were driven away by the Japanese to come back. Nowdays the street is a popular weekend destination for people from Taipei. First floor of the houses on both side of the street are mostly stores, selling tea, snack food, Chinese traditional clothes, crafts, etc. We had a tour guide who grew up in the street. He told us the street meant a lot to him because when he was a little kid, his family was quite poor, the vendors in the street pretty much raised him. He used to go to the stores to get rice, oil and the store owner would write everything down in a little notebook. His mom would pay for them whenever she had enough money.
The Temple
祖師廟， 臺北縣三峽鎮
Kid checking out old lock in "old street"
老街
After a brief visit of the town, we headed to our next destination "Jean's Garden" to see lighting bugs. It's about a half hour bus ride and located in the hills. Although our tour guide told us we could see lighting bugs in many areas in San Xia, this garden is a good choice. It has a nice ground, with a creek running through it.
You can get curry rice or pasta for dinner although the portion got greatly reduced when there were too many visitors. We got there around 6 and was still too early for the lighting bugs but it was really nice to just sit and watch the flowers in the distance or walk around in the garden. I wish they serve teas. It's the season for the Tung tree blossom.
By 7pm, the lighting bugs began to come out. I've never seen so many of them, amazing. There were at least four different kinds that night, some with green light, the other with orange light. It's an interesting place but I would recommend going on a weekday because it tends to get crowded and kids could be loud and scare the bugs away. It was fun.
