Tainan Night Streets: Shennong 神農街

There are some absolutely beautiful night walks to take in Taiwan's oldest City, Tainan. 臺南市(Tainan). There are several old, cobblestone streets, which serve as a reminder to this city's important place in Taiwan's history.

One of these ancient streets is Shennong Street (神農街), is considered one of the best preserved old streets in Tainan, and is something I knew I had to visit ever since I read the following blog post and saw the following Flickr Photo.

Once we got back into Tainan from our day trip to Kaohsiung, I knew I wanted to head out for a night walk, so that I could find this mythical street.

Here is what I found on our walk!

There are some beautiful, old buildings that seem to have stood the test of time in Tainan

I can't tell if it's graffiti or an art display. Regardless it is amazingly calming and the night is silent.

This eerie corner marks the entrance to Shennong street. 

Shennong Street 神農街 itself. Without the motorbikes, I'd have trouble guessing what century I was in.

Seeing Shennong street was almost exactly as I imagined it. Walking down the street, quiet, and dark, is like walking through a silent film. Candles and lights flicker. I swear someone must be watching us but I am not troubled - just reminded that people dwell here and that they deserve respect. We wander in awe for a few minutes, take a few photos, and then depart, leaving this old street and its residents to their peaceful night.

Taiwan2013 Travels: Train from Taipei to Tainan

After our long debacle on flights from Toronto to Shanghai to Taipei, the last thing we want to do is travel some more right?

Right?

Well the first thing we did in Taipei was prepare to take the train down south to Tainan as part of our Taiwan Travel Tour! From Dec 25 - Dec 31 we're going to sweep through 4 different cities of Taiwan before rejoining the family for the wedding!

Melody's Dad showed us to the train station, which conveniently gives us more views of Taipei 101!

Taipei 101: I never tire of seeing this architectural marvel

Trying out my new 10-20mm Sigma lens and loving the effect it has on an urban scene!

Tickets are bought and we're ready to see Tainan

Intrepid traveler right here!

I don't know if you've ever been on a high speed train before, but these things are FAST. Like really fast! Take this magical bullet train of Engineering madness to Tainan, and make our way to our hotel. For our trip across Taiwan, we've opted to use a hotel in the first city, and to use hostels for the rest of the trip. We generally enjoyed the younger, chill hostel atmosphere throughout our trip! Hotels can be a bit of a downer when you're a young travelling couple - a Hostel culture has people who are young, curious about the city, and want to share their adventures.

We got into Tainan in the evening and this gave us time to settle in and find our Christmas dinner! I think this was one of the only sit-down, indoor meals that we ate together on our trip. We ate a lot of indoor meals with Melody's family in Taipei but most of our meals were fast little meals from stands so that we could keep on the go!

Remember we've been on the road since Dec 23 so it hasn't really hit us that it's Christmas day. The biggest reminder ertr  the sheer numbers of Christmas trees which I really was not expecting, and we found them everywhere! There will be a separate post for all the Taiwan Christmas trees!

Love in Tainan :)

There were a lot of Christmas trees throughout Taiwan :)

Now wouldn't this be a lovely post card?