Gallery: Taipei Selection

Landing in a very large city again felt like a re-run of Seoul. Taipei feels as big as Seoul and with as many skyscrapers. It has an extensive bus and metro system which is typically integrated with underground shopping malls as many as 6 levels deep. In practice, it is somewhat smaller than Seoul with Greater Taipei having a population of around 7m people (compared with 9m for Seoul) in an area spanning 28km north to south and 15km east to west (compared with 30-37km for Seoul). The overall population of Taiwan is 23m compared with 52m for South Korea.
Whilst on the subject of comparison Taipei compared with Seoul feels a little ‘grittier’. Not dirtier per se but maybe just a little less well kept with older buildings and a few more visible rough sleepers.

Our visit plan was based on a guide compiled by a Canadian expat called Nick Kembel who runs the Taiwan Obsessed website. Day 1 started with a visit to old Taipei and a long shopping street called Dihua Street. Here is a mixture of shops selling traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, dried foods, specialty groceries, Taiwanese tea, bulk fabrics as well as gift shops for the tourists. Boutique shops mix with old established premises in an ‘old meets new’ environment.

A walkable distance away is Dadocheng Wharf on the main Tamsui River which is one of Taipei’s most popular riverside hangout spots, famous for its vibrant container market (i.e. a market based out of shipping containers), open-air bars (some also based in shipping containers), sunset views, and cycling paths. It blends Taipei's historical trading heritage with a repurposed social meeting point There is a very extensive cycle path which runs 19.6km along the river and which links with other paths to form a network totalling 112km, and it was surprising to see how popular these were with much use of the local bike-hire operator, U Bike.

Like Seoul too, temples are a significant feature of city architecture, often sandwiched between more modern buildings, both low and high rise and which often appear as a surprise on turning a corner. The most famous is Longshan which is one of Taipei’s oldest, largest, and most culturally significant houses of worship. Built in 1738 by settlers from Fujian, China, this designated national historic site serves as a vibrant spiritual hub with stunning traditional architecture. It is frequented by worshippers and tourists alike, the 2 groups mixing somewhat incongruously within the temple courtyards. Frequent tour buses arrive and it is generally very crowded. I wanted a blue hour shot of the temple entrance though this was nearly ruined with a white van parking right outside during prime blue hour light.

Most travelling photographers will be very familiar with night markets and generally frequent them as a vibrant source of street photography. Well, Taipei is awash with them, with several even called ‘Tourist Night Market’. Indeed the term "Tourist Night Market" is not just a descriptive nickname; it is an official, legal status designated by the Taiwanese government starting in 1987 to clean up, modernize, and promote traditional markets into formal international tourism assets. In doing so, perhaps they have lost some of their attraction, with no killing of live snakes any more (for example). Today they are daily, permanent structures with stallholders selling food, clothes and various other products in a safe, semi-orderly environment. Still attractive for photographers but one needs to bear in mind the Taiwanese rules about photographing people in public places and where possible, asking for permission from stallholders.

Thinking about photographing the Taipei skyline, a lot of it is unremarkable except perhaps for the density of its buildings – with one exception: Taipei 101 stands above everything else and used to be the tallest building in the world before the Burj Khalifa came along in 2010. A trip to the observation deck of the Taipei 101 is possible but increasingly I find that views of relatively homogenous cityscapes are not photographically interesting and prefer to find viewpoints of the towers instead. Finding a good view point of the Taipei 101 however is actually quite hard for 2 reasons. Good vantage points from the city are relatively rare with the exception of the view from Elephant Mountain (a 600 step climb from ground level and a jostling on the viewing platform with other photographers), and the weather. Taipei is meteorologically and geographically predisposed to being cloudy, humid, and visually hazy for a significant portion of the year as a result of trapped moisture from the rivers which snake through it and the fact that it lies in a basin where cooler air (and moisture) gets trapped. Nevertheless, I was able to achieve some pleasing results some of which can be seen in the gallery.

Travelling to the edge of the basin on the metro, the city has a surprising gondola (Maokong Gondola) extending 4km into the mountains where tea is grown. It’s also integrated into the metro network and costs a very reasonable £7 / $9.5 for a return trip. At the other end of the metro system, there is a town (Xinbeitou) dedicated to the hot springs in the area. Indeed there is a public bathhouse there to take advantage of the springwater (which they proudly declare to be slightly radioactive!) though the bathhouse was undergoing major refurbishment when we visited. There is however a free foot spa a little further into town which we tried out, sitting with the locals on concrete benches with feet in the hot water.

We also discovered that the indigenous people of Taiwan had strong connection in the Beitou area and it is these people who are widely accepted to be the forefathers of the entire Austronesian peoples including the Māori who emigrated from Polynesia to New Zealand. I was struck that some of the graphic art of these people is very similar to that of the Māori who were equally drawn to the geothermal area of Rotorua in New Zealand.
At the end of the same metro line from Beitou/Xinbeitou is Tamsui, the town named after the river, with a lively waterfront of shops and street musicians. A 20 minute bus or ferry ride further still takes you to the Taiwanese coast and a development called Fisherman’s Wharf. The wharf area itself is famous for dramatic sunsets across the Taiwan strait (to China) and a 165m white bridge in the form of a sail called Lover’s Bridge (because it opened on Valentine’s Day in 2003). There is a large marina filled with a significant number of (relatively) expensive looking yachts and a commercial development to attract visitors. The combined location of Tamsui and Fisherman’s Wharf, being very accessible via the metro is good for a day out though the ‘seaside town’ feel may have limited appeal for some.

Our only other port of call was the Songshan Culture & Creative Park and the adjacent National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen overlooks the hall and who is officially revered in Taiwan as the "Father of the Nation". However on our visit we found it to be closed for (another) massive refurbishment project with even the adjacent pool (which normally offers reflections of the Taipei 101 tower) being drained as we arrived! Snaking orange hoses can be removed in Lightroom I suppose!!
The Songshan Culture & Creative Park was more of a pleasant surprise. Adjacent to the Taipei Dome (Taipei’s premier indoor sports and concert arena) the park was in fact a repurposed (1937 Japanese era) tobacco factory which now serves as a venue for art exhibitions and artisan retail space. On our visit there was a large flea market in operation with one stallholder I chatted to selling his collection of British ‘Matchbox’ model cars. We shared a common knowledge of the James Bond Aston Martin model, complete with passenger ejector seat. Who would have thought it!!

 

Galleries:

Jeonju Hanok Village

Jeonju - Around Hanok Village

Our last stop on the tour of South Korea was Jeonju, a city 3hrs north west (240km) of Busan by bus. Jeonju is the capital of North Jeolla Province in southwestern South Korea, with a population of approximately 625,000 people. It traces its roots back over 1,300 years to the Baekje kingdom (18 BCE – 660 CE), one of 3 kingdoms in Korea at the time, alongside the Silla kingdom which we encountered in Gyeongju. It is also historically renowned as the spiritual birthplace and ancestral home of the Joseon Dynasty, which ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910.

The city's main attractions centre on its rich cultural heritage and traditional architecture. The main attraction by a long way is the Jeonju Hanok Village, which preserves more than 700 to 800 traditional Korean hanok houses featuring curved tiled roofs and quiet courtyards. Key sites within and around the historic area include Gyeonggijeon Shrine, the Jeondong Catholic Cathedral (where no photographs were allowed inside), and the local Confucian school (Jeonjuhyanggyo). We stayed on the outskirts of the village in a traditional homestay with a delightful hostess who uses the building as her art studio.

Within the village are many traditional Korean restaurants, craft and art shops and indeed fortune tellers. As in several other traditional places on our tour, many local people hire traditional hanbok costume often turning their visits into formal or informal photo shoots.

Alongside the village and through the city runs the Jeonju river, almost all of it within the city boundaries (30km) with walking or cycling paths. Adjacent to the main Hanok village was a small Arts village featuring painters, sculptors, craft shops and the occasional photographer. These were the main sights and 2 days was sufficient to cover it.

Galleries:

• Busan Centre - Seomyeon/Busanjin District and Hwangnyeongsan Mountain

• Gamcheon and Hocheon Culture Villages

• Gwangalli and Haeundae Beaches

• Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

Our next port of call is Busan, an hour’s bus journey south-west of Gyeonju and the second city of South Korea. One’s immediate impression is that it is enormous! It has 3.23m inhabitants out of a total population in south Korea of 51.6m and spans a diameter, or around 50km east to west and 35km north to south! It has its own extensive metro system, it’s main (central – haha) bus terminal is some 20km away from the centre at the end of a metro line – so we discovered. It’s even called the ‘Central Bus Terminal’. Such practicalities are there to catch the unwary traveller.

As dramatic architecture and historic temples were to Seoul, the National Park was to Sokcho, culture, more temples and history were to Gyeongju, Busan is noted for its scenic mountain landscapes and beautiful shoreline. Its 2 famous beaches are Haeundae and Gwangalli, which boast views of the spectacular 7.42km Gwangan bridge which essentially links Busan's central beach area of Gwangalli directly to the major commercial and resort district of Haeundae. We also noted the extensive commercial areas to rival the shopping malls of Hong Kong with many of them underground connected to the metro tunnels.

In a city this size for only a few days, like Seoul, it can be difficult to decide what to pick. There are the 2 beaches to visit and generally a beach is a beach pretty much everywhere and Haeundae has a Sea World. On our first night, the city ran a light show with drones over Gwangalli beach in front of the Gwangan Bridge, which was OK but not amazing. Several kilometres beyond Haeundae Beach is the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple – a 650 year old Buddhist complex which is considered to be the no.1 tourist attraction and indeed it was teeming on our visit.

Also a popular tourist attraction is the Gamcheon Culture Village. Known affectionately as the "Santorini of South Korea," (which is stretching it a bit) this former refugee settlement was transformed by local artists into a vibrant open air museum featuring pastel-coloured houses, street murals and handicraft shops stacked like terraces down the foothills of the mountain. A much quieter second version is the Hocheon Culture Village which I captured at dusk as a blue hour shot, although it was raining at the time and there wasn’t much blue to be had.

And right in the middle of Busan is Hwangnyeongsan Mountain which provides a magnificent 360 degree view of the city - which had to be visited for the photography. Even though the weather was poor and the forecast worse, I took a chance. On arrival at the summit cloud was low and descending – and then miraculously within about 30 seconds right at the onset of blue hour it all cleared. You can see the results in the Busan Central gallery.