The ancient capital of Tainan 📜

The next city on our itinerary for Taiwan was the “ancient capital”, Tainan. Now known for its rich history and amazing food scene, we were very excited to visit. We loved the train ride from Taipei - the trains here are really great. Train travel has been, without a doubt, our favorite mode of travel this trip, and Taiwan has been no different. We stocked up on convenience store snacks and were off on the three and a half hour journey south. 

Tainan had a much more “old world” feel about it compared to Taipei, this makes sense, seeing as Tainan has history going back to the Dutch East India Company in the 1600s, and served as the country's capital for over 200 years. The area we were staying in was filled with small streets, old trader houses and alleyways. We thoroughly enjoyed just wandering and seeing what we would come across during our time in the city. 

On arrival we were very pleased to find out accommodation was a serious upgrade from Taipei! We had a big double room all to ourselves with a big window overlooking the street below. Maybe because of this, or maybe just because of where we are in our travels, we did enjoy our lovely room quite a lot here, spending a bit of time relaxing “at home”. We found a restaurant just across the street that we loved! It was a bit of a fusion - Japanese in style, but with some great dumplings and noodles that seemed more similar to Sichuan province in China. Other highlights nearby was the barber below us whose shop looked like a mix between a steampunk museum and hoarder house, where Josh got his hair cut pretty successfully!! Of course we had our local 7/11, Taiwan has the highest density of convenience stores or “marts” in the world, and as with Korea and Japan, mart culture is strong. You can get some great food, heaps of treats and sooo many varieties of drinks. We LOVE a mart and while in countries like this stopping in on your way home is simply compulsory. They are also a great A/C break when you’re out and about and it’s very hot!

Tainan is home to some really special temples, and most were located near our hotel. We did lots of wandering in the area and popping into whatever ones we came across. We didn’t deep dive on the history, just experienced these as we explored. As in Taipei, these temples felt very much like living places of worship, as opposed to protected or restored relics. We’ve loved this side of Taiwan. One afternoon we did a walking tour of the old town, also known as Anping. 400 years ago this would have been one of the most important trading ports in Asia! The Dutch built a fort here called Fort Zeelandia, and the surrounding town would have been a very multicultural and busy colonial settlement. Throughout the walking tour we saw lots of “Sword Lions” decorating the buildings, a tradition unique to this small area. They came from the Qing dynasty, when soldiers would hang their shields (often painted with lions) and swords up on the walls of their homes. It looked like a lion biting a sword, and thus the motif that you see today was born. It’s become a sort of emblem of the area. Walking around looking and seeing multiple different sword lions for a couple hours wasn’t exactly what we expected when we booked the walking tour, but it was fun nonetheless! 

Anping is further out towards the coast, so after the walking tour we took the electric rental bikes (called you-bikes), out for a ride to the beach. We enjoyed a lovely sunset with beers and snacks from the mart, before riding back into town once it was dark. The rental bikes here are the best we have encountered in any country on our trip so far! They are electric assisted when you pedal, and always seem to be in great condition. Both in Taipei and Tainan the pick up and drop off stations have been very common, yet it’s a docking style station which means everything stays organized and they don’t litter the streets as they often do in China. 

On our final day in Tainan we went searching for some A/C activities as we were finding it very hot out! There’s a gorgeous old department store that was built during Japanese occupation that we enjoyed browsing. It very much reminded me of Ballantynes in Christchurch! We also browsed the modern art gallery. 

Tainan had a lovely feel too it, it reminded me of a regional town in New Zealand. We found things were often shut (sometimes annoying), the people were very friendly and the pace in general was slower than Taipei. It was a great place to park up and relax for a few days before we headed even further south to Taitung, supposedly the most “chill” place in all of Taiwan.