Our little mail carriers Paulo and Ana arrived in Taiwan after a little hiatus, and wow! They were delighted to discover the lovely city of Tainan by the hands of Shui, who filled their days with color and new experiences! Check out their beautifully documented journey below! :)
Hello from Taiwan!!! After a long break, we arrived at Tainan and prepare ourselves for the next adventure in this old town. It’s lucky that the weather becomes cool here recently and we don’t have to worry about our missing summer uniforms.
In the first few days, we took a walk around and found a small lane with beautiful old houses. The atmosphere there is so peaceful, and it’s hard to believe that there is a busy street just a few steps away. There are also some cute shops hosted by people who take these houses as a treasure from their grandparents’ time. On the other day, we joined the Holland Bike Day held around this time every year. People followed the footprints of the Dutch people here in the 17th century. Though most of the historical remains were destroyed, it is still fun to meet a city in this way.
We also got a chance to visit the fishing port in An-Ping, the origin of Tainan City. It is now a famous tourist spot for people to enjoy the afternoon seeing the sunset over the Taiwan Strait. On the train, we were on our way to Dungshan which is about 50 km far from the downtown.
Dungshan is famous for its coffee in recent years, and becomes a popular place to visit during the weekend. Most people drive there just to have a cup a coffee, feel the breeze and enjoy the view from the hill. Not only the coffee impressed us, but also the kind people there we met. An old lady even gave us a free ride to the bus station so that we didn’t have to walk downhill for over one hour. She also shared her interesting experience as an ice cream carrier!
One morning, the host’s mother brought us a bag of roselles. She happily showed us the fruitful result from her little garden on the top of the apartment. We helped removing the seed capsules from the fruits and waited excitedly beside the stove as they were boiled into delicious beverage. The host’s mother told us that this is the luxury that she enjoys in this concrete jungle everyday. How great it is to have a short break and taste the gifts from the nature.
Talking about the foods, we also have some fresh experiences here. Ba-wan is a common snack food in Taiwan, and is probably a nice choice when you feel hungry during the meals. See that stand with a lot of people sitting in front of ? As there are a lot of milkfish breeders and farms nearby, many people take milkfish porridge, mutton or beef soup as their breakfast and it already becomes kind of tradition here in Tainan.
Later on, we visited a spring roll stand to offer ourselves some vegetables, as you may notice that we didn’t eat any earlier! They made the spring roll right away as we ordered one. Therefore, we were able to see what they put in and how they make it into a beautiful roll. Another common way to fill your stomach in Taiwan is getting yourself a delicious Bento. Bento shops are easily found in the streets here, as most workers and students only have 1–2 hours break at noon and this is definitely a cheap and fast choice!
We also spent some time looking around in the city at night. The street art behind us is one of the most famous places in Tainan. The topic is about the memories of the wall. The artist uses the white lines to depict the rooms which might be in the past. As some of the old houses were pulled down during the extension of the road, the lateral of the houses inside were exposed on the street, and this gives artists a good reason to show their talents!
Night market is another good place to see and taste all kinds of local snack foods. In Tainan, the market place is empty in the daytime, but becomes crowded at night. Everybody there has their own secret maps in minds. Comparing with them, we totally didn’t know which stand to start! On our way back, we saw a crowd of people watching some kind of show in front of a temple. An audience there told us that this is the Taiwanese opera. When a temple has a festival, they usually invite one or more different groups to celebrate the event.
Some temples will also organize a parade in the street. Today we were so lucky to meet one here! See the wooden sedan chair? That’s where the main god sit. Every sedan chair was made by a skilled master. And maybe you are curious about those two big guys…we don’t really know which role they played, but that seems to be a tough work to wear a suit like that! They also told us that they have to walk in a special way to make sure that the long arms will swing naturally. That’s one of the most impressing events we saw for sure!
As mail carriers, one of the most important tasks we have is to visit all kinds of mailboxes in the world. Here you can see the mailboxes and the post office in Taiwan. Be careful! Not all of the post offices look green here. When we were pretending as local mail carriers, we also met a postwoman who is about to start her works today after the traffic light turns into green. She kindly shared some tips, and took a photo with us!
The last thing to do before we leave is to send a postcard home. Although we’re a little bit shy, we decided to make a postcard with a photo of ourselves on it this time. When we put the postcard into the mailbox, we were thinking about what it will feel like when reading the journey from us in the past. A postcard seems to be the best tool to connect the gap of space and time, while the ink stains on the seal recorded the tracks of every voyager passing by.
55 comments so far
Cool~~~ They are in Taiwan.
Wow, I love this story. The pictures are great and I love the original way that Shui positioned the little mail carriers. I particularly love the cute green motorcycle and little bicycles. I now want some authentic east Asian food! Yum!
That is priceless! Shui, you should really take up film and production. I thoroughly enjoyed this feature. Youdid a bang up job on featuring the delacassies and delights that behold the visitor in your special part of the world.
Wow!!!!!! Glad to see Taiwanese scenes and tasty foods here!! All the photos are so great, and I especially love the way you put the little postmans :D
Ilha Formosa!! :D
Wonderful travel narrative and very clever photography! I'm wishing for some rosella beverage right now :-)
What a wonderful time everyone seems to be having. I loved the descriptions of the different foods and activities. The roselles look interesting. I loved the bicycles. I love reading the adventures of little mail carriers Paulo and Ana and their hosts.
Welcome to Taiwan!
oooooooh pls pls send me a postcard from taiwan!! I promise as a return I will host you both in here! ;D
WOW what a great job, Shui! I enjoyed the story with the pictures, thanks for sharing! :)))
The photos are great!!
This so clever and interesting. Thanks Shui!
Taiwan is a province of China.
The Little Mail Carriers in Tainan, Taiwan,China!
Thanks Shui for organizing this great trip for Paulo and Ana. Tainan is my hometown, too. Welcome worldwide Postcrossers to come to Taiwan to discover more wonders.
To "Spark7" of China:
Please don't make Postcrossing too political. Taiwan ISN'T a province of China.
Wow! I enjoyed this story very much! What a great pictures! To see them on the bicycles is supercute!
Great story and pictures. I want to travel to Taiwan :)
Interesting idea! :)
have a nice day in TAIWAN hahaha
Welcome to Taiwan ! It's so close to my living place!
For the first time as a postcrosser I like - I lóve multi views :-) What a lovely story. Thanks!
So cute~~~~
hi, little mail-carriers!!
the story is so interesting and even more than this the pics are EXCELLENT!!! congrats to your host!!!
would they like to come here to guernsey??
Wonderful pictures. These brought back memories of visiting Tainan.
simply love it... LOVE IT! Great job Shui!!
Great photos! I love this little guys! Come visit me on the south coast of England :-D
*these
Great story's about Taiwanese culture, delicious food and awesome photo collages. Funny to read they enjoyed the Holland Bike Day :))) Thanks Shui !!!
Great job to the host for doing such a marvelous job documenting their story. Your photography was captivating and it really felt like it was the Little Postmen telling the story themselves. And boy, there is so much to share! I just ate my lunch, but reading this made me want to eat everything they ate. It was captivating. Two thumbs up! ^^
Shui - you, Paulo and Ana all had such a wonderful time! Thank you so much for sharing it with us through these fantastic photos and story! Awesome! :o)
Ha~
It's interesting.
Hey！I am Anita from Tainan.It is always nice and friendly in this city,if any postcrosser who love to receive a postcard from Tainan,don't hesitate to contact me.
WOW! So great! Loved this! :-)
I wish i was a little postman....
Shu-i your story and pictures are SUPER!! you did it very well, i enjoyed it, best wishes!!
Fantastic! I discovered more about my beautiful country through this post.
What a great "scrapbook" story :-) Thanks for such a project, I hope it will continue to other countries/places. Good luck little postmans!
So good to hear that! :D
Tainan is my hometown. It's a very beautiful city.(There are lots of delicious food, too.)
Thanx for sharing this. :)
Wonderful pictures and story.I wish you a wonderful day Shui
OMG!! this is so cute!! :D I totally love it ;) Go and conquer the world, little postmen
Welcome to TAINAN! Thank you Shui!^^
Shui! I drew your name here in Postcrossing a couple of days ago and it's wonderful to know more about you and about Tainan, Taiwan! I will sure make you a special postcard! I love reading this post and the photos are amazing! Thank you!
Wow! What a wonderful life have these two!
that's so COOL!!!
What a fabulous show and tell! Thanks for sharing!
Way to go Taiwan! These are the best pics ever! I love the ones with the roselles...so cute and funny. Brilliant adventure!!
Looks like they have alot of fun!! awesome pictures!!
Taiwan is not part of China. Taiwan is a democratic country and president is elected by people. China is Communism. Please note there is difference. You don't hear Taiwan so much on intenational events such as Olympics or Asian games because we are forced to enter events with name of China Taipei, or we don't get to participate.
Tainan is my hometown. I love it so much. The food is great and people are friendly. I enjoy all the food shown in teh pictures and are familiar with the locations. So happy to see them on postcrossing site. Hope all of you will visit us one day and enjoy the historical sites and food~
Love and Peace
that is so lovely and imaginative story :) i also want to visit taiwan and love the postcards i´ve got from there :) i know taiwan is not part of china ;)
Taiwan, my coontry! I love you Taiwan! and Taiwan is not a part of China :)
Taiwan, my country! I love you Taiwan! and Taiwan is not a part of China :)
You are so very creative!!! I love the History and creative angle! Thank you!!! You are !!!
I love your pictures so much! Amazing!
These pictures are so much fun. They remind me of happy times hosting a little Legoman on our trip to Disneyland. (His many adventures are on a blog called "Where is Legoman?", but I digress.)
Anyway, Shui, you've done a great job showing them (and, by proxy, us) around Tainan City. Thanks!
That's great~~ :)
It's great that you visited my country!
I will never stop sending postcards!
Love Postcrossing!!
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