Taiwan Part 3 - Tainan

The third stop on my trip to Taiwan was the city of Tainan! This city is on the southwest coast of Taiwan and was the historical capital of Taiwan and where some of the earliest settlements by first the Dutch in the early 1600s and then the mainland Chinese later than century. If Taipei is the NYC of Taiwan, Tainan is the Boston. It is also - interestingly enough - the place I saw the largest number of white tourists in Taiwan, and heard the most English-speaking tourists. I spent three days in Tainan and it was my favorite city of the trip. 

The Great
Anping Treehouse
The Anping Treehouse was the most unexpected yet very cool thing I saw in all of Taiwan. It's also misnamed. It's not a house in a tree. It is a large building complex being eaten by a gianormous banyan tree. The former building was abandoned and over only 60 years or so was eaten by a banyan (or multiple banyan - it's unclear) tree. There are stairs and platforms to wander around the tree from above the building and you can also walk around on the ground. It was a very cool, unexpected, and oddly calm experience. I don't know if there are nature spirits or not, but if they exist, I fully believe that banyan was one. 

Banyans eat buildings

National Museum of Taiwan History
Taiwan's museum game is A+ and the national history museum is a perfect example of that. The museum is on the outskirts of the city, so you need to be motivated to go, but it was a fantastic museum. So much information from the first humans arriving through the overthrow of the KMT government. This really is a history museum though, so while the displays and dioramas are great, it's low on the artifacts and high on the informational placards. I recommend but with the caveat it's only worth it if you are specifically interested in Taiwanese history, and in particular cultural history. 

Cool/Worth Checking Out
Wandering the Temples
Tainan has a lot of historical temples, and it's worth taking a stroll through the historic center of the city and checking them out. There are a number of famous ones, but my favorite was the Water Fairy Shrine which is a tiny shrine tucked inside a large market. The market had largely closed when I walked through it, but the tiny temple (more of a niche) was very cool. The Grand Mazu Temple and the large Confucius Temple were also excellent - both were large complexes rather than a singular building - and must sees in Tainan. There are at least half a dozen other cool temples, and doing a temple to temple walk is a great way to see historic Tainan. Those three are my must sees though.

Chihkan Tower
The Chihkan Tower is, like many thing, a walled complex rather than a singular building. The garden and main structures are emblematic of Tainan's history, as it was first a Dutch fort, then a couple Chinese pagodas later under the Qing empire. However, the coolest thing was the construction barriers. Rather than leave the corrugated metal walls blank as they did reconstruction work, an artist was commissioned decorate them. And the artist made basically a comic book of an ancient legend over the space. Obviously I can't speak mandarin but the images made the story clear and I laughed out loud multiple times. It was phenomenal.

Conclusion
Tainan is a great stop on a trip in Taiwan, particularly if you're interested in the history. Even if you don't like history, the Anping area, with the house-eating tree and also the old Dutch fort (also cool) are worth your time as a day trip from another city. If you like temples, you need at least a full day in the city. And honestly, it had the best food overall I had in the country as well.