Hi everyone, my name is Tong.
Today I am in the Northern District of Tainan.
This area was one of the earliest districts to develop.
Many of the streets, architectures, and buildings here
are still left the way they were during Japanese colonization.
And even earlier!
Tainan train station is also in this district just right behind me.
Also, another thing you can’t miss about this district is the temples.
The temples are where you can truly feel and sense
the spirit and importance of religion to the local people.
So today I’m going to walk around
and show you the Northern District of Tainan.
And you can experience what life is like in old Tainan City.
Yamuliao traditional market has opened since Japanese colonization.
People come here to buy fruit, vegetables, and other fresh produce.
But what’s special is that a lot of Taiwanese traditional snacks
actually originated from this market.
Let’s go take a look!
Now we are heading to a traditional Taiwanese snack shop!
This shop has existed for more than 60 years.
And the most famous product is the fried food.
Especially their fried squid and fried vegetables,
lots of different things you can enjoy.
Some people even have it with soup or noodles.
Lets see what they have.
Hello sir, can you tell me
the most popular order or the most special dish?
Fried shrimp, because the whole shrimp is inside.
This is fried shrimp spring rolls.
This is fried carrots, and these are meatballs but fried.
There’s a Japanese twist to it
but it’s still a Taiwanese traditional snack.
I just ordered one of each of these food.
I’m really excited!
I came on an empty stomach so I’m ready to eat.
First I’m going to try their shrimp.
Let me see which one it is. This one!
As the boss just told me, the whole shrimp is fried inside here.
I am gonna take a bite.
Very crispy. And you feel full of the shrimp.
This soup I ordered is shrimp and fish meatball soup.
So how it’s made?
It’s actually fish or shrimp and they mix it with starch.
Now I’m going to try their shrimp meatball
since they’re most famous for their shrimp.
There’s a really soft texture to it.
The special thing is they also added some celery inside.
You’ll feel the crunchiness from the celery
as well as the softness of the shrimp and the meatball.
Fried carrot
He just told me that this was made by his grandpa,
so his grandpa owns the recipe from over 60 years ago.
Let’s see if it’s different from the fried carrot today.
It’s really interesting because you can still feel the carrots.
Thank you!
Hello! Is this herb cake?
Sweet and salty at the same time.
Inside there are salty vegetables but outside it’s really soft.
Just like mochi.
As the day gets later, there are more and more people swarming by
and more and more shops are opened too.
Let’s go inside.
These(braised snacks) are also
what I really like to eat for lunch and dinner.
They’re ready to go
and they’re made by special juice steamed with pork.
Let’s see what they’re making.
They’re making moon shaped pork buns for winter solstice.
There’s a belief that if you eat these moon shaped steam buns,
you’re gaining a year old and about to begin a new year.
Since I’m going to the temple later,
I want to bring something with me.
This temple right behind me is the Guan Yin Shinji Temple.
What’s so special about this temple is that
it actually consists of two different religions.
Two of the major religions in Taiwan,
Daoism and Buddhism.
On my right hand side, this is the Buddhist part of the temple
which worships the Goddess of Mercy, or Guanyin.
On my left hand side, this is the Daoism part and
they worship Baoshen Emperor, who is the protector of life.
It’s a pity that it’s under renovation right now.
But trust me on this,
These two religions, they blend in so perfectly in this one temple.
At a first glance,
you won’t even notice that they’re two different religions.
Let’s go take a look inside!
Like I mentioned earlier, Baoshen Emperor is the god
for protecting health and medicine.
This temple still keeps this traditional praying method.
Where you can tell the god what your sickness or illness
and in return he is going to give you prescription
that tells you how to eat and how to heal.
Today I invited my friend Jacqueline here
to show me how this is all done.
In the past, because of the scarcity of medicine,
a lot of people when they don’t feel well,
they would just come to this temple
and pay a visit to Baoshen Emperor.
They will tell him what’s wrong with them
and the Baoshen Emperor will give them some kind of prescription.
First, you have to draw three incense sticks and light it.
Next step, we need to pray to the God.
Now I have to tell him my name, address, and date of birth.
After telling the gods the details,
we need to draw a cast of the moon blocks.
If I get an agreeable moon block,
It means that the god allows me to put the incense on my pulse
and see what is wrong with me.
After I put the incense stick on my pulse,
I need to draw a ticket from the lot pot.
These four
This is for luck, this is for internal,
this is for eyes, and this is for surgical.
Because lately I’ve been feeling that
for example, I might have endocrine disorder.
There’s a lot of acne on my face.
I would probably want to take a ticket from this lot pot,
which is from internal.
Mix it a bit.
For example, this one says 105.
Later on, I’ll have to draw a cast on the moon block again
and see if it’s the right one.
So now we need to look for the ticket of 105.
This one.
Uh oh, I don’t understand a word.
This is the ticket that I got from the lot.
It says some kind of prescription, and it’s Chinese medicine,
but I don’t understand a word.
So we have to go to the Chinese medicine pharmacy
to get the medicine that it said on.
Da Guan Yin Temple still maintains its traditional Buddhist features.
Their wooden artworks, such as the Guan Yin Buddha
and the 18 disciples of Buddha,
both of which displays authentic Buddhist styles.
There are also long tables inside
where people can pray and worship.
Because the atmosphere inside is very quiet and serene.
The Northern District is the earliest to develop.
So Mazu Kaiji Temple, here,
is also one of the earliest Mazu temples in Tainan
The name “Kaiji” means “foundation” or “first”
And Mazu is the goddess worshiped here.
In fact, Mazu is one of the most well known
and most worshiped goddess in all of Taiwan
She is the protector of the sea
and she is of great importance to the people.
Because the majority of our ancestors came from China by boat.
So Mazu helps protect
our ancestors when they first came to Taiwan safely.
That is why a lot of people still worship her today.
This is a very traditional place that preserves great history.
Almost every corner here, you can sense a story.
The inside of the temple,
there is a solemn yet peaceful atmosphere
that shows that for the past 300 years,
this is how our ancestors have quietly protected by this temple.
Outside Kaiji Mazu temple
is Ziqiang Alley, which used to be called Dachong Street.
Dachong means big cannon
Because there used to be a military base around this area.
Nowadays, it’s more of a residential place, as you can see.
And people still live here today in these old houses.
This is the Black Ghost Well.
Black ghost refers to the slaves
that built this well during the Dutch colonization.
The ghost doesn’t necessarily mean the spooky kind of ghost.
It’s actually a word that
Taiwanese used back in the day to refer to foreigners.
White people would be white ghost.
And people with darker skin would be black ghost.
Today, this monument,
this well here is listed as the city’s national historic site.
Hello, I would like a cold tofu pudding with boba.
For here or to go?
For here.
Ok!
Thank you!
After walking to so many different historical places
and learning so much today,
I’m feeling a little thirsty.
Here in front of me is an all-time Taiwanese favorite delight.
It’s called the sweet tofu pudding.
It’s soft and made from soy bean.
People usually eat sweet tofu pudding with different toppings.
I like to have it with boba.
But you can also have it with red beans, lemon,
green beans, or jelly, anything you like.
But boba is so good.
Today we walked through some major sites in Northern Tainan District,
rich in culture and history.
But stay with us, we have a couple more adventures ahead!