An Excursion to Datong

I originally intended to get some administrative tasks done after spending the Saturday in Keelung, but the weather was so nice that it became difficult to persuade myself to stay indoors. I remembered that Taipei still has many sights I have not seen, especially in the more historical part along the eastern bank of Tamsui river. Flipping through the pages of my guidebook, I happened upon a section dedicated to Datong – I decided to make a few-hour trip there.

Datong is a peculiar and exhilarating place for its strange mix of traditional temples and turn of the century European-style city houses. The most visited of these temples is the Xiahai City God Temple, which was much quainter than I expected it to be. I suppose that for lack of space, many temples built in the city are like that. A short walk away, I took pictures of the Dadaocheng Church, which was built in 1915 to replace a church established by George Mackay. I suspect the church in question was likely one of those Mackay founded after a painstaking effort to establish himself in the town of Bang-kah, which he dubbed “the Gibraltar of heathenism in North Formosa.”

 The first European-style building I saw at Datong
 A closer view thereof
 Another European-style building
 More of the same
 Idols at the Xiahai City God Temple
 And back to European buildings
 A whole row of European edifices
 More of the same
 Some red brick European-style architecture
 And some neo-Baroque European-style architecture
 The Dadaocheng Presbyterian Church
Another quaint European house

Walking north, I eventually arrived at two temples whose size finally corresponded to Taipei’s status as a capital city: the Confucius and Bao’an Temples. It was interesting to see that while there were very few visitors at the former, the latter was absolutely popping, and I constantly felt like I was in someone’s way just trying to take a look at the idols. Right about after I left the Bao’an Temple, I remembered that I had not yet seen Taipei’s Cathedral, and it occurred to me that it might be nearby. To my annoyance, it was back halfway from where I started. Using the metro to get there would have been a pain, but luckily, I found many busses rode down Chongqing Road from a nearby station. The Cathedral was nice to see, but it appeared to be closed. With all items on my checklist crossed out, I headed back to my apartment.  

 A dragon painting on the wall of the Confucius Temple
 One of the outer edifices of the Confucius Temple
 The inner court of the Confucius Temple
 The exterior of the main shrine
 The interior of the main shrine
 The obligatory colonnade photo
 The entrance to the Bao'an Temple
 Bamboo like window bars at the Bao'an Temple
 The inner court of the Bao'an Temple
 Another view of the entrance to the Bao'an Temple
 The offerings at the Bao'an Temple
 The entrance to the Bao'an Temple
 The Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Taipei
Frontal view of the same

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