Personal

2023 in Review

As it has become a yearly habit, whenever December rolls around, I start thinking about what I’m going to write, and what photos I’m going to include in my year-end review, which is something that I’ve done every year that this website has been active.

Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve admittedly been a little less inclined to write anything personal, or about how I’ve been feeling - so when December came this year, I wasn’t really in the mood to get a start on this one. At the time I was in the midst of researching and writing an article, which used that as an excuse to procrastinate this one for a few weeks.

Over the years, (it seems like) readers have come to appreciate these articles, so I forced myself to head to a local coffee shop to dedicate some time to make sure I kept the tradition alive.

This year, though, I’m going to change the format a little.

Since another one of my annual traditions took place in mid-December, the photos I’ll be sharing today aren’t going to be the typical collection of photos I took throughout the year, but will (for the most part) be from the Qingshan King Festival (青山靈安尊王) celebrations in Taipei.   

As usual, I first took a look back at what I wrote in my previous reviews, to see how I was feeling, and of course, what I had planned for the upcoming year, mostly just to see if I was successful in what I set out to do.

So was 2023 a successful year for me? Well, just like last year, yes, and no..

In my previous year-end review, I said that I’d try to focus more on writing ‘travel-related’ articles that are likely to appeal to people more than the typical articles that I write. So was I successful in that? Probably not. I did make an honest attempt, though.

For example, one of my most in-depth articles of the year was one that I wrote about the Huashan Creative Park, one of Taipei’s most popular tourist attractions. The article ended up being one of the most authoritative resources about the history of the area that you’ll find online. Admittedly, though, it was just another one of my Japanese-era related research projects.

In March I took a trip to Japan, and upon my return to Taiwan, I spent the next few months working on all of the photos I took during the trip (way too many), and writing about some of the places that I visited.

One of the things that I had to learn the hard way about Japan is that its historic tourist destinations aren’t really as well-documented as they are here in Taiwan. The amount of research and translation it took to write those articles far eclipsed any of the work that I’ve done on Taiwan, and as I’m just starting to post those articles now, hopefully readers will be able to understand just how much effort went into writing them.

Being that it takes a lot more time and effort to write articles, this year was similar to the last in that the amount of articles I write and the frequency I publish them has decreased. One thing that ended up being new this year was that I allowed those ‘rabbit holes’ that I naturally just fall down in during my research to consume me a little too much.

I ended up publishing several articles this year that didn’t really have much to do with photography, but instead were meant to act as resources for some of the other articles that I have published on here. In fact, when I mentioned earlier that I was in the midst of researching and writing an article in early December, it was another one that was the result of one of those rabbit holes I found myself in while researching for an article about one of Taipei’s first places of worship, Jiantan Temple (劍潭古寺).

Before I get into some personal things about life this year, let me first explain why I’ve chosen to only focus on photos from the Qingshan King temple festival - I’ve made it a tradition to take part in the yearly festival as I have an ongoing project compiling (film) photos of the ‘The Lead Generals’ (官將首) who take part in the process.

When it comes to film, I have a couple of older cameras, including one that allows me to use the Canon EOS lenses that my digital cameras use. However, no matter what camera I’m using, the one thing that always remains the same is that I only ever use AGFA APX 100 film, which I personally consider to be one of the best monochrome rolls of film that you can (still) purchase. Every year I attend this festival, I end up spending a considerable amount of money on rolls of film, and then on processing, and because so much of the festival takes place after dark, I’d say my success rate for the photos is probably only about 25%.

So this year, I joined the hipster club and purchased a Fuji digital camera.

Hello new friend!

If you follow camera trends, you’re probably aware that Fuji’s are currently some of the most difficult cameras to buy, due to high demand, and a limited supply chain. More importantly, though, one of the reasons why the cameras have become so popular is due to the fact that they have excellent film simulation modes. After waiting for a few months, I was finally able to get a camera, and luckily it arrived a few days before the event. It was the first time in my photography career that I’ve purchased a digital camera that wasn’t a Canon, so there was a little bit of a learning curve to the process, and there was probably no better way to throw myself into the fire than to take it to one of Taiwan’s most popular temple festivals.

While the learning curve was a bit of a problem, one of the biggest differences between shooting with this camera and the typical film camera that I bring with me was that I was stuck with using a single lens - a 27mm prime lens - which meant that I had to adjust the way I took photos.

All of the monochrome photos of the generals that you’re seeing in this article are from the new camera, which I have to say, I’m quite fond of now that I’m getting the hang of it.

There were a number of reasons why I wanted to purchase a Fuji, but its film simulations were high up on the list. I enjoy the process of taking film shots, especially since you can’t instantly know what you’ve got until you have them processed. But film is also an expensive process and not exactly great for the environment, so I thought I’d try my best to make a change.

I also wanted to have a smaller camera that I could take with me anywhere I go as I’m a bit tired of taking photos with my iPhone. But the most important reason was that I’ll be transitioning entirely to mirrorless in 2024 when the new Canon R5 is released. I’ve discovered that I have some issues when it comes to these newfangled photography gadgets, so I’ll take some time over the next few months to become more acquainted with life as a mirrorless photographer.

Alright, now let’s talk about how the year has gone for me. I’m not particularly good at this, but bear with me.

Last year when I wrote my review, I mentioned my weight-loss mission. Much of this year has remained the same. I’ve continued working hard on losing weight, and I’ve spent a lot more time at the gym this year than I have with my camera in hand. In total, I’ve lost about 25 kilograms, I’m the thinnest that I’ve ever been in my adult life.

That being said, as I mentioned last year, all those years of people in Taiwan calling me fat has probably done a bit of damage to my brain. I was recently having a chat with someone new in Taiwan, and they said I was probably suffering from something called body dysmorphic disorder, something I’ve never actually heard of before. I’m not particularly into self-diagnoses, but after a bit of reading, I feel like some of the pressure I put on myself, or the way I look at myself in the mirror likely means she was right, so I hope that as the year progresses, and I continue working out that I can finally start feeling better about my progress mentally as I’m obviously doing well physically. Since it’s quite obvious that I’ve lost a considerable amount of weight, I’ve received quite a few compliments, but I’ve also received “you’re too thin” criticisms from the very same people who were recently claiming that I was too fat.

All I can say is that even though I love Taiwan, all of the body shaming that people do on a regular basis here can do a considerable amount of damage to ones psyche, and its likely that I’m suffering from a bit of that.

One of the weirder things that happened this year was that my Twitter somehow got flagged by the local Taiwanese media as either a “Famous Canadian Photographer” (知名加拿大攝影師) or a “Famous Canadian Blogger” (知名加拿大部落客). Twitter is obviously in decline since that ‘guy’ purchased it, but the number of people who follow me there has skyrocketed, and it seems like any time I have something sarcastic to say about life in Taiwan, the local media picks it up and it becomes the news of the day. I’m not sure how many times I’ve made the news this year, and its not something that I’m particularly proud of, but at some point, one of my tweets is likely to get me murdered by some crazed Internet weirdo.

I guess all of this goes hand in hand with what I do as a photographer who often works for the foreign media here, but ‘photographers’ aren’t always ‘photojournalists’, I’m just a guy who clicks buttons in the right direction at the right time. I find it ironic that anything I say becomes fodder for the local media. Nevertheless, when Twitter eventually dies, which I’m guessing will be quite soon, all of that will probably come to an end.

Speaking of which, you can now find me on Bluesky: @goteamjosh.bsky.social and if you need an invite, let me know. I have a few saved up for fellow Twitter refugees and cool people.

On that note, when it comes to social media, I’ve become even less active than last year. When I look at traffic analytics for this website, well over 95% is organic traffic from search engines and social media accounts for very little. The amount of work I do cross-posting photos and posting my articles across various networks is probably a waste of time. I rarely post anything on Facebook, and Instagram isn’t particularly a photo site anymore, so I’ve just taken a break.

As for my 2024 plans, I’m once again going to make the claim that I’ll be heading south more to visit places that have been on my list for far too long. I plan to continue writing about Taiwan’s National Forest Parks, so I’m hoping to be able to publish guides to Alishan (阿里山), Taipingshan (太平山), etc. I’ll also continue with some of the other ongoing projects that I have going on. If you read my article about Taiwan’s Remaining Japanese-era Train Stations (台鐵現存日治時期車站), you’ll probably have noticed that there are quite a few stations that don’t have links yet. This is something that I plan to solve in the new year while also continuing to update some of the already existing articles that I have published on this blog.

I’m also hoping to travel back to Japan to take part in a five-day hike, and hopefully I’ll be able to visit some other new locations, preferably in South East Asia to enjoy some beaches. Traveling back home is also on list of things I have to do as I have some weddings that I’ll need to attend.

As usual, my plans are grand, but I hope that I can be more active than I was this year.

Hopefully 2023 was good to you, and all of those around you. If you enjoy what I do, keep watching in the new year as I have some interesting articles in the queue that are almost ready to go!

Your Favorite Articles of the Year

Now that it seems like the pandemic has come to an end and the world is getting back to normal, Taiwan has reopened and with the increase in tourists coming to the country, there has also been a significant increase in the amount of traffic showing up on my website looking for information.

I’ve always considered introducing Taiwan to the outside world as a privilege, and I hope that anyone visiting this site is able to find the answers they’re looking for, or at least, the inspiration they need to make a visit.

As usual, I’m going to list the five articles that received the most traffic this year, and even though some of them are the same from years prior, there are a few newer entries that made their way onto the list, bringing some variety.

1. Taipei's Top Three Temples (台北三大廟門)

This was an article I wrote quite a few years ago when I was still new to blogging, and although it remains somewhat of a mystery to me, it seems like at some point after Taiwan reopened for tourism after the pandemic, someone shared it and it started attracting a tremendous amount of traffic.

I don’t look at my website’s traffic analytics very often, but the few times I have this year pushed me to completely rewrite the article and post new photos as I felt the original wasn’t up to my current standards.

Hopefully the newly updated article helps anyone wanting to visit Taiwan learn a little about some of the attractive tourist temples in Taipei.

2. Qixing Mountain (七星山)

Earning a spot on my Top Five list last year, my hiking guide for Taipei’s popular Qixing Mountain (七星山) has once again continued to attract quite a bit of interest. Last year, with so many people forced to travel domestically due to the pandemic, it didn’t surprise me that a blog like this would be so useful, but now that Taiwan has reopened for tourism, it has remained quite popular with people who are visiting the country and looking to climb one of the highest mountains in the north.

Qixing Mountain has always been a pretty popular mountain to climb, but even though it’s located within the capital, getting there can often be a little difficult for people who aren’t familiar with Taipei’s public transportation.

With few comprehensive travel guides to the mountain in English available, I’m guessing it continues to be helpful for quite a few people, which is great!

3. Taiwan Cherry Blossom Guide (臺灣櫻花地圖)

Once again, it was unsurprising that one of the articles that attracted the most interest this year was my comprehensive Taiwan Cherry Blossom Guide. This one has been at the top of my list for several years in a row, and as the article gets updated quite often, I make sure to keep the map that’s included updated as well. Taiwan’s cherry blossom season only lasts for the first few months of the year, but I’m happy to see that it continues to be of use to anyone wanting to enjoy the country’s natural beauty.

4. Four Beasts Hiking Trail (四獸山步道)

Another one of my popular Taipei Travel Guides, this article introduces each of the trails along the so-called ‘Four Beast Mountains,’ compiling a number of individual articles into a single guide that should offer readers all the information they need to complete the entire hike, rather than doing each of the mountains one by one.

By now, visitors to Taiwan are likely all aware of the Elephant Mountain (象山) trail, as it has become one of the city’s most important tourist attractions, however it seems like few realize that with a little more effort, you can enjoy even more nature, and better views of the city from the various peaks.

5. Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園)

My travel guide for the insanely popular Taroko National Park on Taiwan’s eastern coast was once of the first articles I published last year, and now that international tourism has returned to Taiwan, this guide has become one of the most popular articles on my blog. Taroko Gorge is one of those must-visit places for anyone coming to Taiwan, so it’s not particularly surprising that this comprehensive guide attracts quite a bit of attention.

That being said, I have plans to update the guide in the near future, with some more destinations, and of course, new photos. I always look forward to a trip to the east coast, so I’m hoping once my new camera comes home with me that I’ll be able to hop on a train and head east.

My Favorite Articles of the Year

Once again, to the surprise of no one, there is a stark difference between the articles that I enjoyed writing the most compared to what most of you enjoyed reading. This year, rather unexpectedly, I wrote a couple of non-photography related articles focusing on Taiwanese history, which I thought were pretty interesting subjects. I have a few more of these articles in the works, which is a new thing for me, but possibly something that I’ll continue as time passes.

Below you’ll find the five articles that I enjoyed writing the most this year:

1. Huashan 1914 Creative Park

This was an article that took me a long time to complete, and it ended up being one of the most in-depth English-languages resources available online about one of Taipei’s most popular, yet little understood, tourist attractions.

In most cases articles about the park focus on the tourist aspects of the historic distillery, but I focused on telling its history so that people can better understand what they’re seeing when the visit today.

There’s always something cool happening at Huashan, so it’s one of those places that any visitor to Taipei should spend some time checking out.

2. Taiwan’s Remaining Japanese-era Train Stations

As mentioned above, this was one of the research articles that I put together this year. I compiled a comprehensive list of the remaining railway stations around the country that have a history dating back to the Japanese-era, many of which remain in operation today, almost a century later.

Even though some of these historic stations are likely to replaced at some point, while they’re still around, they’re excellent examples of a period of Taiwan’s history that not a lot of people know about.

3. Railway Station Name Change Chart

Similar to the article above, this was another one of my random research articles that I published this year. While browsing social media one day, I came across an interesting image in one of my Taiwanese history-related groups and decided to do a deep-dive into the history of the name-changes made to settlements across the island during the Japanese-era, and beyond.

4. Ogon Shrine

After waiting several years for the iconic ‘Golden Shrine’ to re-open to the public, I finally got around to posting an in-depth article about the history, and the architectural design of this abandoned Japanese-era Shinto Shrine.

Attracting crowds of people to the North-Coast of the island for quite some time, the shrine was coincidentally one of the first Japanese-era tourist spots that I visited after my arrival in Taiwan, even though I wasn’t really aware of what I was experiencing at the time.

Until this year, I wasn’t able to publish an article about the shrine due to a lack of photos, and because it was closed to the general public for almost half a decade - now that its re-opened, it has once again become a popular tourist attraction, and can be included as part of a larger day trip to the Jiufen (九分) area.

5. Taipei Guest House

Finally, on the short list of the most iconic of Taiwan’s remaining Japanese-era buildings, the Taipei Guest House (台北賓館), which was once the official residence of the Governor-General of Taiwan, and is now operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was a spot that I’ve wanted to visit for quite some time, and I was quite happy to be able to get in on one of the rare days that it is open the public to take photos, and then write an article about its history.

If the photos weren’t already proof enough, the mansion is absolutely beautiful, and its architectural design is a masterpiece of its era.

Now that I’ve got the Guest House out of the way, I have plans to check out one of its other iconic neighbors, the Presidential Palace.

My Favorite Photos of the Year

You’re likely to notice a bit of a theme with the photos I personally enjoyed taking the most this year as they’re almost all from my trip to Japan. I was always a little afraid to visit Japan because I figured I’d pretty much fall in love and never want to leave, or at least, all of my future trips abroad would be in that direction. Suffice to say, those fears became reality, and I’m already planning my next trip to the country. However, after my experience this year, I’m not particularly looking forward to the amount of time it will take to write articles about the places on my list to visit.

The photos you’ll see here are mostly going to be from destinations that I’ll be publishing articles about in the near future, so if you like what you see, keep your eye out for the articles that appear.

This photo was taken on the Northern Coast of Kyushu at the Usa Grand Shrine (宇佐神宮), one of the most important Shinto Shrines in Japan. Taken along the visiting route, it’s a film shot of a young Japanese family walking towards a massive shrine gate, which is one of the iconic images of this particular shrine.

This photo was taken on the last night of our trip to Japan, when we got to enjoy the cherry blossoms in full bloom at the annual Fukuoka Cherry Blossom Festival. While there are some obvious problems with the photo that I wasn’t very happy with, I love the colors and the lighting that was set up so that we could all enjoy the blossoms well into the evening. It was my first experience seeing sakura in Japan, but also one of my first experiences taking photos of them at night time, so I’m a big fan of this one.

While visiting Usa Grand Shine mentioned above, we found ourselves walking along a quiet lake-side. As we walked, we came across another small path, which featured its own shrine gate at the entrance.

The path was forested, and quite dark, so I figured it would make for an excellent film shot. The shrine gate itself is red and quite bright, so it contrasted quite well with the dark nature environment around it and made me wonder where the path would take you if you walked up it.

For a bit of variety, this photo was taken during this year’s 2023 Taiwan LGBT Pride (臺灣同志遊行) in Taipei. I try to take part in the annual event whenever I can, because let’s face it, it’s really fun. As usual, one of my favorite aspects of the parade are the Queens that take part.

Taiwan’s Drag Queen scene is really vibrant and creative, and every year they go out of their way to come up with something new. Given that the parade typically coincides with Halloween weekend, the costumes that they come up with for the event are always really cool, and they also work really hard to incorporate Taiwanese culture and history into whatever they’re doing. In this case, we had a riff on a Taiwanese temple parade with a Mazu-like Goddess being paraded around on her heavenly palanquin.

Even though there isn’t really anything special about the photo technically-speaking, I have to give massive props to the creativity.

The day before leaving Taiwan for Japan, we checked the weather forecast, and were a bit worried as it was calling for rain for the entire duration of our time in the country. Fortunately, we got lucky and it only rained a bit during the mornings, and on the day we scheduled a visit to Fukuoka’s historic Hakozaki Shrine (筥崎宮).

This shot was taken on the side of the Main Shrine while we were looking for some protection from a sudden downpour during our visit. Even though it rained that day, it was still really nice, and I feel like the photos turned out quite well in spite of the weather.

That’s all for this year, once again I hope 2023 was a good one for you and yours, and hopefully the coming year will be even better for all of us!

Happy New Year everyone! 新年快樂!


2022 in Review

As it has become a yearly habit, whenever December rolls around, I start to think about what I’m going to write in my annual year-end review.

Over the years, I’ve had the article written and ready to go well in advance, but this year, I find myself sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops on a rainy and cold weekend with just a week before the new year, thinking about what to write.

As usual, I took a look back at what I wrote in my previous reviews, to see how I was feeling back then, and of course, what I had planned for the upcoming year, mostly just to see if I was successful in what I set out to do.

So was 2022 a successful year for me? Well, yes, and no..

In my review of 2021, I wrote that I was going to try to focus a bit more on travel-related articles this year, writing about places were likely of more interest to readers. I started out strong with a comprehensive travel guide to Taroko Gorge, one of Taiwan’s most popular tourist attractions.

After that though, it’s safe to say that the vast majority of the articles I posted were all related to subjects related to the Japanese-era.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

Keen observers may have noticed that I published far fewer articles this year than I have in previous years. I have to admit that I find it difficult to maintain the same pace of writing that I had when I first started writing. These days, the articles I write take quite a bit of time during the research and translation stages, then it takes time to actually write the article before formatting for the web, editing everything and adding photos.

I’d like to say that I’m focusing more on quality than quantity, but that might be something of an excuse. The truth is, it has been a bit of weird year, and I haven’t been out with my camera as often as I have in the past.

As I’m writing this, I have more than a dozen articles ready to go in my blog queue, but I don’t have enough photos for them, so they’re just going to sit there until I’m ready.

So why is the photographer not taking photos?

Well, I guess I need to provide a bit of a backstory for that.

Earlier this month CNN published an article condemning Taiwan’s traffic, causing quite an uproar on social media, and a large amount of embarrassment for the country. This had come shortly after Taiwan had re-opened its borders and the hashtag #TaiwanisOpen was spreading on social media. It certainly wasn’t a topic that the government was hoping that would come to the attention of the international community as they try to get the tourism industry back in business.

Link: Taiwan's 'living hell' traffic is a tourism problem, say critics (CNN)

For my part, I’ve been all too aware of the dangers of the traffic situation in Taiwan for quite a while, learning the hard way. While on my way home from dinner several years ago, I was rear-ended by someone making an illegal right-turn into opposing traffic on a one-way road. The accident, which sent my scooter and I flying in the air had me pretty bruised up and sent to the emergency room where I was told one of my knees was toast.

It would be another six months before I was able to walk again, but even then I needed a knee brace and crutches for quite a while longer.

That was the start of a downward spiral that caused not only physical health issues, but mental health ones as well. When I first arrived in Taiwan, I was in pretty good shape. My first health check up after arriving in the country reported that I was 181cm tall and weighed 154 pounds (70kg). After the accident however, I wasn’t able to maintain a normal exercise regimen and combined with an excess of delicious (yet fattening) Taiwanese food, and way too much Japanese ramen, I ended up gaining a lot of weight.

Waving hello to the hikers on the mountain over yonder.

At the beginning of the year, one of the things I planned to do was lose weight - but I have to admit that it is something I always tell myself whenever I’m making resolutions, and every year I end up failing.

This year though, I told myself it was going to be different.

For any of you living in Taiwan, I’m sure you’re well aware that one of the things that you have to get used to is unwanted and unnecessary commentary about your body from complete strangers. Like many people, I’ve had to endure my fair share of criticism from people regarding my weight that it started to really affect my mood. Obviously, I was aware that I was on the verge of becoming overweight, but the bad knee and a lack of motivation were preventing me from doing anything about it.

Then, one day in June, I went to a really nice bar in town with some friends, and one of the owners, someone I’ve known for years, came over to my friend and I while we were in mid-conversation and said something like: “Wow, Josh, you’re really fat now. No wonder you can’t get married. No one wants to marry a fat ass like you.

It was completely random, but it was also the kick in the ass that I needed.

I ended June at 182.6 (83kg) with a new a gym membership, went on a high-protein diet, cut out sugar and pasta (and my beloved ramen), and set a daily routine of high-intensity cardio workouts.

Suffice to say, after months of hard work, I’m ending the year thinner than I was when I first came to Taiwan. I’ve lost 30 pounds this year, which is as far I’m concerned a pretty great achievement. The lack of photos this year certainly wasn’t because I’ve lost interest in photography. I was simply focused more on both my mental and physical health, and I’m proud to say that I’m feeling much better at the end of this year than I have in a long time.

Enjoying the view

That being said, this has been yet another year where the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to be a pain in the ass, and in September after a couple of years of being extremely careful, it was finally my turn.

I’m not particularly sure how I caught it, but I was stuck at home for the typical eight-day quarantine period absolutely bored out of my mind. Fortunately I was already in pretty good shape by that time and had already taken three shots of the vaccine, so despite having a mild fever on the first day, I didn’t really have any of the other more common symptoms.

This year however was the year where Taiwan’s COVID defenses were finally broken and with so many people infected with the virus, we shifted to a new stage of learning to live with it rather than keeping the country and its borders completely closed to the outside world.

Whether or not that was a good decision is up for debate, but now that Taiwan has opened up, traffic on my website has increased exponentially, possibly due to renewed interest in visiting as a tourist, which is good news.

Many countries around the world have suffered over the past few years due to a lack of international tourism, and Taiwan is no different. One thing that has been great to see is the (newfound) appreciation that people here have for their country. In the past, it seemed like most people in Taiwan were quick to hop on a plane and get out of town whenever they had the chance.

The pandemic ended up changing all of that, though, and being forced to travel domestically seems to have resulted in an increased amount of appreciation for everything that this beautiful country has to offer!

And that’s a trend that I certainly hope continues.

Plans for the New Year

So what are my plans for 2023?

I suppose they’re probably the same as my plans for 2022.

I’m going to try to focus on writing about more well-known tourist attractions. That is, instead of writing about a bunch of obscure Japanese-era buildings, I’ll focus on places that are probably of more interest to general readers. Fortunately, I’ve gotten a bit of an early start on things as the more than a dozen articles that I already have in my blog queue are focused on subjects that tourists coming to Taiwan should find helpful.

Something that I’ve been slowly working on this year is re-writing older articles, and that I something I intend on continuing into the new year.

While writing new articles, I often take a look back at what I wrote in the past on similar topics and find myself embarrassed at the quality of the earlier articles that I published when I started this website - I’ve been trying to fix that by completely rewriting them in order to offer readers a more well-rounded experience. My article about the Manyueyuan Forest Recreation Park (滿月圓國家森林遊樂區), which was my last article of the year is a pretty good example of how I turned an embarrassment into a proper travel guide.

I’ve also shifted around my weekly schedule, which should allow me to maintain my current gym routine, and spending the rest of the time traveling and taking photos. I have admittedly been a bit hardcore with working out this year, so now that I’ve achieved an ideal weight, I’m just going to focus on maintaining it, while also buffing up a bit.

Camera gear is heavy, so it’d be nice to be a bit stronger as well, right?

With more time to travel, I hope to be able to make my way down south more often than I have in years past, adding more tourist sites to my blog map, and of course, more Japanese-era sites as well.

Similarly I will continue visiting Martyrs Shrines, Confucius Temples, Martial Arts Halls, etc. to improve on already existing projects. And if everything goes to plan, I’ll be traveling to Japan in the Spring to take part in some cherry blossom viewing!

Your Favorite Articles of the Year

Now that Taiwan has reopened to the world, there has been a significant increase in the amount of traffic showing up on my website.

Introducing Taiwan to the outside world is a privilege, and I hope that anyone visiting this site finds the answers they’re looking for, or at least, the inspiration they need to make a visit.

The articles that received the most attention this year are similar to those from years past, but there are a couple of new ones that made their way onto the list, bringing a bit of variety.

Unsurprisingly, the article that attracted the most attention this year was the comprehensive Cherry Blossom Guide that I published several years ago, and has been the one that has received the most amount of traffic for several years in a row. This is an article that gets updated quite often, so even though the cherry blossom season only lasts for the first few months of the year, I’m happy to see that it continues to be of use to anyone wanting to enjoy Taiwan’s spring beauty.

One of the surprises this year, my article about the somewhat obscure Silver Temple in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai province attracted quite a bit of attention. Obviously, Thailand opened up for international tourism far sooner than Taiwan did, so with Chiang Mai acting as one of the hip new tourist hubs in Thailand, it seems like people were attracted to this article as it is strangely still one of the most in-depth that you can find online in English.

As far as temples in Thailand go, this is a pretty special one, so I hope those of you who have read it found it helpful!

One of the articles that also found itself on the list over the past few years was the one about Tainan’s Confucius Temple. Consistently one of my most popular articles, this is another example of an article that I should probably get around to updating sooner or later as it has become a bit dated.

If you read my review last year, I actually said the same thing. But this year, I’m thinking it will be a sure thing as I also plan on re-writing my article about the massive Martial Arts Hall that you can see in the upper left of the photo of the temple above, so a visit to the Confucius Temple for new photos is a sure thing.

One of the newer articles to earn a spot on the list is my travel guide to Taipei’s Qixing Mountain, which has attracted quite a bit of attention this year. With so many people forced to travel domestically due to the pandemic, it doesn’t really surprise me that a blog like this would attract so much traffic.

Qixing Mountain is a pretty popular mountain to climb, but even though it’s located in Taipei, getting there can often be a bit confusing. With few comprehensive travel guides to the mountain in English available, I’m guessing it has been helpful for quite a few people, which is great!

Once again, unsurprisingly, the article I wrote about the (mostly abandoned) Wanli UFO houses a few years back continues to attract quite a bit of attention with urban explorers and foreign media. I had never really expected this article to amass even a fraction of the traffic that it has received, but for the past few years it has been one of my most popular articles and is always the one that gets the most attention from outside of Taiwan.

My Favorite Articles of the Year

As usual, the blogs that I appreciate the most are often the ones where I learn a lot during the research process, but aren’t necessarily the ones that readers seem to find as interesting.

I published quite a few travel guides this year in addition to quite a few articles about historic sites from the Japanese-era. Although my list differs from yours, I suspect that one or two of the articles on it may eventually make the jump to your favorites in the years to come.

One of the areas where I learned the most this year was when I wrote about the historic Nishi Honganji Square in Taipei.

Most people just pass by the square on their way to the Ximen Shopping District, completely unaware of its history so writing about this one was fun, and I learned quite a bit at the same time.

The first article I published this year was a travel guide for one of Taiwan’s most popular tourist destinations, Taroko National Park.

The exhaustive travel guide took quite a while to prepare, but I hope that the end result is one that helps people plan a trip to the park and get the most out of their experience.

Earning a reputation as a writer and photographer covering historic buildings from the Japanese-era, I got myself a special invite to the Shinchiku Police Commissioner’s Residence, which had just been restored by the Hsinchu City Government and was getting ready to reopen to the public. Writing this one, I learned quite a bit, but most of all I enjoyed the private experience of being able to visit this beautiful building before all the crowds of tourists.

I’ve been visiting this special place of worship at least once a year for more than a decade now, but it took me until this year to finally publish an article about Tainan’s Grand Mazu Temple. As one of the oldest temples in the country, and the first dedicated to Mazu, the patron deity of Taiwan, this is a pretty iconic spot.

Writing about this temple required an extensive amount of research, and the end result is one that I’m proud of. I might not write about temples as often as I used to, but I’m glad that I finally have this one available.

This is another one of the blog posts that I rewrote this year, combining an entirely rewritten article with new photos.

Most of the articles I write require a considerable amount of research, but this one required some blood, sweat and tears. Hiking Stegosaurus Ridge isn’t for the faint of heart, and even though I’ve hiked the mountain a few times before, I decided to give it another go with a friend of mine, who proudly exclaimed when we were done: NEVER AGAIN!

It’s a great hike, but if you’re not an avid hiker or are afraid of heights, you may want to skip it. Nevertheless, as one of the more popular hikes in northern Taiwan in recent years, I figured it was probably a pretty good time to update my original article, so that anyone wanting to hike it had the necessary information available for their own safety.

My Favorite Photos of the Year

Despite not being able to get out with my camera as much as I would have liked this year, I did spend a considerable amount of time working on photos, rewriting and updating previously published articles.

I was happy to find a hip new store dedicated to film photography in town this year, so I had my old film cameras cleaned and now have a steady supply of my beloved Agfa APX 100 film.

Some of the photos I’ll be sharing here today are part of an ongoing film project that I’ve been working on for the past few years. That being said, whenever I left home with my camera this year, I made sure to have my film camera packed in my bag as well, which I consider somewhat of a success.

(Film cameras are heavy)

The photos I’m choosing as my favorite of the year probably aren’t what most would choose, but they have sentimental value, which is why I’m putting them here. Some of them may be featured in future blog posts, so keep an eye out for those as well!  

  • Hew and the View

This one is simply just a view of my friend and hiking buddy, Hew enjoying the view of northern Taiwan during our trip to Stegosaurus Ridge. The views from up there are breathtaking with the combination of the tall mountains the Pacific Ocean.

  • Kishu-An

One of Taipei’s prettiest Japanese-era heritage buildings, Kishu-an, a historic riverside restaurant is a pretty popular tourist attraction these days, but if you’re lucky enough to visit when no one is there, you can get some absolutely beautiful photos.

  • Taipei Guest House

One of the places I’ve been waiting years to visit is the Taipei Guest House, the historic residence of the Japanese-era Governor General of Taiwan. The mansion is only ever open to the public a few times a year, so when I had the chance to finally visit, I didn’t miss it. The photos I ended up taking were quite nice, and the article I wrote about it should be posted pretty soon!

  • We are the Champions

One of the things I’ve taken a liking to in recent years is Taiwanese baseball, and I was lucky enough to see my favorite team win the championship this year. Usually, whenever I go to games, I go with friends and we end up having far too many beers, so I rarely bring my camera.

This time though, I’m happy I had the foresight to bring it with me as I was able to capture the moment the crowd went wild as the Brothers swept the Monkeys in the Taiwan Series.

Link: Running it back

  • Film Fails?

If I took either of these photos with one of my digital cameras, it’s very likely that I would have deleted them before they got uploaded to my computer. With film, though, you don’t have that option. When I returned home with my prints and my scans, I took a look at both of these shots and wasn’t actually all that disappointed with them.

In one of the photos, the subject’s face is dark, but the shadows in the photo make it quite appealing. In the second photo, I snapped the shot just as people were waking by, so even though the face is in focus, it is obscured by a bit of blurriness. Nevertheless, they’re both nice as far as I’m concerned.

  • Generals

I leave you with some samples of portraits that I’m collecting for one of ongoing film projects. They were taken during the annual Qingshan King Temple Festival with a Canon 35mm film camera and AGFA APX 100 film. Each of the shots has gone through minor adjustments in Photoshop after they were developed, but mostly just to clean up any noise or imperfections.

That’s all for this year, once again I hope 2022 was a good one for you and yours, and here’s hoping that life continues to return to a semblance of normal around the world.

Happy New Year everyone! 新年快樂!


2021 in Review

Every year when December rolls around and I start thinking about writing one of these yearly review posts, I’ve made it a habit to look back at what I’ve written in the past to see how I was feeling about the year prior, and of course, my expectations for the new year.

Even though I feel like the concept of a “New Year” is arbitrary in terms of how things are going, people generally like to believe that things may improve from the year the just passed.

Looking back at my review posts from 2019 and 2020, I was certainly optimistic.

In retrospect, I guess you could say I was pretty naive. 

Now that 2021 has come and gone, I’m not sure the positivity that I typically try to have for the new year will really shine through this time around. 2021 was a messy for the the world, and even more so personally.

And 2022 looks as if it is going to be more of the same given the way this new variant is infecting people. 

Still, I’ll try my best to be positive. 

I think we all started 2021 hoping that we would be able to put this terrible pandemic behind us - things were improving and the world was starting to vaccinate itself against COVID-19. Unfortunately the virus has continued to mutate and all of these variants is making a return to normal quite difficult.  

As I’m writing this, the situation back home in Canada is completely out of control and Christmas is all but ruined with many families cancelling events, and provincial governments putting caps on gatherings. 

Obviously, I think it’s important that people should be free to make their own decisions about their health, but vaccine hesitancy has clearly prolonged this pandemic, and we all have to suffer for it. 

Here in Taiwan, 2020 was pretty much a COVID-free year - We lived life as usual, and it was admittedly pretty awesome. Things were so great that the vaccines purchased by the government were close to expiring as there was little interest or need to take them, unless you were traveling abroad. So, in April I did my part and marched over to a local hospital with some friends to get my first shot.

Ironically, as we were sitting there waiting for the nurses to give us the okay to head home, news started leaking out that there was an outbreak in Taipei - and from there things went a little nuts. 

Fortunately, the government here in Taiwan doesn’t really mess around, so as the outbreak spread across the capital, we were swiftly put to lock down, and I found myself stuck at home, with a full compliment of toilet paper and food to ensure that I’d be good for whatever was going to happen. 

Even though I was fully prepared for the lockdown, this is where my year went to shit. 

Shortly after my vaccination, my girlfriend visited the hospital to have something checked out.

It turned out that she had an irregular tumor, and it had to be taken out as soon as possible, so she was admitted to the hospital and put on a list for surgery. Unfortunately for us, that same hospital was dealing with the outbreak of COVID infections and it was put on lock down, which delayed her surgery.

After ten days of lying in a hospital bed, she was finally able to have it removed and the entire time I was stuck at home worrying as I was unable to visit due to the lock down. 

While recovering from the surgery in the hospital, the bad news came that it was cancer, and she’d have to go through about six months of treatment. There was pretty much nothing I could do while she spent the next month in the hospital, so I was stuck at home bored and depressed at the same time. 

Thankfully, I have a large library of photos that need attention, so I was able to spend quite a while working on old photos, and ended up starting a project to share ‘collages’ of different spots around the world on my social media. At the same time I spent quite a bit of time updating and improving things on this website. 

Personally, I find that doing something productive is one of the best methods of combating depression, so I did my best to keep myself busy and worked my ass off.

Something you may have noticed this year is that I’ve slowed down when it comes to posting new articles. Sure, the lock down was one of the reasons for this but in lieu of new articles, I spent a considerable amount of time updating older articles and in some cases completely re-writing them. 

Having been at this blogging thing for a few years now, I’ve streamlined the process of writing and how I present things - I’ve also learned considerably more about some of the things I write about, so some of the articles required updates, and being stuck at home alone for so long gave me that opportunity. 

As my girlfriend was preparing to leave the hospital, one of the things we discussed during our daily phone calls was that her mom had always wanted to start a real-life version of “Happy Farm” (開心農場), so I took some time and found a suitable location, and rented a plot of land. 

Before we started planting anything though, I had to grab my trusty hoe to divide the land up into plots. I quickly discovered that my hands aren’t really all that suited for hard labour. I finished every day with a bunch of blisters, and a sore back. Fortunately once they got back home and started the process of planting veggies, it became a great activity for mom, daughter and myself to get out of the house for a bit.

Thankfully, my services aren’t needed as much on the farm these days but we get weekly deliveries of fresh organic veggies and herbs, which is great! 

As summer came, the outbreak settled down a bit and we started venturing out. It had been months since I had my camera out of the house, so I did my best to visit as many places as I could during my free time, traveling down south and back a couple of times. 

I said earlier that I would find a way to be positive, so here it goes…

I’m happy to report that my girlfriend’s treatment has been a complete success, and life has returned to normal here in Taiwan with the COVID situation under control!

When she got out of the hospital, as a show of support, I let her shave my head, and I kept it shaved for the duration of her treatment. Now that she’s finished, her hair is growing back, and mine is back to normal. 

Things may look bleak for the world at the moment, but personally I’m thankful that I have my best friend back, and that she’s happy and healthy. 

Having gone through cancer treatment myself during my university days (a very mild form of skin cancer), I can understand her current outlook on life when it comes to making positive changes, so the coming year seems like it will be one that will see some big changes for our lives, and that is something to look forward to. 

Wherever you are, I hope that 2021 wasn’t entirely terrible, and that you have something positive to look forward to in the new year. I’m a firm believer that we should make an active effort to hope for the best, and more importantly learning from our past mistakes so that we can evolve past this pandemic and return to life as usual (with some obvious changes to some of the ways we did things before!)

As I move on, I’ll touch on the direction I’ll be heading in with some of my blogs in the new year. Then, as usual I’ll list my favorite blogs of the year (hint: They’re not yours!), and then talk about the blogs that y’all seem to appreciate the most. Finally, I’ll end with some of my favorite photos of the year.

Plans for the New Year

One of the things that seems to change on a yearly basis is the style of which I process photos.

As my post-processing skills have improved over the years, I’ve taken inspiration from other photographers, and my style has evolved to the point where I feel like I’m finally finding a balance. There is still quite a bit of room for improvement and I’m still learning, but I’m in a place where I’m feeling happier with the photos I’ve been producing.

So in the new year, I plan to keep refining this style and hopefully the photos I’m producing will be nicer. 

Interestingly, I’ve discovered that the direction I’ve taken with my blog articles over the past few years, namely those related to the Japanese-era, aren’t really what most readers care about as they tend to be the ones that attract the least amount of traffic. 

To solve this issue, I’m going to focus more on… no wait.. I’m going to keep posting about what I want to write about! I do have quite a few travel-related blogs prepared for the new year, so I’ll be adding some articles that (hopefully) people other than myself care about. 

That being said, I have a long list of Japanese-era related stuff to post about and even more to visit, so this year will be likely remain more or less the same as those in the past. I will continue working on an ambitious project related to the railway in Taiwan that should encompass dozens of articles, so I hope that someone out there will appreciate all the work I’ve done documenting this important part of Taiwan’s history.

Similarly I will continue visiting Martyrs Shrines, Confucius Temples, Martial Arts Halls, etc. to improve on already existing projects. 

And hopefully at some point we’ll be able to travel outside of Taiwan for a much needed vacation!

Your Favorite Blogs of the Year

2021 has been a bit of weird one in terms of traffic on this site, given that most of my articles are travel-related and very few people this year had the ability to travel (or required travel recommendations). That being said, those articles that received the most attention this year differ slightly from years prior, so I’m happy to see a bit of variety in this year’s list.

The blog that attracted the most attention this year was the comprehensive Cherry Blossom Guide I wrote a few years back. This is one of my articles that gets updated quite often, so even though the blossom season only lasts for the first few months of the year, I’m happy to see that it continues to be of use to people. 

The article I wrote about the (mostly abandoned) Wanli UFO houses a few years back continues to attract quite a bit of attention with urban explorers and local media. I had never really expected this article to amass even a fraction of the traffic that it has received, but for the past few years it has been one of my most popular articles. I actually have the area on my list of places to visit so that I can get more photos, so I hope to update it at some point with new photos. 

Honestly, this one was a bit of a surprise to me - I posted this blog about central Taiwan’s Yuanzui Mountain a few years back, but it suddenly became quite popular over the past year attracting a considerable amount of traffic. It’s possible that the hike has become more popular over the past year or two, so lots of people are looking for information about it - If that’s the case, that’s pretty cool. This article however is another that I have slated for an update as I’d like to get better photos as well as do a bit of rewrite on the information I provide. 

Having the Tainan Confucius Temple pop up on my list of most high visited articles this year was also a bit of a surprise. The article was published a few years back, so the sudden amount of interest in it remains a bit of a mystery to me. Of course I’m pleased that people are taking interest in one of Taiwan’s most historic temples as it deserves quite a bit of recognition. But when I look at the articles that are attracting a lot of attention, I often feel like I should update them. I have plans to visit Tainan in the new year to visit some other important destinations, so perhaps another trip to the Confucius Temple is in order!   

Similar to last year’s results, the article detailing my experience with a stalker in Taiwan has attracted quite a bit of attention over the past year. Truthfully, it should probably be in the number two spot in terms of analytics, but as usual I prefer to focus more on positive experiences. For the longest time, Taiwan’s laws have been quite terrible at dealing with weirdos like this - often to very detrimental effects on their victims. So it seems that the information that I provide in the article has been useful (or eye-opening at least).

Looking on the bright side, the government passed new legislation regarding punishment for cyberstalking and harassment, which are slated to come into effect a few months into 2022, which is absolutely great news and will require a bit of a rewrite of the legal information provided in the article.

Some of your other favorites: Stegosaurus Ridge (劍龍稜), Wuliaojian (五寮尖), Qixing Mountain (七星山), Fire Mountain (火炎山), Four Beasts Hiking Trail (四獸山步道), Gullfoss Waterfall, Trinity College Library.

My Favorite Blogs of the Year

As I mentioned earlier, the blogs I’ve produced this year that I appreciate the most haven’t even come remotely close to those that those of you visiting the site enjoy the most. I’ve come to realize over the years that the odd things that I spend time researching and writing about aren’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea, but I still feel that it is important to document relics of Taiwan’s history as best as I can. With that being said I feel like I’ve published some important articles this year that I think deserve a bit more attention. 

One of the articles that I spent a considerable amount of time on this year was an introduction to the Japanese-era remnants of Daxi (大溪), a historic village nestled in the mountains of Taoyuan.

The article introduces the various Japanese-era buildings that remain in the village today and provides links to those that I already have published articles about. This remains to be one of my ongoing projects and the article will continue to updated throughout the new year. 

Another one of my projects this year involved rewriting and updating my articles about Taiwan’s remaining Japanese-era Martial Arts Halls. These buildings often feature the most traditional of Japanese architectural design, and just so happen to be some of the most beautiful Japanese-era buildings that remain in Taiwan today.

While updating some of the articles, I decided that it would be better to have an article that contained all of the important general history of these halls, their purpose, and why they were important before linking to those that remain in Taiwan today.

The end result is the most comprehensive and most detailed introduction to these Martial Arts Halls that exists in the English language, which is something I’m quite proud of. 

Perhaps one of my most ambitious articles of the year, I covered a topic that is barely even covered in the Chinese language, apart from those who may have written a masters thesis on the subject. Essentially I spent a considerable amount of time in the library researching how the Taiwanese government has adopted the ‘public-private’ approach with regard to the conservation of historic buildings. Obviously paying for the restoration of all of these historic buildings requires a considerable amount of public funds, so the government has followed the lead of some European countries in allowing for the participation of public enterprises in order to recoup some of the funds that were committed to preserving historic buildings around the country. 

In the article I used a beautiful Japanese-era police dormitory that was converted into a hip coffee shop in Taitung as a case study for how these partnerships are working across the country, and how they have allowed the government to restore so many historic properties across Taiwan.

While writing about the Japanese-era, I often spend a lot of time speaking to how much development took place over the fifty year period of colonial rule. It is important to also recognize however that while that development was taking place, atrocities were also common place.

In order to completely control Taiwan, the Japanese ended up murdering those who resisted, which includes a considerable amount of the indigenous population.

For this article I hiked through a thick bamboo forest while being chased by angry mountain dogs in search of this ‘loyal spirit monument’ erected as a memorial to the Japanese soldiers who perished during one of these massacres. The little-known monument just outside of the popular tourist town of Sanxia doesn’t receive much attention, but it is a part of the dark history of the Japanese-era and telling its story was one that left me with a sinking feeling in my gut for quite a while.  

Finally, in what was one of my only temple-related blog posts of the year, I finally got to writing about one of my favorite Taiwanese places of worship, the Taiwan Prefectural City God Temple.

As the first place of worship dedicated to the City God (城隍爺) constructed in Taiwan, this historic temple is also one of the oldest places of worship in the country, and is a pretty popular place for locals and tourists alike.

Unfortunately very little has been written about the temple in English, save for short blurbs about its age. Seeking to rectify this problem, I did my typical deep dive about the history and architecture of the temple and ended up publishing one of the most in-depth articles about the temple in any language. 

My Favorite Photos of the Year

I tried my best to get out with my camera as much as possible this year, but 2021 ended up being a really terrible year with regard to taking new photos. The lockdown, my partners illness and gardening took up most of my time, and prevented me from taking the camera out to do what I enjoy most.

Even though I didn’t end up getting out as much as I would have liked this year, I did spend a considerable amount of time working on photos and rewriting and updating previously published articles, so it wasn’t a complete loss. 

The photos I’m choosing as my favorite of the year probably aren’t what most would choose, but they have sentimental value, which is why I’m putting them here. Some of them will be featured in future blog posts, so keep an eye out for those as well!  

  • Qiding Tunnel (崎頂隧道)

One of the first excursions I was able to take after my girlfriend finished her treatment was a quick day-trip to Miaoli where we visited a number of spots that I had on my places to visit. One of our first stops that day was the abandoned Qiding railway tunnels. The Japanese-era tunnels have become something of an Instagram hot spot in recent years, so I was happy to snap this photo of her in front of the tunnels with rays of light shining down. I actually have this photo framed and sitting on my work station.

  • Double Ten Flags (雙十國旗)

While I’m not particularly a huge fan of the ‘Republic of China’, or its flag, I enjoy a bit of irony every year when I head out to the Longgang area of Zhongli on the Double Ten National Day in October to see what’s going on. This year the place was crowded with people as usual, despite the pandemic, and I snapped this shot of the flag with the sun shining through.

  • Keelung Skywalk (基隆天橋)

The famed Keelung Skywalk has been featured in movies, television, music videos, etc. Its one of those places in Taiwan’s northern-most city that has become quite iconic. Unfortunately now that the newly constructed Keelung Railway Station has been completed, the skywalk has become obsolete and there are plans for it to unfortunately be torn down. We’ve been hearing that it’ll disappear at any moment, but until now it’s thankfully still standing. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and these iconic skywalks will be preserved. 

  • Xinxikou Suspension Bridge (新溪口吊橋)

On an excursion with my girlfriend and her mom earlier this summer, I took them up to the mountainous area of Taoyuan to visit Xiao Wulai (小烏來), the Yixing Suspension Bridge (義興吊橋), the Xinxikou Suspension Bridge. One of my goals for this trip was to get new photos in the Xiao Wulai area so I could do a complete overhaul of my article about the area, unfortunately much of the park was closed to visitors as the area near the waterfalls was undergoing construction.

After leaving the area we visited the newly reconstructed Xinxikou Suspension Bridge (新溪口吊橋) nearby and I snapped this beautiful photo of the bridge flanked by the mountains of Taoyuan. This is one of those photos that I feel counters any argument that Taoyuan is an ‘armpit’ or some industrial cesspool.

  • General on Fire

Fortunately the COVID outbreak in Taiwan and the lock down ended long before the annual Qingshan King Temple Festival (青山靈安尊王) in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華區). This year I was able to attend the first night of the event to take some photos of the annual procession and was able to snap this shot of one of the generals in action. Unfortunately this photo will remain a memorable one for me as just after taking it another photographer barged past me with smacked my camera breaking the glass on my lens.. not cool..

  • Shanjia Railway Station (山佳車站)

The final photo I’ve chosen as one of my favorites isn’t all that special in terms of photography, but I think it displays the new style that I’ve been attempting to apply while post-processing photos.

So even though it’s not a spectacular photo, I think this is something that you’ll probably see a bit of in the coming year with its warm, yet subtle palette of colors and lines. 

Before I finish, I’ll leave you with a gallery of some of the photos that I’ve updated and improved upon over the long lock down that we had to deal with over the summer.

And that’s all for this year, once again I hope 2021 wasn’t as terrible for you as it was for me, and here’s hoping for a calmer new year where life can eventually go back to normal! 

Happy New Year everyone! 新年快樂!