朝天宮

Xingang (新港) - Beigang (北港) Temples

Xingang (新港) - Beigang (北港) Lunar New Year Markets

The Lunar New Year is one of the most important times of the year for people in Taiwan - For students, it is the time when they have their month-long winter vacation (寒假) and for adults, the government mandates at least a week or more off of work to celebrate the holidays giving people a much needed break. 

This means that, like in other parts of Asia, there is a mass migration of sorts with people travelling from the place they work to their ancestral homes. It also means that highways, roads and tourist sites all over the country are jam-packed with travellers who use their time off from work and school to the best of their ability. 

I've been in Taiwan for over a decade now and it has become somewhat of a tradition of mine to use my free time to travel during the holidays. I travel to different places every year but the one constant through all the years is that I always make my way down to Xingang (新港) in Chiayi County (嘉義縣) and its neighbour Beigang (北港) in Yunlin County (雲林)

Historically, both Xingang, which translates as "New Port" and Beigang, "North Port" were important and existed as coastal staging areas during the Dutch occupation of the island. Later, Beigang became one of the most important ports in the 17th Century and brought a lot of prosperity to the area. 

Today, the two villages are most well-known for their famous temples which date back to the 1600s. The Beigang Chaotian Temple (北港朝天宮) is visited by more than a million people each year and the Xingang Fengtian Temple (新港奉天宮), which claims to be the first Mazu temple in Taiwan. Coincidentally these temples being as old as they are, as well off as they are and as close as they are had somewhat of an unhealthy rivalry that went on for decades. This rivalry only ended recently when the Mazu statue from Fengtian Temple visited the Chaotian Temple as a show of reconciliation. Oh, religion. 

Chaotian Temple (北港朝天宮) 

Chaotian Temple

The Chaotian Temple is around 300 years old and is pretty much THE most important Mazu Temple in Taiwan. The temple is important not because it is the biggest but due to the fact that it takes a leading role when it comes to Mazu worship in this country. The temple is therefore very popular and also very well off. During Lunar New Year the temple becomes extremely busy with people from all over Taiwan visiting to get the blessing of the "Heavenly Mother" (天上聖母) and a visit to this temple during the Lunar New Year holiday is a pretty awesome cultural experience! 

Fengtian Temple (新港奉天宮) 

Fengtian Temple awning with the market in front. 

Fengtian Temple (奉天宮) claims to the the first temple dedicated to the goddess Mazu in Taiwan and despite being built almost 400 years ago, it has met with destruction a few times due to earthquakes and other natural disasters. The current temple is almost a century old and is an extremely large and beautiful temple. Fengtian Temple serves as the last stop on the Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage (大甲媽祖遶境進香活動) and is typically a very busy temple during the rest of the year. A market is set up in front of the temple with several local restaurants and vendors selling local produce and foods from Chiayi. During the Lunar New Year both the market in front of the temple and the inside of the temple are quite busy with people who have travelled from all over Taiwan and looking to receive a blessing from the goddess Mazu, also known as the "Heavenly Mother" (天上聖母) who serves as somewhat of a patron saint for the people of Taiwan. 

My next post will be coming very quickly and will be about the massive Taiwan lantern festival (台灣燈會) that is being held here in Taoyuan this year. I've finally gotten back on track with work and have finished working on all the photos that I took over the long holiday! So expect me to be back on my normal schedule of posting a few blogs a week over the next few months. 


Xingang & Beigang LNY Markets

Xingang (新港) - Beigang (北港) Temple Shots

Lunar New Year is one of the most important times of the year for people in Taiwan - For students, it is the time when they have their month-long winter vacation (寒假) and for adults, the government mandates at least a week or more off of work to celebrate the holidays giving people a much needed break. 

This means that, like in other parts of Asia, there is a mass migration of sorts with people travelling from the place they work to their ancestral homes. It also means that flights out of the country are booked quite early and highways, roads and tourist sites all over the country are jam-packed with travellers who use their time off from work and school to the best of their ability!

I've been in Taiwan for over a decade now and like most Taiwanese people, it has become somewhat of a tradition of mine to use my free time to travel during the holidays. I travel to different places every year but the one constant through all the years is that I always make my way down to Xingang (新港) in Chiayi County (嘉義縣) and its neighbour Beigang (北港) in Yunlin County (雲林)

Historically, both Xingang, which translates as "New Port" and Beigang, "North Port" were important and existed as coastal staging areas during the Dutch occupation of the island. Later, they became the most important ports for trade in the 17th Century and brought a lot of prosperity to the area. 

Today, the two villages are most well-known for their famous temples which date back to the 1600s. The Beigang Chaotian Temple (北港朝天宮) is visited by more than a million people each year and the Xingang Fengtian Temple (新港奉天宮) claims to be the first Mazu (媽祖) temple in Taiwan. Coincidentally these temples being as old as they are, as well off as they are and as close as they are had somewhat of an unhealthy rivalry that went on for decades. This rivalry only ended recently (2009) when the Mazu statue from Fengtian Temple visited the Chaotian Temple as a show of reconciliation.

Oh, religion..  

Selling paper to offer to the gods at the temple. 

What I want to focus on today however is the Lunar New Year markets that open up around the temples every year. You may notice that the photos in this post are only of vendors and religious people on the streets. I'm going to make a second post in a day or two that will deal with similar-style candid street shots of people inside the two important temples - but I won't focus on the temples as much as I would like to do a more detailed blog about them in the future. 

For more about Beigang check out this post: A whirlwind tour of Beigang 北港

When I posted about Dihua street this year and last year I made comments about the amount of people that show up. Dihua, like a lot of other streets in Taipei is a small street and the amount of people that pack themselves onto the street leading up to the New Year makes shopping there a bit uncomfortable. 

Thankfully Xingang and Beigang are in the south of the country where space is more open and the streets are larger and wider. This means that the amount of people that you will see in both areas during the Lunar New Year is not even comparable to what you'd see at Dihua street. When you start walking on the streets and you see the amount of people it can be a bit overwhelming, but when you are in the middle of it all you quickly realize that people there are kind and the crowds are always well behaved and boisterous.

The vendors in both areas sell a lot of different kinds of traditional foods and snacks as well as favourite peanut chilli sauce (花生辣椒醬) which I make sure to buy every year I visit.

If you visit the area you'll fall in love with just how cheap every thing is - The restaurants on the streets serve up some amazing fresh dishes at a fraction of the price of what you'd find in the north and they're all so tasty. 

Peanuts are an important export in the area. 

In both markets you'll find a lot of traditional Taiwanese food and snacks including locally grown peanuts and peanut-related candies, a lot of fresh produce (including some really great cherry tomatoes) , a large assortment of dried fruit, dried meat, dried seafood, salted fish, giant goose eggs and pickled vegetables among many other things. Beigang is also famous for its traditional wedding cakes (喜餅) which are given out to guests at wedding ceremonies all over Taiwan. 

I ended up leaving with a full belly, some bags of tomatoes, oranges, garlic and my chilli sauce. 

For some people, the Dihua Market in Taipei is a pretty cool event, and I admit that I've gone for the past two years (for photos only) but nothing really compares to the good time I have every year when I visit Xingang and Beigang. The crowds are enjoyable, the food is great and the temples are massive and full of history. 

The traffic jam on the way back home however - Not the best part of the day! 

I'll post again in a day or two with shots of people from inside Fengtian Temple and Chaotian Temple and then I'll end my Lunar New Year blog posts for this year with a big one about the Taiwan Lantern Festival!