Lunar New Year's Day (105歲次正月初一)

February 10, 2016 in Travel, Temples, Photo Post, Hsinchu

The Lunar New Year holiday is a 15 day long celebration celebrated by Asian cultures throughout the world. In Taiwan, before the New Year arrives, people spend a lot of time preparing for the celebrations to come. Yesterday was the first day of the New Year known as "Chu Yi" (初一) and is another busy day spent with family. Families in Taiwan typically wake up in the early hours of the morning to perform certain religious rituals known as “Bai-Bai.” (拜拜) and visit various temples before having another meal together.

2015 Blog Post about Lunar New Year's Day (初一)

Temples at this time are extremely busy as almost every family in Taiwan will visit at least one and there are of course a few temples that people absolutely must visit. I followed the same schedule as last year and visited three smaller Hakka temples near home and then ended the day with a visit to the “Mecca” for Hakka people in Taiwan - “Yi-Min Temple” (義民廟) which is dedicated to Hakka heroes hailed as patriots for giving their lives defending Taiwan from a revolt during the Qing dynasty.

Yi-Min Temple was just as busy this year as it was last year with Hakka people from all over the country congregating at one of their most important cultural shrines. The temple was filled with hundreds if not thousands of people making offerings to the gods, having a free lunch provided by the temple and trying their luck gambling outside of the temple with scratch tickets and the lottery.

Everyone seemed to be in really good cheer and having fun. I enjoyed that the weather was great and the sun shining in the temple made for some nice shots. Yi-Min temple is only about a 40 minute drive from my place and is in Hsinchu county, but despite that I was still able to run into people I know from Taoyuan showing just how important the temple is to the Hakka people in the area.

When Taiwanese people visit temples during Lunar New Year, they usually buy tools for worship at little shops near the temple which include incense sticks, ghost money and some kind of food offering. After lighting the incense they will make their way to a shrine and raise the sticks to their heads and introduce themselves to the God afterwards making a request for good health for themselves and their family as well as a little prosperity if the god sees fit.

Once they finish speaking to the god they bow several times and thank him (her or it) and move on to other shrines. When they finish with all the shrines in the temple (usually there are several) they will leave a food offering on a table in front of the temple which is offered to the god as thanks.

Apart from visiting Yi-Min Temple I also visited Huang-De Temple (皇德宮), a yet to be completed folk religion temple known for its beautiful display of roses and the San-Sheng Palace (聖帝廟), a century old folk-religion temple that mixes Taoism and Buddhism and has a great view of the valley below. I visited Huang-De Temple last year but while on my way to Yi-Min temple I noticed a lot of traffic heading in the direction of San-Sheng Palace so I decided to check it out on my way back!

After a long day of temple-hopping and and breathing in way too much incense, it was time for me to head back home and rest. Taiwanese people on the other hand typically go to temples nearby their "old home" (老家) which means that they will eventually make their way back there to spend more time with their family and have another big meal together!

The second day of the Lunar New Year (初二) is when women typically go back to their home for a reunion with their families which involves more eating yet is a bit more relaxed than New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

For me though, I'm done with the celebrating for a few days - I'm planning on going hiking for the next two days before heading down south for some more Lunar New Year temple festivities. Below are a few shots of the sunset on the first day of the Lunar New Year with the sun reflecting in the water on a rice paddy on my way back home.

I hope everyone in Taiwan is enjoying the weather and is having a great vacation!

For everyone else - Happy Lunar New Year! 新年快樂!

Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)

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Dihua Street Lunar New Year Market

February 06, 2016 in Photo Post, Travel, Taipei

Lunar New Year is quickly approaching and in preparation for the week-long festivities, markets across the country have been open for the past few weeks specializing in the sale of items that Taiwanese people enjoy during the holidays. People have been preparing frantically for the holiday that acts as a family reunion of sorts and markets all over the country have been jam-packed with people finishing up their last minute preparation.

Before talking about that though, I want to mention two things:

The first is that in the early hours of February 6th, southern Taiwan was rocked by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake with an inland epicentre around Meinong (美濃) in Kaohsiung county. This earthquake has caused quite a bit of damage and has also made the journey home for the holidays that much more difficult for a lot of Taiwanese people. The High Speed Rail has shut down between Taichung (台中) and Kaohsiung (高雄) leaving a lot of people stranded and so far there have been reports of casualties. There is never a "good" time for an earthquake of this scale to happen, but this might just be one of the worst times that it could happen.

Keep Taiwan in your thoughts. There are a lot of people suffering at this time.

The next point I want to make is something that I hope people can understand: Lunar New Year is celebrated in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, China, etc. This lunisolar holiday is celebrated all over Asia.

Don't you find it odd that the festival is commonly referred to in English as "Chinese New Year?"

How is it that Japan's Shogatsu (正月) Korea's Seollal (설날), Mongolia's Tsagaan Sar (Цаһан сар), Tibet's Losar (ལོ་གསར), Vietnam's Tet (Tết Nguyên Đán), all fall under the term "Chinese New Year?" Are these areas Chinese? Are the traditions the same?

As a speaker of Mandarin I find it even more odd that people refer to it as "Chinese" considering that it is either called「春節」which translates as "Spring Festival" or 「農曆新年」which means "Lunar New Year" in Mandarin. No one who speaks the language calls the festival 「中國新年」 “Chinese New Year” so when we refer to the holiday in English we should probably be a bit more inclusive and respectful as it is a holiday that all of Asia celebrates and each in their own way.

Some may say that I'm arguing semantics and this is just political correctness gone wild, but I don't really see it that way. I see it as correcting a glaring error in translation and one that tends to be based partly on ignorance and also cultural chauvinism to an entire region of people. This isn't about politics, this is about using the proper terminology and being fair when referring to an important tradition that is celebrated throughout Asia by many different nationalities and cultures.

Further reading: It's Lunar New Year, not Chinese New Year.

I hope that makes sense! Moving along..

The busiest of all the Lunar New Year Markets in Taiwan is Taipei’s Dihua Street (迪化街) in one of the oldest districts of the city. It is estimated that each year almost a million people visit the street in the two weeks leading up to the Lunar New Year festivities.

2015 Dihua Street Lunar New Year Photos

Last year it was reported that the rent for seasonal vendors setting up shop on Dihua street had risen to extreme proportions forcing businesspeople to spend at least $300,000NT ($9000USD) to secure their spot for the two weeks of business. You would think that this insane amount would deter people from setting up shop at Dihua street, but it seems exactly the opposite.

This year the street has expanded and branched out to the neighbouring streets around it. It seems that with the rent being so extreme and more businesses wanting in on the action that the city has planned several streets to allow people to do their shopping and that in turn should allow for the easing of traffic on the street itself.

Dihua Street (迪化街) and the entire Dadaocheng area (大稻埕) has a history dating back to the 1850s where it was an important centre for commerce in Taipei - especially for Taiwanese tea, Chinese medicine, fabrics, etc. The street today still remains one of the most commercially active areas in Taipei and has been preserved to show its historical roots. Many of the buildings on the street were built in the baroque style which is quite common on many of Taiwan's old streets (Like Daxi Old Street)

Check out: Love, Daodaocheng - A site dedicated to the historic area of Taipei

The street is busiest during the preparations for Lunar New Year, but considering its history, it is an important tourist attraction for Taipei and you will also find the Xiahai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟) on the street as well which is one of Taipei's most important temples with Bao-An Temple (保安宮) and Confucius Temple (台北孔廟) also nearby. There is always something interesting going on in the area and it is a great place to visit to see "old Taipei" so if you can't make it during the Lunar New Year market, you can still go whenever you visit the city!

While visiting the street it is common to find vendors selling all sorts of peanuts, cashews and pistachios as well as different types of candy and traditional snacks. There are cured meats, freshly made Taiwanese-style and Hong Kong-style sausages as well as pork knuckle. If you are a fan of jerky you are in for a treat as you will find various styles of Taiwanese pork and beef jerky as well as different styles of dried fish and squid.

Vendors also sell all sorts of dried mushrooms, dried scallops, dried abalone and something called mullet row (烏魚子) or as the Japanese call it "karasumi" (カラスミ) which is an expensive salted and dried roe of the mullet fish. I'm not really a big fan, but it is popular in Taiwan and is a sign of wealth if you are able to serve it at your Lunar New Year feast.

You will also find an unhealthy variety of candy that can be in the form of dried fruit or the gummy variety. Lunar New Year is all about the family and children are an important part of the family. It is quite common to have a lot of candy available for the kids to eat while the parents are having fun and drinking Taiwanese Kaoliang (高粱酒) or Cognac and gambling.

One of the unfortunate aspects of the traditional market is that the sale of Shark Fin is still so prevalent - despite protests and a society that is changing its attitude toward the terrible and inhumane act of shark finning. There are various vendors throughout the market selling dried shark fins and while they continue to make profit off of such a bloody and wasteful trade - they are also quite aware that societies perception is changing and that the foreign community are very vocal about it which means these shop owners are not very keen on being photographed.

I visited Dihua Street twice this year, once on a weekday and again on a weekend. On the weekday visit the street was busy, but not that bad. On the weekend visit it was completely different and sent my claustrophobia into overdrive. I thought to myself that it was a bit insane and that most people had only showed up for the 'experience' rather than actual shopping. There was no way you could get any serious shopping done in a crowd like that and I was amazed that no one had been trampled. I felt really uncomfortable and it wasn't really conducive to doing anything with my camera, so I left quickly for a drink at Starbucks!

Lunar New Year is a busy time in Taiwan and I'll be quite busy as usual. The entire country has more a week off from work and I'll be taking part in the festivities with friends. Hopefully the weather will be nice and I'll be able to get in some hikes when I'm not shooting some of the New Year festivities!

Happy Lunar New Year! 大家，新年快樂～猴年大吉！恭喜發財

Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)

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Jim & Dad's Brewing Co. (吉姆老爹啤酒)

February 04, 2016 in Photo Post, Travel

Craft Beer: Dark Ale, Citra Pale Ale, India Pale Ale — Craft Beer: Dark Ale, Citra Pale Ale, India Pale Ale

I often don't explain to people how much I love what do because I try my best to let my work do the work for me rather than talking about myself. I'm really lucky that I have been able to combine my photography skills with my knowledge about Taiwan and have been able to promote the country to the world. I have experienced so many great things through what I do as a photographer and I'm quite pleased with the path that I have taken.

I often get to combine my photography with my love of hiking and my interest in the cultural anthropology of Taiwan, but today I'm going to talk about how I've been able to combine my work with my love of craft beer! Craft beer has exploded onto the scene in Taiwan and there are some pretty amazing places opening up around the country that import quality beer from America and other countries. Taiwan is also taking part in this worldwide shift just like places in the west and there have been some pretty great startups with people starting their own breweries.

Taiwanese craft beer makes use of the amazing amount of fresh fruit and flavours available in the country to produce some pretty awesome world-class beers that are putting the country on the map as a rising star in the world of craft beer! Of the start ups we have seen so far it is not uncommon to find beers which have been brewed with any variety of fruit and high mountain tea making these beers distinctly Taiwanese.

These breweries have made names for themselves not only in Taiwan, but around the world as well receiving quite favourable ratings on popular sites like Beer Advocate. The market for craft beer in Taiwan is an ever-expanding one with people starting to prefer fresh ales with locally sourced ingredients as opposed to the big beer producers. The market isn't quite mature yet, but with the hard work of these breweries, Taiwan is putting itself on the map as a destination for quality beer.

In my opinion, one of the most admirable attributes you will find in Taiwanese people is their ability to undertake any sort of enterprise, find ways to make production more efficient and improve upon things while always making sure to add a bit of "Taiwan" to their product and therefore improving it. No matter what kind of business people find themselves in, it seems like they are more than able to make things a little more awesome.

The beautiful Jim & Dad's brewery in Yuanshan (員山), Yilan (宜蘭) is nestled in a beautiful valley where the Central Mountain Range (中央山脈) meets up with the Snow Mountain Range (雪山山脈) and has a famous neighbour in the Kavalan distillery (葛瑪蘭酒廠) which has received worldwide recognition for its production of whisky. Both the brewery and the distillery are set in a perfect place as in Taiwan, any product that is produced near the mountains with fresh water has a good reputation (好山好水!)

Jim & Dad's is a new start up, but they have spared no expense building their beer factory and studying the art of brewing is clearly very important to them. The brewery is currently open daily and while there are plans for offering pub-style food in the future, the main reason to visit the brewery is for a taste of their various brews.

I was introduced to Jim & Dad's a few months ago at a newly opened craft beer bar named "Hop In" near my home. The owners had some of Jim & Dad's "Citra Pale Ale" on tap and I fell in love with it as I personally prefer much "hoppier" styles of beers. The beer was more than hoppy enough for me (IBU: 67), but it was also quite creamy and had a hint of citrus flavours which comes from the citra hops that they used to brew it. It was a well crafted beer and sparked my interest in the company. A few weeks later, the boss of "Hop In" had a Jim & Dad's IPA (India Pale Ale) on tap and it was also extremely tasty. I suspect some people might find it a little bitter with an alcohol content of 7.0%, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

A few weeks ago we planned a trip to the brewery in Yilan to have some fresh brews and meet up with the manager. The brewery has a pretty great deal to taste all the beers where you get three different kinds of beer for $120NT (US $4.00) with glasses that are a bit smaller than a typical pint, but by the end of the afternoon I probably drank about sixteen of them before picking out a few of my favourites for a take home box.

One of the best parts of the trip was the discovery that they had an Amber Ale on tap which I tried right away. Amber Ale's aren't really common or popular in Taiwan as they are in the west so I was pleasantly surprised to discover how good it was. To me, the fact that they put so much effort into making a high quality style of beer that isn't as common in Taiwan shows that the owners are dedicated to spreading craft beer culture in Taiwan and introducing people to different blends that they aren't as familiar with!

Having locally made craft beers available in Taiwan is really great and offers the average consumer a much better choice that what you usually find at convenience stores and hypermarts throughout the country. I hope that as time goes by the company will be able to distribute bottles to a wider area and help spread craft beer culture to the whole of Taiwan. Currently, if you want to buy Jim & Dad's bottles outside of the brewery you'll have to go to a place that specifically sells craft beer.

Jim & Dad's has been brewing since September 2015 and has five standard beers available - They have a White Ale (小麥), Dark Ale (黑啤酒/珀特), Amber Ale (琥珀), Pale Ale (淡色艾爾) and an India Pale Ale (印度淡色艾爾) with a few seasonal test batches that come out at different times of the year. On my visit, the seasonal batch was a Pale Ale infused with Taiwanese kumquat's (金棗淡色艾爾) which takes some of the bitterness away from a typical Pale Ale and added some fruit flavour to it. Before the kumquat batch the one that preceded it was a very popular Pale Ale brewed with Yilan's famous pomelos (麻豆文旦) which are in season in early fall and are quite common in Taiwan during Moon Festival.

After taste-testing more of the beer than we should have, the manager took us on a tour of the brewing floor and it was really cool to get to see where all the beer is made. The brewery was extremely clean and shiny and for a neat-freak like myself it really appealing. While we were viewing the brew floor the manager was busy checking all the different brews that they had going to make sure that everything was okay. The brew master seemed like he probably had the best job in the world as he just sat around and checked to make sure everything was okay while taste testing the beers!

Jim, the owner of the brewery studied in the US for over eight years and during his time there fell in love with the increasingly popular craft beer scene. When he came back to Taiwan he still had that thirst for craft beer but there wasn't a lot to offer at the time. He decided to take things into his own hands and after winning a local home-brewing competition he convinced his father to invest in his idea and chose Yilan as the site of their future endeavour as the idea was to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city and Taiwan's industrial parks. The idea was to be closer to nature, and of course to an area where fresh local ingredients are in abundance which goes well with the brewery's motto: "Drink better, drink local."

Websites: Jim & Dad's Brewing Company | Facebook Page

Address: #411 Yuanshan Road Section 2. Yuanshan Village, Yilan County.

宜蘭縣員山鄉員山路二段411號

If you have an interest in keeping track of the craft beer scene in Taiwan, check out this group on Facebook where there are both Chinese and English posts:

台灣精釀啤酒俱樂部 Taiwan Craft Beer Club