Good day to all from World Map Pin community, hope all of you are doing fine this lovely midweek. This is my 3rd instalment of my travel to Taiwan which happened late last year in the month of December. In the previous 2 post, I have shared about historical landmarks, tree house and also a glimpse of the night market in Tainan. In today's post, I will continue exploring Tainan, a location of treasures and a place that is less travelled by many. Locations that will be covered today include some street murals along the streets of Tainan, a special mini district called Snail Alley and finally Hayashi Department Store. The cover photo for today is taken at the front of Hayashi Department Store, a special department which goes back in time during Japanese Occupation period.
Background
This Taiwan trip is a week long trip that I planned with my wife and we went to quite a number of less travelled locations. The trip include many places that most people going to Taiwan will not include in their itinerary and that is why I would want to share it with the community on these amazing places that my wife and I explored.
Join us as we explore the various less mainstream locations in Taiwan.
Here are the links to the previous post on this series of exploring Amazing Taiwan:
Part 1 Fort Zeelandia - @vaynard86/exploring-amazing-taiwan-part-1-fort-zeelandia-tainan
Part 2 Anping Treehouse and Da Dong Night Market - @vaynard86/exploring-amazing-taiwan-part-2-anping-tree-house-anping-old-street-and-da-dong-night-market-tainan
Street Murals near Chikan Tower
After a night of nice sleep from the walking around the previous day. We started the way needing to get some breakfast. We are walking around in search of a place for breakfast and came across an interesting church that is narrow and long. We wanted to go in but somehow it is locked up and not available for access. Church is called Hang Sik Street Church with a very beautiful external.
We then came by a shop named Lao Gu Shi Bowl Cakes and we decided to enter it to have our breakfast. Bowl cakes are a famous local delicacy in Tainan, so we are in for a treat. Bowl cakes are similar to the rice cakes that we have in Singapore just that what the one we going to have now is served in bowls.
A nice breakfast to start our day and eating a traditional shop. After speaking to a few locals, they mentioned that this shop is one of the more authentic ones in Tainan. Next we started walking around the area towards Chikan Tower but unfortunately Chikan Tower which is a prominent landmark in Tainan is all sealed up for renovation. While we decided to continue our journey without going into Chikan Tower, there were others whom had pre-booked tours still decided to head in even without being able to see Chikan Tower itself.
Because of the sealed up Chikan Tower, we decided to visit street murals in the area that can be found in the back alleys near Chikan Tower.
And while we were walking along the back alley and came across a retro cinema that used painting as billboards instead of printed materials for new shows such as Inside Out 2, Joker and Transformers.
Snail Alley
As we explored the area where the murals are, we have walked to a place called Snail Alley. This is an interesting place with snail related stuff as decoration and many signboards to ask people to take it slowly as they are at Snail Alley. A nice and quiet place that is definitely less travelled but with a unique theme to the place and it also has nice eateries tucked at the corners of the alley.
Both my wife and I like how peaceful this little district is and amazed by how the residents took efforts to decorate the place to suit the theme and make it a small attraction for visitors.
Hayashi Department Store
This is a department store that walk through the ages. The building was build in 1932 but was bombed by US airplanes at the end of World War 2. It was only in 2006 that restoration works were being initiated to bring back this department store to its old glory and finally it was reopened in 2014.
This is a department store that is filled with character and strong Japanese influence. While it is restored and rebuilt, there were many elements of the department store that were being preserved to allow people to remember how it was like in the past. When you first step into the store, you will feel like you walked into a department store where time has frozen with very strong vibes of the past. To give the whole look of the place, many antiques were being used for decoration. And the iconic "state of the art" elevator from back is preserved and visitors can actually take a ride in it all the way to the top of the building at Level 5. The elevator only serves level 1 and 5, with other levels can be accessed only via the staircase at the side of each level. At the top level, there is a mini store that sells many souvenirs of Taiwan and even had a display of green bean puffs that is the iconic snack sold by the place. Also at the top level, the area where it was being bombed by the US planes were also boxed up to let visitors know which are parts that were actually being destroyed back then. There is also an eatery at the top level that serve local food at the top level
The department store to me is like a mega artwork place. Be it shoes, clothes, towels etc that are sold here, they all look like art pieces. Needless to say, items that are ornamental are of really high quality workmanship and definitely can be a piece of artwork that can strike a conversation with people whom visit your house if you get one.
Loads of things to see and to spend the whole afternoon and this place also have a library where one can read on the history of the place or more about Taiwan. My wife's comment is that this place is a totally special find that she will want to visit again the next time she come back to Taiwan. Not your typical brands super mall but a place filled with art and history.
Closing
An amazing day of loads of walking from finding a breakfast place, exploring street murals/Snail alley and also finally walk from top to bottom of Hayashi Department Store. And this wraps up today's sharing. We are not done with Tainan with a few more amazing places that we want to share with the community in future posts before we head up north toward Taichung and Taipei.
Thank you for walking along with me to explore the places I shared today and see you around in the community. Do keep a look out for my next post on Exploring Taiwan in World Map Pin!