Hsinchu County

Today is double 10 day. It is also Taiwan's 101st birthday. So we all got the day off of school and took advantage of the free time by taking a trip to the mountains. We went with a few students and their parents.

First we went to a persimmons orchard. The amount of people with expensive cameras impressed me more than the persimmons. Apparently they found it much more inspiring than I did. The workers at the orchard were very excited to have foreigners there. And yes, people were quick with their cameras. Snapping pics whenever they could.

The next few pics are of persimmons. Scroll fast if bored

 At the orchard we also ate a traditional Hakka meal. (Hakka is a very old culture of Chinese Han people who speak Hakka. Or something like that, idk.) I ate many weird things, including my second experience with chicken feet.

Many traditional Chinese medicines/dishes

Half eaten chicken foot

Everyone thought it was pretty funny that we were wearing rice hats.

KC bbq pit, meet Hakka bbq pit

After that we went to an old city in the mountains to go to a market and make our own Hakka tea. I went inside my first temple. It’s pretty amazing how much detail everything has.

How else are you supposed to carry bananas?

 One man band!

This temple is over 200 years old. There are temples on the island over 400 years old

The detail is amazing

Making traditional Hakka tea...don't worry family, I bought some to send home.

This is the tea, even though it looks like cereal. It is VERY healthy and tastes decent.

I'm headed to Hong Kong this weekend. Probably won't post til Tuesday next week. But I will have a bunch of pictures.