Wes and Randi's Journey Abroad: Tomb Sweeping Holiday Weekend

April 4th was the Tomb Sweeping Holiday here in Taiwan. People visit the graves of their Father's parents (this is why having a boy is so important) to sweep and clean the grave site. Keeping the grave clean ensures a pleasant afterlife.

Lucky for us, we had 3 days off of work! Wes and I explored Taipei a bit, and this is what we saw:

After taking the wrong trail the first try, we finally found the trail-head to take us to the Zhinan Temple Maokong Hiking Trail. It was supposed to be a long hike, but ended up being super long.

In true Taipei fashion, the hiking trail is typically a lot of stairs going up and up and up and up.

When you get towards the top of the mountain, there are 5 temples to explore. This was one of the Taoist/Buddhist/Confucian Temples. The tables are filled with offerings that people bring.

This is me outside of the Buddhist Temple. Although the sign said "Buddhish Temple."

We were fortunate to be there on a day where they were doing a video shoot of these beautiful girls dancing.

This was the Taoist Temple.

After we left the Zhinan Temple area, we were supposed to take the Pot Hole Trail, which we never found, to Maokong. We ended up hiking along the road for a long time . . . Once we got to Maokong, it was extremely beautiful to see all of the tea fields. Once we brush up a little more on our Chinese, we plan to go back and do some tea tasting.

Wes and I also went to the Fine Arts Museum that weekend. The museum was really wonderful and I look forward to going back sometime. On our walk to the museum, we were able to see the Soccer Stadium, a skate park, and outdoor rock climbing gym that is in the area.

This is inside the Soccer stadium.

A beautiful flower outside of the Art Museum.

After the museum we went to take a look at the Confucius Temple in Taipei, but it was closed. However, we were able to see the Baoan Temple which was really wonderful.