National park drops triple-pricing plan

According to reports in the Chinese-language media, Yushan National Park has decided not to charge foreigners much more than locals for permits to hike Taiwan's highest mountain. It seems everyone will pay NT$480, regardless of nationality or country of residence. But there's still no confirmation when Paiyun Lodge may reopen.

Guardian lions

Lion statues have been guarding the entrances of temples and public buildings in the Chinese world for at least 1,800 years. According to Wikipedia: "The lions are always created in pairs, with the male resting his paw upon the world and the female restraining a playful cub that is on its back."

I took this photo of an especially impressive male guardian lion several years ago, outside a newly-built temple in Chiayi County.

Two attractions in Zhubei

Zhubei City (竹北市) is a rapidly-growing part of Hsinchu County, much of the growth being driven by residential and commercial developments near Hsinchu HSR Station. A handful of old, single-storey homes have been preserved and turned into New Tile House (新瓦屋), also known as the Hakka Art Village. New Tile House is visually attractive (see this Chinese-language blog for good photos) but unless you come on a weekend, when there's live traditional music, it's not worth going out of your way for. Bus #1782 from the HSR station stops outside New Tile House. If you want to walk, it'll take you around 20 minutes.

If you're in the neighbourhood and want a soft drink, a beer or English-language conversation, drop by the intriguingly-named Titty Tea, which is less than 100m away. In the evenings there's often live music or comedy.

Taiwan Design Museum

Located inside Taipei's Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, the Taiwan Design Museum (open: 09.30-17.30 Tue-Sun; admission NTD50/30; Chinese-only official website here; photo gallery here) contains a small but thorough selection of  local and overseas items, mainly appliances and furniture items. Taiwanese are acutely aware they have a reputation for copying rather than innovating, so it's especially interesting that one of the museum's audio-visual presentations, describing the first locally-made rice steamer to reach the market, delicately notes it was created in the early 1960s ‘with reference’ to Japanese designs.

Taipeiyum.com

Gourmands and gourmets will find Taipeiyum.com useful when planning where to eat in Taiwan's capital. With details of around 1,500 eating establishments, divided into categories like "vegetarian" or "bakeries" - and English-language reviews of many of them, it's probably the best dining site for visitors and expatriates after A Hungry Girl's Guide to Taipei.

Military Brothel Exhibition Hall

Last week in Kinmen County, I visited one of the ROC's newer museums, the Military Brothel Exhibition Hall (特約茶室展示館, open: 08.30-17.00 daily; admission free). Housed in a single-floor building that used to serve as a 'special teahouse' between the 1960s and 1980s ('special' in the sense that sexual services were sold here, rather than just tea), the hall has two large rooms with bilingual information about the system of military brothels on Taiwan's frontline islands, plus three much smaller rooms furnished just like those in which the goods, so to speak, were delivered.

The displays are interesting as far as they go but left me with several questions. The cost of 30 minutes' of sexual services in various eras is compared to the salaries received by soldiers at that time (sex got relatively cheaper between 1951 and 1990, when the last brothel was closed). It's said civilians weren't allowed in, but nowhere is it made clear whether men in uniform always had to buy the coupons with which they paid the girls (direct payment in cash wasn't allowed) or whether coupons were sometimes given as rewards to exemplary soldiers. Also, some details about how the girls were recruited would have been interesting. The displays stress that no women were forced to work in the brothels, yet one of the people I visited with said he'd heard that girls who were in legal trouble in Taiwan were sometimes offered a choice by the authorities - jail time, or two years' work in a frontline brothel. Given that many of them probably faced prostitution charges (selling sex has long been a crime in the ROC; buying sex isn't illegal), brothel service probably looked the better of the two options.

Playing for those praying

Camera-shy musicians inside Lugang's Queen of Heaven (Tianhou) Temple accompany rites. Both are playing a two-stringed instrument often called an erhu in English; this name comes directly from the Mandarin èrhú (二胡). Sometimes it's referred to as a zither. To get an idea of how it sounds when played by an expert, watch this YouTube video.