Today’s Ride to Church comes to us from Sterling Swallow–all the way from Taiwan.
Sterling writes:
Taoyuan, Taiwan is not only the site of three LDS wards, but it’s also the actual home of the Chiang Kai Shek/Taipei International Airport. It is just south of Taipei and, in my opinion, just as crowded. However, rent is cheaper here and a Caucasian face like mine is a bit more of a novelty. Mandarin Chinese is still the official language of Taiwan and the official language of Church services, even though the further south you go the more Taiwanese (Min Nan dialect) you hear. As you will see from the photos one could drive a car or ride a bus, taxi, bicycle, or motor scooter to church. However, it’s only the strange foreigner with the camera who is odd enough to walk all the way.
It’s not uncommon that one sees a family of three riding a scooter (plus sometimes a dog, a guitar, or the weekly groceries), but getting their picture was lucky and even more auspicious was the family on a bicycle not two minutes later.
A nice addition to this ride would have been some Buddhist and Daoist temples, but unfortunately most of those are further downtown. If you would like to see more pictures of Taiwan including the 120-picture complete version of my “Ride to Church” feel free to add me as a friend on Facebook and enjoy.
Sterling– thanks for doing this! I love the variety of life on your streets, and I’m really loving the contrasts between the different Rides on different weeks. How old’s your church building? I was expecting it to be part of a larger building, but I also see that the neighborhood looks very eclectic (which seems like a nice way of saying kind of a jumble of older run down building mixed with new). The Disney themed cram school is hilarious. About how many people are in your ward?
Paula, I agree the juxtaposition between last week’s Ride and this week’s Ride is fascinating, they couldn’t be more different.
Sterling, thank you for the pictures.
I love it!
Thanks for a glimpse at the other side of the world!
Thanks Sterling! It was fun to show my kids, too
Paula,
There are about 75-90 active members of the ward. All I know is the building is at least 25 years old. I don’t know beyond that.
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