Chinoiserie

This photo was taken at a restaurant near National Taiwan Normal University. The restaurant, as you can see, is decorated like Shanghai from the early 1900's. It is so beautiful. The artwork is all reproductions of advertisements from the period - for cigarettes, milk, etc. The furniture clearly reflects what was a colonial presence in the city at the time with a French concession, Portuguese, American, British, and so on. Black Jazz musicians were brought to the city to play in the clubs.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Beitou Hot Spring

The hot spring resort building



The entrance












On my birthday, I decided to take a day "off" from Taipei's noise and traffic and experience one of Beitou's hot spring resorts.


Taiwan has some extinct volcanoes and a lot of geothermal activity, so there are hot springs all over the island. One of the best places to visit a hot spring is only a half hour subway ride north of the city in a town called Beitou. After consulting the guidebook and internet, I chose to visit a resort called Asia Pacific Resort. People can stay there overnight or you can just visit for the day.




They give you a robe, slippers, locker, and towels when you arrive









The hot spring costs about US $15.00 to visit for the day. There are two public pools fed by Beitou area springs - one for males, one for females. This is because they do not allow any clothing to be worn in the hot spring pools (and everyone must wear a shower cap to prevent hair and hair products from getting in there). The women's pool is all wooden construction with stone in the pools. It is very pleasant. Beitou is up in the hills, so there are lots of trees. The pools are outside, which is one of the reasons I chose this resort. Its kind of like a hot tub on your deck - kind of outside, but kind of inside, too. There are 3 areas - the main hot spring pool which is L shaped and 40 degrees Celsius (roughly 100 degrees Fahrenheit), a small cold water pool, and an 'in between' jacuzzi tub where you lay down. The hot spring area has waterfall 'massage' jets.

As it was a weekday, midday, it was just me and 3 other women. It was wonderfully refreshing and relaxing. I just kept moving among the 3 different pools. I have absorbed some of the Chinese thinking about medicine, and I know that moving from the hot pool to the cold pool and back to the hot pool should be good for getting your qi moving (moving qi is healthy; stagnant qi makes you sick). The massaging waterfall felt great on my arms and stomach. It was much much quieter than Taipei, but not really quiet, as the locusts this time of year are positively raucous, and someone was doing construction, which was too bad. However, it was wonderful and I highly recommend visiting a hot spring if you have a chance.
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