At first I was a little bummed Taiwan doesn't celebrate Christmas as much as China (which isn't saying much). But now I know the reason. All of Taiwan's Christmas is condensed into the Banqiao District. I went there to check out that restaurant I mentioned previously. To my surprise, my day off coincided with the largest concert I have ever been to in my life. It was a 90 minute wait to get a table, but in reality was closer to 45. We got a call that our table was ready, but it took nearly a half hour just to move through the crowd. However, this is my favorite restaurant in Taiwan so far. The beer selection is so amazing, it brought a tear to my eye. The food was also pretty good, and surprisingly not overpriced. The beer was overpriced, though. I swear, Taiwan must have a huge tax on beer. It's impossible to buy it cheaply here. I got fairly drunk off a very strong Belgian Tripel. And other things. They also sold cigarettes they made themselves for 30 cents. I'm not really a smoker, but a coffee cigarette sounded appealing. There was no coffee taste at all. It wasn't bad otherwise though. Oh, and during dinner they spilled a bunch of water next to us. The floor got soaked, which hey, whatever. They gave us french fries as an apology. But really, they were overly apologetic in Taiwanese style - the one guy started to dab the few drops of water on my shoe with a napkin. Tiffany got a little more wet than I, but nothing too serious I think. Anyway, free french fries.

With another day off, I decided to scratch the Taoyuan portion of my list off. This meant a trip to Cihu to see Chang Kai Shek. Or at least, where his body is. It's a really pretty place, but like all things in Taiwan, there are no pictures allowed inside. It's a very small building, you can walk in and out within a minute. As far as the coffin, it's just a giant marble box. I'll grab a picture from the internets and throw it up here.

After Cihu I headed back towards Taoyuan, stopping off at some places along the way. The first of these is the, I swear I am not making this up, the Soy Sauce Museum. I told the bus driver I was going there and he looked at me like I was crazy. Eventually he figured out what I meant, and he told me I'm on the wrong bus. Well, darn. I got off at Daxi to transfer to the right bus. Upon getting out to the museum, I learned it was by appointment only. Oh well. It was near the other place I wanted to go, The Republic of Chocolate.

Again, I am not making this up. It's a chocolate factory / museum that for some reason is named after a style of government. It's cute, but not really worth the price tag. They were quite thorough with the history of chocolate, and if you're a kid you can do hands on stuff for free, by appointment. I think this would be incredibly cool for a field trip. They also had a silly movie full of foreigners eating chocolate and travelling through time. In addition, it made their farts smell incredible, much to the delight of the Taiwanese around them. I just have to reiterate, I am not making this up. Back to downtown Taoyuan, at long last! I wandered around the city for a bit on my way to the night market. The night market is really quite small and nothing to write home about, sans the duck burrito. Seriously Taiwan - you have burrito technology, but you only use it on duck. You are merely scratching the surface. Burritos are quite versatile, and go well with rice - I know you love that. Get your shit together.

Something interesting about Taoyuan is that it feels a lot like Hangzhou. It's dirty, crowded, industrial, and people have that "I do what I want" attitude that is missing in Taipei. I saw an old guy pissing on the sidewalk. Not really to the side of it, just kind of stopped and did it. That is the kind of attitude I miss from China, for better or worse. It's also a very diverse city, albeit mostly southeast Asia. There's a lot of Thai, Vietnam, and Filipino people and places around. It's too bad its so sprawling and hard to get around. I wish Taipei had that kind of diversity.

So cross 2 places off the list. Next week is Sun Moon Lake. I'm eager to see if it's beautiful reputation holds up.