Dragonboat Festival
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Today is the Dragon boat Festival (端午節), a Chinese traditional and statutory holiday. It falls on the fifth day of fifth month in Chinese Lunar Calendar (農曆五月初五). This festival was originated from ancient China. The best and most widely known legend related to the death by suicide of Qu Yuan (屈原)(c. 340 BC – 278 BC) in 278 BC during Warring States period (戰國時代). The details of this festival have been explained by myself and Susan during the GSA Summer Party last Friday.
We gathered at the bus stop in the morning and travelled to Nangang 南港 MRT Station heading to Zhongxiao Fuxing 忠孝復興 MRT Station. There was shuttle bus provided to the Taipei Dragon Boat Festival 2009 (臺北水岸 2009聽奧端午嘉年華) venue. The weather today was nice, windy but not sunny. There were lots of booths selling food, promoting Deaflympics 聽障奧運 and the festivals. We stopped by the racing venue for a while after having some snacks at the booth area.
I found it quite boring, perhaps i like this festival because of the rice dumpling 粽子 and holiday. So next time when you want to commit suicide, make sure your suicide day will become a public holiday, if not do not simply die. If you have the courage to take away your life, why not live with it?
I saw team from Malaysia was taking part in the race, i went to talk to them. I wished them all the best.
These kids are so cute.
We then walked back to the bus stop and decided to go to Beitou. While getting the free Coke, we actually missed the bus to Yuanshan MRT station, so we decided to get into the same bus back to Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station. When we arrived at the station, someone suggested why not we go to Maokong instead, since most of us never been there before, so we took the MRT to Taipei Zoo and head to Maokong by bus.
We stopped by McDonald's for simple lunch.
I was having car sick along the journey, she has to improve her driving skill while ascending the road. We then got off at the Yao-Yue Teahouse (邀月茶坊) recommended by the bus driver.
Wow, the environment was very nice and tranquilising. We ordered two different types of tea, the "Oriental Beauty 東方美人" (Oolong) and "Biluochun 碧羅春" (green tea). Most of us prefer the Oriental Beauty. The snacks were nice to eat, and special. We chatted for few hours and decided to went back for dinner.
This is our first non-official GSA activity, ha! We just realised that seven of us were actually came from six different countries, Malaysia, Taiwan, Germany, France, India and USA. What a multinational combination, we can travel the whole world easily.
We finally had our dinner at Cape No. 47 at Nankang. The food was quite delicious, but i found it was a bit oily.
We called it a day.
Hmmm, we should hang out more often.
Labels: Academia Sinica, Friends, GSA, Taipei, Taiwan, Teoh Pak Guan, teopag, TIGP, Travel, Vacation
posted by teopag @ 11:55 PM,
