Cosplay at Hsinchu Big City 新竹巨城

We ended up at the Cosplay event 2 weeks ago at Big City in Hsinchu. There were your fair share of characters to be photographed. Each had their own unique pose. I wanted to try and get some candid shots of the characters, but sometimes I think the Taiwanese have a six sense when a camera is around to pose and throw a V sign as fast as they can. Anyway, pose or not, I had a good time taking these.

Hsinpu Yimin Festival Shenzhu event: Holy pig 義民節神豬

In Taiwan there are many events that follow the lunar calendar. I had shot the Yanshui fireworks festival, but it left me craving for another event to get a good dose of Taiwanese culture you don't see in everyday life around the streets. 

This festival is kind of a competition to see who can raise the fattest pig in time for the 20th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar. The Hakka tradition has been carried down for generations and is a big part of their yearly celebrations. 

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Taiwan photos 7-23-14

A man has a smoke in the Zhudong Market （竹東市場）.

There are many varieties of scooter helmets on the streets of Taiwan, and many Hello Kitty helmets too.

The beautifully decorated roofs of the Quanhua Temple ( 勸化堂) at Lion's Head Mountain(獅頭山) near Nanzhuang（南莊）, Miaoli（苗栗）.

The golden cliffs of Long Dong （龍洞） on a clear summer afternoon. Long Dong is located on the Northeast coast of Taiwan. I think it is one of the coolest places in Taiwan.

A waterfall on the #7 highway in northern Taiwan. The #7 highway connects Daxi （大溪） to Yilan （宜蘭）.

Yanshui Fengpao 鹽水烽炮: The only fireworks show you'll ever be able to participate in.

鹽水 Yanshui, a town north of Tainan, is home to one of the most unique festivals I've ever been to. 

The Taiwanese who take part in the festival believe that the more you get hit by the fireworks, the more luck you will have in the next year. 

Around the festival you will run into some huge apparatuses loaded with fireworks called 'beehives'. Then some Taiwanese people will bring in an deity, light fake money on fire for their ancestors and light the fuse. This is followed by a shower of  explosive rockets, burning holes in your clothes and causing you to jump around. 

This kind of festival would never fly in a place like the United States, which is one of the reasons I really like Taiwan; things like this can happen. 

I decided to tape my camera bag up with a cardboard protectors, which only led to me having a box and camera bag filled with dead fireworks. Somehow the fireworks even ended up in the smallest nooks and crannies of my camera bag, which now carries the essence of a campfire. The most important thing was that my friends and I survived the ordeal quite well, aside from a nose full of black snot. I'm surprised i didn't pull a firework out of my ear.

So if you are ever in Taiwan, head down to Yanshui（鹽水） near Tainan（台南） around Lantern festival time and you can have a very lucky year.

Around Hsinchu (新竹)

I wish I got out more to take photos here in Taiwan. With the teaching job, I only get time to go shooting on the weekends. Weekends though, I still get out and do some stuff around the city or in the mountains.