A Village-wide Celebration near Guanshi

     Every so many years, my mother-in-law's family village holds a village-wide celebration.  As I understand it, each village n Taiwan holds periodic celebrations, though not necessarily on the same day.

     In the foreground, you can see Michelle's younger sister Joanna (standing), and her husband Daniel (seated).  Seated at left is one of Michelle and Joanna's aunts.

     Below is the altar in the village temple.  The photo at left on the altar is of an ancestress.

     All that fun, food, and family fellowship can be tiring.  I can't tell who it is, but she's sleeping on the sofa in my mother-in-law's living room.

Shau Luan Beach, Sand Shaping

     Of sun, surf, and sand, some folks prefer the sand.  Enjoy the photos below.

Shau Luan Beach: a Popular Spot for Wedding Photos

     As the title of this post says, Shau Luan Beach is a popular spot for wedding photos.  Shau Luan Beach lies just beyond Danshui.  For many years, it lay abandoned, and this fact contributed to its popularity for wedding photos.
     The pictures speak for themselves.

     Roughly one out of every nine or ten marriages in Taiwan are between native Taiwanese an people from abroad.  In mixed marriages such as these, the bride usually marries someone from Japan, Australia, or a Western nation.  The groom in such marriages as these usually marries someone from Southeast Asia or China. Below, you see a Taiwanese bride and a Western groom.

Biking Path by Night

      The blog entry titled "Biking to Danshui" is packed packed with daylight photos.  The photos in this post deserve to stand apart from them. 

    The photos on this page were taken on several separate evenings.  I've arranged them in space order rather than by when they were taken.  

     I took the first two photos (above and below) near the area where Shuang Hsi Creek flows into the Danshui River.  It's a couple of miles before you get to the Guandu Temple. 

   

      In the photo below, small fishing boats are docked just opposite Guandu Temple.

     Below, a fisherman is returning to the dock at twilight.  The bundle of green stuff in the boat is his net.

            The three photos below are of the Guandu Bridge and a river scene just beyond the bridge.  You can see these photos, as well as the one of the fishing boats (above) in the post "Guandu by Night."

     In the photos below, I'm approaching the mouth of the Danshui River.  In the first photo below, the sun is just beginning to set.  In the second photo, you can see the silhouette of a man fishing.

     In the last two photos, you can see Shau Luan Beach at low tide, at twilight.  The "star" in the last picture is a planet.  It's Mars at the closest to Earth it has been in hundreds of years.

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