Part 94: Treasure Hill...

We arrived back in Taipei fresh from our hiking experience and decided to take it easy for a few days before the return to the Philippines, and there are fewer cities that I'd like to have time to kill than in Taipei.
Aside from digging deeper into the culinary side of this great city, we explored some the creative hubs we had heard about. One of these talked about sites was called treasure hill. Now this was a place some of my graffiti artist friends back home would lap up.
It had an interesting history and was once used as an anti aircraft position back during world war 2. Then became a squatter community before finally being restored and reopened as an eco friendly artist village in 2010 by the government. Even featuring in the New York times as one of Taiwan's must see destinations. Its full of interesting graffiti, street art, sculptures, paintings, studios, exhibition spaces and museums.
Promising students from all around the world can apply for an arts in residents programme and if accepted they get to call this creative space their home for 2/3 months and not only do they get socially integrated into the village, their art does too.
We were invited to take a closer look and believe me this was an impressive set up.
It occupies an area in Taipei's Gongguan district area on a hill and as you walk through the winding village you really get a feel for the creativity - there was even a backpacker hostel here. I was so impressed by this whole site that I had to feature it in my blog.
We took countless pictures of the graffiti and art, even though we were getting absolutely soaked in the rain whilst waking through this mazy and densely populated village, but we still spent several hours looking around.
People here also believe that treasure hill is a place where deities, human beings, and spirits live together. As things now stand the village is continually getting refurbished and will soon have its own bookstores and music rehearsal studios to add to an already impressive set up.
So other than spending an entire afternoon here, our last evening was pretty much spent as it all started - by eating. We had tasted so many foods that I had even gained a little extra weight since arriving in Taiwan.
We then bid farewell to Jean at the hostel who had been a great host before taking the bus to the airport which wasn't completely without incident. The bus had to take an unscheduled detour when a young drunk man had collapsed causing a delay and bit of stress - anyway we just about made the plane on time.
I couldn't have been happier for this unexpected opportunity to visit Taiwan. In absolutely every sense this tiny island rich with history, culture, and tradition was more than I had ever hoped for, but for some reason it is often overlooked as a destination on Asian travel itineraries. Hopefully that will change, and people will take a chance to break the normal tried and tested travel routes across Asia. At the very least I will be recommending it from now on to any curious travellers I meet.
We ate to our hearts content yet barely scratched the surface of foods here, then explored the city and some of its surrounding districts. Also visited the north and hiked the south east coast, but in the end we just ran out of time.
I always get a bit reflective and 'thinky' when I leave a new country, wondering if I'll ever return again. But there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is one country that I'll definitely be back to visit.
Next stop, Manila.....