The last stop on this stroll through Tainan is the imposing Magistrate Residence. This was the residence of the Tainan Prefecture governor during the Japanese occupation. It is quite an impressive building and we understand why the Imperial family stayed here during their visit to Taiwan in the early 20th century. What we don’t understand are the sheep statues on the lawn, there is no reason for them but they are quite fun to take photos with.
Right now, while protected, the building is owned privately. And it is basically a huge gift and souvenir shop, something that we had no idea about. So we enter and soon are assigned a “guardian” that follows us through the shop while showing us more interesting objects and explaining the history of the building.
The objects are pricey but some are more reasonably priced and in the end we buy some souvenirs of our visit to Taipei. And also make lots of small talk with our “guardian” who is quite interested in us especially after she understand we like to birdwatch.
There are two floors in the building and we are shown to the balcony where we feel like royalty waving at the plebes below us. Well we don’t do that but we can imagine that the Japanese Royal family did exactly that.
After exiting we explore the back of the mansion trying to find a cache that almost escapes us, but can’t. The area here is quite different with painted houses that seem to create an art quarter. But we cannot decide if the houses are lived in or not so decide not to explore to deep into the maze of buildings and return to the front.
And then it is time to return to the hotel to rest a bit and wait for the sun to set before setting off again to explore a shopping area that is highly recommended, Shennong Street. Passing the train tracks is an adventure but we make it and then the hotel is actually closer than we expected and we just fall on the bed enjoying the AC while waiting for the evening to exit again.
