This is How Taiwan Celebrates 🇹🇼 Lunar New Year in Taipei 🧧

Wow, it's so interesting. It's so interesting. What is happening? I love the Taiwanese people. Happy Lunar New Year, the year of the dragon. And today I'm exploring the festive celebrations around Taipei and seeing what there is to do in the city on this day. It is also my first time celebrating Lunar New Year, so let's get started. First stop of the day is the Lungshan Temple, which is quite a historical one. And we are queuing up with hundreds of people, actually. I thought it's going to be busy, but I didn't think it's going to be that busy over here. It moves quite quickly, though. We are inside the inside queue now, and it is very much like a snake. It's quite long. There is not like any official people that kind of manage it all. So it flows naturally. And everyone is just very patiently waiting out like us. Happy New Year. Thank you. Lucky money. Oh, OK. Thank you. Thank you. I start thinking that the queue that I was in for for the last 15 minutes was actually for the lucky dollar that I got, which is such a cute gesture, but it is quite a long queue for that. And the entry itself to the temple has its own big queue. And then it just merges into one big thing where I'm at right now. But I'm too committed now to give up. So I'm going to continue walking in and see what happens inside. Also, there is a waterfall here in the temple. Gives you a little bit of a relaxing atmosphere with all that around me. Well, there's quite a lot of people and lots of pushing now. This is the amount of people waiting to enter. And I made it. I made it. I'm in. That is quite refreshing now. Wow, it is beautiful. That is a very, very special temple. There are so many queues around here and I struggle to understand where to go. Lots of people are also leaving fruits or fruits and snacks onto here as part of their prayers. And then in every spot possible, people are praying. I don't know if they are praying multiple times, if there is like a system behind it on how to pray. But it is very interesting to witness as a foreigner walking around here. I think I'm more or less one of the only tourists here today, which makes it even more special for me to be able to experience that firsthand. I also don't want to be disturbing too much, so I kind of walk a little bit on the sides. The temple itself is on such a huge complex, though. It is probably one of the biggest temples I've seen in terms of actual physical size. Exit this beautiful place and let's explore the area around it, because there are lots of decorations here as well. Everything looks so pretty and festivated out. Temple is also very much accessible. We came by bus this morning, but there is also an MRT station just across it. Super convenient. So cute, so cute. Next to the temple, there is this massive market and it is actually packed with people. I definitely didn't expect to see anything being open or a full on market on this day, because it said online everything will be closed except like 7-Eleven and the bigger supermarkets. But this is really, really fun. This is actually more of a flea market and as well as some shopping in here. So not too much food in here. So far, I've mainly visited food markets, so this is a very much local experience. And after staying here for over a week already in Taipei, I definitely feel way more local. It's way more fun if you go to these types of places that are way more local and less touristic. I love when cities optimize this public space. This is literally a road right now for market spaces and transform the city into something else. Allow people to go onto these places onto the weekends, stroll around and enjoy their day. And everyone wins from this. The sellers, the people, the tourists. It's a win-win. Win-win-win-win-win. We ordered some dumplings for lunch and the plate is covered by a plastic bag. It's very convenient for washing. You just take off the plastic bag and bam, you have a clean plate. And it was $6 for one dumpling. Let's give it a try. I love the setting we are in. These little tables within the middle of the market. That's a very big, long dumpling. Nice. It feels very homemade. They are actually cooking up the dumplings right there. It's so cool. So fun. Everyone's saying hello to us. People are so friendly here. I love the Taiwanese people. I'm really much not sure what he's doing. He's counting something and everyone is like really looking at it. We are now in the Guangzhou market where we just crossed over and it is packed with people. Online it said or on Google it said it is closed. So I thought there's definitely not going to be anything today. But it is so packed, packed as if it's the night and as if it's one of the night food markets. There's also a lot of street food here. Just found this one and I haven't seen that yet on a night or on a street market. Is that bread? What is that? Please tell me. Just on the side street of the market, there's this whole closed section over here. My Lord, I just saw a full on massive snake. And I think they actually serve snake soup here as well. That is crazy. Wow, she is so big. She literally looks like she just ate a human. Doesn't she look massive? Wow, they actually do serve snake soup here. Would you try that? I wouldn't. They also have snake wine in this market. This is definitely a very exotic market and something else. What do you think that is? Let me know in the comments if you know what that is. What is that? And they have a turtle as well and some preserved water swimming. It feels like a history museum here. Also, they have some old pictures where there is a monkey here in the restaurant. What is happening? OK, I just walked around the corner of the food market and there are lanterns everywhere. The decorations here are insane for Lunar New Year and it just keeps surprising you. OK, I've seen a lot of temples, but this one has like an air statue in the middle of the temple. That is so festive and fun. Look at it. I can't believe that I am actually witnessing Lunar New Year in a local temple in Taipei. I'm feeling very, very lucky and fortunate to see that with my own eyes because it is a full on experience for a tourist to see that. There are lots of rituals happening as well, and I wish I would understand them a bit more. But just seeing them, you still feel that festive vibe. Let's move on to this section. There's a whole other lane of food here as well. Still looking for my bubble tea. Wow, they have frogs. Wow. Oh, my Lord. I have never seen that in my life. Wow. I think it's a frog. This market just keeps getting more and more interesting because now I found even more things that I've never seen in my life. So before we had like snake soup and turtle soup. Now we saw turtles. And now I'm seeing like, I think inner organs of fish. I think this is what it is. But I'm not sure. If you want to go to a place where literally your mind will be blown every second and all you can think about is, what is this? Come to these markets in Taipei. It is so special. Time to get a waffle. Also wasn't the plan, but the smell of it was like for 15 meters of this freshly baked dough. So we are definitely going for one. And I love these waffle things because you can eat one by one and you feel like you're eating way longer and you have way more fun with it. We are getting one with condensed milk. And she has like 10 machines here. So she's like full on production and the smell is everywhere. Thank you. Thank you very much for the perfect little snack. Inside, they're actually empty. I thought they were going to be full of dough. But no, it's like full on waffle effect. Oh, my God. You are so cute. I love how they like dress them in something red. But most importantly, like their hair is always perfectly shaped around their face. Oh, they look so cute. Happy New Year! OK! Happy New Year! Just like that, the sun has already set and it's getting darker. All the lights on the sides of the buildings are turning on and giving it that magical night touch. The night market is getting more and more alive now that it's getting evening. But we are heading to a different point now, namely the Festival of Lights. Now, the Festival of Lights happens every year and it is always a little bit in a different location. This year, it is around Ximending and it is a very fun area to be at. So let's go. Ximending, and there is no way you can miss it because these lights and these billboards will be everywhere around you. It very much reminds me of Times Square in New York, which is just fun to be there because these billboards are very like mesmerizing and captivating on your eyes. It's just a all on vibe. And I'm very happy that the Festival of Lights is actually here because you get to explore the area and the Festival of Lights all in one this year. Giving up on getting a bubble tea. The queues for bubble tea today are so long because it literally feels like the whole city came here to this area to celebrate New Year and lots and lots of shopping is actually open. Again, I thought it's going to be closed for a few days. But it seems like a regular day. It's even more packed than on a regular day. Now, although everything is open or more or less everything here in Ximending, the queues are crazy. It's waiting times of like an hour to eat something. So trying to find something where there's not so long of a queue is difficult. I think I found a bubble tea place with a little bit of a shorter queue. And I'm so excited for my green tea latte with pearls. It's happening. I have a bubble tea. The Festival of Lights is this combination of beautiful statues that have been put up just for the festival. Light combinations and decorations everywhere around the city. In fact, there is like a full on map that you can follow around to walk about all the stops. But I'm just going to walk around this main area and see what I can find. First one, I found this massive golden dragon and it's already standing there like, hello, it's a dragon here. I think it makes it a little bit like a treasure hunt, trying to find the spots of the light festival here in this area without knowing where they are. So you kind of walk around and then you just get surprised, which is even nicer, because what you get surprised with is this beautiful light statue and you didn't expect it. There's a moving one which actually plays music full on. Wow, to build that thing up is already a technical thing. That is so cool. What I find even crazier, though, is the insane amount of people that come together here to walk around the lights, do their shopping and just enjoy, I guess, their new year celebration. Look at that. There are like hundreds of people at every meter. I've arrived in Winter Wonderland. It's crazy, all the decorations, all that pathway through here is full of these like arches that have lights on them. And as you walk, you basically walk through this winter fairy tale feeling over here. I've just found that there are actually signs like this one over here, also with a QR code that explain the art piece that we are standing in front of on every one of them. So once all of them are up, I think it is part of a big, big art collection over here as well. Wow, I've just seen the most beautiful piece so far. It's a massive dragon on the street combined with lights everywhere. Wow, I'm going to cross over and let's see that. Now, that right here is a masterpiece, in my opinion. It is absolutely full of lights shining everywhere, the whole street up until the very, very end. And that is quite a long end and a long street to shine on. Oh, wow, that that is impressive. That is like, wow, impressive. That looks like a heaven of stars, like a sky full of stars. Maybe Coldplay will take the inspiration from here. Right here is the main police department. And look at the decorations they have. How fun of a police department that is. They even have a full on tree inside. Of course, the heart of Ximending, the main street, is packed with people. And also here are a few very, very bright lights for the Latern Festival. I think I'm walking around across the traffic. Hello, you. Hello. Oh, OK. I don't know that. Wow. Wow. Very cute. Very cute. Oh, thank you. The celebrations definitely continue on over here. I'm heading back to the hotel to really process everything that has happened today. Also, I'm quite exhausted. I cannot believe that I spent my first Lunar New Year ever in a city like Taipei. I don't think it could have been any more perfect than it was today. I got to see the local way people celebrate by visiting the temples in the morning, then being super festive during the day, visiting the markets and just having a fun vibe all around to visiting the Latern Festival and Ximending in the evening. And if you've enjoyed that video, please be sure to hit that like button to support me and so other people can find that video as well and subscribe so you don't miss out on my other videos about Taiwan or other countries I'm traveling to. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.