It's silk floss tree blooming season. We are in Yunlin for the weekend, so we also took a walk along the road near Nongbo Park in Huwei to see the beautiful trees. We came here both during the daytime and nighttime for different views. During the weekend, there is also a small market and some events organized, selling agricultural products, and a very limited selection of meals. You can also rent Japanese clothes to take some shots. This place is near Yunlin high-speed railway, so if you plan on visiting, that's probably the easiest way to get here. There were plenty of flower buds on the trees, so it seems like the best flowering period is coming and usually lasts until the end of December or early January. At night, the place is lit up with different light decorations. It's also nice to visit, although you can't spot that many flowers.
We had something to do in Tainan, so I took the chance to also see some Christmas trees in the city. We were only there during the day, so it might not have been the best time since there were no lights or falling snow like we experienced last year. Nevertheless, it was still nice to visit this year. Every year, the most prominent decorations can be found under Shin Kong Mitsukoshi on Ximen Road as well as TS Mall. TS Mall had a Line theme this year. We also visited Far Eastern Shopping Mall and passed by the hotel. There was a choir singing in front of the mall and a small market, so I couldn't take nice pictures there.
We also stopped by to eat some food. Unfortunately, the Hainan chicken I wanted to eat doesn't open on Saturdays, but this shop was also tasty. It's difficult to find not tasty food in Tainan. Food and weather are two things I miss since moving to Miaoli.
Shin Kong Mitsukoshi store always has the biggest Christmas installation. This year, it's in a black and white theme. I think I enjoyed the Christmas decorations from last year more, as it was a lot more colorful.
Since we moved to the North, it's not easy to travel around Tainan as we drive a car instead of a scooter, and using public transportation or go share takes a lot of time. Using go share is annoying because you need a lot more time to find parking space than driving from point A to point B. Thus, we skipped some places this year as well, for example, Chimei Museum and Tainan Library.
Two months ago, I came across a competition ''第6屆 eye臺灣win兩岸 短片徵選競賽'' organized by the Mainland Affairs Council, together with the Immigration Office and Cheers magazine. The main idea of the competition was to introduce your life in Taiwan in less than 3 minutes. I thought, "Why not join? There's nothing to lose!" So, I made a video, uploaded it to my channel, and joined the competition.
Two weeks ago, the shortlisted list was released, and we were among the 25 selected. Shortly after, we received an email inviting us to the winners' ceremony held in Taipei.
I don't have much experience making videos as I used to only write. So, being in the top 20 out of nearly 200 videos sounds great.
Only one thing made me feel it's a bit unfair, as the rules stated video has to be set to Public, but there were some Unlisted. I didn't check all of the videos, but I watched a few that sparked my interest or of those that I knew, for example video made by ''莎白Elizabeth''. For those that don't know she is a famous YouTuber, originally from the USA. She made it into the shortlisted list which I felt is not fair since the video is hidden from people and only those opening the link from the website can see it but she wasn't disqualified.
In the past, the competition was primarily for individuals from China, Hong Kong, and Macau. However, this year it was open to participants from any country. I wasn't the only non-Asian person to join, but I was the only white person at the award ceremony.
There were 20 winners in total, with 3 people chosen through online voting, and the rest selected by judges. We made it into the group of 8 people who received awards for excellent work. Two people were awarded for second and third place, and one lucky winner received 200,000 NTD.
Despite the cold front, the weather was great that day. We could even see Taipei 101. When I was here 6 years ago, half of the building was covered in clouds.
For more travel and food-related content, feel free to check out my other posts, as well as my YouTube channel.
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