Credit to D for requesting to go to a hot springs as part of our Taiwan trip. I had been to Beitou before but never actually went in the water.
We took the red metro line to get here, which is a suspended railway. The stations on this line have these golden rooves and red struts inspired by traditional Chinese architecture which are so charming to me. Xinbeitou station is a terminal station, which is why it has this extra thing sticking up from it:
The weather was warm but very photogenic, a mixture of sunshine and low heavy clouds that melted the edges of the mountains.
For some reason the zebra crossings in Beitou have these extra yellow checkered patterns on the edges. It’s like they were made for taking photos of, which makes sense considering this is a tourist destination. What an innovation!!
We were a bit anxious as to whether we had arrived so early in the day that it would be too hot to enjoy the hot springs. One thing we did to pass the time was go to the park and ‘Thermal Valley’ where you can see the steam billowing from one of the natural hot spring lakes.
The unexpected highlight for me was this round apartment building visible from the lake, which has a distinct vibe of the round factory in Nier Automata.
We also climbed a hill to visit Puji Temple. At the tourist attractions down below there were a few of these fun ‘hand soaking stations’ where you could stick your hands in hot spring water, but here they had a tiny fountain where you could scoop cool water with a wooden ladle and wash your hands. That’s because this used to be a Japanese temple I guess (you can google ‘temizu’ to read about the hand washing practice).
In the end the weather cooled down (although personally I think when the water is that hot, any weather is cool enough by comparison) and the hot springs were a lot of fun! You could sit in the water and relax but you could also challenge yourself to hotter and hotter water before dunking in the cold pool. As a bonus, it turns out that unlike regular hot water, the hot spring water is really good for dry skin. Wow!