These boxes are everywhere - they're a place where you can "donate" your receipts to various charities. All receipts are in the same format here, each with a unique number. Apparently, the government holds a lottery every two months and if your receipt number matches, then you win money. (It's to encourage people to shop at stores that provide legal receipts...and for the stores to be legal and pay taxes, I imagine!) Depending on how many numbers match, you can win the equivalent of $6 to $60,000. (One of my friends said she used to save receipts, but after repeatedly spending hours looking through them for matching numbers and not winning anything, she decided it wasn't worth saving them.)
These nice cherry stands are often open on street corners. I love cherries, but I figured they must be expensive, so I didn't look closely until one night, I decided to give it a try. Indeed, I was right...It was a little late and I was tired, so I didn't realize until after I paid and left that the 300NT for my small batch of cherries was the equivalent of $9. When I got home, I counted 30 cherries in the box...so, 30 cents each! They were certainly tasty, though, and I made them last. :)
Bike seats for kids:
These bikes with the little wheels are really popular here - I imagine they're expensive, though, because I've never seen one locked up on the sidewalk (since I now know from experience what can happen to bikes locked up outside):
Mochi, a desert made of sticky rice dough that is wrapped around various flavors (such as ground peanut or black sesame seed powder), is very popular here. Often, there are women on the sidewalk selling them:
This is the entrance to the best girls' high school in Taipei. Schools are ranked here, as are students, based on high school entrance exams - and they are admitted to schools according to their rank. Most of the top schools are single sex, so there's also a First boys' high school.
Trees supported in a park:
Paper money is burned in these red containers on sidewalks outside of homes and businesses on holidays, including moon days (full moon and new moon). It's something to do with keeping bad spirits away...and according to one Taiwanese friend, only done by people who believe in that sort of thing. Near the burning paper container (or in place of it) is often an offering table with fruit on it and burning incense.
This vendor was selling ice cream in front of the university one afternoon. However, to attract attention, a loud recording was playing from the speaker (on the lower left side), while he napped in the driver's seat:
I went to the largest night market in the city the other night. There were all kinds of food, drink, clothes, shoes, hair stuff, etc. The booth that had the longest line was this one for enormous fried chicken breasts. (On the other hand, I was thrilled to find a stand next to it that sold vegetarian Indian curry wrapped in a roti...there was no line there...)
The post office:
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