Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
The naked, elderly women try to shoo me out, saying something in Mandarin that I assume means the place is closed. I show them my watch and make the international gesture for ‘please, just ive minutes’. It seems to work; the selfappointed arbiters of the hot springs wave me in and resume dressing as I switly do the opposite, stepping into the stone-lined pool, where just one other bather is defying the opening hours, soaking herself in the blissfully warm water.
I’ve spent hours hiking through Yangmingshan National Park to get to the public baths at Lengshuikeng and were it not for the high-rises visible from the hills as I walked, I might almost have forgotten where I am. I’m still within Taipei’s city limits, just a bus and metro ride from the skyscrapers, traic jams and bubble tea shops of downtown.