The City��s Gods

Cedric, this is Xiahai Chenghuang Temple.
What does that mean?
It means City God Temple.

So it��s basically one god, one temple?
Maybe at one point it might have been, but right now it��s one plus 200 some gods.
Two hundred?
Yeah. At one point there were actually more than 600. The City God Temple here used to watch over just the city wall and the moat. People come here to pray for anything from good fortune, good health, good grades. But probably the most popular god that visitors come to pray to is the god of matchmaking. Last year, some 7,000 couples came back with engagement cookies to thank the god of matchmaking for answering their prayers.
That��s all very pretty but I am married. I am married, so who do I talk to?
You talk to your wife. Just kidding. There is a god you can talk to here.
Married couples like to come here and pray to the wife of the city god for a happy and harmonious marriage. After you pray to her, you get this really cute pair of shoes that are her size. You take this home and put it in your closet with the tips facing in, to keep your spouse��s heart in the home.
Yeah, you don��t go out.
If you have a happy marriage already and want a baby, there��s a god for that as well. Here is the god for fertility.
In France, when you are a believer, when you have the faith, you go to church. When some people do not have faith, they do not go to church. But in Taiwan, I��ve seen some people praying, some friends of mine, and I ask them, ��Are you religious, do you believe?�� And they say, ��No, not necessarily.�� Then I ask, ��Why do you pray?�� And they always answer, ��Who knows.��
It doesn��t hurt.
Yeah, it doesn��t hurt. In France, no one would say that, because you either believe or you don��t. And if you don��t, you don��t. But here, if you don��t, maybe you do.
That��s the cute thing about Taiwanese people.
Yeah, keeping an open mind.