one thing that gave me great joy in taiwan was a little unexpected: souvenir stamps! every metro station, national park or historical place seems to have at least one commemorative rubberstamp, but often more. we first stumbled on them on a metro station in taipei, and when i realized what they were, i was hooked!

i’ve loved this kind of rubberstamps ever since we discovered the concept while hiking in slovenia, where every mountain had its own stamp. i always carry a little notebook around with me, and the one for taiwan got a good 20% of it filled up with just stamps. i even used some on the postcards i was sending out, since they were so nice.

the ones in taipei’s MRT were especially well designed, while in kaohsiung they seemed more dull… except for a few special ones, which were done in collaboration with illustrators. collecting them turned into a kind of treasure hunt, always on the lookout for the next one. i know they also exist in japan, but i wish other countries adopted these too — they’re such a joy!