Yingge Town, center of Taiwanese ceramics

A wonderful day in my girlfriend's hometown

Yingge is a lovely small town 30 min away by train from Taipei City. A while ago Lily wrote about her hometown and made me very interested. I thought I need to see it with my own eyes, experience the atmosphere and get to understand how's life in this quite famous Taiwanese small town. And last week I had the chance to finally see it.

One thing is sure: There are ceramic products everywhere in Yingge, but most of them are sold in the famous Pottery street (or Old street). Tea sets and pots of all kinds are sold in almost every shop there, art and souvenirs are seen everywhere. And there were quite many foreign tourists. I've seen Americans and possibly some Europeans. It was crowded, but I liked it.

The Old street however is not very long. Of course, if you walk slowly and go into every shop, you can spend few hours there and browse through all the wonderful ceramic products. It's definitely heaven for people like me, who love tea cups and pots. But if you just walk normally, you can finish Yingge's Pottery street in about 15 minutes. There are three main streets and few side streets reserved only for pedestrians. Best is you make one round, enter few shops, try some food and you will have a wonderful afternoon.

It says 鶯歌鎮 (Yīnggē Zhèn) translates as something like "The small town of the golden oriole song". Isn't the name lovely? :-) The golden oriole is this bird, btw.

See my photos of Yingge:

Outside the Yingge railway station.

The main road of Yingge is busy.

The creek and the bridge.

A typical back street in this part of town.

A very nice apartment building.

The Yingge Town Ceramics Museum, the main entrance.

Part of the ceramics museum.

More info about it here.

The inside of Yingge's Ceramics Museum with red lanterns.

The main hall.

There are three floors, on each there's a certain theme of displayed ceramic products.

There's a lot more displayed than this. This is just a tiny fraction. The museum is definitely worth to see and there was no entrance fee.

The famous Pottery street of Yingge.

A common sight.

It was a warm afternoon, there was a lot of people that day.

A side street.




The same apartment building as before, photo taken on the other side.

A park, that used to have a pond.

The creek. Or is it a small river? I don't know.

Yingge at dawn. I ate in that restaurant on the far right side (the black sign board).

Towards the evening, people go to the night market.

All in all I had a great time in Yingge. Me and my girlfriend spend a lot of time in the ceramics museum and on the Pottery street, but we also walked through the park and along the river and the day just seemed to pass too quickly. Yingge is definitely worth to spend one afternoon or few hours and it's really easy and to take the normal train from Banqiao and if you're starting from Taipei City, just take the blue line MRT to Banqiao and then transfer to the normal train.

Hope you enjoyed my photos and impressions of Yingge.

[My TAIPEI page][My TAIWAN page][All photos by MKL, 2010]

My day in Taichung with Cherry

An unforgettable afternoon with my lovely friend

I met Cherry online exactly 2 years ago, in February 2008. She was my first friend from Taiwan, a country I had not known a lot about before. I always told her, that I will visit her one day. Well, that day arrived yesterday. I can say she's my first good online friend whom I visit and who was and is one of my best friends, but now I can say she's real, because we've really met and I know we will meet more times here. Meeting online friends is really fun, you have to do it, if you had the chance.

In Cherry's case, I can say she was always someone who cared for me as a friend and I cared for her, too. We mostly chatted on MSN, sometimes more, sometimes less, but we always had a good laugh, because she's a really funny girl. But there wasn't only laughter in these 2 years since we've known each other. Both of us had our ups and downs and in case of the latter, we were there for each other. When I needed her, she listened and gave me good advices and I try to listen to her, too.

Then came 2009 and I fell in love with a Taiwanese girl :-) And who was the first one I told? Cherry. Since I knew her, she give me confidence, that I can make it in Taiwan. I knew Taiwan only through her before and she's a big part of why I dared to come here, to make this huge step. She encouraged me and advised me and that means a lot to me. Cherry is really exceptional and I am so happy to become friends with such wonderful people. Here's a little about my day trip to Taichung...

Cherry loves the cherry tree and showed me some blossoming trees in Taichung.

This is how it looks, when you step out the Taichung railway station.

Cherry took me to a traditional Chinese restaurant, more about that in another post.

I was shown a brand new district with beautiful apartment buildings.

This building is Cherry's favorite, but she says apartments are extremely expensive here.

Taichung is full of parks and alleys.

This is the new Taichung's city hall building, nearly finished.

Another park near the central part of Taichung.

A hotel.

The green skyscraper is named Asia Rich Tower, it's 141m tall, completed in 2001 (source)

Taichung's roads are wide, traffic is not as bad as in Taipei.

One of the main avenues in Taichung.

A lovely bridge over a pond in a beautiful park.

A famous building built during the Japanese era.

I had to go back, although I could stay in Taichung longer.

The railway station at dusk.

People waiting for the trains, it was very crowded.

I only spent one afternoon in Taichung. I went there mainly to meet up with Cherry and have a great time with her, so sightseeing wasn't really important. She did drive me around and I got a good idea of the whole city and I snapped some nice photos, too. But I was most happy about the traditional Chinese restaurant she invited me to and the nice conversation we had there. That first meeting will always remain unforgettable to me. It was a day I will never forget.

Thank you so much, Cherry.

[Back to the original post and COMMENTS][Back to HOME][Taichung's skyscraper diagrams]

Ximending, March 2010

Ximending, the place to be for young people of Taipei

I wrote about Ximending before and posted some photos, but those were taken in the evening. Yesterday I took the effort to return to Ximending at day time and see how it looks like. I must say it was pretty cool. And it's a huge pedestrian area, it's like a city on its own. Some parts are run down, but somehow that makes it special and cool. There's really many kids, from highschool to students, but also many adults, even elderly. You have cinemas, pubs, clubs, cafés, boutiques, few hawkers and a lot of restaurants, that can be in the upper floors and have some funny or cute themes. I saw one restaurant where people sat on swings, not chairs. That was interesting. Ximending is definitely a district, that needs a lot of time to explore, because there are so many hidden corners. Let me show you what I saw here today:

Step down at the Ximen Station and exit at Exit 6...



...and you'll find yourself in Ximending, where the cool kids hang out.



One of the main pedestrian areas of Ximending



It was a warm, but cloudy afternoon. There was a lot of young people that day.



All I thought was: Poor guy. What do you think?



The main pedestrian area from a different direction.



I thought: Wow, a blonde man like me... but then I thought: No, not really.



It seems that girls of Taipei love black stockings and boots, I've seen a lot of them.



Angel singing on the street. She seemed a but uneasy, it needs some courage, I guess.



Many elderly enjoy to observe the youngsters passing by.



This almost freaked me out! And not only the MJ puppet is freaky. Everything is!



When I crossed here, a cute girl said "Hello!" to me. I said "Hi!" and went on.



Ximending is a lot about street fashion. You can buy all kinds of clothes there.



Walking made me tired, too. But this time, I won't behave like the dog.

What's your impression of Ximending? Do you like It? Any observations?

[Main XIMENDING post][My TAIWAN page][All photos by MKL, 2010]

Grand Hotel, Taipei

One of the most impressive buildings in Taipei

It was a hot and clear day, when I headed to the northern part of Taipei City to make photos of the famous Grand Hotel. It's located near the Jiantan MRT station, built on a small hill. I had to walk a while to finally see the impressive hotel slowly appearing in all its glory in front of my eyes. It looks magnificent from afar, but even more so from close. Designed by the famous Taiwanese architect Yang Cho-cheng (楊卓成, it's known as the world's tallest Chinese classic building (87m). The hotel was established in 1952, however the current building was built in 1973. The hotel was much smaller between before that. More info on the hotel's homepage.

I didn't go inside, but my girlfriend told me, it's not as impressive as the exterior part. Nevertheless, it's one of the most amazing buildings I've ever seen and it's definitely one of Taipei's landmarks you have to see, if you come to visit the city.

Pictures taken on a hot day in February:

I had to walk 10min away from the MRT station, when I came to this small garden.

I saw stairs, they led me up. The sky was bright, the day was sunny. I took the challenge.

Once I was up, this view presented itself to me. It was breathtaking. It is indeed a grand hotel.

A very neat little garden, that leads the way up to the hotel's main entrance.

The old gate, very impressive, with the red-green theme, that matches the hotel.

The Grand Hotel from close. A big stress was put on the details.

The main entrance: Many buses were standing here, a lot of visitors, mostly Asian.

The Grand Hotel, side view.

The Grand Hotel seen from the park. Green and red: a perfect mix.

If you come to Taipei even for a day, go and see the Grand Hotel, it's really impressive. You won't see such building on every corner, that's for sure. For me, it's one of the most interesting sights of Taipei. I will definitely return there one day.

[My TAIWAN page][My TAIPEI page][All photos by MKL, 2010]