Jiangzicui, Banciao

A day of a good walk from Jiangzicui to the Huajiang bridge

Jiangzicui [江子翠] is the last MRT station in Banciao City before Taipei City. I took the train to that station yesterday and went on a long walk to the Huajiang bridge, the bridge, stretched over the Xindian river and connecting Banciao City with Taipei City.

Below is a map of my walk: I started at the Jiangzicui MRT station (1), then headed east to the Huajiang bridge (2) and then I went down to the shores of Xindian river to a nice little park (3).

And here are the photos of my walk:

View to the Western part of Banciao from the exit of Jiangzicui MRT station.

A side street near Jiangzicui MRT station.


Taken from an overpass over Wen Hua road facing western Banciao.


Taken from an overpass over Wen Hua road facing eastern Banciao, where I was headed.

A beautiful betel nut girl.

A funny warning sign.

Huajiang bridge.

Shing Kong Life Tower from afar seen from the Huajiang bridge.

Wanban bridge seen from the Huajiang bridge.

Under the Huajiang bridge.

Wanban bridge.

Huajiang bridge.

All in all it was a wonderful afternoon. Warm, but not hot. I walked around 30min in one direction and spend some time alongside the Xindian river. It was very peaceful, with few people who rode bikes or jogged or just went on a walk. There was even an enclosure for goats, who were eagerly begging to be fed and some kids did them the favor. The river doesn't seem the cleanest, but it's also not allowed to go too close. The park alongside is very neat and clean and well maintained. It may not be a very popular park and it's also very small. But it's a nice place to go for a little walk.

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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.

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